The IFA 2015 brought in its folds a slew of new smartwatches from several OEMs which are eyeing for top honors in the burgeoning wearable space.
We take a look at some of the top contenders for the best smartwatches of the near term and compare the Samsung Gear S2, Moto 360 2, Asus ZenWatch 2 and the Huawei Watch - how they stack up against each other.
Display
The Moto 360 2 sports a round dial and is available in two sizes for men 42mm and 46mm diameters, which translates into a 1.37-inch (360 x 325) and 1.56-inch (360 x 330) display, respectively. The pixel density for the 42mm and 46mm versions is 263ppi and 233ppi, respectively.
Both the Motorola smartwatches have a Backlit LCD screen with Corning Gorilla Glass 3.
The Samsung Gear S2, on the other hand, sports a smaller 1.2-inch Full Circular AMOLED display. However, at 360 x 360, the pixel resolution is higher when compared to the Moto 360 II offerings. The 306ppi pixel density of the Samsung offering also easily trumps that of its rivals.
The smartwatch has the same thickness as that of the Moto 360 2 i.e. 11.4mm and weighs between 42gms to 51gms depending on the model.
The Asus ZenWatch 2 has a rectangular dial when compared to the other two wearables and sports a 1.63-inch (320 x 320) AMOLED screen with Gorilla Glass 3. The 278ppi pixel density is lower than that of Samsung's offering but higher than that offered by the Moto 360 II.
The smaller model has a 1.45-inch (280 x 280) AMOLED screen with Gorilla Glass 3 and 273ppi. The thickness of this model is the same as the Moto 360 II and the Gear S2. The bigger model; however, is sleeker and is just 10.9mm thin.
The Huawei Watch is circular as well and has a 1.4-inch AMOLED screen - which is made of Sapphire crystal - with the highest pixel resolution out of all the watches i.e. 400 x 400. The pixel density of the smartwatch at 286ppi is the second best of the lot. The wearable is 11.3mm thick making it the second most sleek smartwatch of the four.
Processor and Memory
The Samsung smartwatch houses a dual-core, which is clocked at 1GHz. The Moto 360 2, the ZenWatch 2 both pack in a faster quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor which clocks at 1.2 GHz.
All the smartwatches are on the same ground memory wise as they all have 512MB of RAM and support 4GB of on-board storage.
Battery
The Moto 360 2 smartwatch packs in a 300mAh and 400mAh battery for the 42mm and 46mm models, respectively, for up to a day's use. The same is applicable for the 1.45-inch and 1.63-inch models of the ZenWatch 2, which house a 300mAh and 400mAh, respectively.
The Huawei Watch has a 300mAh battery that will offer support for two days of use.
The Samsung smartwatch packs in a smaller 250mAh battery by comparison, which offers 2 to 3 days of usage. However, the 3G variant of the Gear S2 houses a slightly bigger 300mAh battery.
OS
All the devices except the Samsung Gear S2 - which operates on Tizen - run on the Android Wear OS and are compatible with devices running Android 4.3 or higher. Samsung, however, asserts that its smartwatch is compatible with devices running Android 4.4 or above, but should have at least 1.5GB of RAM.
Sensors
The Samsung and Motorola smartwatches both tout an Accelerometer, Ambient Light and Gyro. However, the Gear S2's 3G variant also has GPS support. The Samsung offering also supports Barometer and HTM, whereas Moto 360 2 supports Vibrations/Haptics engine.
The Gear S2 also packs in support for NFC, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.1. It is also water resistant and is IP68 certified. The Motorola smartwatch offer support for Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi and wireless charging. It is IP67 certified.
The Asus smartwatch also offers support for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.1 and is IP67 certified. It also offers support for a six-axis (A+G) with sensor-hub.
The Huawei Watch is compatible with iOS 8.2 or above, and offers support six-axis (A+G) barometer, vibration motor and PPG, as well as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.1
Price
The Samsung Gear S2's release date or price is not known yet. The Moto 360 2 will start from $300 and begin shipping end September.
The U.S. pricing of the Asus ZenWatch 2 is not known; however, the device is slated to hit the European market in October and will start at €49 which is approximately $170.
The Huawei Watch is priced higher than the other smartwatches and will start at $349.The pre-orders begin Sept. 17.
