Samsung reveals Gear S2 at IFA 2015

The IFA tech show in Berlin opened this Thursday with Samsung announcing its Gear S2 smartwatches. Samsung launched two variants namely Gear S2 and Gear S2 Classic and also announced their prices. Since the company is making advances in the direct of Internet of Things, it showcased a new Car Mode for Galaxy devices. This an app powered by Mirrorlink which is a popular car connectivity standard in the industry. Samsung launched Car Mode in association with Volkswagen to compete with Android Auto of Google. This app can be controlled using both voice and touch. The voice control is powered by S-Voice. It can make calls safely, play songs, give you directions and read messages for you. We also came to hear that Barnes & Noble launched Galaxy Tab S2 Nook tab in association with Samsung. Samsung has confirmed that the Gear S2 will be priced at EUR 349 i.e., Rs. 25,800, whereas the other classic version will cost EUR 399 i.e., Rs. 29,500. The smartwatch will be available for sale beginning next month only in Finland and Denmark initially.
Now coming to through which devices the Gear S2 will work with? Samsung said it will work with Android 4.4 and above devices having more than 1.5 GB RAM. A list of all the compatible devices has been published and includes handsets such as Sony Xperia Z3, HTC One M9, LG G4, Nexus 6, Asus ZenFone 2, Motorola Moto X, Huawei Ascend Mate 7 and so on. You can check for your device here.

Towards the end of the show, the company teased a new product which appears to be a Tablet – a large one. It is being called “Galaxy View”. We couldn’t see many details except it has a kickstand on the back panel. It could be a new tablet or accessory – we’ll have to wait to know!
The Samsung circular smartwatches have a rotatable bezel which is the highlight of the watch. Using it one can acquire any information easily. Plus it has Home and Back buttons. The display is of 1.2 inch diameter and is Super Amoled display with 360 x 360 screen resolution and 302ppi pixel density. A dual core 1GHz processor powers the wearables. The watches are completely dust and water proof and have various sensors like accelerometer, gyroscope, ambient light sensor, barometer and heart rate monitor. And what more? You can charge it wirelessly and once fully charged the battery can go on for 2-3 days. Samsung has also released Tizen SDK for developers to create Gear S2 standalone apps. It includes API’s for call, networks and location. Using this SDK both native apps and web – based apps can be built.