With Samsung’s Galaxy Gear officially announced, the Smartwatch market has gotten a little bigger, but users are still have few choices. The only other viable option for an Android smartwatch would be the Sony Smartwatch 2. Both options ship with unique features, but there are a few things that you should know before jumping head first when the smartwatches become available.
Here’s a quick overview of some of the pros and cons between the Galaxy Gear and Smartwatch 2:
Display
The Galaxy Gear ships with a 1.63 inch Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 320×320, where Sony’s Smartwatch 2 ships with a 1.6 inch LCD display with a resolution of 220×176. Clearly, the Galaxy Gear has an edge on the Smartwatch 2 here, but we do question how well the Gear’s display will fare in direct sunlight.
Unique Features
While both smartwatches essentially set out to do the same thing, there are a few unique features that set the devices apart.
For starters, the Galaxy Gear ships with a 1.9 megapixel camera. Boom. Do you need a camera on a smartwatch? Probably not, but it’s definitely a cool feature to have. The Gear also comes in 6 different color options, including Jet Black, Mocha Gray, Wild Orange, Oatmeal Beige, Rose Gold, and Lime Green. On the flip side of that, the Sony Smartwatch 2 lets the users swap wrist bands with any standard 24mm strap.
The Galaxy Gear also features voice control, which is something you won’t find on the Smartwatch 2, but Sony’s offering still has a few more tricks.
Not only does the Smartwatch 2 ship with NFC for easy smartphone pairing, but it’s also water-resistant. NFC is definitely useful for an easy connection experience, but the fact that the Smartwatch 2 is water-resistant is a great feature that makes the watch a bit more functional for real world use.
Compatibility
The Samsung Galaxy Gear can only be used with other Galaxy devices, where the Sony Smartwatch 2 can be used with any Android smartphone running 4.0 or higher. Since Samsung owns the market, it can make the Gear a Galaxy-only device (that requires Android 4.3 and up), but we do wish the smartwatch itself would be compatible with more Android devices.
At the end of the day, both smartwatches have their pros and cons, and the decision will be up for the user to decide which device is right for them.
Which smartwatch interests you more, or are you waiting on something better to come along? Sound off in the comments below!