Samsung releases new Gear Sport ad, features GPS, NFC and built-in music app

The Samsung Galaxy Gear Sport smart watch has long been announced a while back aimed at active users. The Gear range of smart watches have been a popular offering by Samsung over the years and have garnered significant praise for offering features that even the Apple smartwatch couldn’t. Recently, Samsung unveiled a new video highlighting the Gear Sport, offering a hint as to what we can expect from the Tizen-powered device.

From the video, the add showcases the different functionalities of the smartwatch, highlighting the smartwatch’s different features that cater to an active lifestyle. It shows that the watch comes with GPS, a revamped user interface, active tracking and the fan-favorite rotating crown for switching between modes and settings. The video is assisted with an up-beat soundtrack and also showcases the device’s ability to display texts and other notifications from the user’s phone.

Clearly, Samsung wants to make its new Gear Sport a device to be used as a daily driver. While the design is reminiscent of previous iterations of the smartwatch over the years, it has aged gracefully, keeping with the traditional round digital dial and long-list of new features. The display in particular uses more blacks, which means that the AMOLED panel that will make up the smartwatch’s round display will be saving on battery and offer better on-screen time, and even better stand-by time. We expect Samsung to be fitting the Gear Sport with a bigger battery as well.

The company wants users to look at the watch as more than just a fitness assistant, going with the tag line – “Go Beyond Fitness”. The watch will have water resistance of up to 50 metres, along with weight management and built-in GPS as well as a stand-alone music player. While the device does not come with cellular connectivity, it will not be able to make calls like Apple’s upcoming smartwatch, but it can still be paired with smartphones via Bluetooth and sync notifications. Thanks to NFC, the device can also make purchases using Samsung Pay.

Speculations surrounding pricing put the Gear Sport anywhere around the $350 mark and for the offering, seems like a formidable competitor to the more expensive Android Wear gadgets such as the Asus’ wearables, Garmin and even the upcoming FitBit devices as well. Unfortunately, the company has not provided any official details regarding the availability and launch just yet. But it seems likely that the smartwatch will arrive sometime later this month or by the end of this year.

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