Samsung Galaxy Gear Hands on Review: Designed for High Performance

Samsung Galaxy Gear: User Interface, Features, Hardware and Apps

It is essential for a manufacturer to come up with really cool interface, especially, when a device is so small. And Samsung has managed to deliver it. Like its elegant design, the Gear is blessed with very basic User Interface (UI). Swiping from left or right is as easy as unboxing Gear for the first time. Every possible features like the notifications menu, gallery, apps, settings, camera, voice command and S Voice, can be navigated easily without any pain.

You need to swipe downwards from the two edge of the gear screen to open the camera. Another swipe upwards from the bottom edge let you open dialer.

Double tap on the screen with two fingers to open the brightness and volume controls. It also shows current Bluetooth (v4.0) status. You need to connect the Galaxy Gear every time with your current phone via Bluetooth, then only you can enjoy constant interaction between two devices.

Initially, we faced some issues while setting up the Galaxy Gear. However, if Bluetooth doesn't work, you can always use NFC connectivity. Make sure you use Charging Cradle, which doubles as NFC hub. Moreover, you have to download ‘Galaxy Gear ‘app on your smartphone. The app acts as personal Gear settings (Clocks, My Apps, Samsung Apps, Find My Gear, Notifications and Settings).

Like Apple's Siri, Samsung's S-Voice needs to be revamped form the scratch. The S-Voice worked well with the Galaxy Gear; however, enabling the voice recognition software was a challenge. You need to enable S Voice feature on the Samsung Galaxy Note 3, then only the feature works with the Gear.

The Galaxy Gear is flanked by an 800MHz processor under the hood, backed by 512MB of RAM and 4GB of internal memory. Thus, the watch is as good as any other low-end Android -phone.

But why should anyone consider buying the Galaxy Gear? Is it the indispensable device for making calls? Well, if you fall in the category of smartphone user who doesn't like to hold the big bulky phones all the time, and wish to have a portable on-the-go cool gadget to make and receive calls, then Galaxy Gear is for you.

When compatible with your smartphone, Galaxy Gear can make/receive calls directly for you, and also you can accept /reject the call, just like any other cell phone.

In the same manner, you can handle text messages or check out past call records, directly using the Gear. For your convenience, Samsung has added two microphones for distortion free conversation, and a loud speaker. Either way you can turn on the loud speaker and take a call, which is fair enough. Or you will need to bring the watch near to your ear to properly listen to what other is saying.

But, the Galaxy Gear does not have a 3.5mm headphone jack, where you can plug your existing earphones. Besides making a call, you can also control music or video playing on your phone through the Gear. Further, you can easily pause or change the volume, but unable to shuffle the music.

On the other side, Samsung has given an option to download third-party apps. We were excited at first instance, but given the fact that was not a single tantalizing app, Samsung did a bad job in the app department. Except few watch faces, there's hardly any app made available on Samsung app store. Moreover, you cannot check an e-mail or update your status using Twitter or Facebook. These days everyone is using messaging apps like the WhatsApp, WeChat or Line, and unfortunately, nothing much has done been done here.