Article Reprint
Samsung has positioned its Galaxy Gear watch as a device from the year 2025; unfortunately, its first smartwatch is stuck in 2007.
As many other reviewers have noted (see here for our rundown), the Galaxy Gear lacks many of the functions you would expect from a true “smart watch” in 2013: It can, at this time, only connect to a Galaxy Note 3, and nothing else (other phones are coming soon, Samsung says). It cannot be charged without a special plastic cradle. When you get a notification for a new message from Gmail, or Google Hangouts, or Facebook, or Twitter, or other non-Samsung-approved apps on your phone, you cannot view the content of that notification on the watch itself; you have to open up the app on the phone itself.