Samsung Gear 2 Neo Smartwatch - Gray

Samsung Gear 2 Neo Smartwatch - Gray..

Special Price Samsung Gear 2 Neo Smartwatch - Gray By Samsung

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69 of 76 people found the following review helpful.
This is THE smartwatch to get
By That Guy B
This is coming from someone who has a Pebble, a Sony Smartwatch 2, and the Gear 1.

http://youtu.be/TPO9ELjHMpU

I compare the Gear Neo to the Pebble there
Out of those 3, the Gear 1 actually had the best build followed closely by the Smartwatch 2. The Pebble was the absolute worst because it looks and feels like a toy. However, I use the Pebble the most because it is the most convenient and works extremely well.

That was until this Neo became the One (get it?). The Neo is the best smartwatch currently out. At it's price its only slightly more than a Pebble and it's far more useful. First off, the Neo is plastic so it's lightweight and comfortable. It's a lovely matte plastic and it looks clean and streamlined. The screen is beautiful and it took a page out of the Pebble by shutting off the screen until you flick your wrist. The watch detects the movement and the screen lights up.

One thing that really bothered me about the Pebble was the display. I actually like the retro monochromatic screen but whenever I wore polarized sunglasses I couldn't read the screen. This means while I was driving, the Pebble essentially couldnt serve its purpose. The Sony SW2 was better, but the screen was hazy and no where near the level of the Gear 1 or Neo.

I know people had concerns that Samsung moved over to Tizen instead of Android for the Gear 2 but it's actually a benefit. I'm not sure if android is suited for wearables (Moto 360 and the LG Watch may prove otherwise) but there was some lag on the Gear 1 that is no longer there.

I particularly like being able to sync songs into the watch. When I work out or go for a run, I can have the watch and a bluetooth headset. No longer do I have to strap on my Note 3 to my arm. The fact that there's a heart rate monitor, pedometer, and music player all on the wrist is unbelievably convenient.

The Neo represents the best buy out of the entire line of gen 2 Gear watches. This is the same price as the Gear Fit so I don't know why anyone would choose that unless they prefer the design. I dont think the Gear 2 is worth an extra $100 over the Neo. It has full stainless body but the camera is pretty pointless and the novelty wears off quickly (Happened on the first gen Gear).

It's pretty amazing that the Neo can be priced at $199 and have so many features built in. I think it might need a software update to fix some minor hiccups and I'll revise my review when that happens.
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So far battery life has been great. For having a bright screen, this lasts me 2-3 days. It would get more but I have notifications sets for facebook, texts, email and google hang outs.

I love that you can set specific apps that you want notifications from. For instance I get no Google+ notifications, but I get hangouts. The ability to filter what you receive is great.

One suggestion I would say if you are using this to control music in your car is to set the "double tap" option to control music. When the screen times out, you have to scroll to get back into the music app to change songs because the watch automatically goes back to the homescreen. It's dangerous to swipe constantly just to change songs.

By double pressing the center button, the app comes right up and I swipe to the song I want. Also, its easier to keep your eyes on the road when you push a physical button (one benefit of the pebble) rather than trying to find an icon out of 4 items on the screen.

Heart rate monitor also works better when you turn the watch to the inside of your wrist.

79 of 91 people found the following review helpful.
Functional, but rough around the edges
By Mike
Just received my Gear 2 Neo in Mocha Grey, and wanted to jot down a few of my thoughts while they're fresh in my mind (these have been updated several times since with additional findings and to make things a bit more concise):

Pro's
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* Pairing it and connecting it to your Samsung phone is easy (just make sure to have the latest Gear Manager - especially w/ Note 3).
* Screen auto-lock feature is both convenient and secure (slide-to-unlock if your watch is near your phone - pattern unlock if it's not).
* Interface is easy to use.
* Can make it turn on automatically when you lift your wrist (at the expense of battery life).
* Time and weather on one's wrist.
* Find my phone feature rings your phone even if it is on vibrate.
* Bluetooth range is excellent.
* Voice memos make it easy to make yourself quick notes.
* S Voice dialing works well, even with some background noise (don't expect to text with it if there's background noise though).
* Sleep tracker estimates how restful your sleep is by how much you move at night.
* Fast and responsive - no stuttering or delays that I've observed.
* Band is replaceable with regular watch bands.
* Can store MP3's on the watch, and use it as an MP3 player when working out without having to bring your phone with.

