Now that the Apple Watch finally has a sale date of April 24, we can begin to realistically compare the newest smartwatch to one of its biggest rivals, the Galaxy S from Samsung. Several specification details are still missing from the Apple Watch website, but here’s what we know about the two smartwatches today.

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Apple Watch

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Announced last fall, the Apple Watch is finally hitting store shelves next month. The highly anticipated smartwatch is setting out to set new standards in consumer hardware design, with premium materials including 18 karat gold, leather and sapphire glass. With a wide range of color and material options and cues from the familiar iOS interface, Apple Watch is a promising contender in the burgeoning smartwatch race.

The Apple Watch also comes with a bevvy of integrated apps for health and fitness tracking, streaming music, mobile payments and social media updates.

Dimensions

Apple Watch comes in two case sizes: 38mm and 42mm. Both of which can be set up to work on either the left or right wrist.

Display

The retina touchscreen display features Force Touch and sapphire glass or Ion-X glass cover, depending on model.

Chipset

Apple S1 chip, of which few details are provided. Here’s what Wikipedia has to say of the System-in-Package chip:

“It uses a customized application processor that together with memory, storage and support processors for wireless connectivity, sensors and I/O comprise a complete computer in a single package. This package is said to be filled with resin for durability.Very little is known about it, in any respect, but Chipworks believes that they have at least identified the processor handling the WiFi and Bluetooth as a Broadcom BCM4334. It would be the medium size processor in the center at the top of the illustration below.”

Network

NA

UPDATED:

Memory

RAM : NA

Storage : 8GB internal memory (with an estimated 2GB of internal storage for music and 75MB of storage for photos).

Sensors

Heart rate sensor, accelerometer.

On the back of the case, a ceramic cover with sapphire lenses protects a specially designed sensor that uses infrared and visible-light LEDs and photodiodes to detect your heart rate during workouts and when using the heart rate Glance.

Connectivity

WiFi, Bluetooth  and GPS

Audio

NA

UPDATED:

Battery

18 hours of mixed usage, which equates to 90 notifications, 90 time checks, 45 minutes of app use and a 30-minute workout session with music streaming via Blutooth. The battery is replaceable. Type unknown.

Apple says it will take 90 minutes to reach an 80% charge on the battery from zero percent and 2.5 hours to reach 100 percent.

OS

Watch OS

Samsung Galaxy Gear S

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Image via Samsung

Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. added a new device, the Galaxy Gear S, to its smartwatch line, and this time it has a curved display for improved comfort around the wrist. Like earlier models, it is primarily a smartphone companion. But unlike its smartwatch rivals, it has a 3G radio that allows users to leave the phone behind but still be able to make calls, receive messages and updates.

The Galaxy Gear S features a 2” Super AMOLED display with 360 x 480 resolution, 512MB of RAM and 4GB of internal memory. Samsung’s newest smartwatch runs the Tizen OS instead of Google Inc.’s Android Wear. For data collection and sharing, the Galaxy Gear S has several sensors including an accelerometer, gyroscope, compass, UV, barometer, and heart rate monitor. To make sense of all this data, the Galaxy Gear S comes with Samsung’s proprietary S Health app.

The smartwatch also has a mic to facilitate voice commands, but doesn’t have a camera. The display has also been upgraded to continuously shows the watch face even when it’s in sleep mode. But fear not – this will not drain the battery, as it automatically adjusts to use fewer pixels.

Dimensions

39.9 x 58.1 x 12.5

Display

2.0” Curved Super AMOLED (360 x 480)

Chipset

Dual core 1.0 GHz

Network

900/2100 or 850/1900 (3G)

900/1800 or 850/1900 (2G)

Memory

RAM : 512MB

Storage : 4GB Internal Memory

Sensors

Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Compass, Heart Rate, Ambient Light,
UV, Barometer

Connectivity

WiFi :802.11 b/g/n, A-GPS/Glonass

Bluetooth : 4.1

USB : USB 2.0

Audio

Codec : MP3/AAC/AAC+/eAAC+

Format : MP3, M4A, WMA, AAC, OGG

Battery

300mAh Li-ion

OS

Tizen-based wearable platform

 Feature image via Apple, Inc.