Samsung Gear S2 Hands-On Review

# Hands-On Review: Samsung Gear S2 Smartwatch Delivers Innovation and Style

## Introduction to the Samsung Gear S2

Michael Josh from Gadget Match introduces the Samsung Gear S2, a significant leap forward in the smartwatch realm. With Samsung having been pioneers in the smartwatch market since 2013, they have released numerous models before Apple's entry into this space. While previous attempts were experimental and not entirely successful, the Gear S2 marks a pivotal moment where Samsung seems to have nailed it.

## Design Variations: Standard vs. Classic Models

The Gear S2 is available in two distinct designs: the standard model and the classic variant. The primary differences lie in the bezel design around the watch face and the type of strap used.

- **Standard Model**: Features a clean, modern look with a plastic strap made from elastomer material. This lightweight option offers a youthful appeal, reminiscent of Swatch watches.

- **Classic Model**: Boasts a genuine leather strap available in black or brown, complementing its classic bezel design. The watch face sports a chronograph-like aesthetic, giving it an elegant and timeless appearance.

Both models are compatible with standard 20mm watch straps, providing flexibility for users to customize their look further.

## Interface Navigation and Features

The Gear S2's interface is user-friendly and intuitive.

- **Home Screen**: Swiping right from the home screen reveals a menu packed with apps, settings, and widgets such as step counters, weather updates, music players, and fitness metrics.

- **App List**: Navigating through apps like Uber, weather tools, and S Health is seamless. The rotating bezel allows for easy scrolling through app pages, enhancing navigation.

## App Functionality

The smartwatch showcases robust app integration:

- **Uber Integration**: Users can seamlessly hail rides by selecting their preferred service type and location.

- **Email Management**: The device supports email reading with the ability to scroll through messages using the rotating bezel for a hands-free experience.

## Charging and Connectivity

Samsung has opted for wireless charging, eliminating the need for micro USB ports. The watch snaps onto a magnetic docking station for convenient recharging.

Connectivity options include Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and NFC, making it versatile for different usage scenarios. Both 3G and smartphone-paired models are available, ensuring flexibility based on user needs.

## Text Messaging and Input Methods

The Gear S2 allows users to send and receive texts via voice commands, emojis, or a pop-up keyboard. The on-screen keyboard, reminiscent of early candy bar phones, features predictive text input for efficiency, though it's limited by the small screen size.

## Settings and Power Management

The settings menu offers extensive customization options:

- **Vibration Intensity**: Users can adjust vibration strength from strong to none, even testing the intensity with a sample vibration.

- **Power Saving Mode**: This ultra-power saving mode reduces functionality to essential features like calls and notifications, turning off non-essential services to extend battery life. The home screen switches to grayscale in this mode.

## Conclusion

Michael Josh concludes his review by highlighting the Gear S2's strengths—its stylish designs, intuitive interface, and innovative features. He encourages viewers to engage with Gadget Match on social media for feedback and future content.

