Samsung teases us some more with a Gear S2 video
In mid August, Samsung announced its two latest additions to the handset market: the Galaxy Note 5 and the Galaxy S6 Edge +. At the same time, the Korean company teased its upcoming smartwatch, the Samsung Gear S2. Now, Samsung has released the short teaser video from the conference, allowing us to take a closer look at what the Gear S2 is and is not.
Rounded everything
The most obvious change is that Samsung has switched to a round casing and a metal band. There appear to be weather, world time, stopwatch, and sports-tracking apps preinstalled on the device. Next, the watch face itself includes complications that provide your next meeting and your pulse, making it clear that the device features a heart rate sensor.
Samsung has also switched to rounded icons instead of the previous square ones used on the Gear S. While some might say that’s copying Apple Watch, it occurs to me that square icons would look quite out of place on a round watchface. Maybe Samsung is copying Apple, or maybe they’re just making smart design choices.
Smaller and more sleek?
The previous iteration of the Gear S was a monstrous, ugly-looking beast, but it included an onscreen keyboard that you could use to send a text message from your wrist. A rounded smartwatch will be hard-pressed to include a keyboard, so I have to assume it will support some form of voice dictation.
While we don’t know precisely how large the Gear S2 will be, it appears that the device will be smaller than its predecessor, and it definitely appears more fashionable and attractive.
Potential pitfalls of the Gear S2
Unless Samsung improves Tizen, the customized operating system it appears the smartwatch is running, to be more compatible with non-Samsung phones, though, the Gear S2 might not be much of a threat to Cupertino’s smartwatch. We should learn more about the device at Samsung’s IFA press conference in September.
Check out the teaser video below, or click here if it fails to load.
