About half a year after the launch of the Gear 2 watch, Samsung came up with the third generation of the watch, and because this generation is more than just new, it emphasized it in the name. The Samsung Gear S watch brought several innovations, the most important of which include a curved display and SIM card support, thanks to which it could be used independently without the need to carry the phone with you everywhere. In addition, the novelty started to be sold in Slovakia and the Czech Republic only these days, but the editorial sample arrived a few days earlier so that we could try it in detail as one of the first servers in our countries. But enough of the introductory talk, let's take a look at whether the SIM card defined the future or whether the watch is still dependent on the phone.
Design:
Samsung Gear S brought a fundamental breakthrough in design, and while the previous generation had a metal body, the new generation now consists exclusively of a glass front. The design is a bit cleaner now, and with the Home/Power Button below the display, many people will tell you that the Gear S looks like a phone on the wrist. And no wonder. The watch looks almost curved Galaxy S5, which was lightened by a few essential things. First of all, the third generation Gear does not offer a camera at all. So if you were in the habit of photographing things through the Gear 2 or Gear, then you will lose this option with the Gear S. The dominant feature of the product is mainly the curved display on its front and, together with it, the curved body of the watch. It is also curved and fits better on the hand, as it is no longer a typical flat surface that would press on one's hand. Well, even if the body of the Samsung Gear S is bent, it will still cause you problems for certain work, so when you have a detailed document on your laptop, you will quickly put the watch down.
But the beauty is only hidden from the front, and as you can see, the remaining "invisible" parts are already made of plastic. In my opinion, this degrades the premium quality of the product, especially when we compare it with, for example, the Motorola Moto 360 or the upcoming Apple Watch. A more premium material, such as stainless steel, would definitely please and your sweat would definitely not stay on the product - and it could be wiped off faster. At the bottom you will then find three important elements. First of all, it's a blood pressure sensor. The latter is now a bit happier - due to the well-curved surface, the sensor now sits directly on the hand, and the chance that the watch will measure your heart rate successfully is much higher here than with the Samsung Gear 2, which was straight. The second important feature is the traditional connector for the charger, which we will describe in a moment. And finally, there is the hole for the SIM card, which is made up of a whole body that you have to remove from the body of the product. If you don't have a tool to remove this body, removing the SIM card is quite difficult. But there is a reason for this, it is to maintain the waterproofness of the product.
SIM card - the biggest revolution in the world of smart watches?
Well, when I mentioned the SIM card, I am also getting to the most important novelty of the entire product. The Samsung Gear S watch is the first watch that has its own SIM slot and therefore has the potential to replace the phone. They. Even though the watch has reached the level where only one device would be enough for communication instead of two, it is still dependent on the phone in such a way that the first time you turn it on you have to pair it with a compatible phone, for example Galaxy Note 4. After the initial configuration, which takes place via the Gear Manager application, you only need to use the watch itself for functions such as making calls or sending SMS messages. In addition, you will receive notifications from e-mail or social networks, but this is already a function that depends on your phone and only works if you are connected to it. Dependence on a smartphone will also manifest itself if you want to install new applications on the watch. The application store is only accessible on the phone, and even the initial setup of new applications (for example, Opera Mini) will take some time.
var sklikData = { elm: "sklikReklama_47926", zoneId: 47926, w: 600, h: 190 };
Will watches replace smartphones? Calling and texting:
Calling using the watch works similarly to previous models. Again, the watch has a speaker (on the side) so you don't need any other accessories. Well, considering that the entire call is loud, other people can also hear your phone calls, so after a while it is clear to you that you will not be making phone calls on public transport. So you will mainly use the watch to make phone calls in private or, for example, in the car, when the watch will serve as hands-free. Well, except for picking up calls, then you have to do the same gesture on the small screen of the watch that you do on your Samsung. However, the SIM card in the watch fundamentally changes the way you communicate through the watch - the Samsung Gear S s Galaxy The Note 4 (or other phones) communicate primarily via Bluetooth, but as soon as you disconnect from the phone, call forwarding is automatically activated on the phone to the SIM card you have in the watch, so it will never happen again that if you left the phone at home for the weekend, that you would find 40 missed calls on it! This will also please athletes who want to run during the summer and it is clear that they will not take a "brick" with them, which would represent just another unnecessary burden.
Thanks to the larger display, it is now possible to write SMS messages on the watch, and when you open the Messages application and create a new message, you will be prompted to enter the phone number or contact to whom you are sending the message and the option to write the text of the message. When you tap on the lower part of the screen, it will bring up the tiny screen you can see above. But how is it used? Strangely enough, it is indeed possible to write SMS messages on the watch, but it is more difficult than if you were writing them via a mobile phone. You have to hit the letters, which are now adapted for a screen with a width of about 2 cm, and just writing the name of our portal took me about a minute - and it's only 15 characters. So you can imagine how long it will take to write a longer SMS message. So you will only use the function in an emergency, but otherwise it is one of the last things you would do on them regularly. Similar to browsing the internet. It's not a bad thing, but a 2,5-inch screen is definitely not what you want to browse the internet on. In order to be able to read the text, you then have to zoom in on the image several times. Simply - the bigger the display, the better, and the smartphone is better for this kind of activity.
