Maybe the smartwatch is just not going to happen. Android Wear, Google's brand new OS for wearables, seems like the best shot so far. And yet, after testing the Samsung Gear Live and the LG G Watch, I don't see either device as a must-have accessory. That said, the $199 Gear Live is the better of the two. It has a heart rate sensor and a sharper screen than the G Watch, and is $30 less expensive as well. It does a nice job of bringing smartphone notifications to your wrist, and if you swear by Google Now you'll be pleased. That said, I'm still counting on the Moto 360 or a wearable device from Apple to make a bigger splash.
Compatibility, Design, and Display
The versions of Android Wear on the LG G Watch and Samsung Gear Live are virtually identical, so we're sharing a lot of material between our reviews. Although it's open to many more people than the Samsung-only Gear 2, the Gear Live still requires a companion smartphone to use it. In general, Android Wear only works with devices running Android 4.3 (Jelly Bean) or higher. You need to download the Android Wear app from Google Play in order to connect the watch to your phone. For this review, I tested the Gear Live with a Samsung Galaxy S5.
If you've seen any of Samsung's other recent smartwatch offerings, the design of the Gear Live should look pretty familiar. In fact, you might be hard pressed to tell the difference between the Gear Live and the recent Gear 2 (as you can see in the image below). The Gear Live measures 1.49 by 2.22 by 0.35 inches (HWD) and weighs 1.97 ounces, which makes it a little lighter than the Gear 2, but it still feels big and bulky on the wrist. The watch comes in black, with a silver design around the face and a single physical button on the right that triggers the display. This is a big improvement over the LG G Watch, which lacks a button and can be a pain to turn on. The watch is IP 67 rated for dust and water resistance, so it can safely be immersed in water up to three feet deep.
The strap features a dual-prong clasp that never felt truly secure. On top of that, the watch either felt too tight or too loose—I was never able to get a comfortable fit. Thankfully, you can swap the included rubber strap out for any 22mm (0.87-inch) band of your choosing. A standard leather or fabric band will not only make the watch more comfortable to wear, but also gives you the option for something a bit more stylish. That said, the face of the watch is big, and sure to draw attention no matter the strap you use.
Hardware and Battery Life
The Gear Live is powered by a 1.2GHz processor (Samsung doesn't specify what kind, though a recent teardown shows it's a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400, same as the G Watch) and 512MB RAM, along with 4GB of internal storage. It feels faster than the Gear 2, and just about identical to the G Watch, which mostly shares the same specs.
The most notable difference between the two watches is that the Gear Live has a 1.63-inch, 320-by-320-pixel Super AMOLED display, as opposed to the 1.65-inch, 280-by-280-pixel LCD on the G Watch. That AMOLED screen make the Gear Live a bit more vibrant, but the higher resolution makes text and icons smaller, which, on an already-tiny screen, can make it difficult to press the right thing if you have large fingers. I found it difficult to swipe my way around the interface, and would often trigger the function above or below what I actually wanted to do. This wouldn't be a big deal if it were easier to go back a step, but navigating Android Wear isn't particularly intuitive (more on this later).
The watch connects to your phone via Bluetooth 4.0 and features an accelerometer, compass, gyroscope, and a heart rate monitor. The heart rate monitor is another improvement over the G Watch, which doesn't have one at all. It only works when you trigger it, but it's useful if you plan to use the watch as a fitness tool. It uses an optical sensor to measure the flow of blood through your veins and takes about 10 seconds to get a reading.
Perhaps my biggest issue with the Gear Live (and the G Watch, for that matter) is battery life. With regular usage, the 300mAh battery in the Gear Live only has about a day's worth of life in it. You'll definitely be able to make it through a full day, but you'll need to charge it every night. I've worn my Timex Weekender for over five years now, and I haven't replaced the battery once, so having to charge a watch every night is a deal breaker for me.
To add insult to injury, in order to charge the Gear Live, you need to snap it into a cradle that hooks onto the back of the watch. It's the same for Samsung's other watches, and it's really annoying. It would be so much easier to plug the micro USB charging cable directly into the face of the watch itself, rather than attempting to fumble around with the cradle every time you need a charge.
On the positive side, the Gear Live has an always-on screen, like the Pebble, so at least you'll always be able to tell the time. It turns monochrome and dims after just a few seconds of inactivity, but it's still nice to have the time close at hand, like a traditional watch. You can set the display to turn off instead, which will save you some battery life, but in my opinion, a watch should always tell the time. You can press the button on the side of the watch to wake it up, or you can simply hold it up to your face, though this doesn't work as well as it does on the Gear 2. I raised the Gear Live up to my field of view a number of times without anything happening.
Pairing and User Interface
To start using the Gear Live, you'll need to activate Bluetooth on your compatible phone and download the Android Wear app from Google Play. Once installed, you can simply follow the prompts on the watch and app to complete the pairing process.
The Gear Live is one of the first devices to run Android Wear, which is markedly different than the Tizen OS on the Gear 2 or the modified version of Android on the original Galaxy Gear. In essence, Android Wear is about putting smartphone notifications and Google Now functionality on your wrist, and I'll get to how that works shortly. First, you need to figure out how to navigate your way around the Android Wear interface, which unfortunately, isn't very simple to do.
No comments:
Post a Comment