Wearables

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LG G Watch Giveaway

Last month’s Google IO saw the official introduction of Google’s Android Wear as well as the first two devices to run the new wearable OS. Among those was LG’s G Watch, a Snapdragon 400 (4 x ARM Cortex A7) based Android Wear device with a 1.65″ IPS display. As a show of continued support for the Wearables section on AnandTech, ARM is providing two G Watches as giveaways to two lucky AnandTech readers. 

To be elligible you need to be a US resident with a US mailing address and leave a comment below. In your comment, ARM would like to know what segments or applications you think wearables would be most successful in. Some examples being communication, enterprise, fashion, healthcare, security, fitness, etc…

Leave your feedback in a comment below and that’ll automatically enter you for the giveaway. Good luck!

Samsung Begins Tizen Rollout for Original Galaxy Gear in the US
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Samsung Begins Tizen Rollout for Original Galaxy Gear in the US

Samsung’s original Galaxy Gear was one of the first in an initial wave of Android smartwatches. It ran Android at a time where a smartwatch was not a form factor that Google had anticipated for their operating system. Because of issues with software support and battery life, Samsung began releasing smartwatches that ran on their own Tizen operating system. Samsung also committed to updating the original Galaxy Gear from Android to Tizen. This staged rollout began earlier in May of this year, and it is now rolling out to Galaxy Gear users in United States. Samsung is promising that the update gives users access to a greater catalog of apps, along with software improvements that bring it closer to feature parity with the Gear 2 smartwatch. 

The move to Tizen brings new features and additions to existing features. Many of these lie in the fitness and lifestyle capabilities of the Galaxy Gear. On Tizen the Galaxy Gear can keep track of a user’s sleeping patterns using Sleep Mode, and it can keep track of workout routines in exercise mode which is an improvement over the original Android firmware which could only go as far as tracking footsteps. Unfortunately due to hardware limitations, features that utilize the heart rate monitor on the Gear 2 have not been brought over to the original Galaxy Gear

Samsung is also including a built in music player with the ability to store tracks right on the smartwatch. This is an interesting feature because it allows the Galaxy Gear to function on its own to some degree, which is a different smartwatch strategy than Google is taking with their Android Wear operating system which acts purely as an extension of your current smartphone. Another new app is the Controls application which acts as a settings app for changing brightness and volume as well as setting custom fonts, wallpapers, and icon sizes.

Beyond new apps and features, Samsung is promising that the move to Tizen brings significant increases in battery life which is great news for Galaxy Gear owners as battery life is one of the biggest concerns with smartwatches and the original Galaxy Gear running Android definitely struggled in this regard.

The update is rolling out in the United States starting today. Users will need to connect their phone to their computer and use Samsung’s Kies software to download and install the update. While this isn’t likely to be an issue for most users, Samsung makes a point of noting that there is no way to return to Android once the Galaxy Gear has been updated to Tizen.

Your Thoughts on the Wearables Market
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Your Thoughts on the Wearables Market

For the past couple of years we’ve noticed a shift in focus of dominant players in the smartphone space. As the smartphone market moves from rapid expansion to a maturing phase, the companies on top don’t want to be left behind in the same way the notebook PC vendors were at the start of the smartphone/tablet race.

At the same time, continued reduction in transistor feature sizes and power consumption have enabled a new class of low power SoC. ARM’s product offerings in particular extend both up and down the power curve. There’s Cortex M for ultra low power devices, often perfect for wearables, and then a range of Cortex A CPUs for higher end wearables all the way up to smartphones, tablets and eventually servers. 

Initial successes in the wearables space were specialized pieces of hardware. For example, pedometers and health trackers like the Fitbits of the world. Most of these designs leverage Cortex M series CPU cores. More recently however we’ve seen a more serious push into the world of smart watches. Initial plays here were more disorganized in terms of hardware and OS selection, but we’re beginning to see some consolidation on the heels of Google’s Android Wear announcement. 

At last month’s Google IO we saw the first official Android Wear devices launch from LG and Samsung. Later this summer we’ll also see the arrival of the Moto 360, an arguably much more appealing Android Wear device thanks to a greater focus on design. I’ve spent the past couple of weeks with LG’s G Watch and am still toying with the best way to present my thoughts on the device. In short it seems like a great platform if you’re a developer, but honestly lacks the battery life (I measured under 9 hours of actual use, display on but dimmed on a single charge) and feature set today to really convince me as a consumer.

Last month we soft launched our new Wearables content section at AnandTech, with ARM graciously agreeing to be a launch sponsor. ARM’s support will allow us to likely do some wearable giveaways in the not too distant future too.

The path to wearable computing becoming something more substantial however demands a lot of things to change. If we’re talking about watches we need better battery life, the functionality needs to improve as well (although I am impressed by some of what’s already been introduced for Android Wear). I’m curious to get your thoughts on the wearable space. What would it take for you to add yet another computing platform to your life? Is anyone out there waiting for the perfect smart watch? I know I stopped wearing watches nearly a decade ago, and to go back I’ll likely need quite a bit of convincing in terms of a great product.

