Samsung Galaxy Gear Smartwatch Arrives On Time…Should You Get One?

Mobile technology has reached a pretty big milestone as of late. With so many advances in smartphones and tablets, we knew that it wouldn’t be too long until a smartwatch was finally available. Just writing “smartwatch” seems a bit silly, since all a watch is supposed to do is tell the time and maybe the date. The days of simple watches may soon be past, and we can thank the folks at Samsung for playing a part in the continuing evolution of the watch. Dick Tracy, the Jetsons, and maybe even the Power Rangers would be proud, because now a watch exists that does a lot more than just tell the time.

Meet The Galaxy Gear Watch

It is a watch – but it is also so much more. It can take pictures, send text messages, and most importantly for a smartwatch – it can make calls. Did I mention that it also tells the time and the date? (Who cares about that anymore, though?)

While all of those features sound great in a watch, many users are wishing it had some better features and was easier to use.

For starters, use of the Galaxy Gear smartwatch requires that you have a Galaxy Note 3. (Samsung will be adding further compatibility with later updates). It will connect to your Note via bluetooth, meaning that you also have to constantly have that phone nearby to enjoy most of the features of the watch. While the Galaxy Gear is great for reading text messages, it has a few problems while sending them. Because of its size, the Galaxy Gear does not have a keypad to type messages – instead, it relies on using S Voice to dictate your messages. As anyone who has used S Voice knows, sometimes she gets it right, and sometimes she gets it wrong. Be prepared to talk to your watch…a lot.

For anyone who’s ever wanted to take a picture with your watch, now you can! The Galaxy Gear is equipped with a 1.9 megapixel camera on the strap of the watch. As some user photos show, it takes decent photos.

When it comes to the call quality on the phone, users report that it works well in quiet environments, but not so well in your noisier environments.

One of the biggest gripes so far with the Galaxy Gear is that it can’t send or read emails – if you use Gmail, for instance, it will give you a notification when you have a new message, but then you have to open the actual email in your phone. This seems like a time-waster, and hopefully a future update will be able to improve it.

While the Galaxy Gear certainly looks (and sounds) neat, is it totally necessary?

The initial price tag for the Galaxy Gear smartwatch is $299. Will you be getting one or simply sticking with your smartphone?

[Image via anandtech]

SOURCE: http://reviews.cnet.com/watches-and-wrist-devices/samsung-galaxy-gear-smartwatch/4505-3512_7-35826691-2.html