IFA Roundup: Samsung Gear S2

Tech giant Samsung had a few goodies announced at IFA 2015, despite the big news of the Note 5 being dropped earlier. For this year’s IFA, the brand wanted to focus on other things outside of the smartphone experience.

Advertisement

Gear S2

With the experiences of the first generation Gear behind them, Samsung went ahead and showed off the Gear S2, a round-faced smartwatch. It features a 1.2-inch circular Super AMOLED display, 360×360 resolution at 302 pixels per inch, an Exynos 250 processor, 4GB of storage, 512MB of RAM and a 250 or 300mAh battery depending on the model. The best feature of the Gear S2? It’s probably the Circular UX navigation system. The Gear S2’s bezel rotates, allowing you to cycle through its built-in features, apps installed, contacts, and even email.

SmartThings Smart Home Hub

Samsung is big on the Internet of Things phenomenon, and it shows with the announcement of the SmartThings Hub 2.0. This little white box features Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi, ZigBee, and Z-Wave radios, allowing it to talk to a lot of your appliances and devices. Along with the SmartThings Hub 2.0, Samsung also unveiled a refreshed SmartThings app. Among its features is the Smart Home Monitor, which allows you to remotely view all the videos from CCTVs connected to the SmartThings Hub, ensuring you’ve got an eye on the house while you’re away at work.