Samsung Gear 2 Smartwatch Review
Battery Life
We always like to get a strong sense of battery life anytime we test a mobile device, but the Gear 2 doesn’t allow us to perform any of our normal tests. We typically use either a web browsing test (wherein we load up a webpage full of active content that refreshes every three minutes) or an actual battery test benchmark such as Battery Eater Pro or AnTuTu.
By dint of the facts that the Gear 2 doesn’t have a web browser and also doesn’t run all Android apps, we can’t run a battery test that compares to any other device in our test bank. (For that matter, we don’t have any other smartwatches to compare it to yet.)
Thus, we’re reduced to simply setting up a custom test. Because we expect the same issues with future wearables (the lack of a web browser and inability to run certain apps, that is), so we’re keeping it simple: We set up a persistent watch face app on the Gear 2, adjusted the brightness to 50%, and let the device run until the battery gave out.
Under that load, which is somewhat of a worst case scenario, the Gear 2 lasted approximately 6 hours and 50 minutes.
Samsung claims that under typical use the Gear 2 can last for 2-3 days, but we found that to be optimistic. We used the Gear 2 for typical tasks including receiving notifications, making a couple of phone calls, fiddling with different watch faces, and running the pedometer for a couple of lengthy workouts, and the battery conked out after approximately 40 hours.
By dint of the facts that the Gear 2 doesn’t have a web browser and also doesn’t run all Android apps, we can’t run a battery test that compares to any other device in our test bank. (For that matter, we don’t have any other smartwatches to compare it to yet.)
;)
Thus, we’re reduced to simply setting up a custom test. Because we expect the same issues with future wearables (the lack of a web browser and inability to run certain apps, that is), so we’re keeping it simple: We set up a persistent watch face app on the Gear 2, adjusted the brightness to 50%, and let the device run until the battery gave out.
Under that load, which is somewhat of a worst case scenario, the Gear 2 lasted approximately 6 hours and 50 minutes.
Samsung claims that under typical use the Gear 2 can last for 2-3 days, but we found that to be optimistic. We used the Gear 2 for typical tasks including receiving notifications, making a couple of phone calls, fiddling with different watch faces, and running the pedometer for a couple of lengthy workouts, and the battery conked out after approximately 40 hours.
