Samsung announces Tizen based Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo

Samsung has revamped its Galaxy Gear and ditched Android for its homegrown Tizen OS. The new smartwatch from Samsung comes in two flavors, the Gear 2 and Gear 2, again dropping the Galaxy brand as it does not run Android.

The first-gen Galaxy Gear was plagued with low battery life, incompatibility issues and general lack of usability. The Gear 2 is supposed to change all that, although the specifications remain more or less the same. Here's a look at both the Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo.

Samsung Gear 2

The Gear 2 is an evolutionary iteration of the Galaxy Gear, with a 1.63-inch 320 x 320 pixels Super AMOLED display, and a beefed-up 1GHz dual-core processor up from 800 MHz. It also gets a new set of health sensors including a heart-rate monitor and an IR blaster to control home appliances. There's a 2 MP camera onboard which can record upto 720p HD video, this time around though instead of the strap it has been moved to the top of the watch. The internal storage and RAM remains same as the previous-gen smartwatch at 4 GB storage and 512 MB RAM. However, the battery has been reduced to 300 mAh down from 315 mAh, which is a bit of a worry as even the Galaxy Gear had poor battery life, so reducing it means further downgrade. But Samsung says Tizen is more optimized than Android and therefore you would be able to get more than 2-3 days based on your usage.

Samsung Gear 2 Neo

Samsung has begun naming its lesser spec'd (read cheaper) variants Neo, same goes for the Gear 2 Neo. Although it features the same 1.63-inch 320 x 320 pixels Super AMOLED display with the 1GHz dual-core processor running Tizen, it ditches the 2 MP HD camera which reduces its weight to just 55 grams. It too has 4 GB internal storage and 512 MB RAM just like the Gear 2. 

Both the Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo are IP67 certified dust and water resistant, so that's again a bonus.

The prices of the Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo have not been disclosed yet, but they are expected to be available globally starting in April.