Tag: gear icon x

Samsung’s Gear Sport, Gear Fit 2 Pro And Icon X 2018 Unveiled At IFA 2017
Samsung announced the Gear Sport smartwatch, the Gear Fit 2 Pro fitness band and the Icon X 2018 wireless earbuds at the IFA 2017 in Berlin. All three wearables emphasize upon fitness features like the ability to swim in salt water with the Gear Sport and Fit 2 Pro. Though the Icon X 2018 earbuds launched with the ability to interact with Bixby, Samsung skipped the voice assistant’s support in the smartwatch and the fitness band .

Samsung Gear Sport

The new Samsung Gear Sport pushes further into fitness by adding few new features like 5 ATM water resistance for swimming, capacity to store 500 Spotify songs along with the already present heart rate tracker, GPS, and a rotating control bezel. Though the pricing details are still unavailable, the Samsung Gear Sport is expected to cost between $200 and $300.

Following are the specifications of the smartwatch –
- 1.2-inch circular AMOLED
- Tizen OS
- 20mm watch straps
- 4GB storage
- Bluetooth 4.2, Wi-Fi, NFC
- GPS/GLONASS/Beidou
- 300 mAh battery
- 5 ATM water resistance, MIL-STD-810G dust, and shock resistance
- Works with Android 4.4, iOS 9.0 or later
Samsung Gear Fit 2 Pro

The Gear Fit 2 pro, unlike its earlier variant, comes with a 5 ATM swim-ready water resistance. The fitness band appears to be competing with Garmin and Fitbit with features like onboard GPS, offline music storage for Spotify and improved heart rate and fitness tracking.

The tracker is priced at $200 in the US. As far as features are concerned, here’s a list of few of them –
- 1.5-inch curved Super AMOLED touch display with Gorilla Glass 3
- Tizen OS
- 4GB of onboard storage
- Support for Spotify music downloads
- 50 meter (5 ATM) water resistance, MIL STD 810G dust resistance
- Bluetooth 4.2, Wi-Fi
- GPS/GLONASS/Beidou
- Heart rate tracking
- Barometer
- 200mAh battery
- Works with Android 4.4 or iOS 9.0 and later
Samsung Icon X 2018

Samsung unveiled an updated version of the Icon X headphones at the IFA 2017. The Icon X 2018, much like the original wireless headphones include heart rate monitoring along with the increased battery life. Instead of a 90 min battery life( in the Icon X), The new Icon X 2018 now has 5 hours of battery life when streaming audio from a phone. In addition, Samsung has made a chargeable battery case with the included USB-C cable. Other features include tapping the headphone which activates the Running Coach feature – provides aural feedback on your progress.

The new Icon X headphones also support Samsung’s voice assistant which can be accessed by tapping and holding the earbud to access voice control on your paired Galaxy phone. The Icon X 2018 headphones are designed to work only with Samsung phones running Android 4.4 and above. The headphones have internal storage of 4GB per bud. As for specifications,
- Colours available – Black, Gray, Pink
- 4GB of Onboard Storage (per earbud)
- Bluetooth v 4.2 connectivity
- Accelerometer, IR, Capacitive Touch
- OS compatibility Android 4.4 or later
- Battery – Earbud: 82mAh / Charging Case: 340mAh
Samsung usually hosts two separate events at IFA every year, one for its electronics and one for mobile. This year, the company decided to host one event combining the announcement for both smartphones and electronics. Samsung also hosted another major event in New York, where it revealed the Galaxy Note 8.
September 2, 2017
Samsung will Include Wireless Earphones with the Samsung Galaxy S8

The rumours are heating up about Samsung’s next flagship. Apart, from launching a larger variant of the S8 with Pen capabilities, Samsung is trying to recover from the Note 7 fiasco by bundling wireless earphones in the box of the next flagship.

Since Samsung is removing the headphone jack in the Samsung Galaxy S8, it would only make sense to include these wireless earphones, as Samsung fans may not be as forgiving as Apple fans.

