Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch talk re-surfaces, will not work like a phone

There has been quite a bit of talk of South Korean giant Samsung joining the smartwatch bandwagon in the not-so-distant future. The device, from what has been heard so far, will come bearing the name Galaxy Gear. But an earlier report by Bloomberg, which stated that the device will be able to make phone calls, threw up a lot of questions about what all the device can actually do.

A newly surfaced report by the Verge contradicts the earlier information. According to sources in the know-how, the device will “work with phones”. This indicates that the device will in fact work hand-in-glove with smartphones, just like the other smartwatch offerings coming to the market.

The sources, according to the report, are clear that, “the watch is not a phone.”  From what is known so far, the Galaxy Gear may come with a camera, a GPS chip as well as a TV receiver. Added in is an arm band, with the device most likely being bike mountable as well. Applications as a health monitor cannot be ruled out either, as the device may probably tie in with the S Health Android app.

Samsung's smartwatch, Galaxy Gear, will not work like a phone

The idea of a watchphone, though, as the Bloomberg report indicated, is not so far-fetched. Electronic bigwig LG came up with one a few years back. The mandates for a watchphone include having a SIM card, cellular radio and data connection. This is completely different from the idea of linking a wearable device to a smartphone via Bluetooth, like what Pebble does.

However, there are a few problems here. Unlike Star Trek, the idea of talking into your wrist in real time traffic, for instance, may not really be feasible. And the problem of battery conservation also crops up. All told though, the Samsung smartwatch seems intriguing because it may come soon. It seems possible that the company has plans to unveil the device along with the Galaxy Note 3 on September 4 in Berlin. Unless Apple or Google come up with a surprise launch in the next few days, it seems like the South Korean electronic giant may be the first to come up with a smartwatch of its own this year.