Report Samsung Looking To Make Round Gear S2 W Rotating Bezel Iphone Compatible

Samsung is actively looking in to bringing iOS support to its latest smartwatch, the Gear S2, according to a report from Digital Spy. The UK-based site spoke with one of the company’s spokespeople who confirmed that it was “positively looking into opening it up.”

Apart from the Samsung Gear Live — one of the earliest Android Wear watches — all of the Korean tech giant’s Gear wearables have been restricted to use with Galaxy smartphones only. The Gear S2 is the first Tizen-based Samsung smartwatch to support Android, and could end up being the first to support the iPhone too. That’s if the “looking in to” actually turns in to “on the market”.

This report comes just a few days after Google announced that all Android Wear watches going forward would support iOS. If the Gear S2 was to add iPhone support, that would leave the Apple Watch as one of the only wearables from a big tech manufacturer not to be cross-platform. Perhaps more importantly, with a Samsung-made smartwatch being iOS compatible, it would directly compete with the Apple Watch for iPhone user market share.

Samsung announced the Gear S2 at a pre-IFA event in Berlin, Germany and the device has been well received by the press. The Gear S2 has a round 1.2-inch Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 360 x 360 (302ppi). It’s powered by one of Sammy’s in-house Exynos processors and will be available as a 3G model too. It’s IP68 certified water resistant, has 4GB storage, 512GB RAM and a 250mAh battery. Like the Apple Watch, you can control it by voice or touchscreen as well as that interesting rotating bezel.

Our own Dom Esposito got his hands on it after the announcement, and even he’s comparing it favorably with Apple’s wearable device (video below).

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsJNyDf1B9k]

It’s worth iterating that just because Samsung says it’s “looking in to” something, doesn’t mean the company will definitely bring the feature to market. We’d advise you not to hold your breathe just yet. A Gear S2 that connects to your iPhone could still be a long way off.