Samsung Gear S2 Classic First Impression: A Time Wear that looks Premium and works smarter

As expected Samsung unveiled two smartwatches dubbed the Gear S2 and Gear S2 Classic at an event in IFA yesterday. The Classic variant of the Gear S2 is mainly aimed to woo customers looking for a traditional looking time piece, which is smart at the same time.

So in case you are wondering how different the Gear S2 Classic is from the standard sporty edition then here's our first impression of the device that can help clarify many of your queries.

PROS

• Traditonal Watch Like Look
• premium Build
• Rotatable Bezel Interface
• Samsung Pay support

CONS

• No Support for iOS and Windows
• Not So Premium Leather Band
• Tad Smaller Display

Design:

We are still dumb-struck by the way Samsung entirely modified their design language of the previous time piece (Gear S) to come up with a premium looking smartwatch which looks no less than your traditional 'unsmart' time wear.

It's indefinitely true that the shiny stainless steel look of the Gear S2 Classic may not be as per everyone's taste. But just in case you are a fan of those traditional Rolex, Omega watches then the Gear S2 Classic is likely to suit your taste. The cut outs on the metallic rotatable bezel further enhances the classy look of the smart watch.

The leather band however isn't as per out taste. It looks to simple and bland, thereby derogating the traditional feel of the watch. A better quality thicker leather band would have done well. However we feel that a metal band would have done best! Let's not get cynical regarding the design language though - since it is still one of the best design smart wear available in the market.

Under the hood:

Samsung Gear S2 uses a dual-core 1GHz Exynos 3250 processor with 512MB of RAM. Apparently it makes the Gear S2 more powerful than other Android Wears available in the market.

Talking of internal storage is a 4GB unit which fairly suffices all the needs and requirements of an average smartwatch user.

The display is a 1.2inch (360x360) Super AMOLED panel which renders neutral and pleasing colors, unlike most AMOLED panel out there. Despite the fact that the 1.2 inch display might appear smaller than the one seen in other contemporary smart wears like Moto 360 2 (1.56 inch) and Huawei Smartwatch (1.4 inch), the display is adept to its task. The rotatable bezel interface further helps out in the issue.

Interface:

The Samsung Gear S2 runs on Tizen OS - unlike most other smartwatches which run on the popular Android Wear. The watch boasts of a rotatable metal bezel surrounding the display which is used for navigating across menus. The best part is that the rotatable bezel works as desired, and isn't extra sensitive. This intuitive navigation method makes the Gear S2 fun to use as compared with other smart wears. One can also navigate by swiping across the touch screen, but once you are used to the rotatable bezel, you would hardly want to use it.

As of now, Samsung says that the Gear S2 line is compatible to work with most Android 4.4+ devices with 1.5GB of RAM. So it's quite disappointing to find out that the watch doesn't work with Windows or iOS. But we expect the company to expand support once the watch gets popular.

Connectivity:

As with every other smartwatch the Samsung Gear S2 Classic can be paired to your smartphone using Bluetooth 4.1. But in case the idea of pairing you watch with your smartphone is not per your taste, then Samsung has you covered. The built in WiFi helps the device to perform as a standalone - as it can directly accept WiFi signal.

Further Samsung has bundled a NFC within the watch which can be used in tandom with a Samsung Mobile with Samsung Pay for clearing your bills. The watch can even be used a standalone device for Samsung Pay via WiFi.

Final Thoughts:

The Samsung Gear S2 does definitely look premium than most other Android Wear smartwatch out there. The rotatable bezel is an icing on the cake. Hence we feel that finally there's a smartwatch that you can dare to wear to a party, by dumping your traditional timewear. It's not perfect by any means though, especially in terms of design. With watch manufacturers like TagHuer, Casio entering the smartwatch scene, the competition is getting tougher every day. The pricing of the Samsung Gear S2 Classic will therefore be decisive to justify its market popularity.