Telefonica to launch Samsung 3G smartwatch in April

Although Samsung has yet to provide any official specs or images of the Gear S2 Classic 3G, we can’t imagine that it will stray too far from the handsome, traditional looks of the Gear S2 Classic while adopting the calling capabilities of its Gear S2 3G sibling.

Samsung has announced the company plans to release a new version of the Samsung Gear S2.

The GSMA today released the eSIM specification which will allow consumers to remotely activate the SIM embedded in a device such as a smart watch, fitness band or tablet.

For those new to e-SIMs, these are essentially, SIMs which come as part of the device and not requiring the end user to physically insert a SIM card to make use of a standalone or cellular service. It’s been known that Apple, Samsung, and others have been working with the GSMA wireless standards body on the matter for some time. But, as the GSMA notes, this is “the only common, interoperable and global specification that has the backing of the mobile industry”.

“This is an essential next step as device makers use embedded SIMs in smaller devices, particularly cellular-enabled wearables”, said Ben Wood, Chief of Research at CCS Insight.

The Samsung Gear S2 Classic 3G will be available from March.

There is also involvement from large device-makers such as Apple, Huawei, LG, Microsoft, Sony and Samsung, as well as chip-makers such as Qualcomm.

It means manufacturers only need to build one variant of a device for it to work in markets worldwide, while consumers have the flexibility of picking and switching carriers. It will be offered by AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon. The Gear S2 Classic 3G comes with a 1.2-inch circular AMOLED display, a dual-core 1GHz processor, and about two days of battery life, Samsung says.