14 DAY TRIAL // Samsung has introduced its latest wearables, in the form of the Gear 2, Gear 2 Neo smartwatches and the Gear Fit health band at MWC 2014 in February. And a few months later, the Korean tech giant made the products globally available.
As you might already know, the devices have to be paired with a smartphone in order to be fully taken advantage of. Now Samsung has taken the opportunity to officially announce the complete list of devices compatible with the three wearables, as of April 15 2014.
However, there’s a major caveat here. Samsung is planning to keep the smartwatch/fitness band endeavor in-house, so it is offering compatibility only with smartphones and tablets coming from its own garden.
Granted, the list is quite extensive, but that doesn't make up for the fact that Sammy is keeping potential customers at bay.
Basically, owners of tablets and smartphones coming from other brands will find that buying a Gear 2, Gear 2 Neo or Gear Fit is quite useless.
Anyway, as of April 15 the three wearables are said to be compatible with a list of 20 Galaxy devices , which includes the very recent Galaxy S5, Galaxy S4, Galaxy Note 4 and high-end Galaxy TabPRO line of tablets.
So if you own a tablet or the smartphone from the list, you can rest assured, you will be able to enjoy full compatibility with the two smartwatches/fitness band.
The Samsung smartphones that will place nice with the three Gear devise include the Galaxy S5, Galaxy Note 3 Note, Galaxy Grand 2, Galaxy Note 3, Galaxy S4 Mini, Galaxy S4 Active, Galaxy S4 Zoom, Galaxy Mega 6.3, Galaxy Mega 5.8, Galaxy S4, Galaxy Note 2 and Galaxy S3.
As for tablets, there are a lot of models included, so the wearables are going to be working with Galaxy Tab 4 10.1, Galaxy Tab 4 8.0, Galaxy Tab 4 7.0, Galaxy TabPRO 12.2, Galaxy TabPRO 10.1, Galaxy TabPRO 8.4, Galaxy NotePRO 12.2 and Galaxy Note 10.1 (2014 Edition).
However, for those who aren't Samsung tablet/smartphone owners, there is still hope. We have shown you here a method that can provide compatibility between the Gear Fit and the Android 4.4.2 KitKat updated HTC One M8 and M7 smartphones. There’s also a workaround available for the Nexus 5 smartphone.
Nevertheless, don’t expect all the features to be fully functional. For example, quick reply options and alarm notifications might not work. Another down-side of not having an officially supported smartphone means users won't be getting official updates from Samsung.
Is the Gear 2, Gear 2 Neo or Gear Fit worth enough for you to jump onboard with Sammy for a tablet or a smartphone?