When you hear of Samsung and mobile devices, all that comes to mind is “oh another Galaxy phone” right? Be ready to include wrist watches now. And not just any other wrist watches but rather smart watches. The sort that packs specs enough to be benchmarked on Antutu and Geekbench. Yeah it’s that serious.
Sony has already been there, recently releasing the second iteration of its smart watch, the Sony Smartwatch 2. With such bold (and at times cumbersome if not awkwardly weird) moves as devices like the clamshell Samsung Hennessy (what we previously thought would be named ‘Galaxy Folder’ – though that could still be in the works), the Koreans love experimenting a lot.
Some of the experiments like the Galaxy Note have proven to be a success. Others like the Galaxy Camera (NX…), are still trying to find a footing. With rumours flying left, right and center about Google, Apple and LG making their own smart watches, you could count on Samsung to join that league too. If the rumour mill is to be believed that won’t be far away, that should be on the day the Galaxy Note III is announced at the IFA in Berlin. With such a background going for it, it is only natural that we start getting serious leaks about the specs of the smart watch.
One cannot be sure about the name Samsung is going to give its premier smart watch but the name “Galaxy Gear” has recently been in patent application documents filed by the consumer electronics giant in both Europe and the United States. Names aside, what caught my eye really is the rumoured specifications of the smart watch. While it is supposed to be “just a watch”, it seems there is much more at stake.
The specs that have leaked, if they turn out to be true, are quite something. With Android 4.3, now more than ever before, OEMs can take advantage of native support for such features like Bluetooth Low Energy to deeply integrate devices like smartphones and tablets with wearable tech like smart watches. With a lot of demand for health and fitness portable devices, trackers (e.g. Nike Fuelband and Fitbit Flex) and apps (S Health, Runtastic…), the field just opened for more opportunities.
For all intents and purposes, it seems Samsung is out to dominate where Pebble and Sony have so far stuttered before the likes of Apple and its longtime rumoured iWatch come in.
Here is what is expected of the Galaxy Gear (SM-V700) spec-wise according to Sammobile :
- A Samsung Exynos 4212 dual-core chip clocked at 1.5GHz. The same SoC that you will find on some Galaxy Tab models.
- A Mali-400 MP4 GPU
- 1 GB of RAM
- Connectivity via Bluetooth and NFC
- A 320×320 OLED display
- A 2 Megapixel camera
- It is expected to run Android
