Samsung Gear S2: A sneak peek at the latest Apple Watch-rival

Samsung has been hinting at a new smartwatch to compete with the Apple Watch for some time now. Recently, at the Unpacked event, the company teased its new smartwatch – the Samsung Gear S2 – along with the **Galaxy S6 Edge+ and Note 5** . The company has now teased the new wearable by releasing a short video, and the device is likely to be announced at the IFA 2015.

The video shows round casing and a metal band. It gives a sneak peek into some apps such as weather, time zone, stopwatch and sports tracking. Just like most watches, one can also expect a heart-rate sensor. The new wearable definitely looks more sophisticated and polished from what we’ve seen from Samsung earlier. The icons are more rounded, just like the Apple Watch. The device is named Gear S2, and the omission of Galaxy may probably mean it is likely to run Tizen. However, there is no official word on whether it will run Android Wear (customised with some of its own apps) or Tizen. “Overall, this device is a big departure from the Gear S. The 3G radio was one of the most important features of the first iteration — you could make calls from your watch without relying on your phone. You could also text from your wrist with a tiny on-screen QWERTY keyboard. It will be hard to squeeze a keyboard on a rounded smartwatch,” points out Techcrunch. With the new Samsung S2 Gear ready to make its presence felt at the IFA, we won’t have to wait too long.