Playing like 007

The perfect companion to a Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014, the Galaxy Gear smartwatch makes life a whole lot more convenient by allowing you to make and answer calls as well as write and read SMS messages on your Note 10.1 2014 Edition without even removing the tablet from your bag.

Gear is Bluetooth-linked to your Note 10.1 2014 Edition and it notifies users of incoming calls, texts, emails and alerts with a preview of those notifications. If you have good English pronunciation, you can use S Voice, which is a voice command utility on Gear, to link to S Voice on the new Note 10.1 to reply to an SMS message, create new calendar entries, set alarms and even dial a phone number.

When Samsung launched Gear earlier this year, it could only be used with Note 3. Now the Korean tech giant is planning to upgrade the firmware of several of its mobile devices to link with Gear. Note 10.1 is the second device that supports its.

I tested it with Note 10.1 2014 Edition with no problem. Linking Gear with the new Note 10.1 was simple requiring nothing more than the installation of Galaxy Gear Manager on the tablet. You have a choose to either manually Bluetooth-link your tablet or phone to Gear or, if your tablet or smart phone has NFC (near field communication) function, tap it to the back of Gear to initiate the connection automatically.

Gear is powered by 800 MHz processor and features 1.63-inch Super AMOLED display with 320 x 320 resolutions. It has two microphones and noise cancellation function. Its built-in speaker allows it to become a hand-free speaker phone for Note 10.1. And with so much high-tech on the market, no one will give you a strange look if you do a James Bond and talk to the watch.

Another fun feature of Gear is its 1.9 megapixel camera. Its lens is embedded on the strap and you can use it like a spy camera for capturing both photos and video clips.

Apart from using S Voice to dial a phone number, Gear comes with a dialer app to let you make a call manually. It also synchronises its contact list with that on your Note 10.1 2014 so that you can make a call just by tapping a name on the list.

The home screen of Gear shows the clock in a selectable style. It is preloaded with 10 different clock options and more choices can be downloaded via Samsung Apps. The home screen also shows weather information relayed from the tablet. Launch the weather app by tapping on the weather information.

You can also use Gear’s Media Controller to control music playing on your tablet or smart phone.

Gear has no navigation buttons with navigation handled by swiping the screen left or right or flicking the screen up or down.

Galaxy Gear comes Jet Black, Mocha Grey, Wild Orange, Oatmeal Beige, Rose Gold and Lime Green and costs Bt8,900. 

 

Key specs

_ Processor: 800 MHz processor

_ Display: 1.63-inch Super AMOLED (320 x 320 pixels)

_ Camera: 1.9 Megapixel BSI Sensor

_ Video: Codec: H.264, Format: MP4, HD (720p)

 

     Playback & Recording

_ Audio: Codec: AAC, Format: M4A

_ Additional Connectivity: Bluetooth v 4.0 + BLE

_ Sensor: Accelerometer, Gyroscope

_ Memory: 4GB Internal memory 

_ Dimension: 36.8 x 56.6 x 11.1 mm

_ Battery: Li-ion 315mAh

_ Weight:  73.8g