Samsung was one of the first companies to start building smartwatches. Their first Galaxy Gear used a modified version of Android, which was adapted for the smaller screen size. Then a second generation became available dropping the Galaxy name and switching to their own operating system, Tizen. Then, Samsung used very similar hardware to try their hand at Google’s Android Wear platform and created the Gear Live. A little later, the Gear S lineup was born, with unique designs like a curved screen and some of the best components out there. The Gear S2 was released recently and it is the first time that Samsung uses a circular display in one of their devices and it works in a very peculiar way.
Besides integrating a round touchscreen, the Gear S2 features a rotating bezel surrounding the screen, which controls some of the displayed elements. The rotating bezel introduces a new way to interact with the UI, plus, the screen can remain visible while scrolling through lists or selecting some more elements. Samsung has just released a pretty lengthy promotional video of the Gear S2 highlighting the circular shape and the functionality of the ring around the screen. It’s a nice video as the company used real people to simulate the bezel and its functionality. They show a little of the UI of the watch and then more people is shown arranged in concentrical circles and each circle features people dressed in a specific color and playing a certain musical instrument, they all dance to the song Kiss The Sky by Cash Cash.
Then, the bezel made of people rotates once again and select the S Health app, so the people around the circular watch face are shown doing all sorts of exercise. A little later, the Messaging app is chosen and we can see people interacting with each other while the “bezel” chooses an emoji to respond to a message. Finally, all of them for a larger and colorful bezel and by rotating, they reveal the phrase “Gets better with every turn”, they rotate one last time to reveal the name of the watch. The video runs for over 2 minutes, but it’s really fun and colorful, so check it out below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_NMGHlCAX8