smartwatch – Tech Raman

Fossil Sports Watch Review | Tech Raman

Lakshmi Rajan — Tue, 23 Jul 2019 23:58:57 +0000

The last Fossil watch I reviewed the Explorist HR was a mixed bag for me, while it looked great it was put down by an aged processor and poor battery life, have things changed with the Fossil Sports Watch now? After all, things look little brighter with the latest Wear OS and the new Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 3100 chipset on this watch. So let’s dive deep into this Fossil Sports watch review and unravel the facts.

Design: Balancing the Sporty and Stylish Look

It’s a sports Smartwatch but yet it has to be stylish in parts at least to command the price. It has to be lightweight, comfortable, durable as well as stylish. It’s a tricky job. Fossil has opted for a mix of metal and silicone for the balancing act. The main watch body is made of aluminium and the strap of the watch is silicone which makes it lighter as well as good for workouts since it doesn’t absorb sweat. The Fossil Sport comes in both 41mm and 43mm to suit wrists of different sizes. The 41mm variant weighs only 38 grams. The strap can be replaced with any 18/ 22mm straps depending on the size you opted for, so that provides the variety in case you want. On the side of the Fossil Sport, there is a rotating dial in the centre flanked by two buttons above and below. The bottom button is tied to Google Fit and the top can be customizable to run one of Fossil’s own app say like you can use it launch stopwatch. Pressing once the rotating crown takes you to the app menu list. You can rotate the crown to scroll through the list and access the apps. Turning back, you will find the optical heart rate monitor.

Display of Fossil Sports Smartwatch:

You get a 1.19-inch or 1.29-inch OLED screen depending on which size of Fossil Sport you choose. Both have 390 x 390 resolution, so needless to say the larger screen has a marginally lower pixel density which frankly makes not much difference even if you look at both. The display is bright, something I really liked about in this watch. The colours are vivid. It also has an ambient light sensor so the watch can automatically adjust the brightness depending on the environment. I found the display to be good even outdoors offering good readability. The touch response is fairly well for a watch. You can also choose a watch face of your liking or one for your mood of the day.

Performance & Wear OS

The Fossil Watch boasts of the latest Qualcomm Wear 3100 chip and runs on the latest Wear OS. Its paired with 12MB of RAM and 4GB of storage. On paper, they sound great. The new chip is also supposed to be energy efficient. Before we dive into the last part, let’s see what the watch offers in terms of features and performance. Foremost it’s a sports watch, so let’s begin with the fitness features. It comes with built-in GPS, an altimeter and a Heart rate monitor. Google Fit offers you many workout training from basics like walking, running, cycling, strength training and challenges to push your fitness to almost close to 80 other activities as varied as aerobics, badminton to Zumba. So you get a large pool of activities to choose from. On the casual apps side, you have apps from Play Store tailored for Wear OS. While all this sounds great, the watch still feels a bit sluggish at times when opening or using certain apps. I had a situation when my watch simply froze on a notification panel. Even the keys won’t work and I have to simply wait till the watch battery is worn out and upon charging and booting again, it went back to normal. That was quite irritating. It was just once though in my fortnight of use. It won’t be fair to blame Fossil for the sluggishness, the entire Wear OS and the chip has more to contribute for the ecosystem for faster, cleaner approach. Step tracking is accurate maybe a 5% off in stats, which can be forgiven. Even the heart rate monitor seems to be doing well in terms of accuracy. You can even check emails and choose to reply right from the watch if you choose to. While it might not be the best typing experience you can manage at certain situations. You can add even some emojis.

The battery life of Fossil Sport Smartwatch

This is the part that got me interested when I started using the watch after all the Snapdragon Wear 3100 processor is supposed to be energy efficient and deliver better battery life. If there is one reason I don’t use many of the good looking Smartwatches in the market, it’s due to the poor battery life. I am not a person who is ready to charge a watch every single day. If you share the same concern, the Fossil Sport would disappoint you the same way it did me. It would not last a full day. After 15-16 hours the battery goes down to 22-25%. If you opt-out of the phone notifications it would fare a little better. The battery saving mode gets activated once the 15 per cent mark reaches and you could only check the time from then. If you turn on the always-on display and continuous heart rate monitor, expect still less battery life. So I didn’t see any improvement with the latest 3100 chip at least on this phone with Wear OS.

