(ThyBlackMan.com) At IFA 2017, Samsung Gear Sport watch was unveiled with two more wearables including a fitness band Gear Fit 2, and wireless earbuds Gear IconX. The focus remains on fitness meaning that a smartwatch which was expected to have competition with Apple Watch Series is now ready to compete with Fitbit also.
As fitness is the major focus of this release, do not expect any significant upgrade from Samsung on other fronts. Apart from being loaded with fitness-centric features, the best thing in Samsung Gear Sport watch is its ability to support Spotify offline. There’s an internal storage capacity of 4GB, meaning that you can store some media from your playlist. What makes the smartwatch more appealing than its predecessors is its design.
The core elements, premium build quality, round shape, and rotating bezel are still there. Thankfully the company hasn’t made changes in any of these areas. If you look at the currently available models of the Samsung Gear series, you will find the new Sport watch looks similar to the company’s S3 watch. The biggest change is in the size. The new device, as we were expecting it to be, comes in small size. The dimensions 42.9 x 44.6 x 11.6 mm are perfect for people with small wrists as well. As the overall size is trimmed down, the straps are also narrower. Earlier, the straps were 22mm wide, but with the new model, straps come in 20mm width. The watch supports all the 20mm watch bands.
A 1.2-inch Super AMOLED display with Gorilla Glass 3 protection looks absolutely stunning on the watch. Since the product is not currently available in the market, the early hands-on-reviews suggest that the watch won’t disappoint in harsh lights. But one thing to remember is that there’s no clarification available about the maximum brightness capacity of the watch. The Samsung Gear Sport watch is powered by a 1.0GHz dual core chip and runs on Tizen OS 3.0, Samsung’s operating system for wearables. And there comes a 300mAh battery that lasts for four days.
Most importantly, the Samsung’s Gear Sport watch is more than just a smartwatch. It’s a powerful fitness tracker that comes equipped with massive hardware capabilities and features. The smartwatch brings in an improved heart-rate monitor, applications, automated activity tracker, and surprisingly amazing activity recommendations. The device comes with 5 ATM/50 meters water resistance capability. It means that your Samsung Gear Sport watch can accompany you in swimming pool as well as on the beach. An application called Speedo will monitor and track your swimming activities.
Samsung has figured out that if someone wants to convince people to wear a smart device on their wrist, only fitness-focused capabilities can make it happen. Nobody wants to wear a device to check what’s happening on social media channels. This time, Samsung embraced the change which was needed and recently introduced Gear Sport to attract people who were bound to choose offerings from either Fitbit or Apple or other leading wearables. Whether it’s keeping you on a track to reach your fitness goals, or to just add more style to your personality, Samsung is asking people to get everything with just one device – Gear Sport watch.
At present, Tizen is not as powerful as Google’s Android or Apple’s WatchOS, but it will grow with time. You will certainly feel lack of applications on the platform, but the features like Bixby and the entire software have potential to grow. The only concern here is that the way Samsung is bringing new products in its smartwatch line, the company is probably not going all in to improve its operating system so that everyone who is trying new products from the smartwatch series won’t feel left behind.
The Samsung Gear Sport watch is expected to arrive sometime during this year’s holiday season. There’s no official price confirmation available as of this writing.
Staff Writer; Corey Shaw
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