If you’ve got thoughts on this space, we’d love to hear them as they’ll help shape our coverage going forward. Leave your comments below.

Your Thoughts on the Wearables Market
  • Comments are Closed

Your Thoughts on the Wearables Market

For the past couple of years we’ve noticed a shift in focus of dominant players in the smartphone space. As the smartphone market moves from rapid expansion to a maturing phase, the companies on top don’t want to be left behind in the same way the notebook PC vendors were at the start of the smartphone/tablet race.

At the same time, continued reduction in transistor feature sizes and power consumption have enabled a new class of low power SoC. ARM’s product offerings in particular extend both up and down the power curve. There’s Cortex M for ultra low power devices, often perfect for wearables, and then a range of Cortex A CPUs for higher end wearables all the way up to smartphones, tablets and eventually servers. 

Initial successes in the wearables space were specialized pieces of hardware. For example, pedometers and health trackers like the Fitbits of the world. Most of these designs leverage Cortex M series CPU cores. More recently however we’ve seen a more serious push into the world of smart watches. Initial plays here were more disorganized in terms of hardware and OS selection, but we’re beginning to see some consolidation on the heels of Google’s Android Wear announcement. 

At last month’s Google IO we saw the first official Android Wear devices launch from LG and Samsung. Later this summer we’ll also see the arrival of the Moto 360, an arguably much more appealing Android Wear device thanks to a greater focus on design. I’ve spent the past couple of weeks with LG’s G Watch and am still toying with the best way to present my thoughts on the device. In short it seems like a great platform if you’re a developer, but honestly lacks the battery life (I measured under 9 hours of actual use, display on but dimmed on a single charge) and feature set today to really convince me as a consumer.

Last month we soft launched our new Wearables content section at AnandTech, with ARM graciously agreeing to be a launch sponsor. ARM’s support will allow us to likely do some wearable giveaways in the not too distant future too.

The path to wearable computing becoming something more substantial however demands a lot of things to change. If we’re talking about watches we need better battery life, the functionality needs to improve as well (although I am impressed by some of what’s already been introduced for Android Wear). I’m curious to get your thoughts on the wearable space. What would it take for you to add yet another computing platform to your life? Is anyone out there waiting for the perfect smart watch? I know I stopped wearing watches nearly a decade ago, and to go back I’ll likely need quite a bit of convincing in terms of a great product.

If you’ve got thoughts on this space, we’d love to hear them as they’ll help shape our coverage going forward. Leave your comments below.

Inside the First Android Wear Devices: LG G Watch & Samsung Gear Live Teardown
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Inside the First Android Wear Devices: LG G Watch & Samsung Gear Live Teardown

Last week at IO, Google gave attendees a choice of one of two Android Wear devices to take home and get experience with the platform. Although I personally opted for LG’s G Watch (the display looked better), my friend James Bruce at ARM managed to get both and spent the next day taking them apart. James sent over high res pics of the result and gave us permission to post the images here (Update: ARM posted its own blog on the teardown here). I’m working on a review of Android Wear and the G Watch now (and yes, I have battery life data), but I hadn’t yet taken it apart. 


LG G Watch

The G Watch turns out to be pretty easy to take apart. There are four Torx T5 screws on the back, removing them gives you access to its internals. The 400mAh battery is integrated into the back cover. ARM’s teardown confirms 3.8V chemistry, resulting in a 1.52Wh total capacity. 

 LG G Watch

In the photo above (left) you can see the thin gasket that runs around the perimeter of the G Watch, helping to give it its IP67 rating (fully sealed against dust, submergible in up to 1 meter of water for up to 30 minutes).

Two more screws hold the incredibly small PCB in place. The Qualcomm APQ8026 SoC (4 x Cortex A7 + Adreno 305 graphics) is underneath the Hynix DRAM device. There’s a discrete Qualcomm PM8226 PMIC just south of the SoC.

 LG G Watch

On the flip side of the PCB we see Synaptics’ touch controller (the same model used in the Moto X). 

The Gear Live is also held together by four screws, although dismantling the watch takes a little more effort. The battery and heart rate monitor are both enclosed in the back of the watch. Samsung is also using 3.8V chemistry for its watch battery.

Samsung Gear Live

The logic board in the Gear Live is a bit more complex. There’s a second layer stacked on the main logic board that also acts as an RF can.

 
Samsung Gear Live

We see the same APQ8026 SoC from Qualcomm below a Samsung DRAM device in a PoP stack.

 
Samsung Gear Live

Overall Samsung definitely has the more compact (and complex) internal PCB (the picture at the top of the article compares the two side by side), which makes sense given the company’s relative head start in this space.

There’s been a ton of innovation in the internal layout of smartphones over the years. As these are the very first Android Wear devices, it’ll be interesting to see how the internal structure evolves over the coming years. One thing is for sure: those batteries are going to have to get thinner, or find a new place to live. Perhaps split up and distributed into a watch band?