Okay, I've had the 3G version of the Samsung Gear S2 for 5 days, now, and feel thoroughly comfortable with the device and qualified to provide a review, for those considering this smartwatch.
Overview
First, the device is quite handsome. It's very low key, all black, including the band. It looks like any other sport watch, and despite all of the electronics crammed inside is no larger than a regular sport watch.
The band is easily replaceable, and in fact the watch comes with two bands -- one big, one small. This is a nice touch, since not everyone's wrist is the same size.
The display is stunning, sharing the same super Amoled screen of the Samsung Galaxy S5 and S6 -- the two best cell phone screens on the market. It is brilliantly bright, clear, and the touch screen is responsive and crisp.
Where the S2 truly breaks new ground is with the rotating bezel, which looks just like any traditional sport watch. The difference is that the bezel controls the smartwatch's menu system, giving you fast, intuitive control that keeps your hand from blocking the screen when you use it. This sounds like a minor thing, but it is not -- flipping through dozens of apps by rotating the bezel is a hundred times better than using a touch screen!
The touch screen has its place, however, and when you want to open a specific app, you rotate to it, then touch it to open -- easy peasy.
Another great feature is wireless charging. Simply snap it on the cradle (it's magnetic), and within 2 hours you can go from 0 - 100% charged.
Cell phone
This is what truly separates the S2 from every other smartwatch -- it is a completely independent, stand-alone cell phone. As such, it has its own cell phone number and data plan, which means you don't need a cell phone at all for daily operation.
The phone works perfectly. Period, nothing more to add. You talk to the phone, using your custom "wake up" command (mine is "Wake up, watch!"), tell it "Call Mary" (for example), and it just works.
Or, you can do it by hand, but why would you?
Sound quality using the built in speaker is surprisingly good, and plenty loud. Call quality at the other end is reported as excellent. (It also Bluetooths to my car's hands free system, of course, which then plays everything through the car stereo.)
This is why I bought this watch, and I have not been disappointed. To have the phone on my wrist all the time is just too damned handy. I've got my cellphone forwarded to the watch, so all of my calls go to it, and when I make a call from the watch people still see my cellphone number (not the smartwatch's number).
Apps
One of the hits against the new S2 is that the app store is less populated than Android Wear or the Apple Watch, and this is true. The S2 runs on the Tizen OS (a derivative of Unix), and this relatively new OS is slowly being embraced by app writers.
That said, I've not found anything lacking, and the app store grows daily. I've got everything from Mapping apps that provide turn by turn instructions, to a music player (that plays either on-board or streaming music), to an Uber app that allows my to order a ride on my watch. I can even watch YouTube videos on my freaking wrist!
I'm not feeling limited.
The Watch
Oh, yeah -- it's a watch, too!
There are hundreds of watch faces, all cool and slick on that brilliant little acreen. Many are customizable, so you add heart rate, date, or weather to the screen. Still others are made by (for example) CNN, offering a handsome watch and a continuous feed of breaking news stories.
And yes, you can make it look just like a silly "pilots watch", with all those unreadable and useless sub-dials.
Bloomberg even has one that has THREE separate tickers, tracking whatever stock exchange catches your fancy, all in real time. Truly remarkable.
Battery Time
The weak link in any device is the battery, and the S2 is no different. On Day 1, screwing around for it constantly, I got about 10 hours before having to recharge.
Day 2 was about 12 hours. Day 3 was 14, and I thought things were moving right along.
Day 4 I used it to play music in my car, airplane, and hangar. I watched videos, made phone calls, and completely overdid it. End result was a dead battery after less than 10 hours, which sucked
Today I was asked to switch to "power saver mode" right at 12 hours of fairly benign usage. This mode disables some resource-intensive features, but I'm still receiving Facebook, Gmail, and Tapatalk notifications. Supposedly in normal use, after the "gee whiz" factor wears off, the battery will last up to 2 days. We shall see. In the meantime, I've ordered a second charging cradle for the hangar, just in case.
Edit: Woo hoo! Changing a single setting (switching the 4G radio from "always on" to "autoswitch") did the trick. I still had 15% battery left on the Gear S2 at the end of a 16 hour day yesterday, 30% left on the second day.
That resolves my only gripe.
Conclusion
Can this device replace your cell phone? Permanently, no. The watch requires a Bluetooth connection to a cellphone in order to download apps to the watch. (As an experiment I tried using my Samsung tablet for this instead, but the Samsung Gear app would not install to it.) This makes sense, since it's pretty much impossible to browse and select apps on the watch's little screen.
Temporarily (as in flying, working, driving, or working out), the answer is a resounding YES. I rarely carry my cellphone now, keeping it in the cup holder in my car, or the map pocket of my plane. When I'm working around the hotel, I never carry my phone, and the incredible convenience of having your "phone" at all times on your wrist, not interfering with or taking up pockets, is very nice.
So, there you have it. The 3G version of the Gear S2 is a remarkable piece of kit, and I am glad to own one.
Cost through Verizon, with a 2 year plan, is $299. To buy it outright is just $50 more, at $349, which is what I opted to do. The add-on for the watch to my existing cell plan was just $10/month for cell and data, which h I thought was a remarkably good deal. They are clearly trying to promote wearable technology with cheap plans!
