Samsung Launches Android Smartwatch With 3G Connectivity

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August 28, 2014 10:43 AM

The Gear S is Samsung's first smartwatch that has its own 3G connection, meaning it can be used without a smartphone.

Samsung is at it again. Just six months after it announced its second-generation smartwatch — and just two since it launched its first Android Wear model — the company has a new wrist wearable: the Gear S.

This time there's an extra twist, though: It's the first Samsung smartwatch with built-in 3G connectivity.

The Samsung Gear S has the ability to connect to 3G and 2G networks on its own, meaning users won't need to keep it wirelessly tethered to a smartphone in order to get notifications or make calls.

The watch does include Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, though, so a user has the option of still pairing it with a smartphone some or all of the time.

The display on the Gear S is a 2-inch SuperAMOLED screen with 360 x 480 resolution, making it fairly large as smartwatches go, although the curved screen (similar to the Samsung Gear Fit) makes it a little more sleek. The screen is rectangular, like most smartwatches.

The watch is powered by Samsung's Tizen OS — as opposed to Android Wear, the Google-created wearable operating system, which Samsung has also shown support for via its Gear Live smartwatch.

Tizen, however, is more power-efficient than Android, and the Gear S is rated for two days of battery life.

Samsung says the processor is a dual-core 1GHz design, but it didn't specify the manufacturer or model. It has 512MB of RAM and 4GB of internal memory.

The Samsung Gear S comes in white or black.

There's no camera, but — like Samsung's other Tizen-based Gear watches — it has a standalone music player.

The Gear S stems naturally from Samsung's "throw everything against the wall" approach to most product categories, giving the wearable-curious crowd the option of a getting smartphone-like device without the smartphone.

The display will even call up a QWERTY keyboard when needed, presumably with some pretty tiny keys.

Samsung is also debuting a ring-style headphone model called the Gear Circle. It connects via Bluetooth and features a magnetic lock that clasps around the users's neck when it's not being used. It can also vibrate to give the user notifications.

There's no price yet on the Gear S or Gear Circle, but Samsung says they'll ship in October.

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