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Leak: Almost a Third of Samsung Galaxy Gear Smartwatches Are Being Returned
llebeel writes "Almost a third of Samsung's Galaxy Gear Smartwatches sold are being returned, a leaked document has revealed, which shows that over 30 percent are being returned after sale at Best Buy locations in the US. The higher than expected return rate could be due to that realisation, with customers impulse buying and then realising that the smartwatch isn't everything it's cracked up to be." I'd like to hear from more people with smart watches who are happy with them, to better understand the appeal.
Doesn't Best Buy price-match their competitors (including Amazon)?
That word - indiscreet. It doesn't mean what you think it means.
One out of three people decided they looked like a dork with that awful thing on their wrist.
This is slashdot, and we're making fun of people for looking like dork's for wearing a gadget? *sigh* Of all the places to worry about that.
My own experience: I've always worn a watch. I find it to be MUCH more convenient for checking the time than pulling my cellphone out, hitting the power button, then putting it back in my pocket. When the Pebble kickstarter was going on, I backed it, thinking it would be fun to have a watch that I can write software for.
It took awhile for me to be happy with the Pebble (the out-of-the-box experience sucked, but eventually 3rd parties wrote enough cool software for it), although I'm not sure it's really worth the price. The things it does well, I'm quite happy about. The fact that it vibrates when I get a phone call or text is quite helpful -- if I'm walking in a noisy environment, I used to miss calls and texts, but now I'm aware of them. A quick glance at your wrist lets you know whether you want to take the call or not. That's handy. The battery life (between 4 and 10 days depending on how I use it) is good enough. The size is a tiny bit bigger than my previous watch, but not a problem. If I don't have my phone with me, it still functions as a normal watch. (And it alerts me when my phone goes out of range)
There's a handy Android app that somebody wrote that lets you design and push smart watchfaces to it -- currently I have the time, date, weather, and my next calendar appointment showing on my watch. That's handy. Sure, it's nothing revolutionary, but it's convenient.
I just don't understand all the hate on slashdot. I don't care if you think it looks dorky. I don't care if you think it's silly that it duplicates phone functionality. I'm happy because it took something I always used (my watch) and made it somewhat more useful.
But hey, nevermind that, let's all make fun of people for being dorks. Then we can go make fun of nerds for liking computers, right?
The thing is, some of the smartwatches out there (Pebble, Sony's Smartwatches, MetaWatch) are pretty much "dumb" displays for your phone with varying degrees of autonomy - but with most "standalone" functionality trending towards "traditional watch" and not "second smart device".
Most of these smartwatches, because they are "light" in standalone features, are also relatively small and free of bulk. Sony's Smartwatches can be used with a standard watch band, I think so can the Pebble?
The Galaxy Gear has a freaking camera and battery in the watchband and is huge overall. It's just going too far.
I really like the Sony Smartwatch I have (mine was given to me as a gift) and I'd buy the new Smartwatch 2 if I didn't have to remove it whenever I go to work (lots of restrictions on any form of radio transmitter for security reasons in a number of the locations I go frequently.) However the Omate TrueSmart and Galaxy Gear don't appeal to me AT ALL. The Gear is especially dysfunctional - it has tons of weight and bulk compared to other smartwatches, yet despite all of its "autonomy", it is heavily dependent on Samsung Touchwizz hacks in the phone it's communicating with and becomes useless without them. This is vastly different than Sony's products and (I believe) the Pebble, which work with ANY Android device that has Bluetooth and Play Store access.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?