Samsung has released a number of smartwatches over the last 12 months. This time it was the turn of its first "standalone" smartwatch, a smartwatch which lets you make and receive calls from your wrist. Except, it's not really standalone, because you need a smartphone... a Samsung smartphone...

Great display; Voice calls and messaging work well; Good battery life; Sturdy build quality; It's kind of standalone

Expensive; Distractingly large; Initially uncomfortable; Watch face designs lack pizzazz

Samsung's Gear S smartwatch promises greater autonomy from your smartphone, a colorful display, and a slew of other new features. Is it enough to sell you on the need for[...

The Gear S isn't very comfortable and definitely not a smartwatch for everyone but the device still has a few perks.

Slick OS; Nice AMOLED display; Can be a standalone phone; Decent battery life

Large and bulky; Strap is unwieldy; Still needs a Samsung phone; Expensive

This watch would be so much better if it ad a built in camera. Also if you are not with in Bluetooth range you cant respond to your text messages. I could care less about my phone calls when I am at work I would like to text real quick while my phone is at my desk.

Bright display

no camera; too pricey

The dream of a fully standalone wrist gadget that can make phone calls, stay connected and even help you be sounds good, at least on paper. To own a smartwatch usually means having it be perma-paired to a phone in your pocket: it ends up being, largely, a phone accessory. That's starting to change.

The Samsung Gear S has a big, bright curved display, decent battery life, comes with its own bonus battery pack and can stay connected away from a phone with its own 3G data or Wi-Fi; It's attractive, albeit rather large; It's a complete on-wrist phone

It still requires a recent Samsung phone to pair with and install apps, and its standalone features don't work with all apps and notifications; The Gear app library is still weak compared with Android Wear

The Samsung Gear S is bigger, more feature-packed and less reliant on your smartphone than any other smartwatch we've wrapped around our wrist this year. Unlike Android Wear watches such as the Moto 360 or the LG G Watch R , the Gear S acts more like a smartphone, letting you make calls, browse the...

Big; bright screen; Improved app support; Good S Health integration

Slightly laggy performance; Apps still need to be downloaded on phone

Is it a phone? Is it a watch? These are the questions that you'll likely think up when you see Samsung's latest smartphone-watch hybrid, an evolution on its original Gear smartwatch that will let you make calls from your watch when your phone isn't even nearby.

Great looking screen; Solid battery two day battery life when used as a watch; Can make and take phone calls; and send and receive messages; Heart-rate sensor included; GPS built into the watch

Needs a Samsung phone (a recent one; at that) to setup; Answering phone calls on your wrist can appear very odd; and make you a little concerned about your appearance; Using the onscreen keyboard is a joke; So few watch faces; and very little for free on Samsung's Galaxy Apps marketplace; Doesn't...

The Samsung Gear S was the Korean giant's flagship 2104 smartwatch that, unlike the latest Sony and Asus efforts, shuns Google's Android Wear OS in favour of its own platform: Tizen.

Fantastic curved Super AMOLED display; Battery cradle also charges; Notifications work well; Plenty of apps available on Tizen

It's ridiculously expensive; Samsung Galaxy phone reliance; Samsung Health features are poor; Clasp is ugly and hard to use

* For seeing msg, news, other health activities it is OK. * But speaking via contact it is not comfortable. * unfortunately the battery broken within a short period. * unlike playstore, here very limited apps only available

Samsung helped launch the idea of a modern smartwatch to general consumers when it unveiled the original Galaxy Gear . That was in September 2013, if you can believe it, and since then Samsung has launched four more smartwatches - the Gear 2 , Gear 2 Neo , Gear Fit and Gear Live .