Samsung Gear 2 Neo Review: This Is The Mainstream Smartwatch For The Summer - Forbes

"Given that everything else about the Gear platform is shared between the Gear 2 and the Gear 2 Neo, I think it’s far better to look at the lower priced Gear 2 Neo as the smartwatch for the mass market and the Gear 2 for those looking for a bit more luxury in their smartwatch. Suggesting that someone pays £220/$199 for Samsung’s vision of a smartwatch seems far more acceptable than the £299/$299 asked by the metallic Gear 2.

The other issue around the Gear 2 Neo is personal one, and it’s around timing. I’m looking at this watch after my experiences with the LG G Watch and the Android Wear operating system. Samsung has developed the Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo to use a variant of their Tizen operating system, and that means all the decisions in terms of UI, operation, and presentation belong to Samsung.

While Android Wear may provide a much richer graphical experience, of the two smartwatch operating systems Tizen’s smartwatch variant makes more sense to me and is more mature than the first round effort of Android Wear. While both systems are built around the notifications that your Android smartphone (or in the case of the Gear 2 Neo, your Samsung Galaxy smartphone as Samsung’s watch is only compatible with Samsung’s hardware), the Gear 2 Neo is much less invasive. Where Android Wear pushes the notification to the front of the watch screen demand action, the Gear 2 Neo’s Tizen powered software is more subtle, putting the notification under a ‘notifications’ shortcut icon that is a swipe away from the main clock screen."