When Samsung debuted the Note 3 at IFA 2013 in Berlin, they also launched a companion device for it, the Galaxy Gear smartwatch. We now have both devices on our testing table and it’s safe to say that the Galaxy Gear is quite a piece of gear.
In spite of getting a lot of criticism in the press, I really fancy its design. This smartwatch is priced at $299 on Amazon and it’s the very first smartwatch that Samsung made. It comes with a wooden imitation box, that holds its cradle, charger and manuals. That cradle will wrap around the body of the watch, connect to its pins and charge it.
It will also activate the install process of the Gear software on the Note 3 once you tap the cradle to the phablet’s back. Samsung Galaxy Gear features an 800 MHz Exynos CPU, a 1.63 inch Super AMOLED 320 x 320 pixel display, a 1.9 megapixel camera with BSI and autofocus and 512 MB of RAM. There are 2 microphones on board, one speaker, Bluetooth 4.0, an accelerometer, gyroscope and a 315 mAh battery.
The device weighs 73.8 grams and measures 11.1 mm in thickness. Its belt is rubbery and offers you choices of lengths to extend it or shorten it. This product feels nice on the wrist, but we’ll be back with more details in the full review.