The Samsung Gear S2 represents a significant evolution in smartwatch technology, blending form and function elegantly. Whether you opt for the sporty standard model or the sophisticated classic version, the Gear S2 offers a tailored experience that caters to diverse user preferences.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enSamsung's got a new smartwatch and this time it looks like they've got it right hi I'm Michael Josh and welcome to gadget match today we go handson with the brand new Samsung Gear S2 when it comes to SmartWatches Samsung is no newbie they have been making them since 2013 and you've got to give them credit they released tons of models before the Apple watch even came around all these models have been more or less experiments not not hugely successful but I think with the new gear S2 the Samsung smartwatch has finally come of age so the gear S2 is available in two designs you have the regular or the standard gear S2 over here and this one they're calling the classic the main difference uh between both models are of course as you can see the bezel Around the Clock face and the type of strap used the strap on the standard model is made up of a material called elastomer plastic it's lightweight and actually feels like you're wearing one of those Swatch watches while the strap on the classic is genuine leather it comes in either black or as you can see here Brown Samsung says it should be compatible with any standard size 20 watch strap the watch faces are also different on the standard model you have clean lines while the classic as its name implies has a more chronograph looking classic bezel in in terms of button placements you have only two up here you have the back button and down here the home button the back of both watches looks like this and as you can see this over here let me try and activate it that is the heart rate monitor on the leather model you remove the straps by pulling down on this tab over here to remove the strap on the base model you just pull like this and as you can see that was pretty easy to take out and to put it back in you just have to pop it back in place like that so this is what the interface of the gear S2 looks like this is the home screen One swipe to the right brings up the menu where you can access apps SVO settings and Buddy another swipe brings out widgets like a step counter schedule the weather music player heart rate monitor and a host of Fitness metrics calendar now this one is pretty cool you can tally how much water and coffee you've had on a particular day so for example let's say you've had uh two cups of coffee and 5 cups of water you can add an alarm and you can also add other widgets from the following options now let's go home you just press the button over here a swipe to the right brings out notifications like uh emails text messages and if you had Miss calls they would appear there as well on the gear S2 Samsung introduces a new way to navigate on the Smartwatch apart from the normal gestures for example swiping and tapping the bezel can be rotated in both directions like this now how does it feel there's there's not a lot of friction just enough actually to get some tactile feedback but just enough that I can smoothly rotate the bezel lightly with one finger now let's go ahead and take a look at the app list let's tap on that there is weather ESO schedule settings running this is Nike Plus integration actually S Health phone messages now if you want to see more apps you just scroll back the other way and then let's tap on next page over here in the middle and then this is another page you can go ahead and tap until you reach the end of your app list speaking of apps uh let's take a look at some of them this one is familiar it's Uber let's go ahead and tap that to launch now it's very easy you can basically initially just select what kind of uber you want to to pick I want to take an Uber black that's my location let's check and let's just skip the destination okay it's requesting and there you go I have an Uber 5 minutes away now the rotating bezel can also be used to scroll through text so over here we actually have an unread email from the Walt Disney Company so let me go ahead and tap into that and now by rotating the bezel I am actually scrolling through the entire email dear G10 your subscription to review blah blah blah you can see and you can just read the entire email and scroll through the entire thing just by rotating your mezel if you take a look there is no micro USB port on any side of the device that's because the Gear 2 uses wireless charging you just plop it down onto its bundled charging dock the watch snaps in magnetically both variants are available in a 3G version but there is no SIM card tray instead it has a built-in e chip that needs to be activated by your respective carrier now whether or not you have the 3G version or you're just paired to a smartphone you can use a smartwatch to send and receive text messages now I have a text message from Alyssa over here let's go ahead and tap to see what she said okay see you let me know if you need any you need me to bring anything now I can reply in one of three ways so I can either use U voice to dictate my reply I can select an emoji maybe that smile over there is pretty cute and of course I'm not connected so right now it's sending fail or I can bring up a keyboard an actual keyboard so that's my uh message input area and then by tapping into it it brings up the keyboard now you it's it's inent of those uh numpads on those candy bar smartphones but it has auto complete and um it'll figure out what you're typing so I can just type the first letter predictive input I think it's called thanks and then click done and as you can see I can go ahead and try and send that of course it's not connected so I will get uh another error message but you get the picture the last thing I want to show you is the settings menu so let's rotate our bezel tap into settings so you see display settings general settings vibration settings is pretty interesting you can actually change the intensity of the vibration from strong to weak to none at all and uh when you tap on a selection it will actually give you a sample it'll actually vibrate a little so you can you can see the difference now just for a bit of review this is the home button this is the back button so if you want to just go back one step just tap the back button and and let's tap it again to go back to our settings menu there are call settings connection settings is also interesting you can connect via Bluetooth Wi-Fi or NFC let's go back screen lock input and then I want to show you power settings if you're familiar with ultra power saving mode on uh Samsung's lineup of smartphones this is similar if you tap into power settings it will ask you to activate power or a saving mode and what it does is it will give you a home screen that is grayscale and it will turn off all functions except for calls messages and notifications so Wi-Fi is turned off and it limits performance but it also saves your battery or the the battery life of your device so let me go ahead and try that let's tap check it's turning on power saving mode and as you recall earlier I had a red clock face now it's just a black and white clock face and I really can't go anywhere except to see my notifications and this is how the home screen looks like and I basically have access to calls and my messages and as you can see I have 28% battery life or and then over here just by tapping on here you can turn power saving off and then we should get back to our colored home screen and there you go and that was a thorough Hands-On look at the new gear S2 from Samsung you have the gear S2 and the gear S2 classic over here if you like this video make sure you give us a thumbs up we have more coming from epha 2015 so make sure you subscribe to our YouTube channel like our Facebook page and follow Gadget