Verdict:

Fossil Sport is lightweight, comfortable. The Wear OS has marked improvement but there is a bit of sluggishness that creeps in now and then. Battery life is again a downer. If you could live with overnight charging and want a watch with a great display and good build, you could try the Fossil Sport Smartwatch but I must say you should check the other options too in the market before picking one.]]>

Fossil Explorist HR review

Lakshmi Rajan — Fri, 01 Feb 2019 16:51:08 +0000

Fossil Explorist HR quick details

Activity Tracking: Built-In Fitness Tracker
Notifications: Text / Email / Social Media / App Alerts / Multiple Time Zones / Alarm Clock / Calendar Alerts
Functions: Heart Rate Tracking / GPS / Google Pay™ / Swimproof / Notifications / Personalise Your Dial / Control Your Music / Interchangeable Watch Band
Connectivity: Bluetooth® Smart Enabled/4.1 Low Energy, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
Compatibility: Android OS 4.4+ (EXCLUDING GO EDITION), iOS 9.3+

Design of Fossil Explorist HR

1.4″ AMOLED display
454 x 454-pixel resolution
46mm case size

Fossil Explorist HR retains the look of the 2017 edition of the Explorist, which is not a bad idea. While I never was fond of traditional watches while growing up, I quickly took into the timekeeping wagon when the Smartwatches came in the picture. But soon I found my liking in this segment – a traditional looking machined look timepiece with smarts into it. Fossil Explorist HR offers exactly that. It does not look uber cool but commands noble attention. With a larger case size of 46mm, it is for men. For women, Fossil has introduced the Fossil Venture HR with a smaller case. The display is instant love. You get a brilliant 1.4-inch AMOLED display with a 454 x 454-pixel resolution. The display is very clear, vivid and a pleasure even in outdoor. It even can be set to always on the screen to show just the time. The blacks are deep and offer good contrast levels. There is a narrow black bezel but is hidden or you would fail to notice it in most of the watch faces which niftly hide the bezels with the UI design. The wake gestures include tapping the screen, a tilt of the wrist and by pressing the crown, all of which can be turned on or off as per your preference in the settings. The 22mm straps are interchangeable and if you don’t like the tan leather strap with metallic casing with stainless steel bezel and buttons, the Fossil Explorist HR also comes in many different designs to choose from. For the watch body, you’ll find it comes in blue, silver, black, rose gold, gunmetal or smoke and each is made of stainless steel. And if you don’t like the leather strap you also get more strap options including metal links or silicone. The right side of the watch has three prominent physical buttons. The middle one when pressed takes you the watch face, a long press launches the Google Assistant. While the display is touch, if your hands are greasy, you can also twist the middle button and scroll through the screens. The two buttons flanking the crown can be programmed which means you can create quick shortcuts to your most frequented apps. The bottom button by default launches the Google Fit upon pressing. The case thickness is 13mm, which is alright for a Smartwatch that packs too many things. At the back is the heart rate sensor. While the sensor area is slightly bumped out, it doesn’t really cause any discomfort while wearing, I never realized it in fact until I touched it. The Explorist HR is not noticeably heavy either and it is pleasant wear – feels good on hand and looks great too as a watch.

The hardware of Fossil Explorist HR

The Explorist is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 2100 processor with 512MB of RAM and it comes with 4GB of storage. The SD 2100 has had a long run now having arrived all the way back in February 2016. It’s surprising to know the slow pace of chipset development compared to the breakneck speed in the Smartphone pace. While finally, Qualcomm did release the Snapdragon 3100 a few months back, there is still some room left the aged chipset we have here. It also proves to be its Achilles which we will discuss later.

