As the title says .... Whatever smartwatch you have, give a small or detailed review.
I been wearing a Gear 2 Neo(black) since last Sept. Bought it for $199.
Design .... Nothing to brag about in the beauty department. Definitely not something to show off with. I do love that it's not bulky and has a thin profile. No buttons or dials on the side, which I like. Has a home button only, which you really don't need to use much, as operation is mostly touch. Default bands are okay, but very tight if you got big wrists.
OS .... Runs on Tizen. Very stable and very responsive. Mini TouchWiz style of homescreens and icon layout. Nothing fancy, or confusing, and everything seems direct to the point.
Screen .... 1.63 super amoled. Perfect size for me, any bigger and I might feel like I have a smartphone on my wrist. Screen is nice and vibrant. Feels like I'm looking at a quality screen.
Screen also works good while wearing gloves. Not sure about those huge bulky gloves.
Durability .... To my surprise, the durability is excellent. I've hit and scraped the screen more times than I'm comfortable with, and still no scratches, cracks, or dents on the screen or body. Watch still looks mint. I've also took showers and went swimming with it, no problems. Have yet to try in beach waters, don't trust salt waters. Had no problems operating in 1 degree fahrenheit temps to 90+ temps.
Battery .... In my experience, This really depends on the combination of the screen brightness, wake-up gesture, and screen timeout settings. I keep my brightness on max, wake up gesture turned off(it's annoying), and screen timeout to 10 sec. With that I can get 5 days before it's completely drained. I usually charge it every three days. Of course if you play with it like a toy, battery life will decrease much quicker.
Notifications .... Easy to configure and straight forward using the Gear Manager on your phone. The option for audible notifications or vibration, but not audible and vibrate at the same time. Also, I wish the vibration intensity was stronger. It's a little bit on the weak side even when set on "strong". Maybe this is due to it's thinness. You also have the option for the screen to turn on/off during notifications.
Most of time, I usually hear the notification tones from my phone and quickly glance at my watch. But the vibration from my watch works well too when you don't hear anything. But once you get used to the vibration on you're wrist, if you are distracted, you might not notice. This is why I mentioned the need for vibration intensity to be stronger.
Notable Features .... Able to make and receive calls on the watch. IR blaster, S-voice, and Find my device.
I rarely make or receive calls on my watch, but it has helped me a few times. Recently, my phone was stuck between the couch cushions and I had an important call coming in. It was cool to just answer with my watch vs missing the call while trying to dig my phone out.
IR blaster is pretty good, but the WatchOn app is limited to one remote setup. You can't have multiple setups like the phone version.
Rarely use S-voice, but it seems to work decently. Had to use find my device several times.
App selection .... I guess it's decent for a watch. There's enough free and paid stuff. But if you look at a smartwatch like a smartphone, you might be disappointed.
I mostly use default apps and watch faces. Gearam Music ID, Flesky Messenger, and a calculator app has been my most used third party apps. Playing around and installing a ton of differ third party apps gets old quick on a smartwatch. Again, it's not a smartphone.
Email ... I get notifications from any email app I want without any problems. But you only have the ability to reply to emails using the default email app on TouchWiz. This is not a problem for me, since I don't see myself replying to emails on my watch. But I think the Gmail and Inbox app should be included also.
Texts ... Notifications work as expected. Left and right gestures to call or text reply. There is no default keyboard on the Gear 2 Neo. You have the option of replying to text using pre-written templates which you can edit from the Gear Manager on your phone. Also have the option of using S-voice and emoticons. When I want to use a keyboard to reply to texts from my watch, I use Flesky Messenger app which works well. But I rarely do that.
Health/Fitness ... Blah ... Blah ... Blah. Probably that last reason for my purchase. I do use the heart rate measure every now and then mainly for the fun of it, and it is pretty accurate. As far as the Sleep and Pedometer, I don't care for it and it's probably not accurate. I still haven't found a way to turn the pedometer off. It's always counting in the background and once every two weeks or so, it'll pop up with the results and ask me to unlock S health on my phone. I just ignore it.
Music ... You can easily load music via usb or select music from your phone and have it sent. The music player is pretty good. Scrolling a track is as easy as on a phone. You can also stream music to any bluetooth player. Great for jogging with BT headphones when you don't want to carry your phone with you. Has enough space to load a decent about of tracks.
Overall .... For the price of $199(it's cheaper now), I think the Gear 2 Neo is worth it. My phone is taken out my pocket probably around 50% less due to viewing the time, caller ID, and notifications on my watch. There are also several apps I don't need to depend on my phone for anymore, like the timer, calculator, voice memo, and etc. Excellent battery life and durability means I don't have to baby it.
Plenty about this smartwatch can be improved. But for what it does, it does pretty well so far.
After about 8 months with this watch. I personally wouldn't spend much more on another smartwatch regardless of features. Nothing against more expensive smartwatches, but I know I would end up using them the exact same way, and just use my phone for more robust activities.
