Just because Samsung already has a line of smartwatches powered by the Tizen operating system doesn’t mean there’s not room for one more… Samsung is hedging its bets by jumping on the Android Wear bandwagon.
With the screen off, the new Samsung Gear Live looks a lot like the company’s Gear 2 smartwatch. But turn it on and you’ve got a device running Google’s touch and voice-activated Android Wear software.
The Samsung Gear Live features a 1.63 inch, 320 x 320 pixel Super AMOLED display, a 1.2 GHz processor, 512MB of RAM, and 4GB of storage.
It has an integrated heart rate monitor as well as other sensors including an accelerometer, gyroscope, and compass. The watch can pair with your phone over a Bluetooth 4.0 LTE connection, and it features a removeable wrist strap. Samsung will offer black and red wristaband options.
The watch is IP67 dust and water resistant and features a 300mAh battery.
Like all Android Wear devices, it supports Google Now, Google Maps, Gmail, and other apps, and can display notifications from your phone on your wrist.
Along with the LG G Watch, the Samsung Gear Live should be available for purchase from the Google Play Store starting today. The Motorola Moto 360 smartwatch with Android Wear will launch in a few weeks.