This is everything you need to know about the Galaxy Watch!
Samsung's Galaxy Watch is sleek, round, and powerful. Here are the biggest details.
Following excellent wearables such as the Gear S3 and Gear Sport, Samsung's coming back to the smartwatch market once more with the Galaxy Watch.
The Galaxy Watch ditches the Gear branding to be more in-line with Samsung's other mobile products, and while there's nothing all that revolutionary here, the Galaxy Watch is shaping up to be one heck of a gadget if you're in the market for a new wrist computer.
Here's everything you need to know!
It's available in two sizes
For the first time, Samsung's selling the Galaxy Watch in two different sizes — including 42mm and 46mm. Seeing as how the Gear S3 was a comically large smartwatch and the Gear Sport was designed more for smaller wrists, it's nice to see that Samsung's catering to people of all wrist sizes with one single product.
No matter if you pick up the 42mm or 46mm option, you'll still get the same design, features, and everyting else.
The Galaxy Watch is packed with fitness features
Samsung's Gear products have often been focused on helping people live better lives, and although that Gear branding is no longer here, the Galaxy Watch continues that idea with a heap of fitness goodies.
You'll find all of the regular suspects here, including calorie and step tracking, reminders to move throughout the day, guided meditation sessions, and heart-rate monitoring. The Samsung Health app on the Galaxy Watch can be used to track up 40 different workouts, can automatically detect six of the most common exercises, and has a built-in GPS to keep you connected while out on a run.
Rounding all of this off, Samsung's also outfitted the Galaxy Watch with 5 ATM water resistance, Corning Gorilla Glass DX+, and military-grade protection (specifically, MIL-STD-810G).
Tizen 4.0 is available out of the box
Despite all of the rumors claiming that the Galaxy Watch would run Wear OS, the Galaxy Watch is, in fact, powered by Samsung's own Tizen operating system.
Samsung mentioned that the Galaxy Watch is running Tizen OS 4.0 which is an upgrade from Tizen 3.0 that shipped on the Gear Sport last year.
The software we've seen so far looks awfully similar compared to past Tizen versions, meaning that you can control the UI using the Galaxy Watch's rotating bezel, download apps/watch faces from the Galaxy Apps Store, etc.
Samsung Pay is here...for NFC payments only
The Gear S3 did a lot of things right, one of which was its inclusion of Samsung Pay for both NFC and MST payments. Samsung Pay is making a return to the Galaxy Watch, but similar to the Gear Sport, only supports NFC transactions.
That's not uncommon for smartwatches that allow for mobile payments, but considering that MST has been such a big draw to Samsung Pay since its introduction in 2015, it is disappointing to see that it won't be coming to the Galaxy Watch.
Also, if you use the Galaxy Watch with an iOS device (aka an iPhone), you won't be able to use Samsung Pay at all.
You'll be able to get an LTE model
One feature the Galaxy Watch does keep from the Gear S3 is LTE support!
We don't have specifics quite yet on which carriers will support the Galaxy Watch, but Samsung has said that it'll work on 30+ carriers across 15+ countries.
It works on Android and iOS
If you're interested in picking up the Galaxy Watch, you'll be able to use it with both Android and iOS.
As mentioned above, Samsung Pay will not work if you're using the Galaxy Watch with an iPhone.
Pre-orders open on August 10
Samsung will officially open pre-orders for the Galaxy Watch on Friday. August 10. We aren't sure how much the watch will cost, but we'll update this as soon as we have that info.
Following pre-orders, Korea will get the Galaxy Watch on August 24 and then followed by a worldwide release on September 14.
Updated August 9, 2018: Revamped this guide now that the Galaxy Watch has been announced!
#Google #Android #Smartphones #OS #News @ndrdnws #ndrdnws #AndroidNews
