Tizen based Samsung Gear S Smartwatch announced at Samsung Unpacked Episode 2 2014 #IFA2014

 

 
Today, as expected Samsung revealed the Tizen based Samsung Gear S Smartwatch just ahead of IFA 2014. DJ Lee, President and Head of Sales and Marketing for Samsung’s IT and Mobile Communications Division, Introduced the Gear S onstage with satellite events in Beijing and New York. This is the companies fourth Tizen based Smartwatch, following the Samsung Galaxy Gear (updated to Tizen), Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo. They have also released the Gear Fit which is nucleus RTOS based, and the Gear Live which is Android based.
 

 
This time however there is a twist as this is the first Smartwatch by a major tech player that has a nano-SIM Card slot built in (nano-SIM card. This means that you have cellular and 3G connectivity on the go and don’t need it paired to a Smartphone. You do however need to initially connect it to a Samsung device (currently 20+ compatible ones) so you can begin using it, and after that you can use it as a standalone device. Unfortunately this restriction will annoy some perspective customers.
 

 
The 2″ curved screen with its 360×480 pixel Super AMOLED resolution makes good use of the newly designed clock faces that ship with Gear S, bringing a level of sophistication with them, but fear not, their is a community of watch clock makers that will be porting their clock watches faces over to the Gear S.
 

 
Over the last year Samsung have accumulated over 1000 applications for the Gear range and these will be compatible for the Gear S, which suggests that there won’t be any issues with resizing exstiting 320×320 apps to the new 360×480 screen size.
 

 
Like previous Gear Smartwatches you have notifications, but this time you can read the full notification, and also reply using the built in qwerty keyboard, that also has swype functionality. You can use the keyboard with SMS and emails, but i’m note sure what other applications it is compatible with.
 

 
To navigate around the screen you swipe left for your notifications, right for widgets and down for applications. You can also personalise your widgets. Health is a major selling feature for Samsung and you have fitness apps and a heart rate monitor built in.
 

 
One major improvement is Fast S-Voice, which allows you to use your voice as voice input, but unlike previous offerings you don’t have to be connected to a server, and therefore it is a faster experience with its built in engine.
 
For more information, check out the videos below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZnnrlceyZ0&feature=youtu.be


 

Samsung Gear S Specifications

 
The expected sale price is approx. €399 with availability in October 2014.
 
Gallery of Pictures from the event
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