Samsung’s first foray in the smartwatch market, the Galaxy Gear, will be making its way in the local market on October 4 bearing a price tag of Php13,990. Expectedly more expensive than other smartwatches in the market and their sub-Php5,000 price.
The Samsung Galaxy Gear was introduced early this month over at IFA 2013 as a companion wearable accessory for the Samsung Galaxy Note 3. Yup, from the get-go it will only function with the Note 3 and there’s no saying yet when an update will become available to use it with other Galaxy devices.
Despite the price and limited compatibility, the Galaxy Gear is the most feature-packed smartwatch out there. It has a 1.63-inch Super AMOLED display powered by a single-core 800MHz Exynos processor and connects via Bluetooth. It can pick up notifications from your Galaxy Note 3, control music playback, and works with a lot of compatible Android apps, mostly health/fitness and location apps.
It has a built-in mic which allows you to take or make calls (or use S-voice) directly from it without the need of a headset although initial reviews are reporting a quiet speaker. It also has a 1.9-megapixel camera that can shoot stills and 720p videos. Feeling James Bond-y? It does have a 315mAh battery which will make you reach for the charger almost the same time as with your phone.
It’s also the most fashionable one in the market having a metal face and buckle, and a colorful range of adjustable wrist band. It may look bulky but it’s lighter than it looks.
There’s still a lot of things that can be improved on the Galaxy Gear but it’s a nice start for Samsung in wearable tech nonetheless.