Samsung Gear S Tizen-Based Smartwatch Goes Up for Pre-Orders in India

Samsung's recently launched Tizen-based Gear S smartwatch has gone up for pre-orders in India via the company's online store, with a booking amount of Rs. 1,000.

While the company did not include availability details, it notes that the expected delivery time for the 'Forthcoming' Gear S is 5 to 7 working days.

The South Korean giant had first unveiled ahead of IFA 2014. The Gear S smartwatch was announced for India last month at Rs. 29,500 (MRP), and Samsung estimates a market operating price of Rs. 28,900.

The Samsung Gear S allows users to make and receive calls via 2G or 3G, and also offers Bluetooth 4.1 and Wi-Fi connectivity. It has a separate slot for a SIM card on the back panel along with the heart rate sensor and four pogo pins.

Samsung says the smartwatch will always remain connected, and can also switch between multiple networks to stay synchronised with the paired smartphone. However, to be precise, the Gear S smartwatch is not truly standalone, as it requires one of 20 Samsung smartphones during initial setup, and to download apps.

The Gear S features a 2-inch curved Super AMOLED display with a 360x480 pixel resolution. A dual-core 1GHz processor with 512MB of RAM powers the Samsung Gear S. It comes with 4GB of inbuilt storage and is backed by a 300mAh Li-ion battery, rated to deliver 2 days of charge with typical usage.

(Also see: Web Browsing on Your Wrist: Is This What a Smartwatch Is For?)

The IP67-certified dust and water resistant Gear S shows notifications from text messages, social networks, calendars and other applications independently without the need to access the smartphone. Samsung is also touting S Voice functionality for dictating and voice commands, apart from the onscreen keyboard.

In September, Samsung, in partnership with Diesel Black Gold, which is a premium line of the Diesel brand, had revealed that the new Samsung Gear S custom accessories will be launched at the runway of the Diesel's Spring/Summer 2015 show.