Next week Samsung is scheduled to take the stage in Berlin for IFA and announce their brand new smartwatch, called the Samsung Galaxy Gear. September 4th we’ll be able to put all the rumors to rest, but this afternoon the first real pictures of the device have finally hit the web courtesy of VentureBeat. It sure isn’t what we expected, and is a bit clunky, but check it out with more details below.
Previous reports and rumors have hyped this device up quite a bit, so hopefully we aren’t disappointed once Samsung confirms everything come next Wednesday. All the rumors of a curved AMOLED display appear to be false, and instead we have a 2.6-inch squared, flat display, but the large bezels make it rectangle in shape and nearly 3 inches. Yes, that’s a big and clunky device for a wrist, if you ask us.
The color display looked good in the slides, and in person, according to the report, and most the previous leaked specs were accurate. Those being a 4 megapixel camera on the front side, tiny speakers built into the clasp of the strap, and a little button for power/wake on the right side.
The leak confirms Samsung S-Voice for easy voice commands, companion apps and sync with Galaxy S and Note devices, Samsung’s S-Health app for all those Nike FuelBand type features, and much more. Venture beat wasn’t able to snap pictures of the device, but a full video of slides was shown, and they snagged a few pictures that appear to show plenty of swipe gestures for navigating the 2.6 or 3-inch display.
Not only does it have Bluetooth and NFC, but there’s also WiFi connectivity. There’s plenty of built-in Android apps specifically for the Galaxy Gear watch. And earlier this week images leaked of their companion “Gear” Android app, which will probably hit the Play Store soon as well.
The rounded edges gives it a very similar smartphone look, only smaller of course, but it certainly is extremely large and clunky. Those expecting some next-gen wearable device won’t be too pleased, if we had to guess, but we’ll have to get our hands on it for a final judgement. We’ll have plenty of hands-on pictures and video come Wednesday from the event.
Thoughts?
OMG Ewwww count me out
Ahhh.. Mixed on my feelings. i’d probably rock it, but I thought it would have less top an bottom bezels. Someone with smaller writs it’ll stick out too much
I just feel having a phone on me all the time is bad enough, do I really need this? Probably not. Plus all those radios attached to your body 24/7 just seems like I’d end up with a huge tumor on my wrist in 5 yrs
“Plus all those radios attached to your body 24/7…”
Seriously??? This again??? Are there people still thinking this??? You better stay out of the sun then, ’cause the sun will do more damage to you than any amount of ‘radios attached to your body’.
If you familiarise yourself with the Energy Spectrum you’ll see radio waves give off the lowest form of Radiation. You’re scared of ‘Ionising Radiation’, but that’s at the other end of the Energy Spectrum: http://www.who.int/ionizing_radiation/about/what_is_ir/en/index.html
I won’t be rocking anything that large on my wrist.. That’s just me.
Yea I assumed they would of took advantage of their flexible display tech and have it wrap better around the wrist an not stick out like that.
Flexible displays are great… until you realize there’s no flexible batteries, flexible computer chips, etc.
Yea very true. But if you can picture it, they could of had a fixed rectangle casing for the parts, an have the curved display over top. Even a little would look a lot better than how that sticks out
Oh no!
Um…please be a prank. That’s pretty hideous, in my opinion. Think I’ll just be holding on to my Sony SmartWatch a bit longer. (Though it’s next version isn’t looking too bad. Have to check the specs, though.)
Let’s be honest, that’s terrible. I sure hope this isn’t accurate. If Apple’s “leaks” are accurate at all the they are going to wipe the floor with this watch. I really don’t want to see that happen.
What a total disappointment. I was ALL OVER this when it was announced. The renders previously released looked AMAZING. This looks like something that could have come out in the 90s. 🙁
Lets hope its a prototype and not final…remember the prototype s3 in the square case..hopefully this is just the clunky prototype case to keep the final design a surprise.
Geez… Motorola made a wrist… phone… sports… thingie… a couple years ago. It was big and clunky. It looks like Samsung saw that and doubled down on the concept.
And seriously, does anyone here REALLY want a smart watch? I wear a nice watch when I wear a suit… that’s it. I’d much rather check my phone occasionally than have ANY hardware strapped to my arm.
My thoughts exactly.
Wow. They wanted to beat Apple to the punch, but they knocked themselves out.
Stick to copying, Samsung.
I’m not sure if you’re aware but Samsung came out with a smart watch about 8 yearsago. They have released a few models
It seems a bit pointless to me
I don’t think this will be the final product.
Sony smartwatch 2 looks 10x better than this one.
Samsung will definitely try to do something better….