Samsung axes Android and drops Galaxy branding

Samsung has just made their newest Smartwatch offering, the Gear 2, official ahead of MWC, less than six months after the company offered its predecessor, the Galaxy Gear. The frenetic pace of replacement meant that Samsung has acknowledged that the Galaxy Gear wasn’t performing the way they envisioned it to, and wanted to get the product off the market as soon as possible. There will be two vesions of Samsung’s Gear 2 smartwatch – the Gear 2, and the camera-less Gear 2 Neo.

Samsung Gear 2 / Gear 2 Neo specs

• 1.0 GHz Dual-core processor
• 512MB RAM
• 1.63-inch Super AMOLED, 320 x 320 resolution
• 2.0 Megapixel Auto Focus (Gear 2)
• Standard Battery, Li-ion 300mAh

Astute readers will also notice that Samsung has dropped the Galaxy branding on these new smartwatches. That’s because Samsung is going with their own Tizen OS instead of Android on their new wearables. Samsung also promises to offer 2-3 days of battery life in a single charge compared to the 1-day battery life of the Galaxy Gear – welcome news for Dick Tracy wannabees.

Samsung will start offering the Gear 2 smartwatches worldwide starting April. No pricing has been announced as of yet.