Ever since the original Samsung Galaxy Gear was
unveiled back in September 2013, we’ve seen smartwatch after smartwatch land from the Korean company – but which one should you choose?
There was a bit of a gap between last year’s Gear S2 and the latest smartwatches and fitness devices. But now the Gear Fit2 is on sale and the Gear S3 Classic and Frontier have landed, we thought we better give our Samsung smartwatch guide a spit and a polish.
Read this: How to choose the perfect smartwatch
Read on to see which Samsung Gear smartwatch should you buy and whether you should wait for the Gear S3s which will be on sale by the end of the year.
Samsung Gear S3 Classic & Frontier
The Gear S3 comes in two flavours, Frontier or Classic. If you want something with a more rugged, outdoor watch look, go for the Frontier. For the more traditional design, go for the Classic. The Frontier also comes in a LTE model if you want that true standalone smartwatch experience.
Wareable verdict: Samsung Gear S3 review
Crucially, both pack in all of the same features. There’s a bigger 1.3-inch, 360 x 360 AMOLED touchscreen display and a battery that can deliver up to four days of power (take that Apple). There’s also built-in GPS to track activities like running and cycling, a smarter rotating bezel and the ability to make and take calls from your wrist.
The duo work with Samsung and Android phones for now, although it looks iOS support is in the works, so there might be some love for iPhone owners in the near future.
Price: From $349 | Amazon (Classic) | Amazon (Frontier)
Buy it if you… want a more polished alternative to Android Wear and you like your smartwatches to be big and bold.
Samsung Gear S2
The Samsung Gear S2 boasts a beautiful round-faced design which guns straight for the Apple Watch, with its all-new rotating bezel control setup. The interface is intuitive; you go left for notifications and right for apps and then in turn you scroll through the options when they appear around the edge.
Wareable verdict: Samsung Gear S2 review
It’s faster than Apple’s Digital Crown on the Watch and the touchscreen prods and gestures of Android Wear. You can control everything with your finger on the right half of the bezel, which means you will always be able to see the whole display.
There are two versions, the S2 and the S2 Classic, both of which pack a 1.2-inch Super AMOLED display, and a sharp 360 x 360 resolution. Like the original Gear S, it runs on Tizen. There’s also a GPS model, which is great for accurate run tracking and iOS support in beta for iPhone owners.
Price: From $299 | Amazon
Buy it if you… want to set yourself apart from the Apple Watch brigade and fancy yourself a bit of a smartwatch hipster.
Samsung Gear Fit2
Okay – so not technically a smartwatch as it falls more comfortably in the fitness tracker group but the Fit2 still packs the usual smartwatch, er, smarts and it runs Tizen so has access to third party apps (albeit not too many at present)
The Gear Fit2 bucks the crap-display tracker trend with a sumptuous 1.5-inch screen with an eye-popping 432 x 216, 322ppi display. On the fitness side there’s GPS built in for run tracking and an optical heart rate monitor – all for a very competitive price tag.
Check out our full and definitive Samsung Gear Fit2 review.
Price: $179 | Amazon
Buy it if you… want a fitness tracker and a smartwatch but haven’t got money for both. Sure, there are Garmin and Polar devices that tick this box too, but none with such an awesome display.
Samsung Gear S
The Samsung Gear S is a standalone smartwatch that doesn’t
need a smartphone for connectivity as it packs its own SIM card slot for 3G
capabilities – although you’ll need a new phone contract in order to take
advantage of the untethered call and message features.
Samsung’s biggest smartwatch certainly looks the business,
with a 2-inch, curved, Super AMOLED display
that boasts a 480 x 360 resolution; one of the best out there. It also packs in
GPS connectivity for accurate run tracking.
Price: $329 | Amazon
Buy it if you… want
the biggest smartwatch display, want to use your smartwatch
to track your runs or ditch your smartphone and go
all-out Dick Tracy.
Samsung Gear Live
Sammy’s debut Android Wear smartwatch, the Gear Live takes
its design cues from its Tizen-toting older brother, the Gear 2 Neo; it’s
pretty much identical save for the different position of the physical button
and the lack of an infrared LED.
It features a 1.63-inch, 320 x 320, display and runs stock
Android Wear, in its purest vanilla form, as per the rest of the new Google
smartwatch brigade. As such, it will work with any Android smartphone, and is not reliant on a trip to the Samsung Galaxy.
The upcoming Android Wear 2.0 update won’t be hitting the Gear Live though. Google isn’t providing the new features for old Wear watches.
Price: $149 | Amazon
Buy it if you… want
to get involved in the Android Wear revolution and aren’t bowled over by the newest Google-powered smartwatch offerings.
Samsung Gear Fit
The Gear Fit was Samsung’s original answer to the activity tracker revolution. It turned heads with its curved 1.84-inch Super AMOLED display, which
rotates so you can have it portrait or landscape.
The big problem with the Gear Fit, and the reason you’d
probably be best off buying a different fitness tracker, is because, well, it’s
not a very good fitness tracker – and obviously it’s been succeeded by the Gear Fit2. Sure, it will count your steps, set you goals
and track your runs and cycles too, but not with any great accuracy. It looks
great though.
Price: $101 | Amazon
Buy it if you… want
a smartwatch that looks like a fitness tracker, and not a fitness tracker with
smartwatch features.
Samsung Gear 2
The Gear 2 has upped the style stakes over the original Gear,
adding a classier edge to the first generation’s plastic finish; giving it a
classic timepiece styling that’s often neglected on smartwatches.
It also boasts a lovely, 1.63-inch, Super AMOLED screen with
a 320 x 320 resolution and a 2MP camera for wrist-shot photos on the go.
Price: $169 | Amazon
Buy it if you… like
to take photographs from your watch. Exactly. Seriously though, the Samsung Gear
2 is a decent design and the display is terrific.
Samsung Gear 2 Neo
The Gear 2 Neo is a (average at best) fitness tracker and
notifications system in one and there’s a built-in heart rate monitor to boot.
Sure, it might not have the camera of the top-of-the-line Samsung Gear 2 watch
but for our money, that’s no great loss.
For simplicity, the Neo wins out. It’s got all the best bits
of the Gear 2 (i.e. that gorgeous display) and none of the nonsense (i.e. that
camera).
Price: $149 | Amazon
Buy it if you… like
the idea of tapping into the Tizen revolution, and its array of over 1,000
apps, but don’t have the budget or wrist strength to take on the Samsung Gear
S, S2 or S3.
Samsung Galaxy Gear
The original and the worst, the Galaxy Gear is very much a
first-gen device that screams, “we beat Apple to market”. It has screws on the
front. Screws. Actual visible screws.
It also has a camera, which is of no interest, we’re quite sure.
What is notable is that, although it was originally an Android powered device,
it now runs Tizen and the plethora of apps Sammy’s in-house platform affords
you.
Price: $199 | Amazon
Buy
it if you... like collecting first generation devices.
There’s really no need to own the original Gear smartwatch, it’s already out of date even if it’s only a year old.
SOURCE:http://www.wareable.com/samsung/best-samsung-gear-smartwatch