Con's
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* The "S Health" app on my Note 3 doesn't want to sync with the Gear 2, but the "Fitness for Gear" app that works with the Gear 2 doesn't have support for weight and calorie tracking like "S Health" did (nor does it appear to support 3rd party ANT+ devices like "S Health"). Stupid having to use both apps when they're both from Samsung.
* The "Fitness for Gear" app also is a bit buggy. Sometimes I open it and have data and it will sync, and sometimes I open it and it shows "no data" and won't sync. Has a few other display bugs too (like sometimes the history comes up in a giant font where half the data is off-screen and inaccessible). I assume this will be fixed soon (but if it doesn't get fixed I'm going to knock another star off).
* While the device is not as bulky as the original Galaxy Gear, it's certainly not small - especially if you have small wrists.
* Even though the device itself is not small, if you have large wrists the included band may be a bit snug.
* Heart rate is not taken periodically - only during exercise or on demand.
* Charging requires a proprietary cradle.
* It only works with Samsung phones, and long term I'm not sure how much 3rd party integration we'll see as a result.
* Application selection in their app store is quite limited.
* While the interface is easy to use, it is a bit bare bones in appearance.

A Bit of Both
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* Battery life is mixed. With normal usage I get about two days. However, with heavier usage I get more like 36 hours.
* The pedometer is nice, but it tends to pick up other motions as steps (such as petting my cats). That said, if your gait is regular and you aren't doing other stuff w/ your hands, then it is seemingly accurate, so for exercise it is ok (just not as a daily total step counter - over the course of a day it seems to over-count by about 25% to 30%).
* Exercise tracker and pulse-based trainer is a good idea, but the pulse is inaccurate and finicky. For resting pulse I have to take it repeatedly while it tells me to be still and quiet. With exercise it obviously allows movement, but the accuracy is doubtful (told me I had a 58 pulse while taking a walk yesterday - I'm not in that type of shape). If I can't figure out a way to improve this, it will move to the con's list.
* Remote control feature is a neat idea, but it's inadequate for many setups (such as if you use a receiver or a Blu-ray player) - it only controls the TV and set-top box. It also lacks the complex navigation for the guide and DVR on the cable box. If you mostly watch TV though and don't use a receiver, then it might be a convenience for you. Would be better if they made it programmable.

The Gear 2 Neo is functional, but still just a bit large, limited, and rough around the edges. At present (4/11/14), this is likely the best smart watch available, but smart watch technology is still not quite fully mature - if you get one, consider yourself an early adopter. I can't give it 5 stars, but it is pretty consistent with what I was expecting, so I think the 4 stars are warranted. If they don't fix the "Fitness with Gear" bugs or I can't find a way to get a more reliable pulse out of it during exercise, then I may reduce my rating to 3 stars. Part of the reason I got the device was to have one device that did it all.

Also, if you are thinking about buying one, be aware that Android Wear gear from Motorola and LG is supposed to come out this summer. I can't speak to feature set of those devices yet (nor their battery life), but the pictures make them look a bit more polished than the Gear 2, and they will work with any Android phone with a new enough OS (rather than just Samsung's), so they'll probably get better 3rd party app support as well.

If you're determined to get a Gear 2 Neo or Gear 2 now though (which is not a bad thing - obviously I decided to get one myself)... The only significant difference that I'm aware of between the Gear 2 Neo and Gear 2 is that the Gear 2 has a camera while the Neo does not (I've heard others comment that the Gear 2 also has a stainless steel body while the Neo is plastic - I can confirm the latter, but haven't looked into the former). However, unless you see yourself taking pictures from your wrist often (it doesn't face the right direction for video chat), I'd recommend saving the $100 and getting the Gear 2 Neo (particularly when the technology is still in its infancy, since we're going to see much better devices come out over the next couple years).

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful.
Finally A Full Fledged Smart Watch!
By PCLOVER93
Upon receiving my new Gear 2 Neo, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the watch had a 70% charge right of the bat so I could start using as soon as I set it up. After updating the watch with the latest software I was up and running and I have to admit that so far it has been a joyful experience using this smart watch to accomplish tasks that would otherwise require the use of my phone.

