Samsung Electronics Co. didn’t disappoint and launched its smart watch, the Galaxy Gear, in addition to the Galaxy Note 3 and a new Galaxy Note 10.1 from Berlin today.
Here’s what we learned about the new mobile devices that will be relased Sept. 25 in most countries and in the rest of the world in October.
Samsung Galaxy Gear
Specs: The screen size is 1.63-inches with a 320 by 320 resolution and is a Super AMOLED touch screen. There’s a 1.9 megapixel camera in the wrist band with autofocus, twin microphones with noise cancellation, and a speaker built into the wrist clasp. It’s 11.1 mm thick and weights 73.8 grams. The processor is 800 Mhz and there is 512 MB of RAM and 4 GB of storage space. Samsung says the 315 mAh battery will last more than a day. The watch has Bluetooth connectivity and an accelerometer.
Samsung billed its smartwatch and the Note 3 as “companion devices” – basically allowing you to keep your smartphone in your pocket but still take calls, see notifications, and send or receive messages. It fit a surprising number of features and gizmos into the watch, such as a camera in the wrist band. It connects via Bluetooth to the Note 3, and presumably other Samsung brand phones. The user controls it with gestures across the touch screen – tap the home screen to wake it up or just lift your wrist up and the accelerometer will trigger the display. Swiping down on the watch will switch to the camera app, and tapping it will snap a photo.
Slash Gear has an extensive hands on with the Galaxy Gear. Here is a video demonstration of it:
Samsung Galaxy Note 3
Specs: It’s a larger screen than its predecessor at 5.7-inches, but the device is the same width. It is 0.32 inches thick and weights 5.9 ounces. It runs on a 2.3 Ghz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor with 3 GB of RAM. The camera is 13 megapixels, and the battery an enlarged 3,200 mAh. Internal storage options are 32 GB or 64 GB, with a microSD card slot for even more expansion.
The device’s design includes a leather-like backing. An improved S-Pen remains a big part of the Note experience, and it’s now able to bring up a new fan menu that will give it short cuts to different functions. The S-Pen can also trigger a split-screen mode on the device and be used to drag and drop content from one pane to another.
Samsung Knox, the security feature that partitions sensitive business data from personal information, will come installed on the Note 3.
Watch the replay of Samsung’s Unpacked event below and the commentary of IT World Canada’s editorial team on Twitter at #supitw in the widget below the video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaBP1zLZBzY