Fossil Explorist HR: Wear OS by Google

Wear OS by Google is slowly but steadily seeing improvements. The watch covers all the features one would expect on a Smart watch. Notifications are easy to read and pops instantly when you receive it on your phone. Having Wear OS means you can download Wear OS compatible apps from the play store and have it run on the watch including maps for navigation. It is compatible with both iPhones and Android devices.

Water resistance of Fossil Explorist HR

You can take a shower or dive into a pool with Fossil Explorist HR. It comes with a 3ATM waterproof rating and can survive a dip in water up to 30 meters. Though if you had opted for the leather strap, you might not want to dip into water or change the strap for a water safe material.

NFC on Fossil Explorist HR

The inclusion of NFC now means the Explorist HR gets contactless payment support.

Fitness Features of Fossil Explorist HR

The Explorists HR comes with built-in GPS which makes it ideal for runners or cyclists. This also means you don’t have to carry your phone along while running and still map your runs and rides. Though this is not your typical sports smartwatch, you could still make good use of it. Even on your regular move around the town and for step counts addition of the GPS score better brownie points. Mapping accuracy is good and reliable. The optical heart rate monitor at the back that glows green when in action, which can be used for both on the spot readings and to show your heart rate in real-time during workouts. The readings are fairly accurate for daily reassurances. The data can be synced to Google Fit and accessing it is just a swipe away from the screen. It can also be programmed to one of the two buttons.

Fossil Explorist HR Battery Life

The bottom of the case has the Optical heart rate monitor which is surrounded by two concentric silver rings. It’s the contact points for the in-box USB propreitory charger. While I would still want all the Smartwatch manufacturers to jump into a universal micro USB or type C charging solution, for now, you have to live with the proprietary chargers. On a brighter side, just rest your watch in any orientation charger pad and it connects to the back of the Explorist magnetically. If you are travelling and you forget the cable you are in a dock. The one grouse I have with most Smartwatches running especially on Wear OS is the poor battery life and that sour note is carried with Explorist HR. You would have to power the watch every day, which honestly takes the joy out of the watch. The Explorist HR should offer all-day battery life. Tracking activity with GPS or constant heart rate monitor could take a toll on the battery life further.

Verdict

Fossil Explorist has good pleasing looks, it’s a watch that can team up with your different wardrobe and fashion senses. It also has different watch cases and straps you can choose from plus the quick-release straps can help you match with your dress by changing it quickly if you are finicky about it. On the smarts, it ticks everything like heart-rate monitor, built-in GPS and NFC and Wear OS offers good support for the UX. Except for the aged processor and if you can live with the daily regime of charging the watch, this is an attractive smart timepiece. ]]>

Toggr Smartwatch for Children's Safety – Review

Lakshmi Rajan — Mon, 19 Dec 2016 13:49:01 +0000

Are parents over-protective these days? Yes but unfortunately the world has given many reasons for the parents to be more concerned about their kid’s safety. If you are a working couple, you will be doubly anxious when you are away at work. Magnasoft, a Bangalore based company wants to address the parent’s anxiety with Toggr, a Smart watch designed with safety of kids in mind. I got the Toggr smartwatch with me, and I am a father of a 6 year old kid, so I assume am in a better place to find out if Toggr a wiser choice for your child. We will break the review into following parts.

Design and build quality.
App interface
Performance
Togger community
Pricing.
Verdict

