New Samsung Gear 2 Neo Watch

[TedHackler]

Just picked up my Neo smartwatch from Sprint about 5 days ago. Bought the watch version without a built in camera since my phone camera does everything I need in that department. When I bought the watch I just wanted to see what it was like and thought it would be more of a fun accessory then something I'd get hooked on. Well, for me its freed me from having to hardly ever pull my phone off my belt holster. It synced up with my note 2 without any real problems at all. Once synced I could select which notifications I wanted to be sent to my phone. I use the outlook app and it worked perfectly sending me email notifications. It allows you to see about a line of the email but if you want to see more you have to go to your phone and view it there. Same with all the other notifications. I was amazed at how good the speakers sounded when I made phone call or played music. I wasn't expecting them to be as loud as they were. I actually answer most my calls with my watch and then if I want to talk for a while I'll switch over to the phone. The phone came with 4gig of internal memory. I was able to load all my music into the phone. When I'm at the beach or running I use a pair of Bluetooth headphones and leave my phone in the car. I think it makes things much safer when your driving because all you do is turn your wrist a little to see any notification you are getting. You can still actually keep most your attention on the road. If you get a phone call just tap your watch and start talking. For some it might not have the impact it did on me. I find it a big addition to my cellphone and something I use all day long. It still doesn't have a lot of apps created for it but it does quite a bit for being something that just was released. I control my music at home with it via the Bluetooth connection. I've had fun playing with the built in TV tuner which sets up pretty easy. Does it do everything a phone can do, no way. Is it a great addition to your Note 2, YES! I have so much fun when people that don't know I have a smart watch see me answer the phone with it and start talking out loud. A little geeky but they all love it and have to have a full demonstration of how it works. If you have any questions about it just let me know. I'm still testing out the other functions of the watch as I need them.

 

[Joe Pine]

ive been looking at the neo myself, how does the pedometer and heart rate monitor work on a device like the note 2 which doesn't have s-health?

 

[levi_otto]

so, the phone does have speakers you can play your music from? Or do you need bluetooth headphones? and can you respond to text messages on the watch? and one more question, can you download apps such as a stopwatch on there?

 

[TedHackler]

The watch has a sensor on the back of it that can measure your heart rate but it only does it when you run the app for that and its a one time check. You would have to rerun the app every time you wanted your heart rate checked. Its about a 50/50 thing as sometimes the app will come back without any results because the sensors weren't touching your wrist properly. Not one of the better uses of the watch in my opinion. I have not really used the pedometer so I cannot really comment on that function of the watch.

The watch does have internal speakers and it surprised me at how much sound they could produce for being in such a small space. You can play music right on the watch if you want to but of course it sounds a lot better if you connect up to a Bluetooth speakers. You can respond to text messages using canned responses that are built into the watch or you can use s-voice and dictate your mail or text message that way. There are programs you can download into the watch but not very many of them yet. I'm hoping that part starts to grow a little more as the watch becomes more popular.