Samsung Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo Specs, Prices, Reviews: Samsung’s Second Gen Smartwatches Priced Too High; Will Samsung Gear 3 be Bundled with Galaxy Note 4?

Samsung Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo Specs, Prices, Reviews: Samsung's Second Gen Smartwatches Priced Too High; Will Samsung Gear 3 be Bundled with Galaxy Note 4?

The Samsung Gear 2 and Samsung Gear 2 Neo smartwatches were launched February 22, 2014, during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. The Gear 2 line succeeds the earlier Samsung Galaxy Gear line which was released September of last year.

The Samsung Gear 2 has a steel exterior while the Samsung Gear 2 Neo's is made from plastic. However, the Gear 2 Neo model has no camera while the Gear 2 version has. Aside from these differences, the two are practically identical. In comparison with the earlier Android-powered Samsung Galaxy Gear, the Gear 2 smartwatches run on Tizen, a Linux-based operating system developed by Samsung.

At the Amazon store, the Samsung Gear 2 price is around $270 for new, around $230 for refurbished, and around $210 for used. The Samsung Gear 2 Neo comes slightly cheaper at about $200 for new, about $153 for refurbished, and about $145 for used.

In terms of the hardware, the Samsung Gear 2 specs include a 1.0 GHz dual-core Exynos 3250 system-on-chips, a 1.63-inch, 320 pixel-wide square-shaped Super AMOLED touchscreen, 512MB of RAM, 4GB of internal storage, 300 mAh battery, an optical heart-rate sensor, an accelerometer, a motion-sensing gyroscope, plus, it has Bluetooth 4.0 for connectivity. It also has an IR blaster for controlling a Samsung TV/audio/video entertainment center. It is available in three colors in one standard size with changeable wrist straps.

So far, Samsung Gear 2 reviews have been mixed, both with the critics and with the ordinary users. Phone Arena says, "the Gear 2 is an extension of your smartphone at the very, very best. At worst, it's nothing more than a watch for techies, and an expensive one at that." The same sentiment is echoed by End Gadget: "The Gear 2 is generally a solid improvement over the original, with a nicer design and longer battery life. Even so, it doesn't perform well enough to fully justify the $300 asking price." And PC Mag: "The Samsung Gear 2 smartwatch is a vast improvement over the original, but it's still too expensive and limited to appeal to most users." As well as Tech Radar: "Overall I'm going to say it's very hard to recommend the Gear 2 to anybody as a) only a certain section of the watch-buying public will have a Samsung phone, and even fewer will have the cash to afford the Gear 2." At the Amazon store, only 171 of 335 customers who bought the Samsung Gear 2 Neo gave it a 5-star rating, and most of them also took exception to the rather steep price.

The price though of the Gear 2 line is expected to come down soon as Samsung is reportedly already readying the launch of its third gen Gear smartwatch before year-end. It is even rumored that the upcoming next launch will bundle Samsung Gear 3 with Note 4 according to a report from Phone Arena

 

 

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