Design and build quality

Toggr is available in three colors – blue, green and pink, I have the blue unit with me. On a first look, it looks like a kid’s watch and it has to be. The design is straight forward and the company has stuck to the basics. Just because it is a children’s watch there is no additional fancy gimmicks, it also makes sense to make it acceptable for wider audience in this case the kids. My son has no fondness for watches and I have to pamper to make him wear it. Phew! The watch face is oblong and the digital watch face shows information like mobile network (yes, the watch needs a SIM) , GPS, battery life, time, date and steps taken in a day (yes, it has a pedometer built-in). There is a microphone at the bottom of the front and a speaker at the top. The right side has three buttons. The call receive button on the top, followed by power on/off which also act as call disconnect button and a third button ‘WIN’, which is the acronym for When In Need in this case. The left side has a flap that conceals the micro USB port and a SIM port. One of my main concern about the build quality is the flap. It is cumbersome to open and I already have a fear it will snap pretty soon or at least the small protrusion to help pull the flap out might get damaged. If your child is going to try open this, then good luck! Toggr is water resistant and probably why they have a tight flap to secure the ports ( with a kid wearing, you can always expect them to wet the watch anytime) and may be after all it is very sturdy it may not break too, I have used it for just couple of days to be frank. Only a long usage can give the right picture on the durability of the flap. My kid after I pampered him to wear the watch was comfortable with the design, so except for my little concern over the flap opening, the design looks good, functional and made for kid’s in mind.

App Interface

The app is a very crucial component for the watch, in fact it is useless without the app. There is a catch too, Toggr is based on a subscription model which I will detail later. Toggr app is available on Android and iOS. Once you download, you need to enter your name, relationship with the child, email and 10 digit phone number to register. Funnily, the app makes it mandatory for a profile picture to complete the signing up. A one time password will be send to the registered number for validation. You get a QR code along with the purchase of the Toggr watch and you need to scan it to access the home screen of the app. Apart from you, you can add up to two more family member details to whom the child’s emergency call will get through when they press the alert button. There is no restriction for the number of children though. [gallery link="file" columns="5" ids="11888,11889,11890,11891,11892"] The app has a simple interface. The home page gives you the battery status of the watch, the steps the child has walked, and there is a locate and timeline. Locate will show the google map position of where the watch is (the child in this case when he/she is wearing it) , the timline gives you the details of the tracker movement. There are sub menus where you can edit the data of your family, child and also places you have marked as safe zones and your account that shows the subscription details and the renewal date. The app allows you to mark your home / apartment , school as safe zones. So whenever your child leaves the safe zone you get an alert. The timeline also shows the details when the child exists and enters the safe zones in a day.

Performance

There are two basic aspects to the Toggr watch to look at. The calling and tracking functionalities. The speaker in the watch is quiet loud and the microphone gives a good clarity to the voice. You can dial the child via the app or by simply calling the assigned mobile number from your phone. Then, there is the WIN or When In Need button. When the child needs to reach out to you upon an emergency, he or she would have to long press the WIN button to connect the call the family or guardian number you have assigned on the app. It reach the pre-assigned number one after another, in case the first number is not reachable. You also get an SMS alert in case you missed the call plus the app gives out a beeping alert and a notification. The App can give the exact location of the child (or the watch). There is a small downside to the WIN. When a child presses the WIN button, it is not discreet. The people around the child can hear the dial sound, in certain situation it can bring the attention to the watch. Otherwise, both the tracking and call functionality works really well as required. The watch face shows time in 24 hours format. My 6 year kid is yet to warm up to the 24-hours format and is annoyed it does not have a 12 hours format, a choice to choose the format would have been nicer. Plus, the display is horrible under sunlight, you cannot basically read anything on the screen. The time itself is not always-on but the power button has to be pressed each time to check the time. I assume it was made so to save power but it does not help much either. Magnasoft did not tell me the battery capacity of the watch but the battery life is quiet disappointing. Since the GPS and pedometer tracker is constantly on, the watch drains the power like a quick sand. It lasts barely 9-10 hours and that is simply not acceptable.

Toggr community

Magnasoft claims Toggr as the world’s first child-centric connected family platform. So what is it? So when a child is at an emergency situation and needs your assistance and if you might take time to reach the place, you can reach out to the Toggr comunity members who are basically other parents who would be using Toggr app to see if they can help the child before you arrive. The map would show the nearest parent in the vicinity. One issue with this approach is , the community feature is not an opt-in, so your location and identity is visible to the community. Any platform that does not give me a privacy option is a big NO for me. I understand Toggr wants to build a community of parents who might be there like a knight in a shining armor whenever solicited but when we are talking about a Safety watch, it equally needs to take care of the privacy needs of the parents / guardians.

