Smart watch Samsung Gear S2. Samsung Gear S2: comparison of regular and classic versions Smart watch Samsung Gear S2 classic

Smart watch Samsung Gear The s2 is the sixth release from the company as it makes its mark in the wearables space. This model has a pleasant appearance, compact size, works for a long time without recharging and has an ideal control method. These and other features are discussed below.

Specifications

Let's look at the characteristics of the smartwatch:

• screen: touchscreen, 1.2 inches, Super AMOLED, 360×360 pixels, 302 ppi;
• processor: dual-core, frequency up to 1 GHz;
• RAM: 512 MB;
• built-in memory: 4 GB;
• communication: Wi-Fi, NFC, Bluetooth 4.1 LE;
• battery: capacity 250mAh;
• protection standard: IP68;
• sensors: gyroscope, accelerometer, barometer, heart rate, light, acceleration sensors;
• dimensions: 42.2×8×11.4 mm;
• watch weight: 47 g without strap.

Equipment and appearance

The gear s2 device is delivered in a tight round box. Inside is the watch itself, a size L strap (on the device), an additional S bracelet, a charging dock and instructions.

The gadget looks minimalistic and tasteful: a round display, a metal bezel that rotates in different directions, a rubber (for the gear s2 sports sm r720 version) or leather (for the gear classic sm r770) strap. The watch case is made of metal, it is 316L stainless steel. The matte finish and smooth shapes make the device universal, suitable for any wardrobe style. There are only 2 function keys on the watch panel - “back” and “home”, located on the right. The rubber bracelet does not look cheap, it looks neat. If it gets dirty, it can be easily wiped with a damp cloth or washed with running water.

The IP68 protection standard ensures dust and water resistance. You can safely wash your hands in the watch, take a shower, and can withstand immersion to a depth of 1.5 meters for half an hour. After these tests, there were no problems with the Gear s2.

The quality of fastening parts and assembly of the Samsung Gear s2 smart watch is excellent. If you don't know that the strap is removable, you might think that the bracelet is fused directly into the case. It doesn’t wobble anywhere, all components are securely fixed.

Ease of use

When walking, a smart watch from Samsung is practically invisible, comfortable to wear, and invisible under clothing. Additional comfort in operation is created by a rotating wheel that provides menu navigation. In cool weather, you won’t need to take off your gloves to interact with the watch, and the screen won’t get dirty again.

Thanks to such a moving element, the manufacturer was able to reduce the diameter of the watch screen. 1.2 inches seems small compared to other competing models, but it is enough, since you don’t have to hit the right spot with your finger.

The picture on the display is clear and rich, with a good viewing angle. In the settings you can set the operating mode: you can make the screen always on, or vice versa. In the latter case, the clock backlight is turned on with a hand gesture or a couple of taps on the display. There are 10 gradations of brightness, which is adjusted automatically; it can also be adjusted in the parameters. The “outdoor” mode increases the brightness of the backlight and the text becomes readable on a sunny day.

Processor capabilities and memory

Samsung Gear watch has 512 MB random access memory and 4 GB built-in, where you can download music. You cannot connect a Bluetooth headset; compatibility is only with smartphones. The processor is 2-core, clock frequency up to 1 GHz, everything is the same as in previous models, there have been no changes, but nothing more is required.

The watch operates at high speed, responds instantly to touch, and there is no freezing. Applications open quickly. There is no way to connect additional sensors to the watch; you have to be content with the built-in ones.

One significant difference from previous version: Now you can’t make or receive calls from your gadget. The function was very useful for drivers, or when their hands are full and the call needs to be answered urgently. According to buyers, this is a strong drawback. For example, the Samsung Galaxy Gear 2 neo has this feature.

Battery

Includes special Charger– a docking station, a watch is placed on it. After 2.5 hours the battery is already full.

Time declared by the manufacturer battery life Smart watch Samsung Gear S2 in 2-3 days is quite achievable, it all depends on how actively you use the functionality. If you don't turn off the gadget at night, leave reminders from social networks and backlighting of the screen upon receipt will last for about 2 days. The result is not bad, but the Samsung Gear 2 neo smartwatch takes the lead - up to 5 days under standard loads.

The power saving mode will help extend the operating time without recharging; when activated, the display turns black and white, most notifications do not arrive, and there is no pedometer.

Functionality, features, features

First of all, the Samsung Gear S2 is a gadget, and only after that is a watch. Let's look at the possibilities and advantages. This is what the device can please you with.

1. Availability of a pedometer.
2. Pulse meter.
3. Sleep and activity monitoring.
4. "Anti-loss".
5. Alarm clock, timer.
6. Receiving notifications on the watch screen.
7. Different dials.
8. Lots of games and applications.

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Now about the main properties separately.

Pedometer

The most useful of the functions. There is a measurement error; with every 10,000 steps another 10% is added. For those who need an average result, it will be suitable, but pedants will be disappointed. The sensors independently switch the mode depending on the type of workout: walking, running, cycling and others. If a person has been sitting too long, the smart watch will remind you that it’s time to stretch and move a little.

Heart rate monitor

The gadget's pulse sensor allows you to determine your heart rate, and in 9 out of 10 cases the result is correct. Sometimes the watch, for some reason, does not measure the indicator, although the gadget is tightly tightened on the hand. The good news is that in most cases the work is correct.

The device can measure both in constant mode and on request, this is set in the parameters. If you need regular readings during training, it is recommended to fasten the watch strap tighter for more accurate results.

Sleep motinoring

Sleep tracking works great, just like in professional devices. They catch the time of falling asleep and getting up correctly.

All information is available in the S Health application; in addition, the program displays statistics, builds graphs, and sets goals that need to be achieved. The capabilities of S Health are similar to Google Fit or Apple Health, there are no obvious disadvantages or advantages over them.

Anti-loss

Smart watch Gir S2 can turn on on a smartphone sound signal(call melody), so if the phone suddenly gets lost in the apartment, “Anti-loss” can help. Even if silent mode is turned on, the gadget ignores it and still plays the song. You can search for a watch in the same way, but since it does not have a speaker, it will simply vibrate.

Games

The Gear Classic SM R770 watch supports a number of interesting games. In most cases, they are not necessary, but if you are standing in a long line, you can play for 5 minutes. We recommend Bezel Reflex: a ball moves on the screen and changes its color, and there are several platforms around it; by rotating the rim, you need to match the tile with the corresponding shade of the ball. Most games on the gadget take a long time to load, about 15-20 seconds, so they won’t always be necessary. Instead of waiting for the download, it’s easier to take your smartphone out of your pocket.

Proprietary operating system

The sm r770 smart watch runs on the proprietary Tizen operating system, which has a positive effect on long-term autonomy. The manufacturer has achieved smoothness in its development, and this is an important criterion. Of course, there are also disadvantages. Android OS allows you to install much more indeed necessary programs than Tizen.

Last year, the South Korean manufacturer launched the Samsung Gear S2 smart watch, which received an updated design, a rethought interaction system and a number of other improvements. Moreover, they are available on the market in three versions: Samsung Gear S2, and Samsung Gear S 3G Version. We got to see the “classic” version of the watch.

Let's try to figure it out together and answer how interesting and competitive the accessory turned out to be. Let’s not delay the introduction, but will immediately move on to considering the technical characteristics.

Specification

Manufacturer and model	Samsung Gear S2 classic (SM-R732)
	Smart watch
Protection from dust and moisture
CPU	Samsung Exynos 3250: 2 x Cortex-A7 @ 1 GHz
Graphics adapter	ARM Mali-400 MP2
	1.2", round Super AMOLED, 360 x 360 (302 ppi), touch, Corning protective glass Gorilla Glass 3
RAM
Persistent memory
Speaker, microphone
Networking capabilities	Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.1, NFC (S Pay)
	Accelerometer, gyroscope, heart rate monitor, barometer, light
Battery	Lithium-ion, non-replaceable (250 mAh)
Charger	Wireless
	39.9 x 43.6 x 11.4 mm
	Black / Platinum / Rose Gold
operating system	Tizen with Circle UI
Compatibility	Devices running Android 4.4 or later with at least 1.5 GB of RAM
Official guarantee	12 months
Products webpage

Appearance, design features

The Samsung Gear S2 classic, like the visually simplified and more sport-oriented Samsung Gear S2, is the first smartwatch from Samsung with a fully round display. And I must say that they look very attractive. In our case, it's all thanks to the combination of a highly polished metal case (316L stainless steel - a hypoallergenic, anti-corrosion material used in the jewelry industry), a ribbed bezel and an elegant strap. The regular version of the watch has a more neutral design: the case is matte, the bezel is smooth, and the strap is made of elastomer. If you don’t know that this is a technological gadget, then it is perceived as just a stylish modern accessory. This allows it to go well with different styles of clothing - from strict business to simple everyday.

