Samsung Gear S2 Classic 3G Smartwatch Features an eSIM for Cellular Connectivity, Runs Tizen

Samsung has announced that Gear S2 classic 3G smartwatch would be the first device in the market to be equipped with a GSMA-compliant eSIM (Embedded SIM) The round watch is also powered by a dual-core processor coupled with 512MB RAM and 4GB flash to run Tizen based wearable platform.

Galaxy Gear S2 Classic 3G specifications:

SoC – Dual core processor @ 1.0 GHz
System Memory – 512MB
Storage – 4GB RAM
Display – 1.2” circular super AMOLED display, 360×360 resolution, 302ppi
Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n/e, Bluetooth 4.1, NFC, 3G/4G (HSPA+ voice and data networks)
Audio Codec – MP3/AAC/AAC+/eAAC+
Audio Format – MP3, M4A, AAC, OGG
Sensors – Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Heart Rate, Ambient Light, Barometer
Dimension – 44.0 x 46.9 x 13.4 (54g)
Battery – 300mAh Li-ion; Wireless Charging; 2~3days on a charge
IP Rating – IP68 Certified Dust and Water Resistant

The watch will run Tizen, and include a whole bunch of pre-installed apps including Contacts, Notifications, Messages, Email, Preset text, S Health, Nike+ Running
Maps & Navigation, Weather, Music Player, Gallery, and more others.

SIM_card_evolution — SIM Card Evolution – Edited from “Understanding SIM Card Evolution” (PDF – Removed link as the document does not exist anymore)

This is all good, but what is an e-SIM? First, it stands for embedded SIM, meaning it’s not simply the usual card you can insert or remove from your phone, but a chip soldered on the board. Does that mean you can’t change the mobile operator? Actually, you can because it supports remote provisioning. The concept was initiated for M2M / IoT applications, for instance, imagine you’ve got 100,000 “things” connected to a cellular network, and for whatever reason you’d like to change your mobile operator, you’d have to pay several people to replace all the SIM cards. With remote provisioning of eSIMs this can happen with one mouse click.

Back to the watch… Samsung Gear S2 classic 3G/4G will be available on March 11 onwards at a price that has yet to be disclosed.

Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)

Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.