So Samsung had their big Unpacked event at IFA in Berlin today and announced two things: the Galaxy Note 3 and a smartwatch called the Galaxy Gear. I've been half paying attention to the liveblogs all afternoon while I should've been doing actual work, and I have thoughts, mostly about the watch.
The Note 3 is fine. Bigger screen (5.7 inches now, which is genuinely a small tablet at this point), faster processor, the S Pen apparently does more stuff now like the "Air Command" menu thing. It's got this stitched faux-leather back on some models that's clearly meant to make it feel less like a slab of glass and more like a nice notebook. I don't hate it. I still think a phone that big is a little absurd to hold up to your face for a call, but I said that about the original Note too and then found myself wanting one, so take my opinion here with a grain of salt.
The Gear is the one I can't stop thinking about, and not entirely in a good way.
Here's the thing: it's $299. For a watch that, as far as I can tell from the announcement, only really works properly with the Note 3 right now (Samsung's said more devices are coming later, but launch day it's basically a Note 3 accessory). It's got a 1.63 inch screen, does notifications, can take calls through a little speaker, and has voice commands. Battery life sounds like it's about a day, which, fine, that's roughly what I expected from a device with a screen strapped to your wrist.
But the part that's genuinely strange to me is the camera. There's a 1.9 megapixel camera built into the wristband itself, on the strap near the clasp. You point your arm at something and take a picture. I keep trying to picture the actual human motion required to use this and it looks ridiculous every time I imagine it. Are we all just going to be doing this weird flexed-wrist gesture at restaurants now? I don't buy it. I think in a year nobody's going to remember the camera was even part of the pitch.
I want to be clear I'm not a "wearables are dumb" guy in general. I've had a Pebble on my wrist since the Kickstarter shipped and I genuinely like it for what it is, dumb little notifications and nothing else, cheap, week-long battery. That's the whole appeal to me. The Gear feels like it's trying to do ten things and none of them are the thing that would actually make me want to wear it every day, which is just "tell me who's calling without me pulling my phone out of my pocket." Everything past that is Samsung throwing stuff at the wall.
Also, and this is a small complaint, but putting a camera in a strap that you have to buy specifically fitted to your wrist size feels like the kind of decision that gets made in a spec meeting and never gets questioned by anyone who has to actually wear the thing for eight hours. My watch straps have to come off for showers, for the gym, for sleeping if I'm being honest. A regular watch band I don't think twice about swapping. A $299 accessory with electronics sewn into the strap changes that calculus completely.
None of this is to say the Gear will flop. Samsung's marketing budget alone could probably will this thing into being a modest success regardless of whether it's actually good, and first-generation hardware from a company with Samsung's manufacturing scale tends to get iterated on fast whether or not the first version nails it. I just don't think this is the device that makes smartwatches a mainstream thing, and I'll be a little surprised if Samsung themselves think that either, six months from now.
Anyway. Note 3 preorders and pricing details are still trickling out as I write this, so I might come back and update once actual US pricing is confirmed instead of the vague "later this month" stuff Samsung's giving right now.