Samsung Gear S2 First Impressions

[Blues Fan]

I've had my watch on since 930 this morning and currently at 37 percent. I worked tonight so my hand was moving a lot and I was messing around with the watch a lot today. I also had the fitness tracker on tracking my activity tonight at work.

 

[winpeguy]

I've had my watch on since 930 this morning and currently at 37 percent. I worked tonight so my hand was moving a lot and I was messing around with the watch a lot today. I also had the fitness tracker on tracking my activity tonight at work.

Make sure you post your current time as we are not all in your time zone. If you are EST then that's pretty good, if PST that's alot less

Sent from my SM-N920T using Tapatalk

 

[Blues Fan]

Make sure you post your current time as we are not all in your time zone. If you are EST then that's pretty good, if PST that's alot less

Sent from my SM-N920T using Tapatalk

I'm Eastern time zone.

 

[winpeguy]

Sleeping With S2
Woke up at 7:00 this morning, so 25 hours of being on my wrist, and the battery was at 13%. Also noted that my heart rate hit a low of 54 bpm while I was sleeping.

 

[MasterElwood]

WHAT? No speaker? This was a sure buy - but not without speaker. I think i will buy a used Gear S for half the price instead.

 

[ehosey2]

^The 3G enabled version to be released in early November will have the speaker enabling one to have a phone conversation using just the watch.

 

[madgalaxy]

Can anyone comment on the vibration strength?

 

[nickdeck]

Can anyone comment on the vibration strength?

I'd say the vibration strength is just OK. Would like to have it a bit stronger, but as is it's not a deal breaker for me.

 

[Damion Walker]

I was curious about Samsung Pay on the Gear S 2. I am a Verizon customer and the rumor last week was that the app was coming to Google play. Considering this watch is compatible with non Samsung phones, could this report be true solely for non Samsung phone users to access Samsung Pay? Also, I'm hoping this watch has MST technology in it as well, I haven't seen anything saying it won't have it. Any further Samsung Pay on the Gear S 2 info?

 

[schwartzki]

No MST onboard the watch. Doubt Samsung Pay will available on non Samsung devices.

 

[winpeguy]

From the Watch the Samsung Pay App has to be installed on the phone (an updated version will support this). Unfortunately since you can only get the S2 App from the Samsung Pay Phone App, Samsung Pay on the S2 will not work if you do not have Samsung Pay on your phone working. So the qualification would be Samsung Pay Phone App. If Samsung ports it to work on other phones, then quite possibly yes, but I do not believe they plan on adding Samsung Pay for non Samsung Phones. So I do not believe you will be able to use Samsung Pay on the S2 without a Samsung Phone and supported Carrier.

 

[winpeguy]

Further supporting Samsung not adding Samsung Pay to non-Samsung phones, they aren't even adding it to Samsung phones 1 generation back (S5, Note 4, etc). So considering that, I believe that tells us that Samsung Pay will not work for non-Samsung phones.

 

[Damion Walker]

I'm trying to figure out why they are going to put Samsung pay in the Google play store if it was for Verizon only, they could just send an update. Maybe those other phones done have up to date hardware to support Samsung pay. Being able to pay with the watch is a big deal.

 

[Blues Fan]

I've had mine on since 830am central time and I'm at 86 percent and using the wake up gesture. However I'm at work so my arm is moving a lot.

 

[winpeguy]

I'm trying to figure out why they are going to put Samsung pay in the Google play store if it was for Verizon only, they could just send an update. Maybe those other phones done have up to date hardware to support Samsung pay. Being able to pay with the watch is a big deal.

And you know for a fact they will put Samsung Pay ing the Google Play Store? Seems to me like you are believing rumours a bit too much.

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[ks-man]

It appears to me that the weather information doesn't update unless you actually open up the weather app. Can anybody confirm this? That doesn't make much sense that on many of the watch faces it will show weather with very stale information. I can't find a setting for this. Yesterday I noticed that my watch face said it was 52 out but when I went and opened the weather app it jumped to 58 and then my face said that. My guess is that it wasn't 52 out for at least the past 6 hours.

 

[luisrcastillo]

It appears to me that the weather information doesn't update unless you actually open up the weather app. Can anybody confirm this? That doesn't make much sense that on many of the watch faces it will show weather with very stale information. I can't find a setting for this. Yesterday I noticed that my watch face said it was 52 out but when I went and opened the weather app it jumped to 58 and then my face said that. My guess is that it wasn't 52 out for at least the past 6 hours.

On the gear manager app on your phone, go to app settings, select weather and then you'll be able to pick a refresh interval



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[ks-man]

Thanks. I just checked that and it is set to Every Hour. I'm starting to wonder if there is something wrong with my Gear S2. It certainly doesn't seem like it is updating every hour. I also just walked from my work desk to the kitchen and back. I was at 503 steps before I left. I left my phone at my desk. When I got to the kitchen it still said 503. I also watched it for the second half of the walk. I then counted the steps as I walked back to my desk. It was around 35. When I got to my desk the Gear S2 updated to 541. So it never tracked the steps to the kitchen and hasn't updated for it. The past two days I've been very surprised at how low my step counts have been. I typically measure them by my phone which has been much higher than on the watch. The strange thing is that I've always had my watch on and often wouldn't have my phone in my pocket.

I'm becoming less and less impressed with my Gear S2. I don't use the bevel that often and typically just scroll with the touchscreen. At this point I'm wondering if my Gear S2 is not working correctly and that I should try getting a new one (I'm still in the BB 15 day return policy, obviously) or if I should instead try a Moto 360.

 

[FitzAusTex]

I guess I can understand why it wouldn't work, but are we supposed to be able to receive sms (via Messenger) if we are on wifi, but out of BT range (Standalone mode, as Samsung seems to call it)? I don't get sms until back in BT range.

 

[FitzAusTex]

Thanks. I just checked that and it is set to Every Hour. I'm starting to wonder if there is something wrong with my Gear S2. It certainly doesn't seem like it is updating every hour. I also just walked from my work desk to the kitchen and back. I was at 503 steps before I left. I left my phone at my desk. When I got to the kitchen it still said 503. I also watched it for the second half of the walk. I then counted the steps as I walked back to my desk. It was around 35. When I got to my desk the Gear S2 updated to 541. So it never tracked the steps to the kitchen and hasn't updated for it. The past two days I've been very surprised at how low my step counts have been. I typically measure them by my phone which has been much higher than on the watch. The strange thing is that I've always had my watch on and often wouldn't have my phone in my pocket.

I'm becoming less and less impressed with my Gear S2. I don't use the bevel that often and typically just scroll with the touchscreen. At this point I'm wondering if my Gear S2 is not working correctly and that I should try getting a new one (I'm still in the BB 15 day return policy, obviously) or if I should instead try a Moto 360.

My weather definitely seems to be updated, even if I haven't been into the weather app for 12 hours (have set to update every hour).

I am noticing pedometer not updating (often) for short walks to and from in my house. Overall, I think my daily step is about 60% past weekend on my S2 compared to the weekend prior using my Gear Live, with very similar activity levels both weekends.

Overall, I think Samsung has done really good work with the S2, but it appears sw tweaks are going to be necessary.