Samsung Gear S2 Review Can You Load Music on It

Farwell, Android Wear. Hi, Tizen. Samsung'due south latestsmartwatch abandons the Android Wear Os in favor of the company's homegrown Tizen OS, which proves to be a smart choice indeed. The Samsung Gear S2 ($299.99) has a user-friendly interface that's worlds easier to use than Android Wear. And the sentry itself has a great design that combines the round face and stainless steel example of a traditional timepiece with a futuristic, rotating bezel that makes navigation fifty-fifty easier. But there's nevertheless some room for Tizen to grow, equally a dearth of apps and weak voice recognition go on the Gear S2 from nabbing a higher score.

Pricing and Design
The Samsung Gear S2 comes in two flavors: At that place's the regular Gear S2 for $299.99, and the $349.99 Gear S2 classic. The regular Gear S2 comes with a black or white silicone wristband, while the classic model has black leather strap. No affair which version you choose, the sentinel confront is made of matte stainless steel. We reviewed the $299.99 model, with a white ring and a silver face up.

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In that location are also 3G versions of each sentry available with AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon service. Pricing and availability will vary according to carrier; T-Mobile, for example, offers the option to add together the watch to your plan for $v per month.

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The standard Gear S2 model is extremely comfy and light on the wrist, with a simple clasp and an adjustable buckle to stay in place. No matter which model you choose, you're sure to be happy with the watch's almost distinguishing feature, a rotating bezel. Similar to the digital crown on the side of theApple Watch ( at Amazon Canada) , you physically plow the bezel effectually the sentry confront like a dial in club to brand selections. It'due south precise, quick, and feels very satisfying to use thanks to the trivial clicks it makes.

The sentinel also has a Back push button in the 2 o'clock position, and a Dwelling button in the iv o'clock position. The Home button brings you to the default watch face or to your master app library if you're already at your habitation lookout man face. The Back button brings y'all dorsum one step in whatever app yous're in. Of course, you tin also tap your way through the interface without bothering with the bezel.  I'll discuss navigation more in a chip, but the Gear S2 is the most hands navigable smartwatch I've tested.

Left to right: Apple Watch, Samsung Gear S2, Moto 360

The Gear S2's circular lookout face measures 1.66 inches around, 0.44 inches thick, and weighs one.7 ounces. The Huawei Scout ( at Amazon Canada) , by comparison, is slightly larger at 1.7 inches wide, 0.44 inches thick, and 2.thirteen ounches. The Motorola Moto 360 ( at Amazon Canada) , meanwhile, meastures ane.viii inches wide, 0.44 inches thick, and 3.28 ounces. The variations might seem slight on paper, but yous can really feel a difference on your wrist.

The watch is rated IP68 for water-resistance, which means it tin withstand splashes at the sink, but y'all shouldn't take it to the beach or in the shower.

Brandish
The Gear S2 has a 1.2-inch circular Super AMOLED brandish with a 360-by-360-pixel resolution that works out to a precipitous 302 pixels per inch. Information technology doesn't get quite as bright as the Huawei Lookout man, simply I was always able to see information technology exterior, even with the brightness set to low. The screen is non e'er-on by default, simply there is an option to do so if you lot wish. Without it on, the screen even so activates quickly when y'all life your wrist, and it never accidentally turned on in my testing, which is very helpful for conserving battery. The screen turns off fast, though—after well-nigh five seconds—which tin can get a picayune annoying when you're trying to read an email, text, or CNN headline. However, a quick tap or turn of the bezel keeps the screen activated.

Samsung uses an ambient light sensor to adjust brightness depending on surroundings, without the "flat tire" effect that cuts off the Moto 360'south circular display in a horizontal line at the lesser. Information technology's as well easy to adapt the brightness on your own: just swipe down on the display and tap the Effulgence setting. I didn't notice any prismatic screen aberration here like I did on the Moto 360, unless you count some very slight reflections of light around the edge of the bezel.

The scout can be paired with Bluetooth four.1 devices, including headesets or speakers for music playback, or mobile devices that run Android iv.4 or later. Unlike Pebble ( at Amazon Canada) or Android Habiliment devices, in that location is no iOS support. To starting time the pairing procedure, yous need to download the gratis Samsung Gear Managing director app on your Android device and follow the simple on-screen instructions. I easily paired the Gear S2 with a Samsung Galaxy S6 ( at Amazon Canada) . In one case connected, you accept a number of options at your command, like customizing the watch confront, managing apps and notifications, and sending music files to the watch, which comes with 4GB of internal storage.

Features, Performance, and Tizen
The Gear S2has an accelerometer, a barometer, a gyroscope, proximity sensors, and a heart rate sensor. Different the Sony SmartWatch 3 ( at Amazon Canada) , there is no GPS, only there is Wi-Fi, which extends the range of the sentry when connected to a wireless network.

The heart rate sensor here works better than the ane in the Huawei Scout or the Moto 360 by automatically measuring your center rate throughout the day. By default it checks in about five times per solar day, though you can adapt it to check more than or less often. Y'all tin can as well check manually, and it lets you know whether your heart charge per unit is average when yous're resting, in a country before practice, or after practice. The lookout reported resting numbers in the depression-to-mid sixties while sitting in a relaxed land, which is on par with measurements taken by the Huawei Sentry.

