Samsung has finally unveiled the Galaxy Gear smartwatch, along with its newest flagship phablet, the Samsung Galaxy Note 3. "We have created something incredible," said Samsung's Pranav Mistry, beginning the announcement of the Galaxy Gear. But from the start, it seemed to look a lot like the prototype that VentureBeat exposed earlier this week.
However, so much anticipation came before the announcement that it's easy to say the smartwatch didn't live up to expectations, so here's a detailed rundown for you to decide for yourself.
Look and Display
The Galaxy Gear comes in six colors, from "formal" to "fun," which was not unexpected, though it beats the number of colors predicted by rumors. The smartwatch comes in at 36.8 x 56.6 x 11.1mm and 73.8 grams.
Previous rumors put the display at anywhere from 3cm by 3cm to a 3-inch diagonal OLED screen with 320 x 320p resolution. It turns out those numbers were somewhat correct. The Galaxy Gear comes with a 1.63-inch Super AMOLED display that, indeed, has a resolution of 320 x 320p. Pranav Mistry of Samsung's "Think Tank Team" demoed the device for the Berlin audience, showing how you can swipe and tap the display to navigate, and swipe down to go back to where you were.
Processor
In the build up to the announcement, most tech blogs were predicting the processor would be of the Samsung Exynos variety, clocked at 1.5GHz. They were way off. The processor on the real Galaxy Gear doesn't pack as much muscle (though you'd have to ask, "Why would it need to?"), coming in at 800 MHz - processor brand, unspecified. It's assisted by 512 MB of RAM.
Camera
The Galaxy Gear has a 1.9-megapixel camera, which rumors were dead wrong about, saying that it'd be around 4-megapixels. The camera is mounted on the edge of the device and is capable of capturing 720p video though, which was rumored before the big unveiling, and a 4GB internal storage will hold a decent amount of content before filling up.
The Galaxy Gear has the camera at the edge of the device, facing outward, which Samsung says will allow you to capture any moment quickly and seamlessly. A quick swipe down with the "Memographer" will take a shot with the smartwatch, which is definitely better and faster than trying to take pictures with a smartphone. But holding your arm out perpendicular to the scene you want to capture will take some getting used to.
Phone
Galaxy Gear can receive and make phone calls with a speaker and mic placed on the underside of your wrist. It sounds seamless, but raising your empty-handed wrist to your head for a conversation seems - at best - even more awkward than holding a phablet to your head to talk.
Connectivity
Rumors purported the Galaxy Gear would have Bluetooth capabilities, which turned out to be correct. In fact, it has Bluetooth 4.0 + BLE to extend the life of the battery to 25 hours, beating expectations. The Galaxy Gear connects to the Samsung Galaxy Note 3, displaying notifications from the phablet, as expected. But one nice feature is that notifications can switch from the Gear back to the Galaxy Note 3 through the "Smart Relay" feature, by just taking the Galaxy Note 3 out of your pocket.
The Galaxy Gear can also connect to other Samsung products, like the Galaxy S4 and Galaxy Note 2 - after updates make it compatible - but it looks like it won't be the Android smartwatch for all.
Software
A slew of apps are available already to run on the Galaxy Gear in a native way, including MyFitnessPal, Path, Pocket, RunKeeper, TripIt, Vivino Wine Scanner, and many others, including Samsung apps like ChatON, S Voice, Voice Memo, Media Controller, StopWatch and Pedometer. Unsurprisingly, there's a gyroscope and accelerometer for fitness-related apps. Mistry said that developers are already working on a second wave of new apps to hit the Galaxy Gear soon.
Conclusion
Overall, an impressive list of specs and apps on the inside, which means the Galaxy Gear will probably beat others like the Sony and Pebble. But the functionality -- like taking pictures with your arm like a fancy garson or holding your wrist up to your ear to have a phone conversation -- seems a little half-baked.
Perhaps it's just a new fact of wearables that we'll have to get used to, like when Bluetooth headsets hit and we all thought people were talking to themselves in the grocery store. Or perhaps the Galaxy Gear is not the one wearable that will take off as the device standard.
Do you think the Galaxy Gear is going to be a successful smartwatch, or is it just not feature-rich enough to entice people to give up that free wrist space (and $300) to be a hit?