Pricing

Toggr Smart watch is priced at Rs 2,499. The pricing seem to be fine with me but strangely the company says they don’t offer any sort of warranty for the product. The answer given is it is competitively priced. No dear, that is not a valid answer. Toggr works on a subscription model on top of the selling price. You need to shell out Rs 599 ( around 9 US$) half yearly , which works to around Rs 100 in a month, which might not pinch me as a parent for the child’s safety. But when you work on a subscription model and then say the product does not even cover a basic warranty, it simply is not acceptable to me. For those wondering what happens if you opt out of subscription? Well, you just have one plastic watch in your hand that can show time and steps covered.

Verdict

What I liked

Tracker is efficient
Speaker is loud
Clear audio
Simple app interface
Notification on the child’s movement are good.

What I did not like

Concerned about the build quality of flap that covers the ports
Poor battery life
No Opt-out from Toggr community
No discreet WIN mode.

There are many child tracker devices and watches in the market but as a GPS tracker device with a call functionality , the Toggr watch does work well and helps you and child be connected and monitored constantly. But Toggr needs much of an improvement on the points I have mentioned above which hopefully the company will work at to make it a better device, a parent like me would be interested at. ]]>

Pebble Time Steel Review

Lakshmi Rajan — Wed, 07 Sep 2016 10:00:50 +0000

I am not a typical watch guy but I like the concept of Smartwatch. I like the extras the Smartwatch offers other than timekeeping. For time keeping, I have my phone in any case. A reason why I proudly wore Casio F-91W digital watch during my school days. After I became a tech writer, I had a chance to try out many Smartwatches and fitness bands and they always kept me curious. When Pebble smashed its way into recognition with it’s hugely successful kickstarter campaign back in 2012, it aroused my interest but it took four more years for me to really try their device for a fairly extended time to form any sort of opinion with Pebble Time Steel. So unlike many other articles you might find on internet, I would not be comparing it with other Pebble devices that came before it but stick faithfully to my observations about the Time Steel.

Key features of Pebble Time Steel

1.25-inch display size
144×168 pixels
Colour ePaper display
10.5mm-thick marine-grade stainless-steel watch case
22mm removable straps
Pebble OS
Android and iOS support
Cortex M4 CPU
Bluetooth 4.0
Compass
silver/grey/gold watch case options
Microphone
Water-resistant to 5 ATM (50m)

Display & Design

Smartwatches have evolved in design considerably and some of them have a classic watch looks with the Huawei Smartwatch being my favorite when it comes to design. Pebble Time Steel on other hand has a very muted design language. Surprisingly when I wore it for the first time, the immediate comment on the design came from my 67-year old mother who quipped the design is brilliant. I found her observations odd but I think it also offers a consumer insight. People love simple design and even if it looks chunky as in this case. Pebble Time Steel has a steel watch cace available in three colors – silver / grey / gold. It is also available in choice of leather and steel straps. Steel would be a no-nonsense solid, premium strap I would have preferred but I received the leather stuff. The straps are 22mm types and you can replace it with any similar bands you find in market. Also steel straps won’t get soggy like leather ones when you get drenched in water, after all the Pebble Time Steel is water resistant up to 30 meters and you can be afford to shower, rain or swim wearing it. Another reason to opt for the steel band. The watch case is clunky metal made of military grade stainless steel and measures 10.5mm in thickness. The bezels are really prominent but I found it kind of nice for a change. The corners are rounded and the watch screams minimalist in design. Coming to the display, it has a 1.25-inch screen size with an always on color e-Paper display sporting a 144×168 pixels resolution. While the world is increasingly familiar with touch screens, you might feel a bit odd with the non-touch screen of the Pebble Time Steel but does that hamper the user experience? I will talk about that in a while. The display is not the eye-popping types we have got used in many of the Smartphones these days but when under direct sunlight it surprises with its very clear legibility. It wins hands down for outdoor readability. The always-on display also means your time is just a glance away every time. In the absence of the touch screen, the navigation buttons steer your way around. On the right side there are three metal buttons and on the left side there is a single button. The right also houses a microphone. The buttons are very neatly laid, raised and are easier to click. The back side has the proprietary charging pins and you can use the magnetic charger supplied with the Time to power up. It also means your Time would be dead if you are not having your charger around but a good news is the battery life we will talk about soon.

