Samsung Gear S Smartwatch Coming to AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon

Samsung Gear S Smartwatch Coming to AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon

The Samsung Gear S, a Tizen-powered smartwatch with its own 3G connection, will be available through both AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint, the carriers announced today (Oct 30th). Unlike other smartwatches, which require a smartphone tethered via Bluetooth to receive notifications and the like, the Gear S has its own SIM card slot, so that wearers can make and respond to phone calls, text messages and email even if their phone isn't nearby.

The Samsung Gear S looks a bit different from Samsung's other smartwatch, the Gear 2. For one, it has a larger 2-inch curved Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 480 x 360p. Inside is a Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8626 processor, 512MB of RAM, and 4GB of storage.

During our hands-on time with the Gear S, we were impressed with its large display, but its 300 mAh battery--similar to the Gear 2--means that you should only expect about a day's use out of the watch before it needs to be recharged. Also, it remains to be seen how many apps will be ready for Tizen OS, though Samsung said as many as 1,000 would be available at launch.