Samsung announced its Galaxy Watch at its annual Galaxy Note phone event today. It features 3G / LTE connectivity and charges wirelessly. There will be two models: a 46mm silver version and smaller 42mm black and rose gold versions. The company’s forgoing its previous Gear branding and is instead tying the watch more directly to its Galaxy smartphone and tablet line.
The Galaxy Watch will be available in the US on August 24th and in Korea on August 31st. Additional markets will receive it on September 14th. In the US, the Galaxy Watch Bluetooth 42mm version will cost $329.99 while the 46mm version will cost $349.99. It’ll be available through Amazon, Best Buy, and Samsung.com. The LTE version will be available through AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Samsung.com later this year. We don’t have that pricing yet. Anyone who pre-orders the Bluetooth models through Samsung.com before September 8th will receive a free watch band.
It features:
- Either a 1.3-inch (46mm) or 1.2-inch (42mm) Super AMOLED touch display with Gorilla DX+ glass
- 5 ATM water resistance and IP68 dust resistance
- Either a 472mAh battery (46mm) or 270mAh battery (42mm)
- Runs Tizen OS 4.0
- Exynos 9110 Dual cor 1.15 GHz processor
- A heart rate monitor, ambient light sensor, accelerometer, gyroscope, and barometer
- The LTE version include 1.15GB of RAM and 4GB of storage
- The Bluetooth version includes 768MB of RAM and 4GB of storage
Samsung indicates the improved battery life should provide “several days” of use on a single charge. The Galaxy Watch also features some health-oriented features, including heart rate monitoring to build a baseline for each user. So when it detects that your heart is racing, it’ll prompt you to relax. It also tracks fitness and allows users to pick their activity. It’ll track sleep patterns as well, and it will try to qualify how well you’re sleeping.
The watch looks similar to the Gear S2 Classic with its less-obvious bezel. Last year’s watch — the Gear Sport — was designed for athletes, and Samsung is shying away from that specific use case with the Galaxy Watch. It’s definitely intended to be an everyday timepiece that can handle fitness tracking along with other more daily activities.
