The Samsung Galaxy Gear, in hindsight, was a leap of faith for Samsung. Releasing the most powerful smartwatch onto the market would have seemed logical and putting Android on it would have seemed equally logical. The success, however, never eventuated and the Galaxy Gear ended up being plagued with poor battery life and garnered its fair share of criticism. The release of the Samsung Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo signalled a change in strategy for Samsung, entrusting their smartwatches with the Tizen OS. However, it looks like they might be giving its predecessor one last hurrah as the Samsung Galaxy Gear gets an update to Tizen.
Overall, although the device is essentially wiped and a new OS put on, the Tizen Galaxy Gear will vary very little visually. The improvements, however, mostly lie beneath the surface with improvements to performance and battery life as well as several new features like a music player, voice control for the camera and customizable shortcuts. All of these can be found on the Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo, but it’s nice to see that Samsung cares enough to give the Galaxy Gear a second lease on life. Currently, the update is only officially available through Samsung Kies, otherwise you’ll have to manually install it; as this is an effective wipe of data, be sure to back up anything before updating.
With prices of the Galaxy Gear falling quickly, this might be a good chance for Samsung devices owners to cheaply get in on the Tizen smartwatch bandwagon. What do you think about Samsung putting Tizen on the Galaxy Gear? Let us know your thoughts below.
Source: SamMobile via Phandroid
