Review: Samsung Galaxy Gear Sony SmartWatch or two? - NU.nl

Photo: Nutech / Joost Nederpelt

See the extensive comparison and photos on Nutech

Both watches are waterproof and have an almost equally large screen. The Sony SmartWatch 2 can (4.0 or higher) to communicate with all Android devices. The Samsung Galaxy Gear only works temporarily with the new Note 3 and Note 10.1. The S4 supported soon.

The price of the gear is 299 euros while to get the SmartWatch 2 for 179 euros. The SmartWatch 2 has a rubbery and cheap slap band that feels there is a metal strap available. The strap of the Gear is stronger, but less comfortable. Samsung does have a camera in the strap processed. A drawback is that the strap can not be replaced, and thereby it is difficult adjustable.

Photos and bubbles

Gear is equipped with a microphone and speakers, so in addition to taking pictures the watch is also suitable for calling. The Samsung-watch is blunt and thick. The sound quality is fine, but the environment will always be able to listen along. Only in the car it really comes in handy. The 1.9 megapixel camera takes surprisingly good and clear pictures, but a real addition is not.

screen Gear is better than that of Sony. It is sharper and brighter colors. In terms of brightness barely. Avoid the two together

Notifications and apps

Smart Watches are ideal for notifications. You do not get more. Every message your phone out of your pocket Unfortunately both the SmartWatch 2 as the Gear yet find fault.

The messages are very short at Sony. An email is truncated to two lines and pictures from Facebook are not visible. Well there are many notifications available. Through an app that is not from Sony itself, it is possible to receive. Whatsapp messages That can not the Gear. That only works notifications for SMS and e-mail account of the official app of the phone well. These texts are completely read though to be desired.

Facebook, Twitter and Gmail messages on the Gear is only to see that there is a message. In Gmail you see any sender or subject, when Facebook is the reaction itself can not be read at Twitter and you yourself seek out the deliberate reply.

app offer is still on anyway. The SmartWatch 2 has 91 apps and the gear there are about 45. Many apps are useless, do not work well or are simply too expensive for what they offer. The Gear many apps, the clock only a new look and some other apps falter or unpleasant work.

Control

Sony SmartWatch 2 similar in control on an Android phone. Each screen shows six app icons and below the screen are three touch buttons for options, and previous home. Little surprising, but clearly. The Galaxy Gear shows on every screen a large icon and all self-installed apps are hidden behind the icon ‘Apps’. The lack of touch buttons, the user must drag down to go back. Moreover appears as an app is open at the top an icon for options. By custom appearance and the other controls the gear does not feel very intuitive.

The battery life of the SmartWatch 2 is noticeably better than that of the Gear. The Sony watch is comfortable with two days while the gear must. Almost every day in the charger

Conclusion

Although the Galaxy Gear more can and is firmer, the Samsung-watch on the main components fails. Notifications are clunky and the battery life is disappointing. In addition, the intuitive interface does not work and the app selection is disappointing.

SmartWatch 2 does much better, but feels cheap, easily damaged and is not a high flyer in terms of notifications. Neither is highly recommended and we will have to wait for enough apps are better or smart watches.

Galaxy Gear: 2 stars | Sony SmartWatch: 2.5 star

See the extensive comparison and photos on Nutech