The Mobile World Congress 2014 in Barcelona will only officially begins tomorrow, 24 February but as you able to see for the past few weeks, plenty of companies have already announced or teased new products that they will bring to the event.
As for Samsung, even though they are going to have a big Samsung Unpacked media event on early Tuesday morning (Malaysian time), that doesn’t stop them to announce two new products today: the Samsung Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo.
From the naming, it is quite obvious that both products are the successor to the Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch that was released to the market last year. Despite that fact, both smartwatches actually runs on Tizen operating system rather than Android which explains why the Galaxy moniker is missing from their names.
Another main difference between the original Galaxy Gear and the newly announced Gear 2 is that the camera is now located on Gear 2’s main body itself as opposed to the watch strap on Galaxy Gear. Additionally, Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo somehow comes with a slightly smaller battery at 300mAh.
Gear 2 Neo on another hand doesn’t come with a built-in camera as per Gear 2, as shown in the specs sheet below:
As a companion devices, users of Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo are able to accept/ignore incoming calls and messages as well as view notifications through both smartwatches. They also able to control TV and set-top boxes through WatchON Remote app and the built-in IrLED sensor. There’s also a stand-alone music player and fitness coaching within both smartwatches.
To be released throughout the world starting from this April onwards, the company has stated that both Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo will support “more than dozens” of Samsung Galaxy smartphones at launch according to the company. No information of the pricing though, unfortunately.
We are working to have a hands-on experience with both Samsung Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo smartwatches through our man at the show floor of MWC 14 in few days’ time, so check back soon.
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