User experience

Getting started with the Pebble is pretty straight forward. It pairs with Android or iPhone via bluetooth via their app. You need to install the app and get the watch paired with your Smartphone. Here on wards, its a easy cruise. You can customize the watch face, nothing very fancy but there are couple of interesting ones. The app gives you the control over various settings – health, app notifications and app sync. They are neatly laid out in tabs. You can also install third party apps available by going to to the app tab and clicking the add icon at the bottom corner. What I really liked about Pebble Time steel is that it works on the background and is not intrusive. It is there but does not compel our attention unnecessarily. Touch screens tend to make us fiddle around the screen more often, we don’t have that distractions here. We access the screen only when need arises – check time, check notifications we allowed to be displayed. Period. Of course there are few more information to be scrolled on the time line like weather but you indulge only when you really ought to and we do it less due to the button navigation. But you need to get used to few things. First, there are several pressings of buttons to get into desired settings or even scrolling through texts. Second, the texts looks retro like back into a time machine. Long pressing the center button list many options beginning with settings at the top, and scrolling down shows weather, music control, notifications, alarm, send texts, timer, stop watch etc. There is a microphone and you can dictate messages and send as SMS. It did work well for my heavy South Indian accent. The fitness tracking along with the sleep tracker works decently well for regular users, though if you are a hardcore fitness enthusiasts and need a very accurate steps counter, you might be

Battery life: A week and maybe a little more

Pebble claims that the Time Steel has 10-day battery life. With my usage, I got a little more than a full week, which is still a decent life compared to many other Smartwatches available now. Even when the battery almost died out, it hinges on the last drop and displays just the time for another 12 hours or so till it finally sleeps. Only hitch, if you are traveling for more than a week, don’t forget to carry their charging cable.

My final thoughts..

Is the Pebble the right Smartwatch for you? Should you buy it? Let me answer myself first. It’s funny that I sort of like the non-intrusive behavior of the Pebble Time, so there is no denying I liked it the time I was wearing it but having said that I like over the top gadgets, brighter display and of course touch screens, so I may not put my money if am buying now considering there are other options in the market when it comes to aesthetics and functionality catering to my taste. That’s my needs and you might be different. If you are someone who wants a Smartwatch to work silently along side, distract you less, Pebble Time Steel might hit upon you. Some pebbles on the shore are not for everyone but there are some who like to pick them.

]]>

The Stylish and Premium, LG Watch Urbane comes to India at Rs 30,000

Lakshmi Rajan — Wed, 20 May 2015 06:20:54 +0000

If you like your Smartwatch to look like a traditional watch and carry a dash of premiumness, the LG Watch Urbane might be what you should looking at. Globally unveiled first at MWC this year, the Smartwatch runs on the latest version of Android Wear and can pair with any Smartphones running Android 4.3 and above. Sporting a round face with a full-circle Plastic OLED (P-OLED) display, the Urbane has a full metal body with a stitched leather strap that gives a traditional feel to the watch. The body is available in two colors, rose gold and silver. If you prefer a different strap, you can replace it with any 22mm strap from the market to give it a personal touch of your own. The Android Wear OS now supports always-on apps, say like when you are running, the fitness app can be set to continuously on so that you can keep a track, the new update to Android Wear also gives improved UX for ease of use. Making use of the latest OS, you can now draw emoticons on the Watch face and share it with your friends using another Android wear watch, smartphone or computer. You can also change the font size and also it gets pop-up notifications. LG on its part has added two new features to LG Watch Urbane, the LG Call and LG Pulse. LG calls allow you to dial directly from the watch face by accessing recent calls and favorite contact lists while LG Pulse measures the heart rate, which is good during fitness activities when it continuously monitors the pulse and gives you feedback like average heart rate. Mr. Amit Gujral, Marketing Head, LG Mobiles India said, “With LG Watch Urbane, LG once again brought an amalgamation of a beautiful design and high end technology for its consumers. It’s best termed as a ‘Genuine Smartpiece’. It carries the latest android OS and includes features that are available for the very first time on any Android wear device. LG has been consistently launching smartwatches and this demonstrates our commitment towards wearable devices in India. ” ]]>

