Samsung Gear S review

The Samsung Gear S is a standalone smartwatch ... with some caveats

Samsung Gear S
The martwatch almost without the phone

Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.

As I mentioned before, the Gear S won't work without a Samsung Galaxy running Android 4.3 or higher. This also means the watch is a picky beast and will only pair up with Samsung phones. It's a strange move for the company to lock in the Gear S.

On top of sneakily tethering the watch's calling and texting abilities, you'll need a data plan to even use the SIM card - which is another chunk of change you're giving up. In the US, Verizon and T-Mobile both charge an additional $5 per month while AT&T and Sprint want $10 a month. Though Sprint will waive the fee through December 2015 if your plan has 20GB of data or more.

Samsung Gear S and Samsung Galaxy Note 4

The Gear S can remotely connect via Wi-Fi as well but only for certain notifications. If it's not set up with a SIM card, you won't get call and text forwarding if you've left your phone at home.

Battery life

At 300mAh, the Gear S has a significantly lower battery capacity than the 360's 320mAh and the G Watch R's 410mAh but I was able to get almost two days of usage before needing to charge up again. Usage here means having the pedometer on, getting notifications, messing around with apps, texting, checking emails and of course, using the phone. The main battery suck is using the Gear S over Wi-Fi or 3G. It lasted slightly longer over Bluetooth - by a couple of hours, specifically.

Samsung Gear S

The charging cradle is similar to that of other smartwatches. The cradle itself can be charged then unplugged to clip on and juice up the Gear S without being tethered. Essentially, you can take the cradle with you, pop it on on the back of the smartwatch and charge on the go. Then when both run out of battery life, you can plug the cradle in with a micro-USB cord and charge both simultaneously. The length of time to charge up to 100% isn't terrible - about two hours if completely dead and much less if the battery is at half. The cradle can also hold a charge for several days before needing to be plugged in.

TOPICS
Latest in Smartwatches
Garmin Instinct 3 in Neotropic Green
"I'm an idiot": Garmin user reveals how fixing one setting completely changed their training after months of making no progress
A garmin forerrunner 55 on an orange background with the phrase lowest price
Sprint! The best cheap Garmin for runners is back down to its lowest-ever price
Half-Life running on a smartwatch
This Redditor installed a game engine on their smartwatch, and now it runs Doom, Quake, and Half-Life
Apple watch pair with iphone
I've been wearing an Apple Watch for 10 years – these are the 5 settings I change right out of the box
Garmin Instinct 3 next to the Apple Watch Ultra 2
New figures claim the smartwatch market just shrunk for the first time ever, and the Apple Watch Ultra 3 is to blame
Garmin Forerunner 265S
One of the best Garmin running watches just dropped to a great low price at Amazon
Latest in Reviews
WWE 2K25
I've spent days in the ring with WWE 2K25, and it's like a five-star match ruined by the Million Dollar Man
Curaprox Hydrosonic Pro electric toothbrush
Curaprox Hydrosonic Pro review: A powerful seven-mode, Swiss-made sonic brush
Atelier Yumia
I was already sold on Atelier Yumia as an RPG, but I wasn’t expecting it to have my favorite crafting system in all of gaming
Alienware 27 AW2725Q monitor on desk displaying a scene from Cyberpunk 2077
I played games with Alienware's new 27-inch 4K OLED monitor and now I don't want to see another LCD panel
MacBook Air 15-inch with M4 chip on a creative's desk with screen open
I've reviewed the Apple MacBook Air 15-inch (M4) - and it remains the best 15-inch laptop I'd recommend for most people
Samsung Music Frame on a table beside some books and a vase
I spent six weeks listening to the Samsung Music Frame and it kept missing the beat