The watch counts steps and detects when you're exercising or resting for too long, similar to the Apple tree Spotter. You can besides keep track of the amount of water or caffeine y'all've been drinking. And you can install the Nike+ running app for more detailed fitness assay. All the same, like I ordinarily advise, you probably desire to become with a defended fitness tracker rather than a smartwatch if fitness is your primary concern. TheMisfit Flash Link ( at Amazon Canada) is great if you're on a budget, while the Fitbit Charge HR ( at Amazon Canada) is worth the splurge.

Powered by a dual-cadre 1GHz processor and 512MB of RAM, the Gear S2 uses Samsung's proprietary operating system, Tizen. It has the best user interface for a smartwatch yet, though it does have ane annoying flaw. For some reason, the Gear S2 doesn't become back to the app you were previously using after it goes to sleep. Instead, it goes back to the default watch face every fourth dimension it wakes upwardly. That can exist frustrating if you want to keep reading a story, or respond to a text when of a sudden the screen shuts off from inactivity. Thakfully, the scout keeps images and headlines loaded in news apps when yous finally render to them.

The strength of Tizen lies in its layout, which is a pleasure to navigate. Turning the bezel or swiping to the left brings upwardly any notifications, which yous can tap to open up or swipe up to dismiss. Swiping or turning the bezel to the right brings up the main carte du jour for Apps, a list of favorite contacts, Settings, or the S Voice assistant. Continue swiping or rotating the bezel and you can see a whole collection of apps effectually the perimeter of the screen, every bit if they were numbers on a spotter face, including the calendar, middle rate monitor, music playback control, pedometer, or whatever other apps you want to include. Information technology beats swiping through endless vertical lists and cards like in Android Habiliment. However, you lot nevertheless have to tap on the touch screen to make selections. It would've been nice to be able to push button the bezel in to make selections, but since your fingers are already on the sentry anyway, it's not a large deal.

Unfortunately, Tizen'south pick of third-political party apps is weak compared with Android Wearable, Apple, and Pebble. There are no music streaming services besides Samsung'south Milk Music, little in the manner of fitness apps also Samsung's Due south Health, and nothing when it comes to note-taking apps or pop social media like Facebook or Twitter. In that location are some useful apps bachelor, like Bloomberg, CNN, The Wall Street Journal, and Yelp, but Samsung needs to lure many more than companies if it wants to compete.

And although sentinel apps aren't available, you lot can even so receive and respond to phone notifications from Facebook, Google Hangouts, and Twitter on the Gear S2 with a robust set of options. Yous tin choose from some brusk, canned phrases or send an emoticon. You tin can besides respond with voice-to-text, though unfortunately this feature is hit-or-miss; I never reached a point in testing where I felt like I could rely on it to quickly ship an authentic message. Surprisingly, the Gear S2 also offers a phone number pad-style keyboard with 3 messages assigned to each number so you can type out messages. Information technology's a tiresome procedure, but predictive text helps things along. A friend texted me some good news and I was able to type in "Wow, that's great! Congrats!" fairly easily.

Don't expect to accept calls on the Gear S2, though. You lot can use information technology to punch a call, merely you'll take to take out your phone or put on a Bluetooth headset if you want to have things any further.

Battery life is (relatively) excellent. Samsung promises up to three days of utilise, which is accurate if you go along the brandish set to power off automatically. With it set up to always-on, the watched lasted for about two days, which is yet ameliorate than whatsoever other smartwatch with a color display I've tested (with the exception of the Pebble Time, which tin last for virtually a week, albeit with a much dimmer, lower-resolution display). The Gear S2 can likewise be set to go into Power-Saving mode, which turns the screen monochrome when y'all're running low on bombardment. It charges with an included magnetic dock and micro USB cable.

Conclusions
The Samsung Gear S2 should certainly sit down alongside the Apple Watch and the Pebble family as 1 of the better smartwatch options on the market place. It sports a sleek design, a user-friendly interface that blows the disruptive Android Wear out of the water, very good battery life (for a smartwatch), and a unique, rotating bezel. Unfortunately, a paltry choice of apps holds it back, peculiarly when Apple and Pebble take so many to cull from. And underwhelming phonation recognition ultimately makes the Apple and Pebble watches easier to apply. I'd certainly cull the Gear 2 over Android Wear options like the Huawei Watch and the Moto 360, but information technology'due south a harder pick from there.

The Apple Sentry remains the smartwatch for dyed-in-the-wool Apple users, with a reliable heart rate sensor that works as you practice, NFC then y'all can pay without flashing your credit card, the best selection of third-party apps, and an intuitive interface similar to that of the Gear S2. But our Editors' Choice remains with the Pebble family unit, which nosotros highly recommended to smartwatch newcomers. The original Pebble ( at Amazon Canada)  is inexpensive, is compatible with both Android and iOS, and works with many useful apps. The Pebble Time ( at Amazon Canada)  adds a colour screen and reliable voice-to-text messaging. Or you could look for the Pebble Fourth dimension Round, which is the Pebble Time with a traditional round spotter face. The Samsung Gear S2 is definitely an intriguing new pick, just it's worth waiting for the second generation.

Samsung Gear S2

Cons

The Bottom Line

The Samsung Gear S2 smartwatch has keen software and a thoughtful design going for it, but a paltry app selection and finicky voice recognition concord information technology back.

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