You're asking a bigger question - "what do people who have been using a wearable for a while think of them?" The primary uses of a wearable are:
- Notifications/productivity
- Health/fitness
- Trading snippets of information on a tiny screen for not having to take out your 4.7-5.7" device your wearable is tethered to
I've had a Gear since V1 was launched in September, 2013. I'm a big productivity user and find getting notifications on my wrist and being able to accept/reject calls without having to pull out my phone are extremely helpful in managing my priorities. So I'm a wearable convert but certainly don't represent the universe of users. To see the disparity in opinions of whether wearables are worth the investment one just needs to look at the discussion around Apple Watch. It suffers the same slings and arrows all wearables do. It's slow, apps (of value) are limited, battery life is challenging, and looking at 1+" of information on your wrist is questionable when your larger and easier to see/use smartphone is just feet away.
As for the Gear S, it's a productivity user's best friend:
- It's a full-fledged phone shrunk to wrist size rather than a traditional wearable. I leave my Note 4 connected to my work PC with SideSync open knowing as soon as my Gear's out of BT range it'll connect via HSPA (or Wi-Fi), call forwarding sends all my incoming calls to it, and with a Gear Circle I can do anything with my Gear communication wise I can do with my phone including receive and initiating calls use my phone's address book or the logs transferred to the Gear via the phone.
- The biggest difference between the Gear S and other wearables are the discreet full-fledged apps Samsung provides. The e-mail and messaging clients on the Gear are real apps and you can compose and receive e-mails just as you can with your phone. Here for Gear is a stand-alone navigation tool for identifying where you, providing what's nearby, and getting walking and transit instructions. You can stream music using Milk, download music files to the Gear and use its stand-alone music player, find what's nearby in Yelp, and use Opera Mini to get web info on your wrist. There's more but the point is all of the above doesn't require the presence of your smartphone and no other device on the planet can currently do those things.
I think a lot of people are enamored with what the Gear S "can do" but end up disappointed because while certain features are sexy their lives just don't lend themselves well to really using them. I was in a large casino recently and was going out for the night. I didn't want to bring my phone (a bulky Note 4). So I left it in my 14th floor room and by the time the elevator hit the lobby my Gear S was remotely connected and call forwarding was on. When I go out to do errands in sweats I'll leave my phone home and use my Gear to connect to my car's handsfree system to receive/place calls and stream Milk. When I'm at work over half my time is without my phone because I'm comfortable leaving it at my desk charging with the Gear taking its place.
So what kind of user are you? That more than anything will determine whether a wearable or Gear S is for you.