In addition, the “classic” is available on the market in three popular colors: platinum, black and rose gold.

The watch is quite light and compact (42 g and 39.9 x 43.6 x 11.4 mm), thanks to which it fits well even on a relatively thin hand and does not cause any discomfort. Those with a heroic wrist should choose a larger strap (specifically, in our case it was size M).

The entire working panel of the Samsung Gear S2 classic is occupied by a display covered with a rather thick layer of Corning Gorilla Glass 3 mineral glass. Around it there is a rotating ring, referred to in the watch industry as a bezel. It rotates in both directions, the movement is soft, but accidental operations are excluded.

On the right side there are two mechanical keys: “Back” (top) and “Home” (bottom), and between them is a microphone. The opposite side is devoid of any elements.

The back of the Samsung Gear S2 classic is made of hypoallergenic plastic. There is a heart rate sensor, information about the watch, and closer to the edge of the case there is a strap mount. Let's look at the latter in more detail.

It is quite standard (in the form of a metal knitting needle). Thanks to this, you can use not only branded straps, but also solutions from third-party manufacturers, as long as they have a width of 20 mm. But the Samsung Gear S2 version has its own (proprietary) mounting system, which introduces its own limitations.

The included strap is made of genuine leather, in this case gray, but there are also black and brown options. It is quite nice to look at, elastic, pleasant to the touch, including thanks to the suede interior. The clasp provides a secure fit.

The build quality and rigidity of the body of the tested model are simply ideal - there are absolutely no questions about it. In addition, the design is protected according to the IP68 standard, which means it can be submerged under water to a depth of 1.5 meters for 30 minutes, as well as full protection from penetration of sweat and dust.

Display, control

The Samsung Gear S2 classic has a proprietary round 1.2-inch Super AMOLED touchscreen display with a resolution of 360 x 360 and without “dead zones”, like in the Moto 360. The pixel density is at 302 PPI. Protective glass with an effective oleophobic layer.

The screen has excellent detail, excellent contrast and rich colors, but with a slight deviation towards cool shades. Viewing angles are maximum, and only when viewed diagonally the saturation decreases slightly. A wide range (10 levels) of automatic brightness adjustment allows you to feel comfortable both on a bright sunny day and in pitch darkness. The touch pad handles all touches correctly. Everything is in order here.

But in addition to the usual touch controls, the Korean manufacturer has equipped its brainchild with a very innovative solution - a rotating bezel around the screen, thanks to which you can navigate through the menu without blocking the information with your fingers. True, you still have to touch the screen to confirm actions. In any case, it is very convenient. You’re even surprised how manufacturers didn’t come up with such a simple and understandable solution earlier. For this, Samsung deserves special praise. You can remember the wheel (Digital Crown) on the Apple Watch Sport, but due to its size it is less convenient to use, especially with thick gloves, for example, in winter.

In addition to all of the above, there are side keys “Back” (top) and “Home” (bottom). The bottom button is used to go to the list of applications or return to the watch face. The microphone is useful for voice control or answering messages. Due to the lack of a speaker, the watch cannot be used as a headset, which is a pity.

Interface, functionality

Like the latest models Samsung lines Gear, the device runs the proprietary Tizen OS, the interface of which is well thought out and adapted to a round screen (all icons are round and arranged in a circle). Unlike Android Wear, this system less demanding on hardware resources.

When you first launch the Samsung Gear S2 classic, you are prompted to complete a tutorial. In the process of interaction, you can use the bezel (scroll through almost all screens and menus), touch input exclusively or a combination of both, mechanical keys, or voice control- whatever is convenient for you. By the way, the system also provides a function for creating screenshots of the screen - you need to hold down the “Home” button and swipe across the screen from the left edge to the right.

So, swiping right from the home screen gives you access to app widgets. By default, the list is as follows: weather, reminders, pedometer, heart rate monitor, news aggregator, world time, training and player control. To add new widgets, you need to click the button with the “+” sign at the end of the list. A cross sign will also appear above existing ones to delete them. To return to the watch face, just press the Home key.

Swiping left takes us to the notifications menu. It is possible not only to view messages, but even to reply to some of them using a template, typing on on-screen keyboard or just dictate. To be honest, typing text on such a tiny keyboard is not the most pleasant experience, although short messages are quite possible. Pleasantly pleased voice input: If there is no surrounding interference, then there are practically no errors. Can display clocks incoming call or reject it, but you will have to use a smartphone or headset to talk due to the lack of a speaker.

Swiping down from the top of the screen opens a panel where the battery charge and connection status to the smartphone are displayed. Here you can turn off notifications, control the player or adjust the brightness.

When you press the “Home” button from the main screen, you get to the menu of pre-installed applications. Double click calls latest app, but the action can be reassigned. The list of possibilities is quite extensive, so we will highlight only the most interesting ones.

For example, the Find My Phone app causes the smartphone to emit a loud signal. With Here maps, you can navigate and search for nearby places of interest and public transport stops. The Calls application allows you to dial the desired number or write an SMS message. Responsible for the sports component popular apps Nike+ Running and S Health, which we will discuss in more detail in the following sections of the article. By the way, for ease of menu navigation, we recommend placing frequently used applications on the first screen.

The watch settings menu gives access to almost all parameters: screen, communications, notifications, input, watch face and so on.

Hardware platform, connection

The Samsung Gear S2 classic watch is based on the Samsung Exynos 3250 SoC processor. It is created using a 28-nm process technology and includes two ARM Cortex-A7 cores with a frequency of up to 1 GHz. The graphics are handled by an ARM Mali-400 MP2 with an operating clock frequency of 400 MHz. The amount of RAM is 512 MB. Of the 4 GB of permanent memory, 1.86 GB is available to the user. The performance is quite enough for the interface to work quickly and smoothly - everything is in order here.

Communication capabilities are provided with everything you need: NFC, Bluetooth 4.1 and Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n. True, the first one is limited only payment system Samsung Pay. There is also a modification with 3G support.

Connection to a smartphone is carried out via Bluetooth 4.1 or Wi-Fi when the devices are on the same network. By the way, if previous watch models only worked with top Samsung smartphones, the new product is compatible with a wide range of branded devices based on Android based 4.3 and with third-party solutions running Android 4.4 and higher, but the RAM must be at least 1.5 GB. Before pairing, you need to install three applications: Samsung Gear, Samsung Gear Plugin and Samsung Accessory Service. Subsequent pairing of the watch with the smartphone occurs simply instantly, the connection is maintained very reliably - in line of sight up to 15 meters, and in a residential apartment - about 7-8 meters.

Software for smartphone

Samsung Gear is the main application for setting up and synchronizing data with your smartphone. It looks quite simple and intuitive. In the settings, you can change the watch face (from classic to truly futuristic), choose the notifications that will be displayed on the watch, add or remove applications on your Samsung Gear, and send songs and photos to them. To listen, you will need Bluetooth headphones. Additionally, you can set up templates for answering calls and messages, add favorite contacts, archive or restore data, update software and much more. The watch also has a function emergency call- by triple pressing the “Home” key, a prepared message is sent to the number you specified.

You can expand the functionality of your watch by visiting the Samsung Gear Apps store, but first you will need to create account. Here you can find new watch faces, sports apps, useful utilities, games and more. Yes, here fewer apps, than for Android Wear or WatchOS, but the range is constantly expanding.

The S Health application is more universal and is familiar to us from Samsung smartphones. It allows you to use data from your watch to monitor your activity for the day, week or month, and display it in the form of graphs for easy analysis of the results. Thanks to the heart rate monitor, you can monitor your heart rate. It is possible to set goals, select types of loads: walking, running or cycling, and through the application on the watch you can add other options - an elliptical trainer, an exercise bike, a stepper and a treadmill. In addition, S Health can count calories by entering information about the foods and liquids consumed.

Both tools are quite interesting and allow the watch to completely replace a fitness tracker. The only thing missing is the ability to track sleep phase, which may appear in future software updates.

AutonomousJob

Samsung Gear S2 classic is powered by a non-replaceable lithium-polymer battery with a capacity of 250 mAh. Despite the modest capacity, you can safely count on 1.5-2 days of uninterrupted operation with relatively active work(constant synchronization with the smartphone, alerts on, pedometer, heart rate monitor activated every three hours) and screen brightness of 7 out of 10. Considering that most smartwatches have to be charged every day, this is a pretty good result. With more gentle use, you can squeeze out three days of autonomy.