Notifications have been vastly improved over the last gen Gear to incorporate alerts from an extensive library of apps (ranging from Google Voice all the way to WhatsApp) it truly is a companion device. Also, how could anyone forget the screen. The second gen Gear lineup has the best looking screen on any wearable device to date. The colors are rich and vibrant due to the same AMOLED screen being used from Samsungs Galaxy phones. Text was sharp and clear as well as big, so there weren't any problems reading a pretty large text message that would otherwise give you a headache on any other wearable device.

Battery life has been good so far. In all honesty during the time of this review I've only had the device for the entire day and so I cannot say for certain how long the device would last on a single charge. However at the rate this thing is going, I would say that it would be able to squeeze out at least two days on a full charge. I'll be sure to update this as I spend more time with the device.

Did I forget to mention that the watch is stylish. Now I got the black color, so for me it suits every type of apparel for every type of occasion. One of my biggest fears was that the watch would be too bulky for my wrists, however after putting it on for the first time that thought never crossed my mind again as this was the perfect size for a smart watch to be.

Yes it is disappointing that the Gear 2 lineup cannot be paired to any Android device or even an older Samsung Galaxy phone however for me this is a not an inconvenience but rather a small annoyance.

Overall, it you own a Samsung device (Galaxy S3 or newer) then this would be the perfect complimentary device to along with it.

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Samsung Gear 2 Smartwatch - Brown Gold

Samsung Gear 2 Smartwatch - Brown Gold..

Special Price Samsung Gear 2 Smartwatch - Brown Gold By Samsung

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48 of 52 people found the following review helpful.
Pleased and puzzled at the same time
By Dmitry Kan
I did not have original Galaxy Gear, so my impression is not comparative. I like hardware a lot. It feels comfortable on the wrist - not too heavy, not wobbly. Clasp is excellent. Took all of 3 seconds to adjust it just right. I also like the fact that you can easily re-adjust it at any time. You know how in the morning sometimes your wrist is a bit bloated and watch strap becomes too tight? Not a problem here. Watch has a very minimalistic and classy look to it. Nothing extra, brushed metal look is very subtle and solid. I was amazed how accurately screen comes on when you raise your wrist to look at it. And only when you look at it. No false activation and when you do look at it watch responds promptly with 100% accuracy. No need to do anything unnatural. Excellent!
Camera is surprisingly good. In daylight. After dusk it does not pick up anything. At all. Just black screen. But daylight pictures look almost the same as the ones taken with my Galaxy Note 3 on Note's screen. Of course, if you zoom in you will see difference. But for all kinds of quick snapshots - cute moments, notes, parked car location - it will work swimmingly.
Screen is a pure delight. Has brightness levels 1-6. 4 is default and is very bright. You can turn it up to 6 and it can blind you even under the brightest sunlight. Neat thing - watch will reverse back to level 4 brightness after 5 minutes of inactivity.
I don't know if it was the case with original Gear, and I have not seen it mentioned anywhere about Gear 2, but charging cradle is not just for charging. If you connect it to USB port you will get yourself a flash drive. With 2.81G of space. Unlike Android devices all system folders are hidden. So I don't know if one can sideload 3rd party apps. You just have "Music", "Sounds", "Images", "DCIM", "Videos" and "Downloads" folders.
Now the things that puzzled me. WHERE ARE ALL THE APPS??? Besides the ones preloaded on the watch Samsung App store offers "whopping" 18 apps. That's right. Not 100+ as Samsung claimed, not even "dozens" as some reviewers claimed. Maybe I am missing something. I am not a "XDA developer", but not a novice either. I am no stranger to custom ROMs and sideloading 3rd party apps. But with switch to Tizen Samsung shut off Google Play store.
Watch doesn't even have an alarm. It can only show you notifications from alarm clock running on your phone or tablet. I am a big fan of analog watch faces, but need to have a little date window as well. No luck here.
I think all necessary hardware is here. But software part is not just under-baked - it is pretty much nonexistent. Where is promised Evernote, CNN, Expedia, eBay? What happened? All developers bailed and went to write for Google Wear?
I am going to give it a month till my return period expires. I love the hardware - but I need software to support it.

29 of 31 people found the following review helpful.
Decent upgrade for second generation
By iwin2000
I received my new Gear 2 last Saturday morning via USPS, three days after ordering from a third party seller. I decided to order from a third party seller earlier in the week due to the fact that Amazon was still "Temporarily out of stock" on this item with no updates in over a week on when they'd get their stock and start shipping to customers. I had originally ordered from Amazon around a week prior and they still hadn't shipped or updated me at all, so I cancelled the order afterwards because I had no information on when Amazon would have the Gear 2 in stock. Being a Prime customer, it was upsetting that I had to "resort" to purchasing from a third party seller since usually shipping times are much longer. I expected better service and more specific communication from Amazon, especially since the demand for this product was so extensive. Luckily though, it seems that I made a lucky choice of third party seller to buy from because they shipped same-day and the product was packed safely and securely and arrived in about 3 days.

