First Australian review: What’s it like to wear the world’s biggest smartwatch, Samsung Gear S?

IS your wrist ready for the world’s biggest smartwatch? Samsung’s Gear S puts a two-inch touchscreen on your arm and it can act as a phone.

DICK Tracy has nothing on this gadget.

While most smartwatches make you feel like you’re wearing a tiny piece of a computing puzzle, Samsung’s new smartwatch feels like the entire PC has been shrunk to a wearable size.

It’s with good reason as the Gear S smartwatch is not only the biggest widely available smartwatch but it is the most fully featured and can actually serve as a phone by itself, within limits.

It also features even more sensors than top-of-the-line fitness gadgets, a speaker and microphone for taking calls, and a tiny but usable keyboard for sending missives from your wrist.

Its size and price mean it will not appeal to everyone, however.

Samsung’s latest smartwatch, the Gear S, features an on-screen keyboard.

Samsung’s sixth smartwatch shows just how far the technology has come in little more than a year.

The Gear S looks like it escaped from The Jetsons’ home, with a curved, AMOLED, 2-inch touchscreen upfront and bordered by chrome. The comfortable and flexible plastic wristband is available in white or black.

This curve of the screen makes its size significantly more manageable, as it simply arches over the wrist like a bangle.

Having a canvas this large means the watch is able to deliver much more than mere notifications.

Take SMS messages, for example. When paired to a phone, the Gear S shows text messages as they arrive but also lets the wearer respond to them. A small keyboard lets a user tap out a basic response without reaching for the connected phone.

The Gear S screen also makes smartphone apps more usable and, in some cases, possible.

You’d hardly read news stories from the round Moto 360 face, but Samsung’s preloaded News widget that offers a selection of articles makes more sense. It might not be your main, go-to source of news, but it’s a handy feature to pass the time waiting in a queue.

You can even add the Opera Mini web browser to this smartwatch to search the web at large. It’s a stretch, even for the most committed smartwatch fan, but it costs no extra to install.

Samsung’s Gear S smartwatch has a 2-inch screen.

This Tizen-run smartwatch is also packed with a slew of sensors.

Naturally, it will count the wearer’s steps each day, but it also features an optical heart-rate monitor on its rear, a GPS sensor to track runs and, unusually, a UV sensor to tell you when the sun’s rays are a danger (and you risk getting a watch tan).

You can also wear this device to bed if you want it to track your sleep. Sleep mode quietens notifications and delivers a report when you wake showing how much or little you moved during the night.

These would be more than enough features for other smartwatches, but Samsung has added one more to this device, and it’s a controversial addition: a SIM card tray.

Yes, the Gear S can operate as a phone unto itself. Almost.

If you decide to add a SIM card to this watch, you can use it even when out of your phone’s Bluetooth range.

It won’t deliver notifications from your phone, but it can be used to receive calls and SMS messages forwarded from your normal mobile number, and answer them via the tiny keyboard, microphone and speaker.

Samsung’s Gear S smartwatch can track a wearer’s steps.

This means you could, feasibly, stay connected while leaving the house without your phone, just as long as you were willing to make all phone calls on speakerphone — possible if exercising or running to the corner store, less likely if you’re going to a noisy nightclub.

Telstra has confirmed it plans “to offer the Gear S to our customers,” though it has yet to offer a launch date or details around SIM plans for the device. The device is currently shipping to Harvey Norman and Dick Smith and will be on sale shortly.

Impressively, this smartwatch also lasts for much longer than a day on a full battery charge, and could stretch to two days.

Not everyone will appreciate the many features of the Gear S, however.

It is a large watch at 1.25cm thick, 5.8cm long and 84g, and that could deter those used to tiny timekeepers or those with tight sleeves.

It’s also only compatible with Samsung smartphones, rather than wider Google Android audience, it cannot quite work as a stand-alone phone, and it uses a proprietary dock to charge.

Despite its challenges, there are plenty of reasons to appreciate this flagship smartwatch.

If you’re a smartphone fanatic, lurching from one notification to the next, an email zealot, a competitive life-logger, or someone who aspires to be the next Dick Tracy or Inspector Gadget’s niece Penny, Samsung’s new watch delivers like no other.

Samsung Gear S

4 out of 5 stars

$449 / samsung.com/au

Pros:

— Sharp, bright, curved, 2-inch touchscreen

— More sensors than any rival

— Smart features, from SIM tray to its keyboard

Cons:

— Only works with some Samsung phones

— Large size will not suit all

— Cannot be used as a stand-alone phone