Gear S2 is the first Samsung watch that works with third-party smartphones. Of course, it is not entirely true that it can be connected to all devices, because compatibility (at least the official one) has been limited to selected 35 models - you can find their list on the Korean company's website. Does this mean that you won't be able to enjoy all the benefits of the Gear S2 with equipment not on the list? Below you will find the answer to this question.
AdvertisingAs you can guess, the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge Plus Gear S2 works nicely - with all the possibilities it offers. Just turn on Bluetooth, download the Samsung Gear app (if you don't already have it), and then pair your watch with your phone. Everything takes literally a moment, after which we can enjoy displaying notifications on the watch and using applications (of which, unfortunately, there are still few on Tizen). But this is what I will focus on in a full and very detailed Gear S2 review, which will be created with Jakub's considerable participation. Today I just wanted to let you know that this watch works with devices not on the official list. And by the way, show how to combine these products with each other.
Gear S2 vs smartphones from the official list of supported devices
In the case of smartphones from manufacturers other than Samsung, but officially supported by Gear S2 (i.e. those from the list available on the Korean company's website), the matter is very simple. We download three applications from the Google Play store, after which the watch connects to the phone. Then you need to log in to your Samsung account (if you don't have one - you can create one this year). Nothing hard.
AdvertisementNecessary applications (with a link to Google Play) - free of course:
Gear S2 vs smartphones not on the official list of supported devices
Okay, what about hardware that is not on the official list? I have a lot of smartphones at hand, whose names are in vain to look for there. On the example of Motorola Moto X Play, Honor 7 and Umi Emax Mini, I checked whether the connection of the watch is possible, and if so - how, because you can guess that on "incompatible" devices, searching for the Gear S2 manager in Google Play does not bring any results . But what do we have .apk files for!
To connect a Samsung smartwatch to a phone that is not on the officially supported list, you need to download three applications in the form of .apk and then install them. In my experience, if we pass this step and all three programs are successfully installed, the Gear S2 will work. In order to establish a connection between the watch and the phone, on the latter you need to install (from .apk files) the mentioned three programs (links to the sources from which I downloaded): Samsung Gear, Samsung Accessory Service and Gear Plugin. Of course, you must first enable the option of installing applications from "unknown sources" on your phone - without this, the operation will fail.
You will probably ask if the functionality of the Gear S2 differs depending on whether we use it in conjunction with a Samsung or a smartphone from another manufacturer. I noticed only two differences, which in addition are not terribly significant. The first is the inability to answer the call directly from the watch (the conversation takes place on the phone anyway, because in the Gear S2, unlike the Gear S, there is no loudspeaker). The second in turn is the lack of the Samsung e-mail application, which, when connected to a Samsung smartphone, displays on the watch not only notifications of new e-mails, but also a list of e-mails in our inbox, to which we can go at any time . Update: I missed one more detail: when paired with non-Samsung smartphones, we will not find paid applications in the watch application store - there are only free ones.
I haven't noticed any other differences so far - all notifications about calls and SMS come without any problems, but also those from Facebook, Hangouts, Gmail, Messenger and Twitter (you can reply to messages from the watch level), Instagram. We can also use the applications that we have installed, including: music player, photo gallery, Nike+ Running (provided that we have the application downloaded to the phone), heart rate monitor, schedule, alarm clock, weather, etc. Of course, we can install more programs from Samsung Gear Apps. If you want me to check something specific, let me know in the comments.
Gear S2 vs smartphones that do not meet the minimum technical requirements
Samsung states that the Gear S2 is compatible with devices running Android version 4.4 KitKat or later that have at least 1, 5GB RAM. What about phones that don't meet these requirements? Of course, I wouldn't be myself if I didn't try to pair the Gear S2 with devices that do not meet these minimum technical requirements. But here, as you can guess, I died. I tried on two different devices - Asus Padfone 2 (with Android 4.1, 4.4 is required) and myPhone Cube (with 1GB RAM, required: 1.5GB). In both cases, the attempt to install the Samsung Gear application from the .apk file ended in a fiasco (the other two programs installed without any problems). However, it seems to me that if someone buys a watch for PLN 1,500, his smartphone will be more "fancy". Another thing is that it is currently difficult to find a device, even from a low shelf, that would not work under Android 4.4 or later and with 1.5 GB of RAM.
The Samsung Gear app (nor the other two) is not available in the iOS version, although it is worth recalling that for some time it has been said that Samsung does not exclude the possibility of supporting Apple smartphones. In turn, I did not have the opportunity to check the connection with BlackBerry - as far as I know, Jakub tried, but to no avail.
Finally, one more note - the Gear S2 can only work with one smartphone at a time. So if you want to switch phones and still get notifications, you need to reset your watch - and there are two types of resets:
I hope that with this entry I have brought you a bit closer to the Gear S2's compatibility with non-Samsung smartphones and those outside the list of officially compatible smartphones. However, if you have any questions, feel free to ask!
You have to wait until the end of the week for the Gear S2 review. We will take a closer look at both versions available for sale: sports (which I have) and Classic (which Jakub has).
If there are Gear S2 users among you - let us know what smartphones you connected the watch with and what you liked the most about it (or maybe something you didn't like?)!
