This does lessen the "glanceability" factor for me, particularly if I'm engaged in some other activity and just want to get the time really quickly - I have to wait for the display to come on. This works most of the time, with the latency being somewhere in the 0.5-1 second range. The Gear's accelerometer can tell when your wrist twists from its natural position (facing outward), to "I'm trying to look at my watch" (facing inward) position, at which point the display automatically illuminates. The way you're supposed to do it, though, is with your wrist. On the right-hand side of the Gear is a power button that will turn the display on or off (two taps for off if you're not on the watchface homescreen). So, how do you actually turn the display on? One of two ways. The maximum is 5 minutes, but I imagine you'd run down your battery in a matter of a few short hours on that setting regardless of how much you actually use the watch (more on that soon), unless you have the brightness set to the very minimum. As such, there has to be a display timeout set. First, because it's AMOLED, it uses more power than an LCD, especially at high brightness levels. There are two big problems with it, though. On the right-hand side there is a power button, and a little further along than that there is a hole for the Gear's microphone.
On that underside are the 5 charging pins, 4 Torx screws, and various regulatory scrawl. The primary housing of the Gear is constructed out of stainless steel, with a plastic underside. It just doesn't seem like a product designed with a goal in mind, it exists only for the sake of existing. And really, aside from auto-lock, it solves none of my problems.
- Kind of useless: I have tried to find a way to integrate the Galaxy Gear into my life.
- This does not a good user experience make.
Slow: The Gear feels slow and unresponsive a lot most of the time.Notifications: See the section in Software devoted to notification handling.Charging cradle: You have to carry a specific piece of gear to charge the Gear, in the form of a really cheap, flimsy charging "cradle" and it really doesn't make sense.