Samsung has made a switch from Android to Tizen OS in its latest Samsung Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo. Meanwhile, the first generation Galaxy Gear is still running based on Android.
To make app development consistent across all Samsung smart watches, Samsung is expected to upgrade existing Galaxy Gear devices to Tizen. This is a major change beyond the standard firmware updates. The benefit of doing this would allow early smart watch adopters to gain access to the latest features and apps enjoyed by current Gear 2 owners.
One of the biggest gripes of the previous Galaxy Gear is its short battery life. Hopefully with it running on Tizen, the battery life on the Galaxy Gear could be extended by a couple of days extra with better power management. If you compare the specs, the original Galaxy Gear has a bigger battery at 315mAh, versus the Gear 2’s 300mAh capacity.
So far there’s no word on its actual roll out and this is definitely good news for current Galaxy Gear owners. Sammobile has managed to get an early ROM and you can check out the Galaxy Gear running on Tizen after the break.
If you haven’t seen it yet, you can check out our side by side hands-on of the Gear 2 with the Galaxy Gear here.