The energy saving mode deserves special attention. After its activation, the screen automatically switches to monochrome mode, and background processes and most functions are disabled. Calls and alerts remain available. This will extend battery life for several hours even with a minimum charge, which is especially important when away from a power outlet.

The watch is charged using wireless charging, which is presented in the form of a magnetic docking station and a regular power supply with a micro-USB connector. Charging time is quite long - about 2-2.5 hours. The completion of the charging process is indicated by a green LED on the stand.

Results

Undoubtedly SamsungGearS2 classic− a very interesting and balanced device. It is clear that the manufacturer did his best and was able to make a qualitative step forward in comparison with previous models. The combination of a stylish appearance and a largely innovative and very convenient control system is unlikely to leave anyone indifferent. It’s also worth remembering the excellent round 1.2-inch Super AMOLED touchscreen display with a well-designed Tizen OS interface for it. The hardware provides excellent speed and responsiveness of the system. The functionality of the watch is quite wide - from the usual receiving and processing of messages from a smartphone to the capabilities of a fitness tracker. This is also accompanied by the presence of dust and moisture protection according to the IP68 standard, a built-in heart rate monitor and specialized applications. I was also pleased with the S Voice voice assistant, which quite adequately recognizes a number of simple commands. Autonomy is higher than most analogues, so the gadget can be charged once every 2-3 days, depending on the intensity of use. I’m very glad that this watch is now compatible not only with Samsung smartphones, but also with third-party models running Android OS.

In fact, there are no special complaints about the Samsung Gear S2 classic. To be fair, there are fewer third-party applications than for competing systems running Android Wear or WatchOS. But Tizen is a fairly young OS and Samsung is doing everything necessary to encourage software developers. Therefore, the emergence of even more interesting programs is only a matter of time.

A few words about competitors. This model is cheaper than the Apple Watch Sport and second-generation Moto 360, but slightly more expensive than the LG Watch Urbane. In any case, the Samsung Gear S2 or versions with the “classic” prefix look very good against their background, and they will be excellent candidates for purchase.

Advantages:

• stylish appearance;
• high-quality materials of construction;
• high-quality body assembly;
• protection from dust and moisture according to IP68 standard;
• classic strap fastening;
• excellent round 1.2-inch Super AMOLED touch display;

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The smartwatch market appeared quite a long time ago, but devices of this class only gained at least some mass popularity with the advent of Pebble. A young startup that has spun the flywheel has pushed tech giants to explore a new niche. Many companies have already made their mark in this segment, but most of them have not done anything interesting with this type of device. However, products mature and take on an increasingly complete form. Samsung Gear S2 performs exactly in that adult league.

Samsung already for a long time is trying its hand in the field of wearable devices, and the Gear S2 is in fact the sixth smart watch companies. Let's figure out what the Koreans managed to do correctly on the sixth attempt, and where the engineers still have serious work to do.

Characteristics

• round touch display 1.2″ Super AMOLED, 360×360, 302 ppi
• RAM: 512 MB, ROM: 4 GB
• Bluetooth 4.1 LE, NFC, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
• microphone, gyroscope, accelerometer, heart rate sensor, light sensor, barometer
• battery: 250 mAh
• protection against moisture and dust: IP68
• dimensions: 42.3×49.8×11.4 mm, weight: 47 g (without strap)

Appearance

Samsung Gear S2 for the Ukrainian market is delivered in a round box, thereby hinting at the shape of the screen. In the box, the user will find the watch itself, a charging dock, and a smaller replaceable strap.

The front-facing watch itself looks minimalistic: a display, a corrugated edging and a metal bezel that can be twisted in any direction. The watch case is made of metal, stainless steel (316L) with matte anodizing. I like the overall simplicity of the design, because the eye does not “stumble” over pretentious elements, and you can wear this watch with any outfit.

The device contains two control keys (“Back” and “Home”) located on the right. If you are used to wearing your watch on your right hand, this is not a problem - the interface can be turned upside down, and the buttons are still easy to feel and press.

The rubber strap included with the silver watch is white; the material does not feel cheap to the touch, as was the case with the first generation Pebble. Of course, the strap gets dirty, but it’s easy to clean it - we did it with wet wipes, but you can easily get by with running water.

Samsung claims compliance with the IP68 standard, which says: the Gear S2 is not afraid of dust, and it will survive immersion in fresh water one and a half meters for half an hour without consequences. We didn’t look for the mark at which the watch would fail, but we periodically “accidentally” washed it from the tap when washing our hands, drowned it in a basin a couple of times, and once even took a shower with it (this really was an accident). No hints of failure were found.

The build quality and fit of parts are excellent, as you would expect from flagship gadget. The proprietary strap fastening perfectly secures the bracelet, and the design of the latch itself eliminates even minimal play. If you don’t know that the straps can be removed, it will seem that the engineers fused silicone directly into the case.

Convenience

The rotating bezel around the perimeter of the display is the main control element of the Samsung smartwatch: it is used to navigate through menus, lists, and also acts as a tool for adjusting various sliders and serves as a controller in a number of games.

All competitors in the wearable electronics market use two control options: either touch screen and keys, or just keys. Samsung added new way control, which solves several problems at once: there is no need to smear sebum on the screen in vain and then clean it, the content is always in front of the user’s eyes (which means the display can be made a little smaller, this will not affect the final convenience), in cool days you won't have to take off your gloves to interact with gadgets.

This shell interaction tool is the best on the smartwatch market

The ring rotates almost effortlessly, but its movement is so precise that there are practically no accidental jumps through the desired menu; you just need to understand how far to scroll the bezel to get to the desired screen. The round interface was initially adjusted to the new principle of interaction, which was made possible thanks to the Tizen OS, the development of which is fully promoted by the gadget manufacturer.

The movable element allowed the company to install a small display without sacrificing convenience - 1.2 inches seems small compared to competitors, but since the user does not need to constantly poke at the screen, the surface shown is enough for comfortable use. The small display also allowed the company not to produce huge boilers, but to make a quite neat gadget that looks good on an elegant female hand, and also suits guys whose hands don’t look like logs.

The regular version of the Gear S2 received a non-standard strap fastening - a dubious decision that Apple is also guilty of. Of course, one could assume that the manufacturer simply plans to make additional profit on the straps (1,599 UAH per piece, for a second), but this conspiracy theory does not stick with the Gear S2 Classic, which received a standard 22 mm mount, and that’s all. only those presented use universal bracelets.

Release an adapter for 22mm straps, don't torture consumers

For the last two and a half years I have been actively using the first generation Pebble, whose body is made of plastic. During this unusually hot summer, it turned out that my skin reacts to the material of the pioneer of the smart watch market with an allergy. And during three weeks of testing the Gear S2, there were no hints of irritation, despite profuse sweating in the midst of running around the city. But do not forget that this is individual for each person, so pay attention to the reaction of your body in the first days of using such devices.

What devices does it work with?

Samsung says its Gear S2 smartwatch supports any Android smartphone running 4.4 KitKat or later, as long as it has 1.5GB of RAM or more. Our testing on 6 devices, ranging from the Samsung Galaxy S6 itself to Chinese ones, showed that the manufacturer is not deceiving.

The stability of the Bluetooth connection can be called satisfactory: the connection periodically disappeared and automatically returned, and auto-switching to Wi-Fi worked well only in close proximity to the access point (up to 10 m), otherwise the watch constantly reported being connected/disconnected from the network.

Functions and software

The Gear S2 is a gadget first and foremost, and a watch second. Consequently, their capabilities are at the head of the table when choosing a device.

Pedometer

The step counter is one of the most useful features of any portable device- this makes you walk more in an attempt to achieve higher and higher results (achievements!). With the Gear S2 this will not be difficult, since our testing has shown that the watch is steadily adding steps - on average we are talking about an additional 10% for every 10 thousand. Considering that we are not measuring a dose of medicine here, then this level of error is quite acceptable, but pedants will be disappointed.

A set of sensors allows you to automatically detect whether you are walking, running, cycling or sitting still. If you do the latter for a particularly long time, the watch will remind you that it’s time to tear yourself away from your chair and take a few steps.

Pulse

The pulse sensor works mediocre - the watch periodically cannot calculate this parameter, and there is no logic in the failures: the skin on the hand is tightly tightened, the skin is light, there are no tattoos, but sometimes the reading works perfectly, and periodically it gives an alert that the information could not be obtained. I'm glad that 9 out of 10 attempts work correctly.

