Google announces Samsung Gear Live smartwatch with Android Wear

At Google’s annual Google I/O developer’s conference, director of Android engineering David Singleton announced Samsung’s latest smart watch, the Samsung Gear Live. In addition to the LG G Watch and the Moto 360 by Motorola, the Gear Live will run Android Wear, Google’s specialized OS for wearables. The watch will go on sale for $199.99 and will pair with any Android device running version 4.3 or above. You can pre-order it online later at the Google Play Store.

Design and specs

The Gear Live sports a square 1.63 Super AMOLED screen with a 320 x 320-pixel resolution, a 1.2 GHz processor, and a heart-rate sensor on the back. Ratings for IP67 means that the unit is resistant to dust and to underwater dunks for up to three feet (1 meter) and 30 minutes. That means, as Google says, you shouldn’t worry about wearing it as you go about the day — washing dishes, cooking, cleaning the car, and so on.

It also has 4GB of onboard storage, 512MB RAM, Bluetooth 4.0, and a 300mAh battery. You can snap it up in black and wine red bands, but it’s likely that other aftermarket colors and styles will pop up online.

In terms of size, the Gear Live will take up a fair amount of space — 1.5 inches tall by 2.2 inches wide by 0.35-inch thick (37.9 x 56.4x 8.9 mm) and weighs 2.1 ounces (59g).

Check back soon for hands-on impressions and video!

Android Wear syncs the watch to your phone

According to Singleton, Android Wear supports a number of key features that developers can use to seamlessly tie their mobile apps to a wearable device.

Users will be able to get handset notifications on their watches’ interface through vibrations, control their smartphone’s music app, swipe away notifications, set up voice reminders, and decline an incoming call with a personalized SMS message. Depending on the smartwatch’s equipped sensors, Android Wear can also keep tabs on a user’s steps taken throughout the day, as well as his or her heart rate.

Samsung’s Gear Live smart watch (Pictures)
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We’ll have much more on the Gear Live soon, but for now, just remember that the main difference between this smart watch and the Samsung Gear 2 is the operating system — Android Wear versus Samsung’s own Tizen OS — and the interoperability that being connected to all of Google’s ecosystem can bring.

This is a developing story. For more on Google I/O 2014, check out CNET’s liveblog and our full coverage here.