Features, Apps and Performance
As far as the Gear’s functionality goes, let’s set one thing straight: It’s not a replacement for your cellphone. It’s a companion that connects to the phone via Bluetooth, extending its functionality and, ideally, making it less necessary to reach into your pocket for your phone.
For starters, Samsung included some nifty features. The Memographer, which takes photos and videos directly from your wrist, as well as the Pedometer, which tracks your physical activities, are nice enough to make us want to spend more time with the Gear.
The myriad of apps from Samsung’s 70 partners, including RunKeeper, Tripit, Evernote, Vivino, eBay and Path — all available at launch — will make the Gear even more interesting. The variety of choice is what truly makes Gear a smart watch, but the usefulness of many of those apps remains to be seen.
The performance of the device, however, is somewhat lacking. Perhaps we’re just spoiled by super-fast smartphones (the Gear has 512MB of RAM and an 800MHz processor) The Gear is priced at $299.