Any questions?
Overview
First, the device is quite handsome. It's very low key, all black, including the band. It looks like any other sport watch, and despite all of the electronics crammed inside is no larger than a regular sport watch.
The band is easily replaceable, and in fact the watch comes with two bands -- one big, one small. This is a nice touch, since not everyone's wrist is the same size.
The display is stunning, sharing the same super Amoled screen of the Samsung Galaxy S5 and S6 -- the two best cell phone screens on the market. It is brilliantly bright, clear, and the touch screen is responsive and crisp.
Where the S2 truly breaks new ground is with the rotating bezel, which looks just like any traditional sport watch. The difference is that the bezel controls the smartwatch's menu system, giving you fast, intuitive control that keeps your hand from blocking the screen when you use it. This sounds like a minor thing, but it is not -- flipping through dozens of apps by rotating the bezel is a hundred times better than using a touch screen!
The touch screen has its place, however, and when you want to open a specific app, you rotate to it, then touch it to open -- easy peasy.
Another great feature is wireless charging. Simply snap it on the cradle (it's magnetic), and within 2 hours you can go from 0 - 100% charged.
Cell phone
This is what truly separates the S2 from every other smartwatch -- it is a completely independent, stand-alone cell phone. As such, it has its own cell phone number and data plan, which means you don't need a cell phone at all for daily operation.
The phone works perfectly. Period, nothing more to add. You talk to the phone, using your custom "wake up" command (mine is "Wake up, watch!"), tell it "Call Mary" (for example), and it just works.
Or, you can do it by hand, but why would you?
Sound quality using the built in speaker is surprisingly good, and plenty loud. Call quality at the other end is reported as excellent. (It also Bluetooths to my car's hands free system, of course, which then plays everything through the car stereo.)
This is why I bought this watch, and I have not been disappointed. To have the phone on my wrist all the time is just too damned handy. I've got my cellphone forwarded to the watch, so all of my calls go to it, and when I make a call from the watch people still see my cellphone number (not the smartwatch's number).
Apps
One of the hits against the new S2 is that the app store is less populated than Android Wear or the Apple Watch, and this is true. The S2 runs on the Tizen OS (a derivative of Unix), and this relatively new OS is slowly being embraced by app writers.
That said, I've not found anything lacking, and the app store grows daily. I've got everything from Mapping apps that provide turn by turn instructions, to a music player (that plays either on-board or streaming music), to an Uber app that allows my to order a ride on my watch. I can even watch YouTube videos on my freaking wrist!
I'm not feeling limited.
The Watch
Oh, yeah -- it's a watch, too!
There are hundreds of watch faces, all cool and slick on that brilliant little acreen. Many are customizable, so you add heart rate, date, or weather to the screen. Still others are made by (for example) CNN, offering a handsome watch and a continuous feed of breaking news stories.
And yes, you can make it look just like a silly "pilots watch", with all those unreadable and useless sub-dials.
Bloomberg even has one that has THREE separate tickers, tracking whatever stock exchange catches your fancy, all in real time. Truly remarkable.
Battery Time
The weak link in any device is the battery, and the S2 is no different. On Day 1, screwing around for it constantly, I got about 10 hours before having to recharge.
Day 2 was about 12 hours. Day 3 was 14, and I thought things were moving right along.
Day 4 I used it to play music in my car, airplane, and hangar. I watched videos, made phone calls, and completely overdid it. End result was a dead battery after less than 10 hours, which sucked
Today I was asked to switch to "power saver mode" right at 12 hours of fairly benign usage. This mode disables some resource-intensive features, but I'm still receiving Facebook, Gmail, and Tapatalk notifications. Supposedly in normal use, after the "gee whiz" factor wears off, the battery will last up to 2 days. We shall see. In the meantime, I've ordered a second charging cradle for the hangar, just in case.
Edit: Woo hoo! Changing a single setting (switching the 4G radio from "always on" to "autoswitch") did the trick. I still had 15% battery left on the Gear S2 at the end of a 16 hour day yesterday, 30% left on the second day.
That resolves my only gripe.
Conclusion
Can this device replace your cell phone? Permanently, no. The watch requires a Bluetooth connection to a cellphone in order to download apps to the watch. (As an experiment I tried using my Samsung tablet for this instead, but the Samsung Gear app would not install to it.) This makes sense, since it's pretty much impossible to browse and select apps on the watch's little screen.
Temporarily (as in flying, working, driving, or working out), the answer is a resounding YES. I rarely carry my cellphone now, keeping it in the cup holder in my car, or the map pocket of my plane. When I'm working around the hotel, I never carry my phone, and the incredible convenience of having your "phone" at all times on your wrist, not interfering with or taking up pockets, is very nice.
So, there you have it. The 3G version of the Gear S2 is a remarkable piece of kit, and I am glad to own one.
Cost through Verizon, with a 2 year plan, is $299. To buy it outright is just $50 more, at $349, which is what I opted to do. The add-on for the watch to my existing cell plan was just $10/month for cell and data, which h I thought was a remarkably good deal. They are clearly trying to promote wearable technology with cheap plans!
Any questions?
Last edited:
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