The hype surrounding Samsung’s debut into smartwatches, the Samsung Galaxy Gear, is growing as we get closer to the release of the product on September 4. But could we be getting a look at the device early? Yes! Recently, technology website VentureBeat got what seems to be a glimpse at the Galaxy Gear 4 days before the actual release of the product.
The model that has been leaked is one of the prototypes that Samsung sent out to developers and selected partners of Samsung, which means that the final product might not be exactly the same, but it won’t be too different.
The device itself boasts a high-quality OLED display, with a square screen of about 3 inches diagonally. The prototype includes the use of Bluetooth, enabling it to connect with Galaxy S devices, but it is expected that the device will be able to connect to all Android devices. It can also connect to the Internet via WiFi, and can send and receive emails through this feature. This is different from other smartwatches that must be connected to a smartphone to manage emails.
Even the strap of the device includes some vital features. The strap itself houses a 4-megapixel camera and a small speaker.
Other features of the device include the ability to use it to control your Galaxy S device through voice commands, and over 10 hours of battery life on a single charge. 10 hours really isn’t very much, so hopefully this has been improved upon in the final version of the watch. The Galaxy Gear is also expected to be closely integrated with social media, and should allow for the wearer to have better control over their preferred social media accounts.
The watch is expected to be a great replacement for fitness trackers, and will be able to track things like calorie intake, and steps taken on a run. It is clear that Samsung aims for this device to rival other fitness devices as the Galaxy Gear has a built in heart rate monitor. It is also rumored that a health startup based in Palo Alto, California, is working with Samsung to develop a set of fitness apps for the device. The watch will even allow for the wearer to track their calorie intake through a food diary system which includes the wearer taking photos of their food.
Samsung has been focusing a lot on health devices and apps recently, so a watch that is heavily focused on fitness and health is to be expected. Samsung even released their own health app called S Health, which can keep track of steps taken, as well as the temperature and humidity of the room you’re in.
The Samsung Galaxy Gear is expected to be a rival to the heavily rumored Apple iWatch, which is expected to be released later this year. While the iWatch will be a big rival to the Galaxy Gear, Samsung is making a good decision in releasing the Galaxy Gear before Apple releases their iWatch, and it could help them gain a lot of the market before Apple does.
