Samsung’s been pretty quiet on the wearables front, but for good reason. It was hunkered away in a South Korean bunker somewhere reimagining what its smartwatch should look like. The result is the Gear S2. It’s round, it rotates, and most importantly, it does not run Android Wear.
So, what’s the point? Should you even consider a smartwatch if it doesn’t run Google’s version of its wearable software? Yes, you should. Because although the current crop of smartwatches are much more stylish to wear, the Gear S2 at least offers a different watch experience. Google could actually learn a thing or two from Samsung here, though I never thought I’d ever be typing that sentence.
It’s round and manly

The Gear S2 classic is the style I gravitated towards the most.
Florence Ion
The Gear S2 employs two navigation buttons: a back button and a home button.
Florence Ion
I wasn’t as keen on the regular, slightly larger Gear S2. It looked too masculine.
Looks aside, the actual execution of the Gear S2 is impressive. It has a back and home button on the right side, which I’m okay with because Android Wear’s gestures are sometimes confusing to use. Second, the bezel around the Gear S2 actually rotates, so you can use that to scroll through the interface. It can seem a bit gimmicky at first, but I commend Samsung’s attempt to try something new here. Touching a screen is nice and easy, but it’s fun to have that physical feedback, too.
Florence Ion
You can scroll through the Gear S2’s Tizen interface.
I found the classic variant of the Gear S2 to be the most comfortable of the two Samsung smartwatches. The leather band is flexible and feels like I would break it in over time. The regular plastic Gear S2 is too rigid and you can only buy proprietary watchbands to fit it.
Tizen is actually intuitive

Yes, Tizen uses Samsung’s S Voice, which is a bummer, though it redeems itself in other ways.
The Tizen watch interface is so much easier to get a hang of than Android Wear. Sure, Android Wear got easier to use after the update last April, but Tizen offers some fluidity that Google’s wearable interface doesn’t. The application launcher circles around the interface, so I can easily choose the app I want by rotating or tapping. When it launches, it’s live, and when I want to get out of it, I just hit the back button. I need this sort of tactile feedback in a wearable interface because that’s how I’m used to using my phone, and I like that Samsung translated it from its phones to its watch. Ease of use doesn’t necessarily mean minimalistic; it means it should be intuitive, which Tizen’s wearable OS is—surprisingly!
Tizen OS also offers some of the same goodies as Android Wear, including standalone Wi-Fi support, which doesn’t require a phone to configure, and widgets. By default, the Gear S2 displays six widgets on screen, though you can add up to 12. You can cycle through them on the Home screen of sorts with the scroll wheel or with your finger. Samsung also enabled standalone 3G support and NFC capabilities, so you can tell your mom you’re out on a run and then grab a Gatorade on your slow walk home.
I like it, but…

I’m simply not feeling most of these watch band choices.
Regardless, there’s a lot to learn from Samsung here. The Tizen wearable interface is a breath of fresh air from all the other copycat Android Wear devices out there. Android Wear is boring to use, while Tizen is fun! I’m not worried about app availability, either, because Samsung is a big name in the industry and, frankly, Tizen had an Uber app before Android Wear.
While it’s not the most feminine smartwatch for a style conscious lady like myself, the Gear S2 is going to bring some real competition to the Android wearables scene. I’m curious to see how well it will pair with other smartphones, and how it performs out in the wild. At the very least, Samsung’s thrown a wrench into an otherwise static wearables scene.