Samsung's new Gear 2, Gear 2 Neo smartwatches ditch Android

Samsung announces its new Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo smartwatches, featuring Tizen, not Android.

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Mobile World Congress 2014 - Mobile World Congress 2014 kicks off in just a matter of hours, but Samsung has jumped the gun announcing two new smartwatches. The two new smartwatches don't feature the word "Galaxy" in their name, they're just known as Gear 2, and Gear 2 Neo.

Samsung's new Gear 2, Gear 2 Neo smartwatches ditch Android | TweakTown.com

Samsung has opted to drop Google's mobile OS Android, in favor of Tizen, something we thought would happen. The new smartwatches don't only feature Samsung's open-source OS, but they will feature revamped hardware, too.

The front-facing camera has been moved from the face of the smartwatch into the strap on the body itself, an IR port is provided so that it turns the Gear 2 smartwatches into a full living room remote. As for hardware, we have a 1.63-inch 320x320 Super AMOLED display, single-core processor at 1GHz, 512MB of RAM and 4GB of on-board flash.

When it comes to Tizen, we won't see the usual apps that are on Android-powered devices, but Samsung has its own apps spread out on the Gear 2. We have Bluetooth Call, Camera, Notification(SMS, E-mail, Apps), Media Controller, Schedule, Smart Relay, S Voice, Stopwatch, Timer and Weather. There are also downloadable apps, of course.

The Gear 2 is also now a fitness tracker, which has Samsung killing two birds with one smartwatch-shaped stone here. Both of the new smartwatches feature a decent camera, too, which is capable of shooting 1080p video.

NEWS SOURCE:androidcentral.com

Anthony joined the TweakTown team in 2010 and has since reviewed 100s of graphics cards. Anthony is a long time PC enthusiast with a passion of hate for games built around consoles. FPS gaming since the pre-Quake days, where you were insulted if you used a mouse to aim, he has been addicted to gaming and hardware ever since. Working in IT retail for 10 years gave him great experience with custom-built PCs. His addiction to GPU tech is unwavering and has recently taken a keen interest in artificial intelligence (AI) hardware.

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