The watch can both track data on a regular basis and manually. If you monitor your heart rate during sports activities, we recommend tightening the strap to avoid failures.

Sleep tracking

Sleep tracking works no better (or worse) than that of specialized competitors such as Misfit or Jawbone - the watch detects the time of falling asleep more or less correctly, but when you wake up it often adds extra, which is associated with the desire to “lounge in bed some more.” The accuracy of deep sleep tracking is difficult to assess, but the results obtained are consistent with competitors.

All data is synchronized with the proprietary S Health program, where you can not only view the progress of training, heart rate, sleep time and the number of steps taken, but also enter other data related to your body and health. The application's capabilities are close to competing Google Fit and Apple Health; there are no special advantages or disadvantages over them, at least for the vast majority of users.

Search for smartphone and watch

Smart watches can activate a sound signal on a smartphone (the melody set for the call is played), and in the Gear Manager application you can search for a watch from a smartphone (in case you lost it on your wrist). Since the device does not have a speaker, the watch will vigorously vibrate.

If the smartphone is switched to silent mode, the search from the watch will be ignored this limitation, and the sound is forcibly activated.

Alarm clock and timer

Smart watches can wake you up with vibration. This is extremely convenient both for some activities (for example, when boiling an egg) and for getting up in the morning without the risk of disturbing the sleep of your significant other or a small child. By the way, since the Gear S2 lasts more than a day on a single charge, the alarm clock will most likely become a popular feature if you are used to sleeping with your watch on.

A small minus is that the vibration of the watch is rather weak; if you are fast asleep, the Gear S2 may not reach you. We recommend checking the effectiveness several times in pairs with a traditional alarm clock, on which you set a later wake-up time.

Notifications

The most important functionality that smart watches bring is the display of notifications and the ability to somehow respond to them. The Gear S2 is okay with this: the user not only sees push notifications and can reject them (on the watch and smartphone at the same time), but also gets the opportunity to fully respond. The latter is implemented by three methods: templates and emoticons, keyboard (telephone and qwerty), and voice.

The dictated answer turns into text; S Voice is responsible for this function. In practice, it is almost impossible to use - it recognizes short phrases (3-4 words) well, but as soon as the user tries to dictate a sentence, success awaits him only in 20% of cases, the rest of the time incidents happen. The program may completely ignore what you said there and ask you to dictate the message again. And then he will misunderstand what you said. In English, the probability of success is higher, about 40%, but how often do you answer relatives and friends in English?

Despite the presence of a built-in microphone, you cannot answer calls with the Gear S2, since there was no room in the design for a speaker. However, when there is an incoming call, you can click on the green handset, after which the call will be answered on your smartphone. Is it useful? It’s unlikely, because in a car the button to answer a call when connected to a headset is usually located on the steering wheel, and in other scenarios you’ll still have to take the device in your hand.

A proprietary smartphone application allows you to choose which programs to receive notifications from and which to ignore. In general, nothing new, everything is the same as the competitors.

Dials

Samsung Gear S2, although smart, is still a watch, which means it can display the time, and it does it in style thanks to the support of a huge number of skins available in the app store. Many watch faces support significant customization options, from the color of the hands to the information on the watch face itself.

You can also use your own images as a backdrop for the watch, which must first be downloaded to the Gear S2 through the proprietary application.

Navigation

Standard navigation is based on Here maps; for it to work, the appropriate application must be installed on your smartphone. The principle of operation is no different from what we have seen from competitors: we set a route, then follow the prompts. When the user is 20 m (when navigating on foot) from the turning point, the watch vibrates slightly and an indicator appears on the screen in which direction to turn.

Navigation is a little annoying when starting: the application takes an incredibly long time to load (it takes 20-30 seconds from clicking on the icon to starting walking!), and GPS data is not always picked up the first time. But if you managed to launch step-by-step navigation, then everything works fine.

NFC

The Gear S2 smartwatch contains a built-in NFC module, which, among other things, allows for contactless payments. Ukrainian consumers can use this function with the Privat24 application: we activate NFC payment in the program on the smartphone, install the proprietary application on the watch, and follow the instructions in the program. Then we simply pay for purchases in any stores or trips on the Kiev metro (payment terminals must support PayPass).

An important detail - if your smartphone does not have an NFC chip, then you will not be able to activate contactless payment; there are currently no ways to get around this problem, a PrivatBank employee clarified the site.

Music

Smart watches can store on the built-in storage (4 GB) not only applications, but also photos (it’s not clear why), as well as music. The latter makes sense for those who, for example, do not want to take their smartphone for a run or to the gym - we connect wireless headphones or external speaker via Bluetooth and enjoy your favorite songs.

Important: if music player blocks data from indexing (the same “Play Music”), then it will not be possible to transfer such files to the watch. That is, you need to download files to your smartphone’s storage directly from your computer or through a browser. This problem could be circumvented by having proprietary service applications, but Google, as well as other competitors, are in no hurry to release software for Tizen.

Games

The application store for smart watches contains a certain (small) number of games of varying levels of interest and with the obligatory mediocrity of the visual component. Of course, games on smart watches are not needed, but for a queue where you only have to wait for a minute, it will do. We recommend Bezel Reflex, the screen displays a ball that jumps up and down and changes color, and your task is to rotate the platforms, placing tiles of the corresponding color under it.

Most of the games from the store seemed completely pointless due to the decent loading time - some projects require the user to wait 15 seconds before the gameplay starts, which does not at all fit into the general concept of instant use in the queue. For greater anticipation, you can take your smartphone out of your pocket, enjoying a much larger display and advanced graphics.

Branded application and software store

Samsung traditionally makes high-quality hardware, which either amazes with its manufacturability or delights with its exceptional precision. However, with the company’s software, as a rule, everything is not so rosy. And this is true not only for older versions of the proprietary TouchWiz shell, but also for Gear Manager, an application that serves as a companion to the watch.

Basic functionality (updating firmware, connecting to a watch, managing notification permissions) is implemented well, although in some places it is not obvious. The application looks more like a website than native software, but this is more an aesthetic perception than a real disadvantage.

But the company's programmers seem to have made every effort to create the most problematic software store on the planet. And, honestly, there is a suspicion that they succeeded.

Problems with the store are not constant, they occur a couple of times a week, but when they happen, you want to throw this technically excellent device out the window

What's wrong with program screenshots? Why do some of them only load one frame, although five are attached in the description?

By what logic does clicking on “Installed” under a previously downloaded program launch, excuse the tautology, re-download the application? For what? For what?

Oh, and this:

Above you see an example of how the S Health app not only needs a SIM card to activate in order to synchronize your activity, it also needs to be inserted into the first slot!

Let's add to this the impossibility of viewing all programs from one developer (even Samsung itself or the same Yandex - there is no such category as "other developer programs"), the amazing slowness of the interface (a web program, no less) and simply a most ingenious limitation - downloading programs from the store are interrupted on some smartphones (for example) if you leave it! No, seriously, how could you do this?

Technical problems are annoying, but not for long - you won't have to keep coming back to the store because new software doesn't appear often.

Tizen

Samsung Gear S2 runs the proprietary Tizen OS, which has a positive effect on decent operating time. In addition, the manufacturer managed to achieve a highly smooth interface, which is encouraging. More precisely, the smoothness occasionally disappears, you literally see a slide show on the screen, but this happened only twice during the entire testing period, so we’ll chalk it up to an exception.

However, the proprietary solution has its problems: the number third party programs small, and most of what is in the store is generally useless. It’s good that the platform is closely integrated with Android, making it easy to respond to notifications in Telegram even without proprietary program for Tizen.

Things aren't so smooth with iOS

Smart watches are not a competitor to the Apple Watch at all - the Koreans have not released Gear Manager for iOS (although they promised back in January 2016), which is why iPhone owners simply cannot use this gadget (or rather, all functionality will be limited to push to the watch to the extent available in the notification shade). And this is Samsung’s mistake, since the accessory itself turned out to be extremely interesting; some Apple users would definitely try a round watch from the Koreans instead of an expensive Apple Watch. Or is it Apple itself that didn't let the program through? App Store? (Actually no, not now, but when the app will appear in the app store is unknown).

Working hours

Of course, during the initial setup and downloading of the software, as well as a detailed examination of the capabilities, the battery gave up in less than 10 hours, but as soon as our sample began to be used in normal mode, everything immediately became much better - the average battery life was two days and another 10–15 hours to thirds. For 10 hours of sleep, the device loses about 12% of its charge, while sleep tracking is active.

