A Look at 10 of Samsung’s Latest Mobile Devices, Virtual Reality Gear

The Galaxy Note 7 is the just latest in a long line of quality mobile devices from Samsung. Here’s a look at some of Samsung’s most popular products and how they stack up to their competitors.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 is the company’s latest smartphone. The device ships with a big 5.7-inch screen with dual curved edges so users can quickly access notifications and other information on the side of the screen. The device also supports a new and improved S Pen stylus, is water-resistant enough to withstand a dunk in the water and supports wireless charging. Although it’s running on Android, Samsung includes a proprietary user interface on top of the mobile operating system.

Samsung’s Galaxy S7 line has been on the market for months, but it’s one of the chief reasons the company’s financial performance has turned around. The Galaxy S7 comes in two configurations, one with a screen that has a full bezel and another with curved edges, called the Galaxy S7 Edge. While the latter option has a bigger screen (5.5 inches compared with 5.1 inches), both devices are water resistant, come with more than a day of useful battery life and support microSD card storage up to 256GB. They’re among the most popular smartphones on the market.

Although Samsung’s smartphones get the most attention, the company is also heavily involved in highly mobile PCs. Samsung’s Galaxy TabPro S, for example, is a two-in-one hybrid that works as a notebook with a detachable physical keyboard as well as a tablet. The device runs on Windows 10 and comes with Intel’s Core m3 CPU.

Samsung also sells a tablet called the Tab S2. The device has a 9.7-inch screen, matching the display size of the iPad Air 2. It also has a fingerprint scanner for security and an octa-core processor for robust performance. The tablet even comes with bundled Microsoft Office apps, which could be an appealing feature for corporate users.

Samsung has gone traditional with the circular watch face design of its Gear S2 Classic smartwatch. The device, which competes directly with Apple Watch and several Android Wear alternatives, features a 1.2-inch display and runs on Bluetooth 4.1, so users can connect to handsets to obtain notifications and other data. The smartwatch has fully customizable watch faces and, once paired with an Android phone, lets users place calls, send text messages and even manage email.

Samsung’s Gear S2 is similar to the Classic, since it comes with a circular screen, but its target market is completely different. In fact, the Gear S2, which has a flexible band compared with the leather option in the Gear S2 Classic, is designed for athletes who want to track how far they’ve run, how many calories they’ve burned and additional fitness metrics. It also comes with wireless charging and other features found in the Gear S2, including the ability to place calls.

Although the Samsung Gear Fit2 tells time, the company actually considers it a fitness tracker and not a smartwatch like those in the Gear S2 line. The Fit2 is a thinner device with a smaller screen designed for displaying health information. The app has built-in GPS for analyzing a person’s movement, as well as a heart-rate monitor. It’s water-resistant, so it keeps running when it gets wet, and Android compatibility so users can keep track of their progress on their Samsung smartphones.

Samsung has been one of the leaders in the virtual-reality market, and that’s clearly illustrated in its Gear VR headset. The device allows users to place a Samsung smartphone into the viewing compartment and watch virtual-reality content or play games. While it’s not as sophisticated as Oculus Rift, the Gear VR supports a wide array of content and is far more capable than the rather-cheap Google Cardboard.

Samsung offers Windows-based machines, but the company also sells a Chromebook known as the Chromebook 3. The device, which has an 11.6-inch screen, runs on Google’s Chrome OS and has 4GB of onboard memory. It also boasts an Intel Celeron N3050 CPU with a 1.6GHz clock speed and up to 11 hours of battery life. Best of all, it’s cheap at just $200.

Apple Pay, the mobile-payment app from the iPhone maker, gets all kinds of attention, but that doesn’t mean it’s alone in that market. In fact, Samsung Pay, which comes with Samsung’s smartphones, allows users to make payments with credit, debit and gift cards. It should be interesting to see how well it competes over the years against Apple Pay and Google’s Android Pay.