Is this the smartphone smartwatch?

YOU CAN STAY healthy and keep in touch with your social networks at the same time thanks to the Gear S2 smartwatch from Samsung. It connects to your smartphone via Bluetooth and alerts you when there’s email, a message or something new on Facebook.

A built-in S Health app and sensors monitor your activities to assemble a guide that will help keep you fit. A heart-rate sensor embedded in the back counts the beats after exercise and at rest.

The Gear S2 can pair with any phone running on Android Version 4.4 or later that has at least 1.5 gigabytes of working memory (RAM). You also need to download and install the Samsung Gear app on your phone.

I hooked the S2 up to a Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+ and then use the Gear app to customise it – you can change the watch face and choose which alert applications best serve your needs.

There are 12 watch faces to choose among as a start and more available through the Gear app. Some of the faces can be further customised. One of the more useful faces stores the Nike+ Running app, which displays results from a jog. Others show heart rate and the number of steps you take in a day. 

There are still other apps that display the top stories from CNN and the S&P and Dow Jones indices on a Bloomberg feed. You never know when you might need to turn around and jog back home or head to the office!

A beauty on the wrist – the credit goes to Italian architect Alessandro Mendini – the Gear S2 has a circular body of durable stainless steel about as thick as a normal watch.

The performance is commendable, too, thanks to an Exynos 3250 processor and decent memory – 512 megabytes of RAM and 4GB of storage. The 250mAh battery is handily recharged using a wireless dock that’s provided.

The 1.2-inch circular Super Amoled display boasts 360x360-pixel (302ppi) resolution and is bright and colourful. The watch is water-resistant with an IP68 rating, meaning it can stay a metre and a half deep for up to 30 minutes.

The S2 is also easy to operate with just two buttons (home key to return to the watch face and back key for jumping back to the previous screen), the touch screen and a rotating bezel.

You can press Home or just touch the screen and then turn the bezel to browse through alternative watch faces. Find the one you like and tap it to select it for use. If the face is customisable, you’ll see the word “style”. Tap that and twirl the bezel for options.

The bezel will also scroll you through lengthy emails, zoom into a map and jump to the next music track on your phone or its own internal storage.

Added proof of the Gear S2’s smarts is the fact that just raising your wrist wakens the watch display from its battery-saving default slumber. Lower your wrist and the display shuts off again. You need only to cover the dial with your other hand to turn off the screen instantly.

And did we mention that the S2 can be set up to actually display the time of day?

Amazingly, the watch automatically “realised” I’d set off on a walk or a bike ride. The S Health app immediately began recording steps and elapsed time. After 15 minutes of continuous walking, S Health popped up on the screen to say I was doing a “healthy walk” and encouraged me to keep going.

Using the same app, you can name the specific type of exercise you have in mind – running, walking, cycling, hiking or working out on an elliptical trainer, an exercise bike or a step machine – and set targets for duration, distance and burned calories. S Health will track your intake of water and caffeine, as well.

To make the workout more enjoyable, link the S2 to Bluetooth-enabled headphones and listen to the music you have stored on the watch. It can cache up to 300 standard MP3 files.

Other useful apps for the watch include Schedule, Messages, Phone, Weather, Alarm, Timer, Stopwatch, Gallery, Maps, Voice Memo and Buddy. Once you set up the S2 as a speaker for your phone, Buddy is handy for creating a list of personal contacts. You’ll be able to call friends and family and send them messages right from the watch. 

Meanwhile the Samsung Gear app helps you compose short text messages for responding to messages received, via Facebook chat, for example. You can type the text on the watch face or just reply with a sticker. And the S Voice app is ready to record your verbally dictated responses – though they have to be in English, well enunciated and spoken in a quiet environment. 

The Samsung Gear S2 Sport has a suggested retail price of Bt9,900.

 

Key Specs

 

- OS: Tizen-based wearable platform

- Processor: Dual core 1GHz

- Storage: 4GB Internal Memory

- RAM: 512MB

- Display: 1.2-inch Circular Super Amoled, 360x360, 302ppi

- Communications: Contacts, Notifications, Messages, Email, Preset Text, Voice Input, |Emoticons, Keypads

- Health & Fitness: S Health, Nike+ Running

- Information: Schedule, News, Maps & Navigation, Weather

- Media: Music Player, Gallery

- Battery: 250mAh Li-ion, typical usage two to three days, wireless charging

- Connectivity: Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n), Bluetooth 4.1, NFC

- Sensors: Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Heart Rate, Ambient Light, Barometer

- Audio Codec: MP3/AAC/AAC+/eAAC+

- Format: MP3, M4A, AAC, OGG

- Dimensions: 42.3x49.8x11.4mm 

- Weight: 47 grams