Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

FINAL UPDATE: I ended up returning the watch because I couldn't live without Google Maps. It was unfortunate, but Here Maps was driving me crazy, and S-Voice was ending up being a bigger pain than I had realized. I still think this is a VERY good product (hence I still keep it at 4 stars), but in the end for my particular uses I had to return it. I did so reluctantly. So, even though I think Android Wear has a much worse UX I ended up with a LG Watch Urbane 2nd Edition (with LTE so it can make phone calls). I'll review that product later. ORIGINAL REVIEW: I've come from the Android Wear platform, and several of my friends have Apple Watches. I stopped wearing my AW device after a while, because the UX is frankly, atrocious. The constant swiping, and dismissal of card after card, just made me eventually pull my phone out. In addition, the color scheme on AW is far too bright and colorful for my liking - it is very cartoonish. Look at some of the pictures of it on a nice looking Huawei or Moto 360. It looks really out of place. So when the Gear S2 was announced, I was very interested. Then I saw the rotating bezel and thought "Genius!". Well, long story short - I picked one up from a local retailer yesterday, and it has been incredible. The watch is light, and does not feel like a big gadget strapped to my wrist. When I see AW offerings, I immediately think - "that's a gadget strapped to your wrist". The same with the Apple Watch - it looks like a chunky box strapped to your wrist. But this thing is the first reasonably proportioned Smartwatch I've ever seen (something like Pebble Time is good, but the bezels on that watch make me think of Weird Al's Tacky). It feels like a 21st Century Swatch. The straps on this watch, even though they are rubber (silicone?) are very soft and feel good. No irritation. Much better in real life than in pictures btw. Pictures don't do the watch justice. The rotating Bezel is a great feature. The watch is very intuitive. The watch faces are also very nice - they feel "authentically digital", and do not look like a Skeuomorphic disaster (see some of the LG Watch and Huawei watch faces). I rather like the "whole package" here. You will not be able to receive phone calls (just accept them or dismiss them for your phone), which I can understand why the negative reaction to this. But I rarely get phone calls anymore, and am mostly dealing with text messages, Facebook messages, etc. For folks like myself, who deal with notification after notification, this watch is really nice, and far superior to a Pebble if you are on Android. The charging dock is magnetic and included. The watch supports standard wireless Qi charging. It supports NFC for Samsung Pay (haven't had a chance to test it, since Samsung Pay won't be supported on watches until November 2015). Unlike Android Wear, Samsung is not allergic to supporting buttons and other tactile interface elements. The bezel as previously mentioned is one. But also the two buttons are crucial. A Back button and a Home button make this watch so much less irritating to use than Android Wear. So far, there are only a few apps in the store, and most of them are junk. It does come with some very good stock apps - Weather, S-Health (is actually very good), CNN, Bloomberg, Calendar, Alarms, etc. I was able to control my Spotify with this (play/pause/next track), which made me very happy. I was able to respond to text messages, Facebook messages, etc. So far, everything I need a Smartwatch to do it does well. I don't need a computer on my wrist right now. These are early days for this platform, but so far I'm liking Tizen and the Gear S2 much more than I had imagined. UPDATE ON NAVIGATION (10/09/15): Navigation (Maps) on the watch isn't very good. It uses a version of Here Maps on the watch, and I never could get it to work with Here Maps on my Note5 phone. Given that S-Voice isn't very good, this makes getting navigation directions on the watch more of a hassle than it is worth. Samsung should address this deficiency. These are early days, and I am hopeful that they will address these problems over time as the platform matures. Because of S-Voice and the navigation issues, I've knocked a star off the review. UPDATE ON BATTERY LIFE, WATER RESISTANCE, and HAPTIC FEEDBACK (10/06/15): So far I've now had this for a whole work day, and over the weekend. On Saturday (errands, hanging out with the family) and Sunday (mostly Church going) the watch had about 60% of its battery left at the end of the day. On Monday when I was notification heavy, and exercised - the watch was at 10% by the time I was done with it at night. I wore the watch about 14 hours continually during this time. I was playing around with it quite a bit - using the apps on the watch like CNN, and just fiddling with it generally since it was so new and I was trying to "have fun" with it. I'm going to keep an eye on it. The watch seems to be okay for use in the shower at the very least, haven't tried swimming with it yet (and don't plan to). The biggest problem with using this device in the shower is that the touchscreen will respond to water hitting on it! I never thought about that before, but you will activate the watch by a stream of water hitting it, and it will also activate any touch zones on the watch. This could be problematic to say the least :). But it was kind of a novelty having notifications come in, or I had the random thought that I should check the weather - and I was able to do so from in the shower. I doubt I'll be wearing this in the shower much if at all, but I know that some people just keep their watches on in the shower. Haptic feedback in this watch is quite nice. Not on the level of what I'd imagine the Apple "Taptic Feedback" to be like, but it is more "pointed" for lack of a better word than most other watches I've used, which feel like a smartphone on your wrist. The feedback isn't super strong, but there is an option to make it longer. I think this is a highly subjective element of a watch anyhow. You will probably want to try it. I've never missed a notification yet. So I'm happy with it, personally. Pros + Looks properly proportioned on the wrist. Very light. + Good price for what you get. + Very snappy, the interface runs at a great frame rate. + The rotating bezel feature. + Now supports a variety of Android Phones, not just Galaxy. + Supports Wifi so my phone doesn't have to be on me to continue getting notifications. Cons - No way to actually answer a phone call via Bluetooth without your phone. I understand why, but it does seem odd that they removed a feature that (for instance) the Apple Watch supports. Now, I don't know how often I'd use it - but from the way that some people are upset at its removal, I am a little befuddled why they would do this. - S-Voice: No way around it. S-Voice isn't that great. I understand that since this is not a Google product, they don't have access to "Ok, Google", but this is one of the few areas that I think Android Wear is superior (and for that matter, so are Cortana and Siri). Hopefully with the apparent popularity of the Gear S2, Samsung will continue to improve S-Voice. - Navigation: Don't plan on using Google Maps with this thing. I could never get Here Maps on the Phone to work with sending notifications to the Here Maps on the Watch (which didn't seem very functional). Given that S-Voice isn't very good at the moment, this was a let-down. Hoping for some improvements here. - Some minor lack of polish in areas like the transition from full color to ambient display. There is a flicker on occasion. - App ecosystem is not mature. Tizen.