Good improvements on original Gear, including style, speed, camera and much better battery life
Not as good-looking as the Gear 2, many apps available yet, needs a dock to charge, accelerator doesn't always activate screen when you move, only compatible with Samsung smartphones
The Samsung Gear 2 Neo smartwatch does without the Gear 2's camera and is a little bit cheaper as a result. But is this enough to consider diving into the choppy waters of the wearable sea just yet?
Chassis
The Neo should be available for around £50 less than the Gear 2.
That's significantly cheaper, but frankly, it looks it. It's dropped the Gear 2's metallic casing in favour of rubberised plastic surrounding the face plate which sits behind Gorilla Glass.
It's not available in the Gear 2's rather classy looking gold and brown combo, but you can get it in not quite as classy black or grey, plus that garish "wild orange" shade if you really want to.
The power button too is plastic, and although it's 13g lighter, and contains much the same tech, it looks much more like a toy rather than the classy piece of tech jewellery that the Gear 2 aspires to.
The screen is the same -- 1.6 inches of Super Amoled goodness which offers 320x320 pixels. That's really more than enough for such a small screen and it's easily sharp enough to read texts and alerts -- even watch teeny videos.
Samsung hasn't compromised on other features either. Like the Gear 2 it's water and dust proof to IP67 standard (1m of fresh water for 30mins) and it has the same IR blaster on the side which allows you to control your TV or set top box. It also uses the same dual-core 1GHz processor backed by 512MB RAM and there's the same 4GB of onboard memory for storing music, pics or videos.
Software
The Neo has the same health apps as the Gear 2, allowing you to measure your exercise and heart rates (there's a heart rate monitor on the underside of the device that sits next to your skin). You can then use the S Health app on a compatible Samsung Galaxy phone (it should work with up to 17 different models according to Samsung -- we tried it with the Galaxy S5) to collate the data and use it in your wellness routines.
Samsung has abandoned the Android operating system in favour of its own bespoke Tizen-based OS. The company claims this has helped with battery life and sure enough, both the new Gears last considerably longer than the original, easily getting through three days and more of regular use, especially if you tone down the screen.
Operation
The OS moves faster than the original too and navigation is straightforward. You scroll right or left to access apps and scroll downwards to go back, or hit the home key. There's an accelerometer on board that should wake up the screen when you raise your arm or give it a shake, but like the Gear 2, we found this only worked intermittently.
S Voice control is here as it is on the Gear 2 but only really makes sense if you program it to start with a double press of the home button (you can set lots of functions to do this but only one at a time -- there's no three or four-press option).
You can receive alerts and texts, and though the screen's too small for a keyboard, you can also knock off a few pre-set replies like "yes", "no", "call you later". For anything more complex, you might just have to take your phone out of your pocket.
Like the Gear 2 you need a charging cradle but this is now a fairly discreet attachment rather than the massive brute that came with the original Gear. But while that makes it easier to use and to carry, it's easily lost -- best to keep it attached to the charger when not in use.
You don't need to pair the Neo with a smartphone (you can still monitor your paces and tell the time) but you'll get a lot more out of it if you do. Samsung claims it should work with up to 17 different models (Samsung only though, boo!).
Because Samsung has abandoned the Android operating system in favour of its own bespoke Tizen-based OS -- and it works very smoothly -- it's likely that you won't be able to add third-party Android apps as they become available. Samsung has released a Tizen software development kit though, so hopefully some enterprising developers are already creating some additional functionality for the device.
Conclusion
The Gear 2 Neo is in most ways identical to the Gear 2, only dropping the camera and the price from the Gear 2.
Good to see Samsung offering a more affordable alternative to its flagship wearable, but it's a shame the £50-odd saving also meant making it look considerably cheaper.
Operating system: Tizen
Processor: Dual-core 1GHz
Memory: 4GB storage, 512MB RAM
Display: 1.63in Super AMOLED, 320x320 pixels
Features: Pedometer, Exercise, Heart Rate, Stopwatch, Timer, Music Player, WatchON Remote Control
Strap: Plastic, changeable
Connectivity: Bluetooth 4.0, IrLED
Sensors: Accelerometer, gyro, heart rate
Camera: No
Video: 3GP, MP4, H.263, H.264
Audio: MP3, M4A, AAC, OGG
Radio: No
Battery: 300mAh
Size: 38x59x10mm
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