The charging speed from 8% to 100% through the standard charger took 2 hours 43 minutes, which is not very good at first glance if you always want to track your sleep. On the other hand, an hour of charging lasts a full day and night, so the long recovery time is more of a feature than a drawback.

Before the reference Pebble, which works at our load for about 6 days, Samsung flagship a bit far, but these devices are not competitors to each other - the Korean device should be compared with solutions on Android Wear and watchOS, which work less on a single charge. It turns out that the Gear S2 is a long-liver in its class.

Competitors

Samsung Gear S2 is a flagship device running Tizen, which does not prevent it from competing with smartwatch manufacturers running Android Wear. Now there is a clear leader on this platform – Huawei Watch. Chinese smartwatches offer maximum functions invented for the OS, an excellent 1.4-inch screen and a pleasant appearance. At the same time, the size of the display does not allow them to be called compact, and the price is threatening - 9999 UAH. The only clear advantage of Huawei Watch is the number of programs written for Android Wear.

Apple Watch

Huawei Watch

Apple Watch, as the only device that fully interacts with iOS, is available in several versions, starting from just over 10 thousand UAH for a compact model. This device will have a tough fight against the much more affordable Gear S2 once the company releases an iOS app. Of course, this will still not be full support at the system level, but the noticeable difference in price and appearance will certainly play into the hands of the Koreans.

The best on the market, with a lot of problems

The Gear S2 smart watch is officially available in Ukraine for UAH 6,999, which is almost the cheapest accessory of its kind in the country. Moreover, even if the choice was wider, the Samsung device would still need to be compared with the flagship platforms: Apple Watch (from 10,399 UAH) and Huawei Watch (9,999 UAH).

What we have? Samsung Gear S2 work longer than the named competitors, although functionally they are no different, they also contain premium body materials, and they don’t lose out in appearance (and in my opinion they even win by a serious margin). Moreover, the rotating bezel and mechanical buttons allow you to perform most trivial actions without touching the screen, that is, the glass remains intact, and with the onset of cold weather this will bring another bonus - Gear S2 owners will not have to take off their gloves to view new notifications. For today best solution No company has one for clock management.

The size of the display, coupled with the bezel, remains sufficient for comfortable control of the gadget, and the dimensions themselves make the device universal, especially compared to the massive Huawei Watch, which not every girl will be ready to put on her elegant wrist, fearing that the huge cauldrons will simply They'll break her arm.

All the advantages of the Samsung Gear S2 are countered by a proprietary strap fastening (this is not Apple, there are few Chinese analogues for Korean smartwatches), inferior software for the smartphone, as well as a meager application store. And if the fastening is more of a claim to “find fault,” then the software is very frustrating.

Without activity in the store, it will be bad in the future, especially with the release of new services and messengers, which will continue to appear primarily for the more popular and already known to watchOS developers with Android Wear, while Tizen will continue to be kept afloat by a group of enthusiasts, unofficial customers and developers, whom Samsung pays millions in royalties.

Is it worth buying

The lack of software will only be important active users For those who constantly want to install something new, for others the existing set of software will be more than enough. In reality, a proprietary smartphone application is used extremely rarely (ideally, only once, to configure the device and download the necessary software from the store). There are fitness functions, the operating time is decent, the appearance is not for everyone, but those who like the round display will remain satisfied even after months of use. And the headband in practice turned out to be not a far-fetched excess, but extremely logical and in a convenient way interaction with the interface.

You don't use an iPhone or smartphone with Windows Phone as the main device, don’t like to fill all your desktops with programs that are good if you launch them once, and also experience aesthetic pleasure when you look at the Samsung Gear S2? Take it without hesitation, especially since this is the cheapest flagship among smartwatches.

Don't use Samsung equipment at all? Is your home filled with appliances with an apple on the logo? Do you feel the dire need to download the latest beta version? Move on, the Gear S2 won't deliver even a tenth of the fun you can get with a smartwatch running watchOS or Android Wear.

4 reasons to buy the Gear S2:

• excellent build, nice appearance
• Rotating bezel is an almost ideal method of controlling a smart watch
• compact dimensions without compromising the information content of the screen
• Decent operating time on a single charge

4 reasons not to buy the Gear S2:

• small amount of software
• you have an iPhone or a smartphone with Windows Phone
• you want to buy a much more expensive Gear S3
• you've convinced yourself that a smartwatch is a useless toy

P.S. Gear S3

Samsung at IFA 2016 a new generation of watches, Gear S3. Current models are slightly larger and have a more brutal appearance. By the way, they cost significantly more (one and a half times). The manufacturer assured at the presentation that the Gear S2 will be sold and developed in parallel with the new product, which means that if you are more inclined to the hero of the review, you can buy them without fear that the Koreans will not release updates and will stop supporting the device in the near future.

The Samsung Gear S2 smartwatch has a beautiful design, sports features and the best interface among similar gadgets. It's a shame they don't have more.

Smart watch Samsung Gear S2 - Reviews

Smartwatches have started to look better and better, the Samsung Gear S2 was first presented at IFA 2015 in Berlin, where Samsung's smartwatches were the best looking, easiest to use in terms of interface.

In many ways, the Gear S2 is Samsung's best product in years.

Samsung has updated the software to resolve some bugs that were discovered last fall. But concerns about usability remain, and ultimately, there's no app yet that says we must have this particular gadget.

Beautiful and comfortable Samsung Gear S2

The user interface of the smartwatch has important, but attractive and user-friendly design is more important. Watches are the trendsetters of a person’s style, because no one wants to wear something ugly or simply huge, just because of notifications.

The Samsung Gear S2 smartwatch is one of the most promising in terms of design. However, competition has become quite fierce in recent months. New smart Huawei watch They look better, although the interface is less intuitive and elegant than the Gear S2.

The Samsung Gear S3, due out soon, promises a new concept and will have some important missing features, although Samsung says it won't replace the S2.

Let's go back to S2! The smart watch is perfectly round with a convenient 1.2-inch dial size (42mm), this is the most optimal screen size. The classic version of the device has a ribbed dial and traditional lugs, making it compatible with any 20mm strap. There are also Sport versions with the addition of 3G/4G connectivity.

The Samsung Gear S2's secret weapon is the bezel that surrounds its screen.

I tested the stainless steel version, the Sport with Bluetooth, which has a brushed metallic finish that makes it look a little sleeker on smaller wrists.

The strap that came with the Gear S2 was rubber-silicone, and very similar to the one on Apple watches. The strap in the Sport version can be easily removed using a button on the bottom and replaced with any other from Samsung.

The button layout on the Samsung Gear S2 is simpler and better than any other smartwatch - there are two navigation buttons on right side. The bottom one acts as a power button and a Home button that takes you back to the home screen, while the top one acts as a back button that takes you back to the previous menu, just like an Android phone. Both buttons are comfortable to press and easy to find, even in the dark.

The Gear S2's secret weapon is the bezel surrounding its screen, which rotates and acts like a joystick, making it easy to select and scroll through on-screen menus. It also has a satisfying click, giving a slight tactile feel feedback.

Finally, there is a heart rate monitor on the bottom of the watch. It also tracks steps.

Gear S2 operating system

Samsung's Tizen interface is brilliant - the best available - blending the best innovations from Apple with smart, thoughtful design from Samsung. All the menus are designed to look like a round screen and use a rotating bezel to scroll through the menus, you can also swipe the screen like you would on a phone, it's incredibly intuitive and intuitive.

Seriously, there are almost no apps for this smartwatch?

Samsung's best innovation is simplicity. Swipe down to access battery information and get to menus, swipe right to check notifications, or swipe left to see widgets.

Every menu and app is designed to follow a simple, circular design philosophy, with the exception of the square calendar app.

Samsung has definitely stolen the Watch settings menu from Apple. It looks and works identical to the Apple Watch, but we can't complain because everything here works. Added bonus: the watch face can be interactive.

The new smartwatch runs on Samsung's own Tizen operating system, which is already present in the company's smart TVs, but is not yet available in Android phones. It wasn't fun to use on the first Gear, but six hours later, in the Samsung Gear S2, the OS shows that it's possible.

When the watch came out at the end of 2015, users complained about the lack of useful applications. And now, a year later, there are still almost no applications for these smart watches.

Samsung has its own app store and claims there are thousands of apps, but there aren't many you'll actually want to use. Samsung's apps are fantastic, especially the fitness app, but there's simply nothing else here.

