In sum — by my estimation, and the estimation of many esteemed colleagues — the Galaxy Gear falls far short of its potential.
And yet! Samsung’s first try at wrist-based technology does carry some promise. Here are the tasks and functions that Samsung nailed, the reasons for hope for the Galaxy Gear 2.
THE ULNAR CAMERA
The Galaxy Gear comes with a tiny camera that faces outward from your pinky and allows you to snap really quick, sneaky photos by pointing your wrist at something. Once you get over the creep factor, it’s really quite impressive (both the photo quality, and the fact that it exists), and fun to show off to friends. Snapping a quick pic from your wrist is faster than pulling your phone out and launching the camera app; transferring photos from watch to smartphone is refreshingly simple. This is one of the real joys of the Galaxy Gear, and, hopefully, a glimpse at the promising future of smartwatches.
DIALING IT IN
If you often make phone calls through a headset or earphones, the dialer app on the Galaxy Gear — a basic number pad, which can access your Note’s telephone — saves you the (admittedly minor) hassle of taking your phone out of your pocket.
This is generally where the Gear thrives: Where it can remove the need for you to actually look at your smartphone. Speaking of which… MOTORING ALONG
Riding my bike through Manhattan, it was much easier to stop at red lights and look at notifications on my wrist than it was to jimmy my phone loose from my jeans, unlock and swipe around. For those of you who live in cities where it isn’t prohibitively expensive to own cars, I would imagine this ease would hold true for driving, as well.