Samsung’s Tizen powered Gear S2 line-up officially announced.

Following our previous trawl through the FCC database Samsung have today officially announced two variants of the Tizen-powered Gear S2 smart watch, the Gear S2 and Gear S2 Classic. The Gear S2 is described as having a “minimal and modern design” whilst the Gear S2 Classic is targeted at those who “prefer a more timeless watch design”. From their press shots the devices look like a sports and formal model. There is also a 3g variant of the Gear S2 – not the Classic – that allows untethered access to the internet.

All three models include:

• 1.2″ AMOLED 360×360 302 ppi display
• Dual core 1GHz processor
• 512MB RAM
• 4GB internal storage
• Wi Fi 802.11 b/g/n
• Bluetooth 4.1
• NFC
• Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Heart Rate, Ambient Light, Barometer
• IP68 Certified Dust and Water Resistant
• Wireless charging

As for the differences between the three variants, spec wise, it comes down to size, weight, and battery:

No details have come to light yet as to pricing, device compatibility or the release date.

Samsung Electronics Australia have confirmed that the Gear S2 will be coming to Australian shores:

We are very excited to confirm that the Samsung Gear S2 smartwatch will arrive in Australia soon.

The Gear S2 demonstrates Samsung’s commitment to being a pioneer in wearable device innovation and advancing our smartwatch category. In 2013 we launched our first smartwatch, the Galaxy Gear and since then, we have seen Australians embrace wearable technology.

The Gear S2 will provide our customers with a truly amazing smartwatch experience.

We look forward to providing more details regarding local pricing and availability closer to the Australian launch.

The Gear S2 will be available in Dark Gray case with a Dark Gray band and Silver case with a White band and the Gear S 2 Classic will be available in a Black case with a Leather band. Being a Tizen OS based device, you will be relying on Samsung’s ecosystem and app store.

The inclusion of NFC for mobile payments and other secure NFC transactions is certainly an interesting move in the smartwatch space, and one I hope that Google will add support for in a future release of Android Wear. The Gear S2 has 3 control mechanisms with a movable bezel, a back and a home button as well as touch of course. The device comes loaded with the usual array of notification, messaging and health apps that you would expect in a smartwatch today.

Samsung has announced more details will be available at their both at IFA 2015. Dan and Jason are on route to Berlin and will be bringing you live coverage of any interesting developments.

Are you looking for a new Smartwatch? Does the Gear S2 lineup interest you? Let us know in the comments.