Samsung has been touted for releasing several high-end apps, particularly the Uber app. The addition of Uber was a big plus for Samsung phone owners, but not so much for everyone else. The company offers two separate and distinct app stores. Complete madness, this is what if you have Galaxy phone, and access to the Uber app, but you're using a different manufacturer's phone, you won't see it. This is unacceptable, a clear attempt to replicate Apple's experience, which we also find annoying.

Additionally, Samsung rolled out Samsung Pay over the past few months; you can download the "beta" version and pay for products directly from your wrist. The app worked fine in my testing, but again, it's only available through the Samsung Gear app store, not Android. Samsung says Knox's security features are essential to the app on phones. Oh really? Hm.

If Samsung wants to continue to operate independently of the Android Wear app market, the company needs to desperately attract more developers to its platform.

Connection errors fixed

When testing the device paired with the Nexus 5X and Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge in late 2015, users encountered huge connectivity issues with the phones—issues that were later fixed.

The process of connecting Samsung Gear S2 is quite simple. You download the Android application (only Android version available at the moment, although the company has launched a beta test of the version to support iOS in Korea), detect the watch, and then click Yes on both devices. This will probably work the first time you set up the Gear.

If the Gear S2 smartwatch is running on battery, it will never reconnect to your phone if the battery dies.

An important bug has been discovered: if you're wearing a watch and the battery dies, it won't reconnect to your phone. The only solution is to perform a factory reset where you will lose all your data and apps. This error rendered the watch almost unusable. I don't know if every S2 model had this issue, but several other reviewers have also struggled with the same issue previously. The problem, fortunately, was fixed, but for some time it was quite relevant.

Switching the phone you use is another ordeal. This will require a factory reset.

Lastly, we've never encountered such lag in an OS; if you're quickly scrolling through menus, the OS won't be able to keep up. It's even sadder if you have an app that sends multiple notifications, like chat apps, swipe up and Samsung's delete gesture won't work. Instead, he will simply scroll through the notifications. Eventually, if you're lucky, these notifications will be deleted, but it does so in an ugly, laggy manner.

Samsung Gear S2 as a fitness tracker

Given the almost complete lack of apps, I tend to use the Gear S2 as a fitness tracker more than anything else.

The Gear S2 has S Health, a very comprehensive set of activity tracking tools. We ran hundreds of miles with the clock, and biked just as many. We tried cross-training, and many other things. The Samsung Gear S2 tracked and read data quite well, although not without errors.

For example, I recently ran 5.5 miles on the treadmill at the gym; The Gear S2 recorded a distance of 4.96 miles. What happened to the last half mile?

The app provides a wealth of data such as heart rate over time, calories burned, average speed and pace, and so on. However, in the fitness range, the device is limited by the lack of functionality GPS. If you don't carry a phone, you won't know exact distances or track your path.

Specifications Samsung Gear S2

The Samsung Gear S2 smartwatch has a stunning 1.2-inch 360×360 pixel Super AMOLED screen that is covered with Gorilla Glass 3.

The watch runs on Tizen OS from Samsung, and has a 1 GHz dual-core Qualcomm processor MSM8x26, 4 GB of internal memory, 512 MB of RAM, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.1, NFC, A Heart-speed monitor, accelerometer, barometer, and 250 mAh battery.

NFC allows Samsung Pay to work, but still doesn't work Android Pay, and we have little expectation that Samsung will add this support.

Good battery life

The Gear S2 smartwatch excels when it comes to battery life. The 250mAh battery in the S2 doesn't look like much, but I got about 2.5-3 days on each charge.

The charging stand is well thought out; it is a full-fledged stand into which a watch is inserted, like on a pedestal, and a small indicator light tells whether it is charged or charging.

One year warranty on Gear S2

Samsung's standard warranty is a normal fact for a mobile of this device. The Gear S2 will be repaired or replaced for 1 year from the date of purchase for defects that arise during normal use, although Samsung clearly defines what “normal use” means. Don't expect repairs or replacements if you drop them in water, but if the battery starts to hold a charge very poorly before the one-year warranty is up, Samsung may replace it.

Is it worth buying Samsung Gear S2

Even though the release of the Samsung Gear S3 is imminent, the Gear S2 remains a beautiful gadget and a decent smartwatch.

Updates software brought stability serious mistakes connections have been fixed and some features have been added, in particular support for Samsung Pay. But without a huge app market like the Apple Watch, it's hard to say that the new Samsung Gear S2 is the best product on the market.

Buy one and you can always do more, because Samsung has made a smartwatch with arguably the best battery life and clearly the best interface to date.

Advantages

• Beautiful round design;
• Elegant user interface;
• The rotating bezel is a true innovation;
• 2-3 days of battery life.

In September, at IFA 2015, Samsung introduced the Gear S2 smartwatch. At the same time, we prepared the first review of this model, telling you in sufficient detail about the design and key features. Now, on the eve of the start of watch sales in Russia, the time has come to take a closer look at those aspects of the new product that were impossible to recognize and study under the conditions of the exhibition.

We outlined the history of the appearance of the Gear S2 and information about the Gear family as a whole in the already mentioned material, so we will not repeat ourselves and recommend that you read it before reading this text. However, at that time it was not yet known when the watch would be available in Russia and at what price. Now Samsung has released this information: sales should start this month (although the exact date has not yet been announced), and the price will be 21 thousand rubles for the regular version and 25 thousand for the classic version.

The pre-order, opened on the Russian Samsung website, was closed quite quickly due to the exhaustion of the first batch of devices, and the more expensive Gear S2 Classic was sold out first, but by the time the article was published, the regular Gear S2 had also run out. This, of course, indicates high interest in the new product, so it’s time to study it closely.

We tested the standard version of the Samsung Gear S2 with a dark gray body and a gray strap.

Let's take a look at the device specifications.

Specifications Samsung Gear S2

• CPU @1 GHz (2 cores)
• Touch round display 1.2″ Super AMOLED, 360×360, 302 ppi
• Random access memory (RAM) 512 MB, flash memory 4 GB
• Bluetooth 4.1 LE, NFC
• Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
• Microphone
• Gyroscope, accelerometer, heart rate sensor, light sensor, barometer
• 2G, 3G (e-SIM support for Sport variant), call transfer to smartphone via Bluetooth
• Li-ion battery 250 mAh
• Tizen operating system
• Compatible with Samsung devices running Android 4.3 and later
• Degree of protection from moisture and dust: IP68
• Dimensions: 39.9 × 43.6 × 11.4 (Classic version) / 42.3 × 49.8 × 11.4 mm (Sport version)
• Weight 62 g (Sport version, our measurement)

For clarity, we decided to make a table with the characteristics of other top smartwatches (including the previous version of Gear S), adding into it those parameters that are currently key when choosing a device of this type.

	Samsung Gear S2	Samsung Gear S	Motorola Moto 360 2	Apple Watch
Screen	round, flat Super AMOLED, 1.2″, 360×360 (302 ppi)	rectangular, curved Super AMOLED, 2.0″, 360×480 (300 ppi)	round, flat, IPS, 1.65″, 360×325 (290 ppi) / 1.8″, 360×330 (304 ppi)	rectangular, flat, AMOLED, 1.5″, 272×340 (290 ppi) / 1.65″, 312×390 (304 ppi)
Protection	yes (IP68)	yes (IP67)	yes (IP67)	No
Strap	removable, leather/silicone	removable, silicone		removable, leather / silicone / metal
SoC (CPU)	2 cores @1 GHz	2 cores @1 GHz	Qualcomm Snapgragon 400, 4 cores @1 GHz	Apple S1, 1 core @520 MHz
Connection	3G (Sport version only), Wi-Fi, Bluetooth	3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth	Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth	Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
Camera	No	No	No	No
Microphone, speaker	There is	There is	microphone only	There is
Compatibility		Samsung devices on Android 4.3 and later	devices running Android 4.3 and later / iOS 8 and later	devices running iOS 8.3 and later
operating system	Tizen	Tizen	Android Wear	watchOS
Battery capacity (mAh)	250	300	300 / 400	not reported
Dimensions* (mm)	40×44×11.4 / 42×50×11.4	40×58×12.5	∅42×11.4 / ∅46×11.4	39×33×10.5 / 42×36×10.5
Weight (g)	62 (Sport version)	83	does not communicate	25 / 30 (Sport version)*

*according to manufacturer information

We commented on this table in the first Samsung review Gear S2, so we won’t repeat ourselves, but we note that there will be no 3G versions of the watch on official sale in Russia. The fact is that the Gear S2 uses a virtual SIM card format - e-SIM, but Russian operators it is not supported yet. This is, of course, a minus compared to the Samsung Gear S, which used a regular Nano-SIM.