I been wearing a Gear 2 Neo(black) since last Sept. Bought it for $199.
Design .... Nothing to brag about in the beauty department. Definitely not something to show off with. I do love that it's not bulky and has a thin profile. No buttons or dials on the side, which I like. Has a home button only, which you really don't need to use much, as operation is mostly touch. Default bands are okay, but very tight if you got big wrists.
OS .... Runs on Tizen. Very stable and very responsive. Mini TouchWiz style of homescreens and icon layout. Nothing fancy, or confusing, and everything seems direct to the point.
Screen .... 1.63 super amoled. Perfect size for me, any bigger and I might feel like I have a smartphone on my wrist. Screen is nice and vibrant. Feels like I'm looking at a quality screen.
Screen also works good while wearing gloves. Not sure about those huge bulky gloves.
Durability .... To my surprise, the durability is excellent. I've hit and scraped the screen more times than I'm comfortable with, and still no scratches, cracks, or dents on the screen or body. Watch still looks mint. I've also took showers and went swimming with it, no problems. Have yet to try in beach waters, don't trust salt waters. Had no problems operating in 1 degree fahrenheit temps to 90+ temps.
Battery .... In my experience, This really depends on the combination of the screen brightness, wake-up gesture, and screen timeout settings. I keep my brightness on max, wake up gesture turned off(it's annoying), and screen timeout to 10 sec. With that I can get 5 days before it's completely drained. I usually charge it every three days. Of course if you play with it like a toy, battery life will decrease much quicker.
Notifications .... Easy to configure and straight forward using the Gear Manager on your phone. The option for audible notifications or vibration, but not audible and vibrate at the same time. Also, I wish the vibration intensity was stronger. It's a little bit on the weak side even when set on "strong". Maybe this is due to it's thinness. You also have the option for the screen to turn on/off during notifications.
Most of time, I usually hear the notification tones from my phone and quickly glance at my watch. But the vibration from my watch works well too when you don't hear anything. But once you get used to the vibration on you're wrist, if you are distracted, you might not notice. This is why I mentioned the need for vibration intensity to be stronger.
Notable Features .... Able to make and receive calls on the watch. IR blaster, S-voice, and Find my device.
I rarely make or receive calls on my watch, but it has helped me a few times. Recently, my phone was stuck between the couch cushions and I had an important call coming in. It was cool to just answer with my watch vs missing the call while trying to dig my phone out.
IR blaster is pretty good, but the WatchOn app is limited to one remote setup. You can't have multiple setups like the phone version.
Rarely use S-voice, but it seems to work decently. Had to use find my device several times.
App selection .... I guess it's decent for a watch. There's enough free and paid stuff. But if you look at a smartwatch like a smartphone, you might be disappointed.
I mostly use default apps and watch faces. Gearam Music ID, Flesky Messenger, and a calculator app has been my most used third party apps. Playing around and installing a ton of differ third party apps gets old quick on a smartwatch. Again, it's not a smartphone.
Email ... I get notifications from any email app I want without any problems. But you only have the ability to reply to emails using the default email app on TouchWiz. This is not a problem for me, since I don't see myself replying to emails on my watch. But I think the Gmail and Inbox app should be included also.
Texts ... Notifications work as expected. Left and right gestures to call or text reply. There is no default keyboard on the Gear 2 Neo. You have the option of replying to text using pre-written templates which you can edit from the Gear Manager on your phone. Also have the option of using S-voice and emoticons. When I want to use a keyboard to reply to texts from my watch, I use Flesky Messenger app which works well. But I rarely do that.
Health/Fitness ... Blah ... Blah ... Blah. Probably that last reason for my purchase. I do use the heart rate measure every now and then mainly for the fun of it, and it is pretty accurate. As far as the Sleep and Pedometer, I don't care for it and it's probably not accurate. I still haven't found a way to turn the pedometer off. It's always counting in the background and once every two weeks or so, it'll pop up with the results and ask me to unlock S health on my phone. I just ignore it.
Music ... You can easily load music via usb or select music from your phone and have it sent. The music player is pretty good. Scrolling a track is as easy as on a phone. You can also stream music to any bluetooth player. Great for jogging with BT headphones when you don't want to carry your phone with you. Has enough space to load a decent about of tracks.
Overall .... For the price of $199(it's cheaper now), I think the Gear 2 Neo is worth it. My phone is taken out my pocket probably around 50% less due to viewing the time, caller ID, and notifications on my watch. There are also several apps I don't need to depend on my phone for anymore, like the timer, calculator, voice memo, and etc. Excellent battery life and durability means I don't have to baby it.
Plenty about this smartwatch can be improved. But for what it does, it does pretty well so far.
After about 8 months with this watch. I personally wouldn't spend much more on another smartwatch regardless of features. Nothing against more expensive smartwatches, but I know I would end up using them the exact same way, and just use my phone for more robust activities.
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You can activate Siri from the watch or snap a photo remotely. 
