With the MWC in barcelona a few short hours away, leaks are starting to flood our news feeds. One of the bigger pieces of news is the updated version of the last year’s Galaxy Gear, the Galaxy Gear 2. It’s thinner by a milimeter, lighter by a few hairs, and has a camera that is located on the body of the watch rather than the strap. There is also a second version, the Galaxy Gear 2 Neo, which doesn’t have a camera. Both devices should last all of two days; much better than the original’s short day-long battery, but still a little on the weak side.
They reportadly also have heart rate monitors, an internal music player and the ability to run a few apps. Support is limited to the Galaxy line of mobile devices, but that’s a reasonably large number, and includes all of their top-tier devies, so there shouldn’t be much of a problem.
None of this is particularly big news, until you look at what the device is running. Both smart watches have abandoned the Android operating system for Tizen, a Linux-based operating system that, while having had problems in the past, seems to have sorted things out enough to bag a place in one of Samsung’s larger launches.
The reason behind the switch seems to be a combination of better promised battery life from the lighter OS, and Samsung’s desire to not hand so much power over to the big G, who, if you haven’t forgotten, makes their own android devices, and is inching ever closer to a public release of their own wearable tech in the form of Google Glass.
We’re going to see these devices at the MWC (probably), and they’ll likely be available Q2 of this year.