Samsung Galaxy Gear S Manual

Samsung Gear S review: The smartwatch that's also a smartphone

It makes phone calls even when it's away from your phone, but Samsung's big, curved, new smartwatch doesn't do all the magical things we'd hoped for.

The dream of a fully standalone wrist gadget that can make phone calls, stay connected and even help you be sounds good, at least on paper. To own a smartwatch usually means having it be perma-paired to a phone in your pocket: it ends up being, largely, a phone accessory. That's starting to change. A few bold watches are trying to break away and be their own devices, with their own phone service to boot.

The Samsung Gear S is one of those. This is Samsung's sixth smartwatch in a little over a year, but it has one big difference: it gets its own cell service and data. It even has its own SIM-card slot. It's a watch that's also a phone.

Someday soon, smartwatches might be devices that work totally on their own, no phone necessary: as a connected Web browser, a music player, a fitness device. But the Samsung Gear S is not exactly that magic watch. Yes, it can do a surprising number of things. But it still needs a Samsung phone to make most features work. It runs Samsung's limited Tizen software and dedicated Gear apps, closing it off from the richer ecosystem of Google's Android Wear. And it requires a connected data plan to even use it as a cellular device.

For some of my time with the Gear S, I paired it with a Samsung phone. But for most of the time, I tried using it on its own, as a true independent smartwatch. Well, I should say "independent," because if you're going to use a Gear S, you're still best off bringing a phone along.

Editor's note: Updated November 26, 2014, with additional impressions of stand-alone apps and a correction on the Nike+ app's capabilities.

Design

The Gear S looks like a little smartphone that's been melted around a wristband. It has a huge, curved screen, chromed edges, and even has a little home button below the display. My 6-year-old son thought I was wearing a phone. Basically, I am.

Remember the Samsung Gear Fit, that little curved-screen fitness smartwatch that instantly caught people's attention just six months ago? Imagine that in a mega-large watch form, and you have the Gear S. Is it too big? For many, the answer's yes. The massive curved display engulfed even my large, thick wrist. But many people, including my wife, thought it was one of the better-looking smartwatches I've worn recently. Chromed edges and that huge, bright OLED curved touchscreen make it stand out, and even give it a kind of spiritual similarity to the upcoming Apple Watch Sport.

The rubbery-plastic sport-type band it comes with can pop out around the Gear S central unit and be replaced with another band accessory. It snaps on like previous Gear watches: an adjustable watch band with a clip, it sizes and fits easily.

The watch is IP67-rated water-resistant, which means you can get it wet, but you're not meant to shower or swim with it. It's about the same story as Samsung's previous Gear watches.

The Gear S has its own speakers and microphone. It vibrates when you get messages or an alarm goes off. It's studded with sensors: accelerometer, gyroscope and compass, optical heart rate, ambient light for screen brightness, UV and barometer. It has Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.1 and 3G cellular. It's got 4GB of storage, 512MB of RAM and a dual-core processor. And it weighs 66 grams (2.3 ounces). But its display is the most impressive part...and, to some degree, the most alienating.

The phablet of watch displays

The Gear S has a 2-inch 480x360-pixel AMOLED display, a bigger screen and a larger pixel count than other Android Wear smartwatches and previous Samsung Gears. It's longer, almost feeling like a mini-phone in portrait mode.