So the Galaxy Gear is a test product from Samsung, which was burnt to the ground when it was released, by critics everywhere.
We at SamMobile always saw its full potential, but after 2 months do we still think it is as good as we thought it would be and do we still use it?
Well, in everyday use I really, really like the gear, I use it every day. Before the Gear I was a G-Shock guy, but ever since I got the Galaxy Gear I never wore my G-Shocks again (sorry Casio).
The Galaxy Gear makes me more social to my surroundings (the phone addict as I am), as weird as this may sound.
But picture this: You`re in a restaurant with your girlfriend and you will get a notification. The first thing you do is to get your phone out of your pocket, unlock it and swipe down its notification panel. Than you see that it was a spam mail, all this you do while looking at your phone and not at your girlfriend.
Now with the recent update the Galaxy Gear got, it will go like this. You will get a notification, you will flick your wrist, and you see that it is a SPAM mail. As you can see this will take half of the time you need when taking out your phone out of your pocket and do all those aforementioned steps.
I use my phone as a MP3 player as well, and I travel a lot with public transport. Skipping tracks was quite a hassle before I used the Gear. This is something I realised last week, while I was taking the Tube here in the Netherlands. At the opposite of where I was sitting there was a guy with an iPhone: he had to take his phone out of his pocket to select another track, before which he needed to disturb the guy who sat next to him to get his phone out of his pocket.
The way I do it now is to wake my watch and go to the media controller and skip the tracks there. This is without taking my device out of my pocket and without disturbing anyone. One point of criticism is that you can’t select albums , you only can skip tracks ( Nothing what an update can’t fix, right? Samsung, are you reading this?)
We all have these situations that we want to take a picture of the moment as quickly as possible. I went to an indoor play hall with my son. There was a moment that he was in a tank with a lot of colored little balls – this was a very nice picture to take, but I needed to take out my phone, unlock it, start the camera then take the picture. As you can guess the moment was long gone.
Than I went to the same place when I had my Gear, my son was in the same tank in pretty much a similar moment as before. This time I flicked my wrist, swiped down to get to the camera, pointed and took a shot, and tada, I now have that moment captured in a picture.
“This is a short story on how I use my Gear. As you can see it a nice addition to my phone, which due to my watch lives longer as I wake my device less than I used to before, which in turn keeps the screen off more than it used to. The Gear is something thing I really love – it has customisable watch faces, so when I go out on dinner with my girl I can set a really fancy watch face. Not to mention the Hands-Free capabillity when you're driving a car (as I do not have a carkit). The only set back is charging, as I can go 2 full days or more, on a full charge. You need to bring the cradle everywhere you go cause you will forget it sometimes. Samsung could have placed a second one in the box in my opinion, one for at work and one for at home”
One of my Custom Clockfaces. (Credits to Openmind_NL)
My battery after 1 day of medium usage.
All in all, the Galaxy Gear is a great mobile device to have, and I'm not sure I'll be able to live without it anymore. Nice job, Samsung!