match Elsewhere on social media if you have any questions or requests leave them in the comments section below until the next video I'm Michael Josh thanks for dropping bySamsung's got a new smartwatch and this time it looks like they've got it right hi I'm Michael Josh and welcome to gadget match today we go handson with the brand new Samsung Gear S2 when it comes to SmartWatches Samsung is no newbie they have been making them since 2013 and you've got to give them credit they released tons of models before the Apple watch even came around all these models have been more or less experiments not not hugely successful but I think with the new gear S2 the Samsung smartwatch has finally come of age so the gear S2 is available in two designs you have the regular or the standard gear S2 over here and this one they're calling the classic the main difference uh between both models are of course as you can see the bezel Around the Clock face and the type of strap used the strap on the standard model is made up of a material called elastomer plastic it's lightweight and actually feels like you're wearing one of those Swatch watches while the strap on the classic is genuine leather it comes in either black or as you can see here Brown Samsung says it should be compatible with any standard size 20 watch strap the watch faces are also different on the standard model you have clean lines while the classic as its name implies has a more chronograph looking classic bezel in in terms of button placements you have only two up here you have the back button and down here the home button the back of both watches looks like this and as you can see this over here let me try and activate it that is the heart rate monitor on the leather model you remove the straps by pulling down on this tab over here to remove the strap on the base model you just pull like this and as you can see that was pretty easy to take out and to put it back in you just have to pop it back in place like that so this is what the interface of the gear S2 looks like this is the home screen One swipe to the right brings up the menu where you can access apps SVO settings and Buddy another swipe brings out widgets like a step counter schedule the weather music player heart rate monitor and a host of Fitness metrics calendar now this one is pretty cool you can tally how much water and coffee you've had on a particular day so for example let's say you've had uh two cups of coffee and 5 cups of water you can add an alarm and you can also add other widgets from the following options now let's go home you just press the button over here a swipe to the right brings out notifications like uh emails text messages and if you had Miss calls they would appear there as well on the gear S2 Samsung introduces a new way to navigate on the Smartwatch apart from the normal gestures for example swiping and tapping the bezel can be rotated in both directions like this now how does it feel there's there's not a lot of friction just enough actually to get some tactile feedback but just enough that I can smoothly rotate the bezel lightly with one finger now let's go ahead and take a look at the app list let's tap on that there is weather ESO schedule settings running this is Nike Plus integration actually S Health phone messages now if you want to see more apps you just scroll back the other way and then let's tap on next page over here in the middle and then this is another page you can go ahead and tap until you reach the end of your app list speaking of apps uh let's take a look at some of them this one is familiar it's Uber let's go ahead and tap that to launch now it's very easy you can basically initially just select what kind of uber you want to to pick I want to take an Uber black that's my location let's check and let's just skip the destination okay it's requesting and there you go I have an Uber 5 minutes away now the rotating bezel can also be used to scroll through text so over here we actually have an unread email from the Walt Disney Company so let me go ahead and tap into that and now by rotating the bezel I am actually scrolling through the entire email dear G10 your subscription to review blah blah blah you can see and you can just read the entire email and scroll through the entire thing just by rotating your mezel if you take a look there is no micro USB port on any side of the device that's because the Gear 2 uses wireless charging you just plop it down onto its bundled charging dock the watch snaps in magnetically both variants are available in a 3G version but there is no SIM card tray instead it has a built-in e chip that needs to be activated by your respective carrier now whether or not you have the 3G version or you're just paired to a smartphone you can use a smartwatch to send and receive text messages now I have a text message from Alyssa over here let's go ahead and tap to see what she said okay see you let me know if you need any you need me to bring anything now I can reply in one of three ways so I can either use U voice to dictate my reply I can select an emoji maybe that smile over there is pretty cute and of course I'm not connected so right now it's sending fail or I can bring up a keyboard an actual keyboard so that's my uh message input area and then by tapping into it it brings up the keyboard now you it's it's inent of those uh numpads on those candy bar smartphones but it has auto complete and um it'll figure out what you're typing so I can just type the first letter predictive input I think it's called thanks and then click done and as you can see I can go ahead and try and send that of course it's not connected so I will get uh another error message but you get the picture the last thing I want to show you is the settings menu so let's rotate our bezel tap into settings so you see display settings general settings vibration settings is pretty interesting you can actually change the intensity of the vibration from strong to weak to none at all and uh when you tap on a selection it will actually give you a sample it'll actually vibrate a little so you can you can see the difference now just for a bit of review this is the home button this is the back button so if you want to just go back one step just tap the back button and and let's tap it again to go back to our settings menu there are call settings connection settings is also interesting you can connect via Bluetooth Wi-Fi or NFC let's go back screen lock input and then I want to show you power settings if you're familiar with ultra power saving mode on uh Samsung's lineup of smartphones this is similar if you tap into power settings it will ask you to activate power or a saving mode and what it does is it will give you a home screen that is grayscale and it will turn off all functions except for calls messages and notifications so Wi-Fi is turned off and it limits performance but it also saves your battery or the the battery life of your device so let me go ahead and try that let's tap check it's turning on power saving mode and as you recall earlier I had a red clock face now it's just a black and white clock face and I really can't go anywhere except to see my notifications and this is how the home screen looks like and I basically have access to calls and my messages and as you can see I have 28% battery life or and then over here just by tapping on here you can turn power saving off and then we should get back to our colored home screen and there you go and that was a thorough Hands-On look at the new gear S2 from Samsung you have the gear S2 and the gear S2 classic over here if you like this video make sure you give us a thumbs up we have more coming from epha 2015 so make sure you subscribe to our YouTube channel like our Facebook page and follow Gadget match Elsewhere on social media if you have any questions or requests leave them in the comments section below until the next video I'm Michael Josh thanks for dropping by\n"