Something important to note is that some sellers are currently selling the Gear 2 for around $320. People avoid these prices, believing they are overpriced, not realizing that Amazon applies sales tax in most states only for items purchased from Amazon directly, which would have made the total cost rise to around $320 at checkout. In this case, there was pretty much no downside purchasing from a third party seller considering there was no estimate for when Amazon would receive their stock, so I decided to make my move and purchased from a seemingly reliable seller. It's also important to note that customers purchasing from third party sellers are exempt from sales tax if the customer resides outside of the seller's state. So, the Gear 2 was around the same price no matter where I purchased from.

Anyways, after having used the Gear 2 for a few days, my thoughts and views are overall positive. Something I found odd was, being in the Computer Science field and having done extensive online research before purchasing, I quickly realized that my views and experience with the Gear 2 hardly matched what negative comments were being spread by the media in news articles, reviews, and opinions and commentaries throughout the past week. The media's stories focused on the belief that the Gear 2 added no benefit and didn't provide any increased functionality due to the fact that it didn't offer anything "special" and didn't provide any extra functionality that couldn't be found on a typical smartphone. Various news articles blatantly state that buying a Gear 2 was a huge waste money.

I took these articles like a grain of salt. I saw the arguments mostly as opinions than anything else, I wanted to test it for myself and make up my own mind, and that's exactly what I did.

At first use, it was really easy to notice the key benefit of the Gear 2, the fact that it's an incredible time saver. Smartphones are not very when you're on the go, because they aren't generally something you can just glance at without diverting your attention entirely towards it temporarily. If this is at work, smartphone use negatively affects your productivity. If this is while driving, smartphones are unsafe and illegal because they take attention completely off the road.

For me, increase in time efficiency is the most important and obvious benefit offered by using the Gear 2. Unlike others, I don't care that the Gear 2 replicates smartphone functionality because of the aforementioned benefit. That doesn't make it any less of a useful device. What makes the Gear 2 useful is the fact that information that would have taken me 20 to 30 seconds to access on my smartphone can be accessed in just a couple seconds on the Gear 2 with a simple tilt of the wrist, swipe and tap. The Gear 2 clearly me saves time and effort, and it's shown me that it's an extremely handy device that has incredible potential.

Anyways...enough of me defending the Gear 2, that's not the purpose of reviews.

I've gotten in the habit of wearing the Gear 2 almost 24/7. I even keep it on while going to bed since it has so many uses. Just as a series of examples, right before bed, the Gear 2 allows me to: start tracking my sleep time, to set alarms for next morning just by speaking, check my appointments and calendar for tomorrow as well as the weather forecast, and replace the need to track down the TV remote control when I want to watch a late-night show right before bed.

Looking back, I can see that the Gear 2 has helped keep me on track, focused, and organized since I started using it. You've got to push yourself to improve though, you can't expect improvement otherwise. However, the Gear 2 seems like a Swiss Army knife in the form of a tech gadget. There are just so many features and so much beneficial functionality included just via the default Samsung apps, and these apps completely fulfilled my expectations and personally justify the expense.

Now, for the negative remark of my review, and as to why I took off a star.

Although Samsung provides excellent built-in apps, I'm sure there is a huge potential for development of even better, more beneficial apps. The possibilities are endless for user-developed apps. Unfortunately however, the major downside right now is that user-submitted apps are pretty much non-existent in the Gear 2 market. The reason for this is that the Tizen OS, which the Gear 2 runs on, has still been left largely unembraced and unsurpassed by most mobile app devs. This whole situation is upsetting since the lack of apps for the Gear 2 takes away from the device's potential and its ability for users to customize the app to fit their needs most closely. I honestly didn't expect the app store to literally have less than total 15 apps in the entire market, none of which are really any good at all. That's not the quality that I expected from Samsung. It seems like Samsung dropped the ball by not succeeding in stimulating the early adoption of Tizen by developers.

