This is the Gear Live, Samsung's $199 Android Wear smartwatch
Wearables were everywhere today
at Google I/O, but there was only one truly new product announced: the
Gear Live, Samsung's Android Wear-running smartwatch. And we've had a
chance to spend a few minutes playing with a demo unit — it's only able
to do a few things right now, but we have our best sense yet of what
Android Wear hardware and software will look like. This is one of the
key devices for Android Wear, one of the watches being given to all
attendees of the conference, and at first glance it's quite nice.
The Gear Live is big, as most
Android Wear watches seem to be, but it's quite well-made. It has a big,
bright display, chrome everywhere, and a big rubbery band — it all
looks a lot like the latest Gear 2, and that's certainly no accident.
There's only one obvious button, and the only other things except screen
and bezel are the heart-rate monitor and pins on the bottom for
wireless charging. There's a big bezel around the 1.63-inch display, and
the screen itself is a little bit washed out — and it's also hard to
read in direct light. There's a slightly complicated clasp on the watch,
but once it's on the whole thing feels more or less like a Pebble or
any similar smartwatch. This is basically a cleaned-up version of the
Gear 2 running Android Wear instead of Tizen.
On the software front, it's
hard to say how accurate a demo we've received — the Gear Live was in
"retail mode," and could only do a few things. But swipes and taps
registered quickly and accurately, and we were moving between weather
and messages in no time. And, even in a remarkably crowded room full of
Google developers, it heard our "OK Google Now" commands every time.
The Gear Live is available for pre-order today. It'll ship on July 7th, and costs $199. We're intrigued.
Comments
Post a Comment