Upcoming Samsung Galaxy Watch to run Wear OS

[The_Chief]

It's been awhile since Samsung released the Gear S3 smartwatch, so many people have been watching to see if a Gear S4 was forthcoming. It turns out that Samsung is preparing to release a new smartwatch, but has trademarked "Galaxy Watch" in Korea and the United States. Observers have spotted employees wearing test versions that are running Wear OS and not Samsung's own Tizen operating system.

This is good news, since Tizen has never drawn a lot of support from developers. Wear OS is more widely supported. Rumors are that if Samsung doesn't announce the Galaxy Watch at the August 9th Unpacked Event alongside the Note9, we can expect the announcement by the end of IFA Berlin, which closes on September 5th.

 

[codesplice]

Samsung throwing their weight behind Wear OS would be a HUGE vote of confidence for the platform.

 

[El Presidente]

Tizen as a wearable OS is virtually pointless. The only decent 3rd party app (that isn't a watch face app) is Spotify and even that's pretty ropey. Wear OS on a Samsung watch can only be a good thing.

I generally don't get buyer's remorse but the Gear S3 is one of my worst tech purchases ever.

 

[codesplice]

I generally don't get buyer's remorse but the Gear S3 is one of my worst tech purchases ever.

That's really interesting - I've heard from a lot of users who ditched Wear for a GS3 and were pretty happy. That limited ecosystem though...

 

[El Presidente]

That limited ecosystem though...

That's precisely it. It's frustrating to see Wear compatible apps on Play, then head to the Samsung Store only to find there's no gear equivalent.

Want to use a 3rd Party messaging app and be able to reply to messages using your watch? Nope, you're only able to do that with Samsung Messages.

Even Whatsapp needs a paid 3rd Party alternative to display messages properly.

Don't get me wrong, it looks nice (like every one who sees it tells me what a smart watch I have) and battery life is great, but the lack of apps is infuriatingly debilitating.

 

[The_Chief]

Looks like Samsung has decided to shoot itself in the foot again - by announcing the Galaxy Watch alongside the Note9 on August 9th... but running it on Tizen. Oh well, my Hatch can hang in there...

https://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/3036069/samsung-galaxy-watch-to-gatecrash-the-note-9s-august-launch-event

 

[codesplice]

Looks like Samsung has decided to shoot itself in the foot again - by announcing the Galaxy Watch alongside the Note9 on August 9th... but running it on Tizen. Oh well, my Hatch can hang in there...

https://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/3036069/ samsung-galaxy-watch-to-gatecrash-the-note-9s-august-launch-event

Well poop.

 

[The_Chief]

I actually ordered it and gave it a good, honest effort to impress me. It failed.

Despite my watchface of choice having ambient mode, the watch would go dark... and I would have to tap it or press the button to wake it up. I called Samsung and they said that this was not a bug - rather, a 'power saving feature' to conserve the 260mAh battery.

I told them that they can buy their power saving feature back. And I returned it.

When I tilt my wrist to look at my watch, I expect to be able to see the time without doing anything other than looking at it. If I have to use my other hand to do something to make it work, I may as well pull out my phone and save the money!

I got a Huawei Watch 2 Classic, running on Wear OS. Between that and the upcoming update, it should serve me well until the new watches are released with Qualcomm's new chipset.

 

[Bleakd]

I actually ordered it and gave it a good, honest effort to impress me. It failed.

Despite my watchface of choice having ambient mode, the watch would go dark... and I would have to tap it or press the button to wake it up. I called Samsung and they said that this was not a bug - rather, a 'power saving feature' to conserve the 260mAh battery.

I told them that they can buy their power saving feature back. And I returned it.

When I tilt my wrist to look at my watch, I expect to be able to see the time without doing anything other than looking at it. If I have to use my other hand to do something to make it work, I may as well pull out my phone and save the money!

I got a Huawei Watch 2 Classic, running on Wear OS. Between that and the upcoming update, it should serve me well until the new watches are released with Qualcomm's new chipset.

Lo! Can not get any better with the part of "You can buy your power saving back." When the solution does not meet your requirements then it has to come to that. Although other people like the sleep like feature.