Drums
On the other hand, the display and the fact that you probably won't surf the Internet on the watch has a positive effect on battery life. Battery life hasn't changed much despite the presence of a mobile antenna, so you'll be recharging the watch every two days – in some cases even every 2,5 days. For the fact that we are talking about small electronics with a display and an antenna, this is a surprising endurance, and the watch thus again has a better endurance than most competitors. Watch with Android Wear they have an advised durability of 24 hours and similar durability is also said Apple at their own Apple Watch, which are not to be sold until next year. As soon as you remove the SIM card from the watch and turn the watch into a more classic "dependent" model, the endurance will partially increase and the watch will then last you 3 days. Of course, everything also depends on how intensively you use the watch, and when you are a runner and have the Nike+ Running app on your watch, it will affect when you put the watch on the charger.
Speaking of the battery, let's look at another important component and that is charging. You get a rather rough adapter with the watch, which you plug into the watch and connect the power cable to it. I found connecting the adapter (probably due to the curved body) a bit more difficult than with the Gear 2. But after you connect it to the watch, two things happen. First of all, the watch will start charging. Of course. And as a bonus, the battery hidden in this crude adapter will also start charging, so Samsung actually gave you a second battery! If you ever start to feel that you are running out of battery life in your watch and you absolutely need it (let's say you went to a cottage for the weekend, left your phone at home, took only your watch with you and it runs out of battery), you only need to connect the adapter and it will start charging the battery in your watch all by itself. In my test, they charged 58% of the battery, which took about 20-30 minutes.
Sensors and dials
And when you are out in nature during the summer or go on vacation to the sea, the watch will help you protect yourself from UV radiation. On the front, right next to the Home Button, there is a UV sensor, which, like the u Galaxy Note 4, you need to point to the sun and the watch will calculate the current state of UV radiation. This will help you determine what cream you should apply and whether you should actually go outside if you don't want to burn yourself. However, you probably won't be able to try this function in mid-November/November. The front also includes a light sensor for automatic lighting, and inside the watch there's also an accelerometer to ensure that when you turn the watch towards you, the screen will automatically light up so you can see the time, day, battery status, your step count or notifications.
What you see on the display depends on the watch face you choose and how you customize it. There are about a dozen dials to choose from, including the two that are promoted the most, and there are also digital dials that simply show the current time on a clear background. But in that case, the watch starts to lose its charm. With the dials, you can set what data they should display in addition to the time, and some dials adapt to the current time - in the middle of the day, they are strong blue, and as the sun sets, the background starts to turn orange. And if the watch faces pre-installed on your watch aren't enough for you, then you can download other watch faces or watch face creation apps from Gear Apps that you can use on your phone. You synchronize them via Gear Manager.
Summary
In my opinion, the Samsung Gear S watch is the trigger of a revolution that should prepare us for the future - the day when we will use watches or similar devices instead of mobile phones to communicate with the world. They brought a novelty in the form of SIM card support (nano-SIM), thanks to which you can now use the watch without having to carry your smartphone with you everywhere. You can safely leave it at home and thanks to the ability of automatic forwarding, if you disconnect the watch from the phone, you will not miss any calls, as they will be forwarded to the device that you currently have on your hand - which is an advantage especially for runners who need to have carrying as few electronics as possible with the lowest possible weight. It's not just an advantage for runners, but for outdoor activities in general, where you don't want to worry about accidentally forgetting/losing your cell phone. You can safely leave it at home, while the most important functions of the phone will always remain with you.
But it also has its drawbacks, and the watch's display is still too small for you to comfortably write messages on it or surf the Internet if you download a browser to it. Both options seem to me more like an emergency solution, which is there just in case you really need to send an SMS message at a moment when you don't have your phone at hand and you know you won't have it with you for some time. However, the watch is still an addition to the phone, it does not replace it, and you will feel this the first time you turn it on, when the watch will require you to pair it with a compatible smartphone and you will have to be connected to the phone even when you want to install new applications. So, if you are looking for a watch that is more independent, definitely choose the Samsung Gear S. But if you don't care and you don't need to make calls through the watch even when you leave your mobile at home, you can do with the older generation, which offers a camera in addition to a smaller display.
var sklikData = { elm: "sklikReklama_47925", zoneId: 47925, w: 600, h: 190 };
Photo author: Milan Pulc