Sony SmartWatch 3 launched in India for Rs 19,990; Specifications and Features

Lakshmi Rajan — Mon, 19 Jan 2015 12:34:00 +0000

Sony has launched in India, its next generation wearable device, SmartWatch 3 which was first revealed in September at IFA. The Sony SmartWatch 3 (SWR50) has been officially listed at Rs. 19,990 and will be available in Black. though there is no word on its availability. The upgraded SmartWatch 3 us based on Google’s Android Wear platform, a marked turn from their earlier watches and thus fully soaked in Android ecosystem. The SmartWatch 3 has a 1.6-inch 320×320 pixel LCD display, and is powered by a 1.2GHz quad-core processor paired with 512MB RAM. Also featured are 4GB of internal storage, 420mAh battery and connectivity options like NFC and Bluetooth 4.0. The wearable device also has a built-in microphone, accelerometer, compass, Gyro and GPS sensor. Like their flagship Smartphone devices, the smartwatch too is IP68 certified making it resistant to water and dust.

Sony SmartWatch 3 Specifications:

1.6-inch LCD display
320 x 320 pixel resolution
1.2GHz quad-core processor
512MB RAM
4GB storage
420mAh battery
Android Wear OS

]]>

Samsung Gear S is your standalone SmartWatch companion

Lakshmi Rajan — Thu, 04 Sep 2014 06:03:07 +0000

One year. Six SmartWatches. Let’s accept right now only Samsung has the manufacturing prowess to experiment and bring out new products in an still evolving segment. When Samsung tests the market, others take a dive.

At IFA event, Samsung gave more details of their sixth Smartwatch, Gear S that can work on its own with a nano-SIM support. It just needs a first time pairing with a compatible Galaxy device and after that you can use the SmartWatch paired or otherwise. So with Gear S you can make calls, read emails as well as reply directly from the watch using a tiny on-screen keyboard and then it comes with a full range of fitness and health monitors. To it’s credit, it’s quiet different from any other SmartWatches now in terms of usability and it is almost a wrist-worn computer.

Gear S manages to push ahead the display size from the 1.63 inch screens we have seen in other Gear devices to 2-inch Super AMOLED curved display. Though massive the curved contours should make it more comfortable to wear than a rectangular block.

Samsung is trying to split their attention between Android Wear and Tizen, so they have watches running on both the platform. Gear S runs on Tizen and the company says they have 1000 apps already for the ecosystem.

Like Samsung’s other smartwatches, the Gear S features a built-in heart-rate monitor and pedometer. A new addition is the Gear S’s UV monitor, if you are worried about the sun burns. You can sync the data with S-Health app to further analyze it and monitor your fitness and health activities.

Samsung has not announced the pricing of the Gear S but it will go on sale this fall.

]]>

Samsung Gear S is your standalone SmartWatch companion

Lakshmi Rajan — Thu, 04 Sep 2014 06:03:07 +0000

Samsung has not announced the pricing of the Gear S but it will go on sale this fall.

]]>

LG G Watch more details unwrapped

Lakshmi Rajan — Tue, 22 Apr 2014 12:11:14 +0000

Source: Via Engadget Via LG]]>

Samsung unveils the Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo, replaces Android with Tizen OS

Lakshmi Rajan — Sun, 23 Feb 2014 09:18:58 +0000