Samsung Gear S: curved smartwatch runs on Tizen

Samsung is really banking on wearables this year and the announcement of the Samsung Gear S as a companion smartwatch to the Galaxy Note 4 is another testament to that.

The Samsung Gear S has a 2-inch curved Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 260×480 pixels (273ppi). It now runs on Samsung’s Tizen OS instead of the old custom Android OS from the previous Galaxy Gear smart watches and the new Android Wear OS.

That’s also the reason why Samsung dropped the Galaxy label and just called it Gear S (the Galaxy series pertains to Android-powered devices).

The Gear S is powered by a 1.0GHz dual-core processor, 512MB of RAM and 4GB internal storage for media and apps. It has its own built-in 3G modem so it should be able to connect to the internet independently of the smartphone. It has a on-screen keyboard so you’d be able to type and send messages right off the watch.

Samsung added a ton of sensors into the watch — GPS, accelerometer, gyroscope, UV detector, barometer, and heart rate monitor. It connects via Bluetooth to your smartphone and is compatible with over 20 models (including most of the older Galaxy Sx and Note X series).

With the built-in GPS, the Gear S can actually be used to locate a car in a parking lot (as shown in their demo video).

There are a number of really useful apps pre-installed into the Gear S, including Nike+ (functions like the Gear Fit) and HERE Maps (licensed from Nokia). It’s also going to be a problem since developers have to make new apps for the Gear S because of the new Tizen OS.

Samsung has not indicated the global release date and pricing of the Gear S but we’re hoping it would be a soon as the Note 4 is out.