Samsung Gear 2 Neo Review

[BobIsGaming]

Hi LTT community, first off...I'm bad at reviewing things. Second, if you're looking into getting a smartwatch, keep reading as I'll show you most of the stuff I've gone through with one...well, at least with Samsung's new smartwatch line-up. By the way, I've owned this for 2 weeks now.

 

Why I bought it?

I bought this because, like everyone else, I wanted to be the cool one. I'm literally the only person down in campus with a smartwatch lol. I use this for a lot of stuff, which I'll show you guys later.

 

-Outside

Like almost anything Samsung, it may look premium from all the pictures they have on their website and honestly, I think Samsung has done an "OK" job this time.

 

The top piece seems to be metal and a coat of rubber.

The bottom piece is Samsung's finest plastic.

 

I'm not the biggest fan of rubberized things as they get ugly once it starts peeling off, scratched up, and/or damaged.

Example:

Here's a close-up:

It's not that noticable but still...I baby my stuff and this really bothers me when I look at that side :'( Also, this was scratched against my dad's stupid metal chair by accident

 

 

Than it comes down to the rubber strap Samsung includes us. Even though it's not that fashionable, it's quite comfortable.

Note: this doesn't strangle your skin so don't worry. Also, if it does than loosen it up!

 

Also, the wrist strap is easily removable and replaceable. People are saying 18mm-22mm straps will fit, which I haven't tried, so that's a plus

 

Plus the watch gets charged through a cradle, which I don't carry it with me because I don't want to carry it around, but it is quite small.

(PICTURE COMING SOON.)

My watch does last literally 3 whole days from what I've seen. 100% at ~6:30AM Sun. to 2% at ~7:00AM Wed with light-medium usage

 

This thing is IP67 so water resisitant up to 3 meters for 30 min, which I believe and will not do a stress test lol

 

All in all, build quality seems to be good. I can't compare this to the other smartwatches because I haven't seen them in person.

 

Rating: 8/10

What I wish it had: No rubberized and maybe just aluminum, or something close? Charging port on the watch and no charging cradle.

 

-Inside

Now, to love/hate the Tizen OS, it's like an uncomplete version of Android. They look pretty similar such as:
-App recents:

-Settings (except it shows the battery which is a plus):

 

Anyways, one thing I don't like is the lack of apps and how apps can only be downloaded from the phone:

 

Another thing is Fitness with Gear. Trust me it's not S-Health and yet my phone doesn't want to connect S-Health with my Gear 2 Neo. So now I have Fitness with Gear and S-Health and both won't sync together, which is a bummer.

 

Than, my watch will not connect with S-Health at all, even though it says connected, it won't connect S-Health with it. It always says fail

 

But the features I do love is almost all of them!!!

-Pedometer

-Exercise

-Sleep, this one is weird because it's really uncomfortable sleeping with a watch on

-WatchON Remote, which works quite well on my Panasonic TV and Xfinity DVR

-Media Control

Now the media control is quite weird. It will show the song name but not on Pandora. It will only show the last song you've played in your Music app, not Pandora.

So I own Summer by Calvin Harris but Pandora is playing different songs. The controls still work for Pandora (pause/play, next, volume, etc.) but it doesn't show the artwork or the song titles/artists

Than I next the song through my Gear 2 Neo

 

Rating: 6/10

What I wish it had: It should be more snappier as it does get quite sluggish at times. Notification bar, S-Health only!!! (No Fitness with Gear), Media Control displaying things from other media apps, and especially auto brightness. It's difficult to move and adjust the brightness on this thing. I am going to blame the Tizen OS for ruining most of the stuff that won't connect/sync with each other.

-Conclusion

I know this is technically the beginning for smartwatches. I remember when Android first began and there was literally nothing for it, than Angry Birds came out for it and most people got excited for it. But other than that, it is quite nice to have, and it does everything a watch does plus more. It tells me the time, the weather, my steps I've taken, and I can control my music on it without taking my phone out. In my opinion, I don't think it's worth $200, and don't even get me started about the Gear 2 because that thing is not worth an extra $100 for such a horrible camera that I'll never use. If you we're lucky like me and got this out of an accessory deal from AT&T's website, than it might be a bit more worth it. My Gear 2 Neo costed me $170 after tax and I don't really regret getting this. I hope Samsung will bring more support and better things to their smartwatches. Tell me what you guys think about the Gear 2 Neo/Gear 2/Gear Fit. Sorry for the horrible pictures. Majority of the pictures came from my Galaxy S4 and two of them were from my sister's Droid RAZR. Thanks.

[SSOB]

Good review, i would sell it and get the upcoming google (motorola) smartwatch.

[BobIsGaming]

Good review, i would sell it and get the upcoming google (motorola) smartwatch.

Thanks, and I might, it does look nice.

[SSOB]

Oh yeah one tip. For a better lay-out next time it may be wise to paste everything in photoshop, stack it on top of eachother and post it as a whole centered IMG. Much like this guy did:

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/49076-model-01-a-scratch-built-chassis-finally-done/

[Jvagle875]

Thanks for the review, I was talking with a Samsung rep the other day and he was talking about how cool his neo was. He showed me that it could turn off tvs and little things like that. I had to try not to roll my eyes. So given this is about 50 bucks more expensive than a fitbit flex, do you think it has 50 dollars worth of additional functionality?

[BobIsGaming]

Oh yeah one tip. For a better lay-out next time it may be wise to paste everything in photoshop, stack it on top of eachother and post it as a whole centered IMG. Much like this guy did:

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/49076-model-01-a-scratch-built-chassis-finally-done/

Oh OK, thanks man

Thanks for the review, I was talking with a Samsung rep the other day and he was talking about how cool his neo was. He showed me that it could turn off tvs and little things like that. I had to try not to roll my eyes. So given this is about 50 bucks more expensive than a fitbit flex, do you think it has 50 dollars worth of additional functionality?

Fitbit flex doesn't have a display and plus it depends what you will actually use it for. My sister got a fitibt flex last week and returned it within a day because she thinks it's not worth it. But no. It's awkward using the smartwatch as a TV remote. One thing cool is that you can also control the air conditioner of your home, except my AC is old so it didn't support it :\

[LaoJr]

I still don't buy that Samsung wearables are great because of what happened last year with the first iteration of the Galaxy Gear was a nightmare the everything was on the band the camera, the speaker and the battery life was horrid. But it has gotten cleaner and much better in design but I still don't think it's worth it when you could buy a pebble or wait for Google's android wear with it's launch partner LG and Motorola (especially the Motorola watch looks beautiful) and see how great those would be.