When it comes to smart watches, our first impression may be a crowd of Android Wear, such as MOTO 360, G Watch R and other products. Samsung's Gear series is also quite representative of smart watches. Today we bring you Gear S with call and WCDMA network functions.
preface
The Samsung Gear is a smart watch series with multiple product types. There are the first generation of Gear with high system playability, including Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo using Samsung Tizen system, Gear Fit with curved screen and lightweight shape, and Gear Live, the first Android Wear device. What we are going to experience today is the Gear S with a Tizen system, a curved screen and a SIM card.
Smart watches in the past have given us a slight sense of weakness. Many functions seem cool, but their practicability is relatively low. Android Wear devices are highly dependent on mobile phones. Most of the time, it only implements the functions of viewing mobile system notifications and pedometers. For domestic users, Android Wear is more inconvenient to use because it relies too much on Google Search service and lacks localization of Chinese text. Samsung's own smart watch with Tizen system has a dedicated synchronous application, and corresponding function expansion applications can be found in the Samsung market, so it is also rich in functionality. From the perspective of market positioning, Gear S's idea is to hope that users can still complete some necessary operations on the watch, such as making calls, playing music, checking news, etc., even if they are separated from the mobile phone.
appearance
In terms of appearance, the Gear S is much larger than an ordinary smart watch. With a 2.0 inch screen and a 58.1 * 39.9 * 12.5mm size, it can also be regarded as a giant in a watch.
Gear S is special in modeling because it uses a curved Super AMOLED screen, which is also attributed to Samsung's own ability to produce screens. It can also fit the wrist when the dial is out, and there is a bright silver metal border on the edge of the dial.
The Gear S, like Samsung mobile phones, has a physical home key. There are two "dots" on the left and right sides of the home key. They are not virtual keys, but light sensors and ultraviolet sensors. In addition to returning to the home page, the entity home key is also used as the power key of the watch. Long press it to pop up the power menu.
The Gear S, like other Gear series smart watches, uses a plastic strap. Because the dial is relatively wide, the strap width is slightly exaggerated.
The watchband is fixed by a metal fastener, which adopts a wire drawing process and is printed with the logo of Samsung.
The strap length of the Gear S is also adjustable.
The watchband can be disassembled, and Samsung has officially launched its own color matching watchband in red and blue.
The back structure is complex, with a SIM card slot, heart rate sensor and five metal contacts. Like Gear 2, Gear Fit and other products, Gear S also has a heart rate sensor on the back, which can detect our heartbeat. The five metal contacts are connected to the charging base, and the words "Qualcomm HSPA+" can be seen on the side, indicating that the product uses Qualcomm baseband.
The Gear S supports the IP67 waterproof and dustproof standard, so the SIM card slot is also protected by a waterproof rubber ring. The Nano SIM card supports WCDMA (B1, B8) and GSM networks.
There are two small round holes on the left side of the watch. These are the speakers of the Gear S. We can even use the Gear S to play music.
There is a small round hole on the right side of the watch. This is the call microphone of the Gear S, and we can use it to make voice calls.
This is the charging base of Gear S, and the charging current is 0.15A.
The charging base also has five metal contacts for connection with the watch.
Connect with the watch and then connect the USB cable to charge through the base.
user's experience
The Gear S has a 2.0 inch curved screen, which can be regarded as a "giant screen" compared with other watches. Users with thick wrists may wear it in harmony.
Like other Samsung Gear watches, the Gear S can also customize a variety of dials.
We can download more third-party dials through the Samsung market.
The Gear S, like Android phones, has a "drop down bar" with functions such as volume adjustment and brightness adjustment.
Pull up is the application menu of the system. Here you can see some applications of the Gear S and third-party applications.
We can even view recent applications, which are similar to the presentation of Android phones.
The setting menu of Gear S, where we can make some basic settings on its screen, calls, sounds and other aspects. Users who have basically used Android phones will soon get started.
The right stroke is some notices of the system. Here you can see some information of NetEase and pedometer.
Sliding to the left is the plug-in of the system "launcher" (for the convenience of understanding, the name in Android phones is used here).
Carry out the "bicycle" training in the sports mode, and then you can record the sports information. But if the mobile network is enabled GPS， At this time, the power consumption will increase sharply. When the remaining 50% of the power is used, the driver can't even ride for two hours. It seems that the 300mAh battery is really a weakness of Gear S.
There are plug-ins such as shortcut switch, health application, news, music, etc. Users can also customize them. The type and order of plug-ins support replacement.
After inserting the SIM card, the Gear S can make voice calls without the phone, but it is not very convenient to use. First, the experience of using a watch to talk is not very good (it can be solved by connecting a Bluetooth headset). Another problem is that the screen is still small for the dial panel.
Gear S can also send messages for the first time, but it is not very easy to use. After all, the screen is only 2 inches, but it is acceptable to send messages for one or two days in an emergency.
Gear S also supports WCDMA networks, but it may not be the same as the average user thinks. Even with its own network, Gear S cannot access QQ, WeChat or Weibo independently, and more of its functions depend on mobile phones. This may be an issue of application development progress, and one may be the issue of power consumption control.
What is the function of Gear S WCDMA network? In fact, there are many applications in Gear S that need to be connected to the Internet. When we are not connected to the mobile phone, we can use our own WCDMA network for networking, such as the news application and input method download.
Back to Gear S itself, due to the integration of multiple sensors and strong hardware configuration, its functions can certainly meet the needs of most users, such as pedometers NIKE Running、 Alarm clock, photo album, etc. are indispensable.
The Gear S has a built-in 4G storage space. We can place songs in this space and play them directly. Of course, we can also play the music in the phone.
Heart rate detection, which is also a "traditional" function of Samsung Gear series, detects the user's health information through the sensor on the back of the watch.
UV index detection, which detects the UV intensity through the sensor on the front of the watch, is the first time that the Gear series has this function. We have seen similar functions on Galaxy Note 4 and Galaxy Note Edge. It can be seen that the function updates of Samsung's smart watches and mobile phones in the same period are synchronized.
In addition, we can download more third-party applications for Gear S to further expand its functions when we connect our mobile phones through Bluetooth.
The above is the "Flying Bird" installed in the Samsung market.
The author has been familiar with various features of Gear S since using it for a week, and personally thinks it is suitable for some outdoor sports enthusiasts. For example, when running or riding a bicycle, if you don't want to bring your mobile phone, you can directly carry the Gear S to complete the functions of calling and sending messages. At the same time, the Gear S can also better record the relevant information during exercise. In terms of other functions, Gear S can basically meet the needs of different users. Generally, the functions of smart watches can be found on Gear S. However, the strong hardware configuration and rich functions are matched with a battery that is not "equivalent", which also makes the Gear S face a serious endurance problem. Users should be prepared when purchasing it. In addition to the endurance problem, the stability of Gear S in the WCDMA network is not good enough, and sometimes the networking fails. Of course, the shortcomings outweigh the merits. The Gear S is indeed one of the smartwatches with the most functions on the market. The curved screen and colorful watchband also demonstrate the personality of young users.
