Well, this is a pleasant surprise: Samsung just teased its Gear S2 smartwatch at its big smartphone event today.
At an event at Alice Tully hall in Manhattan Thursday, Samsung launched its new Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 Edge+ smartphones along with its Samsung Pay mobile payment system. Samsung then decided to surprise the crowd with a tease of its new Gear S2 smartwatch, which it plans to officially unveil in September at the IFA show in Berlin.
Samsung showed off a number of the screens on the Gear S2, but didn't reveal any further details on the watch. It looks likely that the Gear S2 will run its own proprietary OS, as gear devices have in the past, rather than Android Wear. We'll know for sure when the watch makes its full debut on September 3.
What is clear is that the Gear S2 will have a gorgeous, if slightly Apple Watch, interface with some nice options for fitness tracking. In contrast with the Apple Watch, the S2 will have a more-traditional round screen and what appears to be a brushed aluminum case.
A round screen always looks nice, but there's obvious limitations compared with a square screen that can display more information.
Samsung just teased a new smartwatch pic.twitter.com/C9gMQQby3L— Raymond Wong (@raywongy) August 13, 2015
Much of Samsung's presentation had its sights focused on Apple, and the Gear S2 seems to be no exception. Some on the Mashable staff noted how similar the app icons for the S2 looked to their Apple Watch counterparts.
As for how it stacks up against the competition, we'll have to wait and see.