Samsung has unveiled its new 3G-enabled Gear S smartwatch, which can pick up emails and notifications and make calls without a smartphone.
If you were the one person who enjoyed talking into their Galaxy Gear smartwatch when they received calls, good news! Samsung’s latest smartwatch, the Gear S, lets you chat with friends even when your smartphone’s miles away or stone dead.
Samsung Gear S: Specs and features
The Samsung Gear S, by our count the Korean company’s fifth wearable device in under a year, has room for a SIM card slot in its nicely curved body. That means you can take calls and get notifications on the go without a smartphone, although the Gear S will also hook up to your phone via Bluetooth if you don’t want to fit a SIM card inside the watch.
Samsung has crammed pretty much every type of sensor inside the Gear S, including GPS, an accelerometer, gyroscope and even a barometer and a heart rate monitor. So it’s safe to say that outdoor adventurers and exercise lovers are covered.
The 2-inch screen borrows the curved design of the Samsung Gear Fit, and sports an analogue watch face that comes in either black or white. There’s a 1GHz processor packed inside, backed up by 512MB of RAM and 4GB of storage so you can carry music or other files around.
Sadly Samsung has stuck its own Tizen software onto the Gear S, rather than Google’s new Android Wear OS. Support will therefore be limited from app developers, although the Gear S will apparently support HERE navigation and news streaming via the FT.
Samsung also announced a new Bluetooth headset, confusingly called the Gear Circle, which clasps around the user’s neck when not in use thanks to a magnetic lock.
Samsung Gear S: UK price and release date
So far there’s no news on a UK price, but the Gear S watch will hit UK stores in October, and we expect it to be priced from around £199.
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