Although I feel the lack of apps is a mistake on Samsung's part that could maybe have been avoided by better planning, being knowledgeable about the Tizen situation I'm also sympathetic because it makes sense to me why there are almost no apps developed. The Gear 2 line of devices are essentially Samsung's first mainstream products to make use of their Tizen OS. Not many people have experience with how the OS works yet and people are just starting to become more acquainted with development for Tizen. In time, I don't have much doubt that developers will embrace Tizen, because where there's money to be made, they will come.

However, as someone who purchased a Gear 2 so early on, it's unfortunate that people like me need to wait, who knows how long, in order for the atmosphere to improve for Tizen.

Although it's not a deal breaker for me, for others who consider the current lack of user-made apps a much greater issue, I can see why they wouldn't be able to justify the expense until they start to see a community thriving around Gear 2 development.

Some further negatives that I feel are noteworthy for prospective buyers:

- The Gear 2 frame that covers the front face of the watch is aluminum, but the bottom half of the watch is actually a black plastic cover. Based on a description, I had expected that the entire watch exterior would be made of aluminum and I was disappointed when I saw the plastic bottom as it is more easily damaged.

- The Gear 2 expects to be firmly and statically strapped to your wrist, otherwise while operating the touchscreen by swiping fingers, you'll make the watch perform loops around your wrist, which starts getting annoying pretty quickly.

- The IR sensor's location being in the front-middle is slightly awkward to aim at the TV. It's something about having to tilt my wrist and tap on the screen with the other hand that just feels uncomfortable. It takes getting used to. In Samsung's defense I can't really think of a better place to put it to make it universally compatible with however a person enjoys wearing their watch. Same with the camera.

- Flicking left and right can sometimes be noticeably laggy. I expected better performance from the 1.0ghz dual core processor/512MB RAM and didn't expect to see basic swiping animations lag so noticeably. I suppose I'm so used to my smartphone operating seamlessly without any slow-downs or lag, that I was not used to the slower animations on the Gear 2 hardware. Note that although there is noticeable lag, it barely impacts usability in any way at all.

As a final note, nothing is ever 100% perfect, and there's always room for improvement.
For the current state I'm very satisfied with the progress Samsung has made with its Gear smartwatch line of products. The Gear 2 is well worth the money and I highly recommend it due to its elegant aesthetics, faster hardware, and software which offers useful features with an easy to follow and very functional user interface.

I'll continue to update my review if there's anything important to mention in the future that people should know, either positive or negative. Thanks for taking the time to read my thoughts, I welcome any questions or comments based on what I said.

27 of 33 people found the following review helpful.
Pure "awesomeness" for a tech savvy person, 5-stars Samsung!
By Rob T.
I was an early adopter of the Gear 1 and surprisingly I fell in love with the product rather quickly. Mind you I was never a watch person - so I was skeptical whether or not I would like it. There's a few reasons I learned to enjoy the first version and upgraded to the Gear 2.

1) If my phone is in my pocket, bag, or another room, I can see who was calling or texting and answer, delay, or reply from my watch.

2) My favorite thing to do is to change the watch face color and design for the holiday, season or event. I can even change the watch face to match my shirt color for the day. Waiting for the full watch styler for the Gear 2...

3) Phone Locator. Yes, sometimes I misplace my phone. The gear had a phone finder feature which surprisingly came in handy on an occasion or two.

4) Style. In my opinion it looks sharp. I am a business professional and I think it looks great with a suit.

5) Safety. Going back to number 1. While driving, I don't have to fumble around for a phone. I can see who is calling and answer in a split second - eyes on the road. To me, that was worth the $300 price of admission by itself.

6) Watch of course! I will not wear a regular watch that simply tells time; that is not enough. However when my watch answers calls, makes calls, reads texts, changes face themes to match my shirt color, takes my heart rate, acts as a mini personal trainer, snaps pictures, records quick voice notes, has a television remote, includes a stand-alone Bluetooth music player, and has easily switchable bands, now we're talking about something I'll wear every day (and it just so happens to tell me the time and date).

Price note: This version of the watch is $300, if you must have the brushed aluminum and the camera. For me, I didn't mind spending the extra dough. For someone who feels (and reviews) $300 is a bit steep - there is the Neo version! Kudo's to Samsung for creating a less expensive version for those not comfortable at this price point.

Bottom line: I enjoyed the Gear 1 and with the additional new improvements, I'm very pleased to own a Gear 2. I find it very useful on a day to day basis!

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