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Old 09-04-2013, 02:53 PM   #1
jswinden
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Samsung Smartwatch announced

What is the point of a smartwatch? A $300 watch that no doubt has to be charged often and doesn't do phone stuff?!

Quote:
The $299 Gear watch is not a phone. Instead, it links up with Samsung's Galaxy smartphones and tablets to let users know when they receive a call, text message or e-mail. from CNN Money
As far as I can see it doesn't do anything that a smartphone doesn't do, except fit on your wrist. And it requires a smartphone, specifically a Samsung one, or tablet. For $300 I can get a very nice conventional watch that never needs charging and just allow my smarthone to notify me when I get an email, text message, or phone call.

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Old 09-04-2013, 03:27 PM   #2
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Yes Jack,

Being a gadget geek, I'd kind of like to have a smart watch but I think Samsung dropped the ball by linking it so tightly to their Galaxy phones. It sounds like they’re trying to take a page out of Apple’s playbook. And $300 is a bit on the spendy (Applesque again) side when you can get a Pebble for half of that.
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Old 09-04-2013, 03:27 PM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jswinden View Post
What is the point of a smartwatch? A $300 watch that no doubt has to be charged often and doesn't do phone stuff?!

As far as I can see it doesn't do anything that a smartphone doesn't do, except fit on your wrist. And it requires a smartphone, specifically a Samsung one, or tablet. For $300 I can get a very nice conventional watch that never needs charging and just allow my smarthone to notify me when I get an email, text message, or phone call.
It saves you from having to reach all the way into your pocket to look at your phone. Life's short enough without wasting needless energy doing so
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Old 09-04-2013, 03:28 PM   #4
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No GPS = Fail. MotoACTV 2 with better water resistance is what I was waiting for. But it will probably never happen, gimmick watches like this will ruin the market for anything truly useful.

I can see the point of watches you can get notifications on without taking your phone out of your pocket. But this thing doesn't do enough for what it costs, and much of what it does do is pointless on a watch. Very disappointed.
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Old 09-04-2013, 03:29 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by wodin View Post
Yes Jack,

Being a gadget geek, I'd kind of like to have a smart watch but I think Samsung dropped the ball by linking it so tightly to their Galaxy phones. It sounds like they’re trying to take a page out of Apple’s playbook. And $300 is a bit on the spendy (Applesque again) side when you can get a Pebble for half of that.
Samsung wants to be the Asian Apple
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Old 09-04-2013, 04:01 PM   #6
jswinden
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Quote:
Originally Posted by wodin View Post
Yes Jack,

Being a gadget geek, I'd kind of like to have a smart watch but I think Samsung dropped the ball by linking it so tightly to their Galaxy phones. It sounds like they’re trying to take a page out of Apple’s playbook. And $300 is a bit on the spendy (Applesque again) side when you can get a Pebble for half of that.
Yes they did. And to be fair, I wouldn't want an Apple smartwatch either. I'm just not that lazy yet, but getting close. Now a Dick Tracy style smartwatch might be cool!!!


Last edited by jswinden; 09-04-2013 at 04:17 PM.
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Old 09-04-2013, 04:16 PM   #7
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No GPS = Fail.
GPS is very power-hungry. That may well be the reason it doesn't have it.
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Old 09-04-2013, 04:19 PM   #8
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I'll pass on this. Don't see the point since I have my HTC One with me the majority of the time.
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Old 09-04-2013, 04:23 PM   #9
jswinden
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Quote:
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GPS is very power-hungry. That may well be the reason it doesn't have it.
I'm sure that is exactly why it doesn't have a cellular radio either.

This whole concept reminds me of the ill fated Palm Folio which never even made it to market. The difference being that the Folio offered a much larger screen for your Treo phone whereas this device just offers, well actually nothing much... Oh look, for $300 I don't have to pull out my phone to see who called, texted, or emailed me.
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Old 09-04-2013, 04:24 PM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT View Post
GPS is very power-hungry. That may well be the reason it doesn't have it.
That plus the phones that it connects to already have location services. Having two GPSes (GPSs?) is not only unnecessary, but not very smart for exactly the reason you stated.
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Old 09-04-2013, 04:42 PM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by wodin View Post
That plus the phones that it connects to already have location services. Having two GPSes (GPSs?) is not only unnecessary, but not very smart for exactly the reason you stated.
The reason people still spend $300-400 on sports watches is so they don't have to carry their phones with them. Especially in inclement weather.

There is a significant market for this as evidenced by the many expensive specialized GPS watches available: Garmin, Nike, Polar, TomTom, Suunto, Timex, etc. What these people want is GPS, music, heartrate, and bluetooth in a reasonably priced compact waterproof package. MotoACTV came very close and only cost $200. Had they ironed out the bugs and made it waterproof it would have dominated that market.

Instead Google cancels it and now we get gimmick watches that are little more than toys. I'm not an Apple fan, but I dearly hope they aren't as dense as Google, Samsung, and Sony.

Last edited by pl001; 09-04-2013 at 04:45 PM.
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Old 09-04-2013, 04:43 PM   #12
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Ridiculous pricing. My GoPhone with a slightly bigger screen/more pixels and same processor was only $80. The band cannot possibly be $100 more.
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Old 09-04-2013, 05:08 PM   #13
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My problem is the thing is an eyesore.

If I'm going to wear a thing on my wrist, I want something simple and beautiful.

https://www.dezeenwatchstore.com/shop/danish-design/
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Old 09-04-2013, 06:56 PM   #14
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I would be interested in a smartwatch that is simply a window to my phone - it notifies me when I have a call, SMS, email, or other notifications, and lets me control some stuff, like music playback (select song, skip and such).

Samsung have yet again thrown the kitchen sink to it, it tries to do too much (a camera on a watch, FFS!), has a piss poor battery life and is locked to Samsung devices. Samsung's kitchen sink approach to everything they develop may well be their downfall, plus their apple-wannabe attitude to price things way over their fair value (smartwatch and Tab 7/8, I'm looking at you) isn't helping.
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Old 09-04-2013, 07:21 PM   #15
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Barty View Post
My problem is the thing is an eyesore.

If I'm going to wear a thing on my wrist, I want something simple and beautiful.

https://www.dezeenwatchstore.com/shop/danish-design/
Same here; only we have much different tastes in beauty

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