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Samsung Unveils Gear S2, Gear S2 Classic Smartwatches Running Tizen

Posted by Soulskill on from the still-won't-run-crysis dept.

MojoKid writes: Samsung announced their latest smartwatches the other day, the Gear S2 and Gear S2 Classic. At a hands-on press event in New York this week, Samsung had the Gear S2 and Gear S2 Classic up and running. Both of these smartwatches feature 11.4mm-thick casings and 1.2-inch, 360x360 displays that are completely circular, unlike the "flat tire" displays used on the Moto360. At the heart of the Gear S2 is an undisclosed Samsung-sourced 1GHz dual-core processor paired with 512MB of RAM. NFC technology is incorporated into the watches as well, which will support Samsung Pay in the near future. The Gear S2 and Gear S2 Classic are IP68 certified for dust and water resistance and there will be versions with and without integrated 3G connectivity. Both watches feature a rotating ring around the display, in addition to two buttons at the side, intelligently located at 2 and 4 o'clock to minimize accidental actuation, for navigating the various menus and apps. Samsung allows user customization of some watch-faces to show personalized info, and offers dynamic watch-faces with notifications presented on-screen at all times, along with the time.

1 of 53 comments (clear)

  1. Re: So... by tlhIngan · · Score: 3, Informative

    Isn't Tizen, I've never used it - obviously, considered to be pretty much the absolute worst programming target/language in common use and has zero redeeming qualities? I seem to recall that they had lousy help documents, a crappy SDK, and required esoteric knowledge for zero gain. I was reading about this a few months ago as I recall. I seem to recall some of the rants led me to the daily WTF site. I don't recall a single person defending it.

    Well, you remember E? That is, Enlightenment? One of the hit popular window managers way back when?

    That's the foundation of Tizen. Well, Tizen isn't E, but both use the same libraries - the Enlightenment Foundation Libraries, or EFL. And EFL... well...

    FYI - Samsung is a major sponsor of E. As for defenders, I suspect they already work for Samsung and were the ones that convinced management to use EFL for their new smartphone OS.