First impressions:
Build quality is excellent. The rotating bezel has a very satisfying tactile soft click click click as you turn it. The buttons are positive and solid. The screen is bright and clear, and the soft rubber strap is comfy and well-finished.
Despite what you may have read in the media, this watch is not too big. Any statements to this effect are the weak mewling cries of the twig wristed, who should close their laptops and go to the gym. That goes double if they complain that it's too heavy. It weighs 59 grammes. That's about two ounces, in your inferior colonial units. If something you wear on your wrist is too heavy at two ounces, you are either a tiny baby or a stick insect. An actual stick insect. My Omega Planet Ocean weighs 210 grammes. I assume that these people cannot actually lift that off the table.
From a distance it does not look like a smartwatch - it just looks like a regular watch with a black screen. This is, I think, an advantage. The default watch face looks like a regular chronograph watch. When you look closely, you see that the subdials have things like "today's steps", and "sunset to sunrise", and "remaining battery". There are a bazillion faces available to install, and it was pleasant to see that they aren't all total arse. (The Apple Watch has a choice of twelve, and you can't add more)
The charging dock is neat. The watch snugly sits in it, gently pulled into place by fucking magnets (how do they work?). It comes with its own wallwart, but has a regular micro USB connector, so you can power it from your laptop, like I'm doing right now. Two to three days on a charge seems to be the word on the street, with that going down if you run the wifi all the time or have the screen always on.
The software is easy to figure out and use. The touch screen is sensitive and you can make it more sensitive (Samsung says it's for when you're wearing gloves). There's a few neato apps built in, like the barometer/altimeter, and the S Health thinger. You can get more apps, too. It synced with my iPhone (running the S Gear app) without incident.
So far, I like it.
Build quality is excellent. The rotating bezel has a very satisfying tactile soft click click click as you turn it. The buttons are positive and solid. The screen is bright and clear, and the soft rubber strap is comfy and well-finished.
Despite what you may have read in the media, this watch is not too big. Any statements to this effect are the weak mewling cries of the twig wristed, who should close their laptops and go to the gym. That goes double if they complain that it's too heavy. It weighs 59 grammes. That's about two ounces, in your inferior colonial units. If something you wear on your wrist is too heavy at two ounces, you are either a tiny baby or a stick insect. An actual stick insect. My Omega Planet Ocean weighs 210 grammes. I assume that these people cannot actually lift that off the table.
From a distance it does not look like a smartwatch - it just looks like a regular watch with a black screen. This is, I think, an advantage. The default watch face looks like a regular chronograph watch. When you look closely, you see that the subdials have things like "today's steps", and "sunset to sunrise", and "remaining battery". There are a bazillion faces available to install, and it was pleasant to see that they aren't all total arse. (The Apple Watch has a choice of twelve, and you can't add more)
The charging dock is neat. The watch snugly sits in it, gently pulled into place by fucking magnets (how do they work?). It comes with its own wallwart, but has a regular micro USB connector, so you can power it from your laptop, like I'm doing right now. Two to three days on a charge seems to be the word on the street, with that going down if you run the wifi all the time or have the screen always on.
The software is easy to figure out and use. The touch screen is sensitive and you can make it more sensitive (Samsung says it's for when you're wearing gloves). There's a few neato apps built in, like the barometer/altimeter, and the S Health thinger. You can get more apps, too. It synced with my iPhone (running the S Gear app) without incident.
So far, I like it.