This move could also lead to a possible trend of wireless earphones in boxes from other manufacturers. The earphones are expected to the similar to the Gear Icon X earphones, but with more battery power.

Samsung is said to increase the screen to body ratio in the Samsung Galaxy S8 making it closer to what we say with the Mi Mix phones from Xiaomi. Samsung Galaxy S8 will also feature hardware enhancements like more RAM , bumping it up to 6 GB and storage options all the way to 256 GB.

Samsung is also said to be focusing on Cameras and optics, and the Samsung Galaxy S8 will feature some new enhanced optics according to reports.

December 31, 2016
Samsung Gear IconX Review : Good Wireless Earphones

Samsung Gear IconX is the first wireless set of earphones, offering true cord free experience from a big company. But, are they really worth the big price tag, or should you consider something more affordable.

[section label=”Design”]

Design and Build

The Gear IconX is built really well, with a good quality outer casing. The earphones offer up splash and dust resistant P2i Nano coating despite having a fairly wide feature set. They should withstand your sweat incase you decide to use these for your active life or sports.

The included wing tips and in ear plugs come in a total of 4 different sizes for a perfect fit and are extremely easy to switch.

The carry case also has a rubberized coating on the outside and is built to survive several drops, and it does not pop open incase you do drop it.

[section label=”Hardware”]

Hardware

The Samsung Gear IconX comes with 4GB of inbuilt storage, which can come in handy if you decide to get some music without your phone. Connectivity with your smartphone is via Bluetooth 4.1 (BLE). The Gear IconX also track your fitness via the inbuilt HR sensor and an Accelerometer. The capacitive touch input on both earphones allow for handling and navigating through your music handling calls and listening to the contextual menus.

The Gear IconX come with 2 microphones per earbud, for noise cancellation and audio for phone calls. The Frequency Range is 20~20 kHz, with a Speaker Sensitivity of 89.5 dB ± 3 dB / 1mW and a Speaker Impedance: 16 ohm.

Each earbud has a inbuilt 47 mAh while the outer carrying case has a 315 mAh.

[section label=”Audio Performance”]

Performance and Audio

When you setup your Gear IconX with your phone, the audio is usually set to 50% which is optimised to get you a good battery life.

Audio performance is excellent, while music volumes can be extremely high. Low range and Mids are handled extremely well and audio profiles can be customised using the Gear app on your Android phone.

You can also use a single earbud as a regular bluetooth earpiece incase you like to keep it old school and answer your calls like that.

If you go for your run or go about your fitness routine without your phone, the earphones will still track your health info and heartbeat and then sync up with your phone later.

As wireless earphones they have excellent range and sound and thanks to the snug fit the outside noise is easily cut. The ability to long press and listen to ambient sound means you don’t need to constantly pull the earphones out of your ear.

[section label=”Battery Life”]

Battery Life

The biggest downfall of the Gear IconX has to be the battery life, if you increase the volume from the default while connected to your phone, you will need to charge the IconX every 60-75 minutes. Which if you are used to listening to music for long periods is a definite negative.

The carry case will charge both your earbuds a total of three extra times. However, if you leave your earphones in the case they will be charged constantly basically draining the battery of the earphones and the case as well. Which means leaving your earphones overnight will kill them, making them impossible to travel with.

[section label=”Conclusion”]

Conclusion

The Samsung Gear IconX is the best direction towards a truly wireless music experience, and seems like a better setup than what is expected from the Apple AirPods. However with a 5 hour battery the AirPods have the definite advantage. The Gear IconX will work with iPhones and Windows Phones too if you have those, however, you will get basic bluetooth connectivity and not deep controls and customizations which can be had on Android phones via the Gear App.

The battery life however is a step backwards, and it seems that Samsung rushed into these too early without figuring out real usage scenarios. The poor batteries make it difficult to use these daily, or ever! The battery life is also unwarranted considering the heavy price tag on these.

This is the right approach, however, it’s pre-mature and the battery life is unacceptable, sound quality and volumes are great. The earphones are extremely light and fit well in your ear. The fitness features are also a great add-on.

October 15, 2016