Samsung Galaxy Gear Review
by Brian Klug on October 1, 2013 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Wearables
- Smartphones
- Mobile
- Galaxy Gear
- galaxy note 3
- watches
Camera
The obvious big distinction between Galaxy Gear and the rest of the smartphone market is the inclusion of a camera module with auto focus in the wrist band. Initially I thought this would be something terrible and a novelty at best, but the Gear actually produces surprisingly decent photos considering its size and resolution (just 1392x1392 square). The module does stick out of the wrist band a notable amount, and I’d be concerned about longevity over the course of the Gear, as I normally hit my wrist on things during the course of a normal day, but it does work.
The camera interface on Gear is very simple, just tap to focus and capture anywhere, and the capture routine runs. I've included a number of photos of the interface in the hardware gallery starting here. At the top left is a switcher between stills and video, and top right gives you shortcuts to imaging settings, including between a 1:1 and 4:3 mode for the still camera (1:1 gives you the full sensor area it seems), and focus mode (auto or macro). In video mode you can select between 1:1 and 16:9 video resolution settings, which work out to 640x640 or 720p respectively. I’ve made copies of the video samples I took at the bench location available both on YouTube as shown below and on our own servers zipped up, both 720p and 640 square.
You can record a maximum of 15 seconds of video at a time, and store a maximum of 50 images and videos on the Gear at one time. There’s also no ability to disable the camera shutter sounds, which is probably a good thing considering its potential for creepshots, but the speaker at the bottom is easily silenced with a finger.
Gallery: Samsung Galaxy Gear Camera Samples
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It’s kind of amazing to be able to get anything out of a camera that fits into the strap of a watch, so I won’t complain about imaging quality a whole lot. Again I’m impressed at what comes out of a camera that fits into this form factor. Also shooting from the wrist often means shooting from waist level, which means different perspective that forces you into taking some shots you wouldn't take otherwise. I'm a fan of wearables with camera if nothing else because they force me to take photos that aren't eye level, and those different heights and positions are where some of the most interesting or out of the ordinary photos are photographed from. I guess the Gear could also be perfect for corporate espionage, at least until more people start recognizing the fact that there's a camera on your watch, but I digress.
My only concerns with the Gear are really just interface related – I took a lot of photos on accident since the swipe down gesture used for back also will get you to the camera and take a photo, literally every road leads to taking a photo in the Gear interface with that back swipe. The other issue is that getting the images off of Gear is cumbersome, you have to transfer them through the gallery to the attached phone, and then delete them all to get around that 50 photo or video maximum each time.
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SilthDraeth - Wednesday, October 2, 2013 - link
Persistent clock on smart phones? I have a Note 2, and I do not know of such a feature. Is this not available on the Note 2?Also, I would be warry of screen burn in. I have noticed a bit of it on my Note's screen.
snarfbot - Thursday, October 3, 2013 - link
first they need to shrink those bezels, and get some sapphire crystal on it. the lugs need to have a gap between them, not just for alternative bands but because it just looks better.watches are for the most part fashion accessories, unless you work somewhere that doesnt allow cell phones there is no reason to wear one unless it looks cool, rendering this monstrosity useless.
so class it up, maybe have it featured in the next bond movie and youll be in business.
brown leather strap, thin brushed gunmetal bezel and case. yea that would be pretty nice.
risus - Monday, October 7, 2013 - link
I love those suggestions. I'm a huge sapphire crystal fan. I'm just afraid of what that price tag may look like :-/av_av - Friday, October 4, 2013 - link
Kudos for the Galactica reference :)greg zx - Friday, October 4, 2013 - link
"...the company has a tendency to show up early with the wrong solution, but iterate aggressively to the point where it ends up with a very good solution."You misspelled "imitate".
Hammi - Friday, October 4, 2013 - link
Does this have the benchmark 'optimizations' enabled like the rest of the Samsung gear?wintermute000 - Sunday, October 6, 2013 - link
There's only a few real things I want and I suspect plenty of people are in the same boat- looks like normal watch (pebble is close but still no cigar)
- always on time/date etc. like a normal watch
- long battery life (BT 4.0 or whatever)
- handles notifications / music controls seamlessly
- does running apps
The rest is pointless and just adds proc requirement/lowers battery/makes it chunky (WTF with the camera, speakerphone etc. if you've got to pair it with a phone anyway...). For the form factor the main draw is notifications and changing music tracks without having to drag the phone from your pocket (I can see voice command also being used but seirously most of what you'll be commanding is the phone, and you gotta see the phone screen so might as well interact directly with phone). And unless it pretty much looks like a normal phone and doesn't need to be charged say more than once a week it won't gain widespread acceptance.
jameskatt - Sunday, October 6, 2013 - link
Anyone who wears this is a geek. Simple.p05esto - Monday, October 7, 2013 - link
Horrible, I wouldn't wear that if you paid me hjundreds of dollars. Not only is it ugly.... but WHY?wbensky - Sunday, November 10, 2013 - link
Instead of uselessly putting curved-displays into their phones, why doesn't Samsung actually use one of there "features" for something good for once by putting in one of these? Seriously, instead of enabling a phone to turn on when you "roll" it, make it so the watch doesn't seem like a brick.