Samsung's cellular-enabled smartwatch adds some interesting features to the Gear S2, but it's just not easy or useful enough to justify the extra expense.

With the Gear S2, Samsung has produced a really compelling alternative to the current crop of Android Wear smartwatches. In many ways the Gear S2 is the most appealing smartwatch we've yet seen but it has a few major issues. The first is the availability of apps. If the apps you live with aren't available on Tizen, this is not the watch for you. At least not right now. Connection stability is the other, huge issue. Both Gear S2 watches in the AndroidPIT office repeatedly dropped the connection to the paired phone (neither were Galaxy devices though). Mine wouldn't reconnect without a factory reset whereas the other would reconnect itself eventually. We spoke to Samsung and it is aware of the problem but as yet can't offer a solution.

As easy to get on with as a Pebble, as stylish as an Apple Watch and with that tactile, rotating bezel as its secret weapon, the Gear S2 is the kind of smartwatch you’d kick yourself for leaving at home. It’s not perfect – this isn’t that dream hybrid of fitness tracker and all-round wrist computer, and we really need to see more apps for Tizen – but by giving us decent battery life without sacrificing features it feels like a leap forward. The 3G and GPS model has the chance to change what an everyday smartwatch is capable of, but the regular S2 and the Classic should be on every Android owner’s smartwatch shortlist.

The bezel is the best input device I’ve seen for a smartwatch, but having said that, smartwatches are still primarily passive devices. They show information as you need it, saving you digging out your phone, but any task that takes more than a quick tap is probably better done on your phone. A smartwatch is merely an accessory of your smartphone, and so getting the two working together in harmony is paramount.