As for comparison with the Apple Watch, we note the lower price of the Samsung Gear S2 in Russia (if we compare the sports model with the Apple Watch Sport, and the classic model with the Apple Watch). But the Apple Watch has many more watch and band combinations available. That is, even if you have an Apple Watch Sport, you can buy a leather or metal strap for it, and vice versa, you can attach a silicone strap to the Apple Watch, while with Samsung the “watch/strap” ratio is strictly fixed (silicone - for the Samsung Gear S2 , leather - for Samsung Gear S2 Classic).

Well, let's move on to getting to know the device.

Packaging and accessories

The watch comes in a medium-sized square blue-gray box.

We open the box and see a watch inserted into a mold made of thin white plastic. It should be noted that although there are no complaints about the packaging, Samsung nevertheless approached this task formally. Unboxing the Gear S2 doesn’t give you any emotions (unlike the Apple Watch).

Under the plastic form are located: an additional strap of the same color, but of a different size, wireless charger 5 V 0.7 A, a charger with the same parameters (however, you can use any other smartphone charger), a small warranty booklet and a fold-out leaflet with instructions (ours was in French, but it is obvious that a Russian-language version will be sold in Russia ).

We were very pleased with the presence of an additional strap - moreover, there are both halves, and not just the one that has a different size. So if something happens to the main strap, one of the two halves can be replaced without any problems.

As for wireless charging, it is good for its compact size and the presence of a magnet inside the wall against which the watch rests with the back of the case. Thanks to this, the watch does not dangle or fall out of this miniature charger.

On the back of the round charging base there is a Micro-USB connector, to which the cable must be connected. Unfortunately, there is no way to connect the watch to a computer via this charger. On the front of the base you can see an LED indicator indicating that charging is in progress (red) or that the device is already charged (green).

In general, the package can be assessed positively: wireless charging and an additional strap are what were missing in the case of previous Gear models.

Design

We told you our first impressions of the design of the Samsung Gear S2 in the material from IFA 2015, and in general they did not change even after a closer look at the device. The watch looks minimalistic and moderately strict. In our opinion, they lose in comparison with the Gear S2 Classic, but the design itself leaves a pleasant impression.

The streamlined shape of the case and its smooth transition into the halves of the strap evoke associations with something futuristic - the “cool” design of the watch would fit perfectly into the interior of some space station. If we think in a more realistic manner, then the Samsung Gear S2 is quite suitable for different types of clothes (from casual to business style), but we cannot say that they will attract attention or become the highlight of your appearance. The design is too neutral or something.

However, the watch fits well on the hand, and its case does not look thick. That's a plus. Here is a profile photo of the watch. Here it is worth paying attention not only to the thickness, but also to the presence of two buttons. The larger one is “Back”, the smaller one is “Home”.

Between the buttons you can see the hole for the built-in microphone - it is needed to work with the S Voice voice assistant, however, alas, there is no way to answer calls directly from the watch (there is no speaker in the watch). This is a disadvantage of the Samsung Gear S2 both compared to previous models of the Gear line and compared to the Apple Watch.

On the back of the watch case you can see the heart rate sensor (in the center) and clips for attaching the strap. To detach the halves of the strap, use your fingernail to slightly bend the clip away from the body and pull the strap down. At first it’s unusual, and it’s not immediately possible to understand how to detach the strap, but when you finally understand the essence of the fastening, then detaching and attaching is quite simple. And yet this mechanism cannot be called intuitive and elegant (unlike, again, the Apple Watch).

Well, the main design feature (common to both the regular and classic versions of the Gear S2) is undoubtedly the rotating bezel. In the watch industry, a bezel is a bezel on which traditional watches usually have notches for easy reading of the time. The Samsung Gear S2 does not have notches on the bezel, but it is possible to rotate it around the screen, thus either flipping through the screens or doing vertical scrolling (if such is suggested in the application).

In our first article about the Samsung Gear S2, we praised this solution, and after more thorough testing, our opinion has not changed. This is incredibly convenient, elegant both in concept and in appearance, and in addition, this becomes an additional weighty argument in favor of a round screen, since, obviously, such a solution would be impossible on a rectangular case. And here we again remember the Apple Watch, but not in favor of the product from Cupertino. We can say that despite such methods of interacting with the Apple Watch as Taptic Engine, Force Touch and Digital Crown, Samsung engineers were able to achieve more in making it easier to control the watch. Although, of course, the rotating bezel also takes some getting used to.

At the same time, the optimal combination of smoothness and elasticity of the bezel movement was found: the bezel rotates very smoothly, softly, without special effort, but random turns are almost excluded, and when rotating we clearly feel the divisions (“steps”).

Screen

The watch's screen is completely round, with no dead zones (unlike the Moto 360). The resolution is 360x360, which gives a fairly high density of 302 pixels per inch, close to its main competitors. Detailed testing of other parameters Samsung display Gear S2 was conducted by the editor of the “Projectors and TV” section, Alexey Kudryavtsev.

The front surface of the screen is made in the form of a glass plate with a mirror-smooth surface that is scratch-resistant. On the outer surface of the screen there is a special oleophobic (grease-repellent) coating (effective, noticeably better than that of Google Nexus 7 (2013)), so fingerprints are removed much easier and appear at a lower speed than in the case of regular glass. Judging by the reflection of objects, the anti-glare properties of the screen are no worse than those of the screen Google Nexus 7 2013. For clarity, here is a photograph in which a white surface is reflected in the switched off screens:

Below on the right is the Samsung Gear S2, and on the right and above is the Apple Watch in the version with sapphire glass and a 42 mm case. The screen of the Samsung Gear S2 is slightly lighter (brightness according to photographs is 131 versus 125 for the Nexus 7). Note that there is a not very pronounced bluish halo from bright objects reflected in the screen. There is no double reflection, which indicates that there is no air gap between the layers of the screen. With manual brightness control and displaying the white field in full screen, the maximum value (10 on the scale) of brightness was about 330 cd/m², the minimum (1 on the scale) was 9.5 cd/m². Available non-switchable automatic adjustment brightness by the light sensor, which is presumably located under the screen. With some difficulty, it was possible to establish that in a very bright environment (corresponding to lighting on a clear day outdoors, but without direct sunlight - 20,000 lux or a little more) the brightness increases to 495 cd/m². That is, given the good anti-glare properties, on a sunny day outdoors, screen readability will remain at a good level. In the graphs of brightness (vertical axis) versus time (horizontal axis) for high, medium and minimum brightness, only slight modulation can be seen, so there is no visible screen flicker:

This screen uses a Super AMOLED matrix - an active matrix on organic light-emitting diodes. A full-color image is created using subpixels of three colors - red (R), green (G) and blue (B) in equal numbers, as confirmed by a fragment of a microphotograph:

For comparison, you can see the gallery of microphotographs of screens used in mobile technology.

We observed a similar “structure” of the screen, for example, in the case. The spectra are typical for OLED - the primary color areas are well separated and appear as relatively narrow peaks:

Accordingly, the coverage is noticeably wider than sRGB, and there are no attempts to reduce it:

Note that on wide screens color gamut Without proper color correction, regular images optimized for devices with sRGB screens appear unnaturally saturated. Colorful temperature white and gray fields is approximately 7600 K, and the deviation from the black body spectrum (ΔE) is 10 units. Color balance is acceptable. Black is just black from any angle. So black that the contrast parameter is simply not applicable in this case. When viewed perpendicularly, the uniformity of the white field is excellent. The screen has excellent viewing angles with a much smaller drop in brightness when looking at the screen at an angle compared to LCD screens. However, at large angles the white field takes on a certain blue-green tint. In general, the quality of the screen can be considered very high.

Smartphone connection and compatibility

All previous Gear devices only worked with a limited number of Samsung smartphones (mostly high-end models). This was perhaps the main drawback of Samsung watches and the Tizen OS used in them. And when it became known that the operating room Android system Since Wear will work not only with Android devices, but also with iPhones, the limited compatibility of Gear devices has become an obvious weak point.

Samsung apparently realized this too, which is why it announced that the Gear S2 will work with all Android smartphones running Android 4.4 and later. This is exactly what was said on . But is it really so?

First we tried to pair the watch with a fairly new Huawei smartphone P8 Lite. On the watch box and on start screen There is a link where you can download the application: . When we access this page through a browser, we see two buttons: Galaxy Devices and Other Devices. Click Other Devices, the application page opens in the Google Play Store and...

