Gear Live v. Gear 2

[ddoouugg]

I just got the Gear 2 before the Gear Live was announced and am trying to decide whether to make a switch. But to do so, I really want to understand all of the differences, so here's a list I'm starting -- please comment and add any other differences of which you are aware:

Gear 2: Clock face turns on when you raise your arm
Gear Live: Clock face is always on

Gear 2: Camera
Gear Live: No Camera

Gear 2: Button on front
Gear Live: Button on side

Gear 2: Speaker
Gear Live: No speaker

Gear 2: Can make or receive phone calls
Gear Live: Phone call ability is limited due to lack of speaker (I think)

Gear 2: Tizen OS
Gear Live: Android Wear OS

Gear 2: Limited to Samsung Android phones
Gear Live: Works with any (current) Android phone

 

[Devhux]

You can set the Gear Live to disable the Always On display.

The charger I hear is better on the Gear 2. It also has better battery life. Of course, it doesn't have the integration with Google Now like the Android Wear watches do, but overall the Gear 2 is more feature-packed (hence the higher price).

Unless you really want the Google Now functionality, I'd stick with the Gear 2

 

[ddoouugg]

Thanks. My main concerns with the Gear 2 are: (1) it might not be compatible with my next smartphone (if I don't buy another Samsung) and (2) is the app "eco-system" for Gear 2 going to be more limited than Gear Live (since presumably the Gear Live will be more popular since it runs Android Wear). Thoughts?

 

[JimSmith94]

I've seen lists of 90+ apps for the Android Wear watches already. I don't think there are that many apps for the Gear 2/Neo that have been out a lot longer. It could be that Tizen support is on the way out.

 

[Devhux]

I think it's more a case that Google makes it easy to incorporate Android Wear into 3rd party apps. From what I seem to remember from I/O, it's not that difficult to enable an app to allow a bit more than simple notification access.

 

[ddoouugg]

I've seen lists of 90+ apps for the Android Wear watches already. I don't think there are that many apps for the Gear 2/Neo that have been out a lot longer. It could be that Tizen support is on the way out.

Yes, that's a large part of my concern. Since there are multiple Android Wear watches that work with more phones, the future of Gear 2 (Tizen) may be much more limited.

 

[jschu22]

Right now it's really voice activation vs watch functionality to me. As stated, the Gear 2 actually has more you can do with the watch and on the watch but the Live has hands free options and I that will only get better as time goes on. As much as you're concerned with future updates and compatibility, keep in mind that even the Live is likely going to be quite dated in a year. I would expect options that can at the very least go longer than a day to be available by then.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[robber]

The Live screen really isnt always on. It goes into a very simple state that just shows minimal info, so the arm raise gesture which triggers the full screen to activate is just as important on Live as it is Gear 2.

I was a little taken back my first 24 hours with Live. It was actually far less capable than my Neo, but my concern was Samsung being able to support a viable platform long term so I stuck with Live. After seeing the app development since launch, it is a complete no brainer in my opinion. Android wear will trounce tizen sooner than later. Additionally, the launcher apps for Live where huge, they really transformed the device and made it much more complete. Early complaints would have been far less if the launchers were available on day 1.

Battery life on Live sucks compared to Gear 2. There is no comparison. You will charge Live every night, you wont be critically low when you put in on the charger but you need to charge it. Don't even think about going away for the weekend without the charger- something you could do with Gear 2. Also, gear live cannot open text messages, and view them. Same with email. If you happen to get a text or email notification, you can respond to it but once you dismiss the "card" that is it. There is no way to get it back it on the watch. All you can do is compose and send a new message. If you are sitting with the watch, you cannot go into a messages app and read them like you can with Gear 2. (at least not yet)

Lives voice support is really good. S voice really sucks. If Samsung incorporated google now it could make tizen very compelling. Live shows flashes of brilliance with certain notifications, active GPS navigation, IFTTT, voice dictation, and I think has a much brighter road regarding development. Gear is more of a flat ride, it does a lot and is capable but you never feel like you are wearing something brilliant. With Live, there are cases where it is brilliant and I am confident it will get a lot better.

Gear manager is also more thorough than Wear manager, but there isnt enough extra to make it compelling.

 

[noellenchris]

The Live screen really isnt always on. It goes into a very simple state that just shows minimal info, so the arm raise gesture which triggers the full screen to activate is just as important on Live as it is Gear 2.

I was a little taken back my first 24 hours with Live. It was actually far less capable than my Neo, but my concern was Samsung being able to support a viable platform long term so I stuck with Live. After seeing the app development since launch, it is a complete no brainer in my opinion. Android wear will trounce tizen sooner than later. Additionally, the launcher apps for Live where huge, they really transformed the device and made it much more complete. Early complaints would have been far less if the launchers were available on day 1.

Battery life on Live sucks compared to Gear 2. There is no comparison. You will charge Live every night, you wont be critically low when you put in on the charger but you need to charge it. Don't even think about going away for the weekend without the charger- something you could do with Gear 2. Also, gear live cannot open text messages, and view them. Same with email. If you happen to get a text or email notification, you can respond to it but once you dismiss the "card" that is it. There is no way to get it back it on the watch. All you can do is compose and send a new message. If you are sitting with the watch, you cannot go into a messages app and read them like you can with Gear 2. (at least not yet)

Lives voice support is really good. S voice really sucks. If Samsung incorporated google now it could make tizen very compelling. Live shows flashes of brilliance with certain notifications, active GPS navigation, IFTTT, voice dictation, and I think has a much brighter road regarding development. Gear is more of a flat ride, it does a lot and is capable but you never feel like you are wearing something brilliant. With Live, there are cases where it is brilliant and I am confident it will get a lot better.

Gear manager is also more thorough than Wear manager, but there isnt enough extra to make it compelling.

Very well put. I'm still using the Gear 1 with custom rom and kernel. I'm hoping for a rom dump and some dev work to combine the android 4.4 features with the cm11. Basically, I think the wear took some very good steps forward, but they took a few steps back. I think I'll wait for the next get as I really like being able to answer or place a call from my watch. Extremely usefull if your phone is not handy and you don't want the BT in your ear 24/7. Like you said Samsung keeps trying to make SVoice work, but I feel most people would rather have Google as it's much better. Personally I have Google search working offline on mine and use a simple app Sprocket that enables SMS/MMS on the Gear, I just hit the mic button and reply via voice to SMS. I can swipe to answer/call while driving in any car right on my wrist on the steering wheel. Well time will tell. Oh, and I agree about Tizen and Samsung... I can't really believe that Tizen app development will go anywhere for the 2 watches from Samsung.

Chris

 

[gglez]

gear 2- music player
gear live- no music player

gear 2- texting
gear live- no texting

 

[YAYTech]

I've seen lists of 90+ apps for the Android Wear watches already. I don't think there are that many apps for the Gear 2/Neo that have been out a lot longer. It could be that Tizen support is on the way out.

Tizen is still very new, and AFAIK Samsung is really the only company doing much with it. So it's not really a matter of Tizen support being "on the way out" so much as a question of whether Tizen will gain any support to begin with. Overall it looks like Samsung is playing with Tizen to see if they can get it to gain enough market share to cut ties with Google/Android. For now, they're playing both camps to play it safe. So, Tizen is either going to be Samsung's OS eventually, or Tizen will flop and fade. Overall, Android isn't going anywhere, so Wear is probably the safer bet, and doens't lock you into one brand. It's also more likely to gain functionality within already released devices IMO. So the Live may gain some ability to do some things, while it's less likely (IMO) that the Gear 2 or Neo will gain new abilities.