Galaxy Gear Review Roundup ⇥ wired.com

Speaking of Samsung, the reviews for their Galaxy Gear smart watch are in, and they’re not encouraging. Christina Bonnington, for Wired:

… Galaxy Gear just isn’t something most folks need. It’s not even something I wanted to keep on my wrist all day. While the feature set is more advanced than any other smartwatch, the technology and its uses are clearly in their infancy.

Brad Molen, in a slightly more positive Engadget review:

The Gear isn’t bad for a first-generation Samsung product, and it’ll get better as the ecosystem grows. Of course, that’s if the watch catches on and developers decide it’s worth their time to produce a special app for it.

Vlad Savov of the Verge:

A smartwatch the Galaxy Gear is not. Frankly, I’m not sure exactly what it’s supposed to be. Samsung describes it as a companion device, and the Gear is indeed chronically dependent on an umbilical link to another Samsung device, but it never left me feeling like it was a helpful companion.

Not good.

I don’t want you to think I’m being intentionally belligerent, or am being especially hard on Samsung. I don’t think any smart watch is compelling, and I think these reviews sum up why. They’re currently dependent on the smartphone you already have with you at any time. Spending two- or three-hundred dollars on an unattractive gadget which basically notifies you to pull out your phone seems excessive and unnecessary.

This entire product category seems half-baked and ill-considered.