We read the inscription “Not supported on your device.” How so? Samsung representatives told us that in addition to Android 4.4, the smartphone must have at least 1.5 GB of RAM. This is already quite strange, since Android 4.4 works even on devices with 512 MB of RAM, which means that in fact not all smartphones running Android 4.4 are supported! But even this does not explain why the Huawei P8 Lite is not supported by the Gear Manager application, because it has 2 GB of RAM. Okay, attempt number two: Sony Xperia Z3 Compact. Here we were able to download everything, and it seemed like the connection process was even underway, but in the end we saw this amazing screen (see right screenshot).

That is, at the top it says that the Gear S2 is connected, and at the bottom it says that the Gear was not found. An obvious flaw! Repeated attempts to make friends between the two devices did not yield results. Let's not bore the reader detailed description, but let’s just say that the Gear S2 could not be connected either to the LG G4 Stylus (the watch began to configure the configuration, and the process froze at this point), or to the Elephone P8000, or even to the Samsung Galaxy Xcover 3.

According to Samsung representatives, everything should have been operational by October 16, that is, by the start of global sales of the Gear S2. But it didn’t work. Therefore, if you are planning to buy a watch, be sure to go to apps.samsung.com/gear before purchasing and try downloading Gear Manager to your smartphone. This still doesn't guarantee anything, as we were able to verify, but at least at the time of purchase you can immediately check whether the watch is connected to your smartphone. But in general, it’s surprising that Samsung was able to afford such a flaw!

As a result, we were able to connect the watch only to Samsung smartphone Galaxy Note5, and here everything went like clockwork. Although there are some oddities here too.

Smartphone applications

The Gear Manager application required for operation was already installed on our test unit. However, in the process of connecting to the watch, the smartphone also wanted to download a certain Gear Plugin, apparently developed specifically for the Samsung Gear S2. All further work took place in this application (it’s not clear why Gear Manager is needed then).

The application menu is quite simple and generally familiar to us from previous watches in the Gear line. Here you can view and select watch dials (the same can be done directly in the watch, but choosing on a large smartphone screen is, of course, more convenient). If you're not happy with your current selection (we'll talk more about pre-installed watch faces later), you can head over to the Gear Store to select paid watch faces.

The next item in the Gear Plugin menu is “Notifications”. Here we see a number of settings related to notifications: the choice of applications from which you can receive notifications, display features... In general, everything is standard. Next - “Application Management”. Here we see a list of applications installed on the watch, and we can change their order, including distribution across screens.

In the following paragraphs we see options for sending a media file to the watch (audio or image), as well as settings for some applications (as a rule, these are purely auxiliary settings).

Among the settings, an interesting feature is the ability to send an emergency message. You can specify contacts who, when you press the button on the Samsung Gear S2 watch three times, will receive an alarm message with your coordinates.

Watch interface and pre-installed applications

Now let's look at the interface and applications of the watch itself. Let's start with what the user will see most often: watch faces. In total, the watch has 14 dials, and all of them are designed specifically for the round screen (that is, these are not cropped square dials from other watch models on Tizen).

The dials, in our opinion, are beautiful. We will describe only a few of them, while the rest are also very good, there are practically no unsuccessful ones. So, first of all, let’s note the minimalist dials: on a dark neon background, as well as on a black background with a spectacular green circle (see screenshots above this paragraph). In addition, the animated dials are very good: on one there are neon sparkles floating, on the other there is a conventional image of a heart, the color shade of which depends on the last pulse measurement using the watch (the higher the pulse, the more saturated the color).

Of course, there are also all kinds of chronometers and digital menus. And among the unusual options, we were pleased with the dial with two circles, one of which displays the amount of time spent in a sitting position, and the other - your activity. Accordingly, the longer the activity lasted during the day, the larger the second circle will be. Visual and very motivating! At the same time, the minimalistic style of the watch is not violated.

To change the watch face without using a smartphone, just long press on the current watch face - and a ribbon of all available watch faces will open, where you can select the one you need. If we swipe the dial from right to left, we will see the main menu from which we can get to settings, open contacts, launch the S Voice voice assistant and open a list of all installed applications.

If you scroll further, you will see widgets for various applications: information about the number of steps per day, calendar, weather, music playback control (this screen looks like an elegant stylization of a vinyl record), results of the last heart rate measurement (by clicking on this widget you can start a new measurement) and summary of different types activity during the day. The last screen is to add widgets from other applications.

You can switch between widgets not only by swiping, but also by rotating the bezel. It's incredibly convenient! You can return to the watch face from any widget by pressing the Home button. And the “Back” button is very useful in the application menu - in order to move from one screen with icons to another.

Of course, in this menu the rotating bezel also turns out to be very useful: with its help we can quickly move from one icon to another by seeing the name of the application. And here we celebrate very important point: as you already understand from the appearance of the screenshots, the interface operating system Tizen, which powers all Gear watches, has been completely redesigned to specific model. That is, if round watches on Android Wear (LG G Watch R, LG G Watch Urbane, Moto 360) use, in fact, the same version of the OS as regular applications (see our articles), then the entire Samsung Gear S2 interface was specially drawn specifically for a round screen, taking into account the advantages and limitations of this format. And it should be noted that it turned out very well: the interface is convenient, intuitive, and beautiful.

What else can a watch do and, conversely, cannot do? They can show information about traffic jams and the speed of travel to a selected address using Google Now.

They can show your current location and search for nearby objects (for example, parks) using Here maps. They also allow you to find the nearest public transport stop, but, frankly, the latter takes a long time and is actually of little use for real use.

There are also quite wide possibilities for working with SMS. In particular, you can send a response using one of the templates (you can edit the templates using a smartphone application), or send an emoji. The most interesting thing is that if you wish, you can even type the answer to virtual keyboard, although it’s hard for me to imagine a person who would actually do this.

In general, sometimes we got the feeling that the functionality of the watch was even redundant - in addition to the examples given, this is, say, the ability to dial phone number on the clock. Are you seriously? Why, if you can’t call them anyway? Why not immediately dial on your smartphone if you still have to use it for conversation?

However, excess is not a deficiency. Moreover, the presence of these features does not overload the interface at all. In general, the set of pre-installed applications covers all the main tasks that are assigned to smart watches today. There are no revelations here, but there are also no things that are sorely lacking for those users who are familiar with other smartwatch models. Except for the ability to answer calls right on the clock.

If you still need something beyond the existing set of applications, you can turn to the range of the Samsung Gear Apps store. Alas, the choice here is small, mostly watch faces, and as for useful applications and games (the latter is very small), there are a lot of paid ones. Third Party Applications must be installed via smartphone.

Nevertheless, it’s worth a look at the store - even despite the modest assortment, you can find useful and pleasant things here. For example, a calculator from Samsung (yes, not all Samsung apps- preinstalled!) or a cute game made in the image and likeness of Flappy Bird (but a little easier, which is nice).

Let's hope the number of apps in the store optimized for the Samsung Gear S2 continues to grow. It is clear that there is almost no chance of catching up with Apple Watch and even Android Wear, but it is too early to talk about anything. Perhaps if the model is successful, developers will pay more attention to it.

conclusions

Well, after a more detailed acquaintance with the Samsung Gear S2, our first impression only intensified: this is indeed a very interesting, worthy device, which can rightfully be called one of the most successful smartwatches on the market. The main advantages include an interesting appearance, ease of use, largely due to an excellent discovery (rotating bezel), an interface fully optimized for a round screen, a large set of pre-installed applications and excellent watch faces.

It’s obvious that they tried; It's clear that they worked on a lot of details. It is even more strange that by the time the product was released, Samsung did not have time to provide the promised wide compatibility, which should have become another trump card of the device. We were never able to connect the watch to any third-party Android smartphone, and we have some doubts that Samsung will be able to solve this problem quickly and fully. That is, let’s say, there will be compatibility with the most famous flagship models, but with different “Chinese phones”?

Plus, it's not very clear how much the watch's functionality will differ when used with third-party devices. S Voice will not work, this is already known, but what else? When the Samsung Gear S2 Classic version goes on sale, we will try to return to this issue - let's hope that then the connection problems will be resolved. At the same time, we’ll figure out the battery life of the watch. So far we have not had the opportunity to get any long-term experience using the watch in real life to understand how long it will last under different usage scenarios (for example, with the screen always on or, conversely, in economy mode). Presumably, one charge will last from one to two days. But, we repeat, we will return to this later, since the model clearly deserves close attention.

One way or another, we congratulate Samsung on a truly bright and original concept (which is important!) product, which we boldly award with our Original Design award (previously the Samsung Gear S2 Classic version had already earned it), and not only for its appearance and controls, but also for the interface design.