Some Galaxy S7 owners report the camera lens is shattering without impact

Why it matters to you

The Galaxy S7 was among the best selling phones of 2016. Consumers need to be aware of any potential issues.

Dozens of Samsung Galaxy S7 owners have reported shattered camera lenses on their phones without any actual impact occurring, potentially indicating a weird flaw in the device. But Samsung tells Digital Trends that the incidents are few and far between, and the company stands behind the quality of the very popular smartphone.

As for why the weird incident is happening, nobody knows — and a law firm says it is investigating the issue.

Consumerist reported on one such incident on December 28, but a search on Google returns several results as far back as March (see here and here), shortly after the device launched. Samsung’s own user forums have several posts from affected customers as well. The result in most cases is the same, according to user reports: The company claims that the lens can only break under physical stress, and charges the customer for the repair, a $70 fix.

More: Galaxy S7 – common problems and how to fix them

“We stand behind the quality of the millions of Samsung phones in the U.S. The reported incidents are extremely rare and isolated among the very large number of devices currently in the market,” a spokesman told Digital Trends. “That said, Samsung takes customer satisfaction seriously. We encourage anyone with any product question to contact us directly at 1-800-SAMSUNG.”

That may not be good enough for Seattle-based law firm Keller Rohrbach, which said in December 2016 that it was investigating complaints of the issue happening across the S7, S7 Edge, and S7 Active devices, but stopped short of saying it planned to sue. A statement asked affected users to contact the firm to discuss “potential legal claims.”

“Despite receiving numerous customer complaints about this apparent defect, Samsung has consistently denied any responsibility, instead blaming its customers and refusing to repair or refund the devices even while still under warranty,” the company wrote on its website. Digital Trends has reached out to the firm for an update on its investigation.

A legal case may have some merit, if the company were refusing legitimate warranty claims, as the law firm wrote. Worse yet, the lens has shattered again after the repair, according to some posted accounts. What’s causing this to happen still doesn’t have a clear explanation — it may be as simple as user negligence, or it may indicate a larger problem.

One possible explanation could be some kind of external stress on the glass. The glass typically breaks as if it was shot through by a bullet. While completely anecdotal, many of the breakage incidents occur while the phone is in a protective case.

Could the tight fit of the case be putting some type of additional stress on the chassis, which in turn is being transmitted to the glass (perhaps the glass is placed a bit too snug in the chassis itself)? Since we don’t have much to go on, it’s all speculation at this point.

Updated 4/12/2017 by Jeremy Kaplan: Added a statement from Samsung.

Forget electricity, this wheelchair is powered by nothing but compressed air

Why it matters to you

Air-powered wheelchair is waterproof, lightweight, and doesn’t need its batteries to be replaced. It solves just about all the problems of an electric wheelchair.

Imagine a new type of powered wheelchair that’s totally waterproof, weighs just one-third of a regular powered wheelchair, and doesn’t need its batteries to be replaced at great cost every couple of years. That’s what researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Human Engineering Research Laboratories (HERL) have created with a new wheelchair design that’s powered by compressed air.

Oh, and they’ve built a four-wheel scooter, which runs on the same principle, for good measure, too.

Called the PneuChair, the wheelchair weighs just 80 pounds, is constructed from components available from any local hardware store, and can be recharged in just 10 minutes using an air compressor, as opposed to the multi-hour charging of a regular battery-powered wheelchair. (The downside is that it only has a range of around three miles, however.)

More: Autonomous wheelchair could change the lives of motor-impaired users

The PneuChair project’s lead mechanical engineer was graduate student researcher Brandon Daveler. “As a power wheelchair user for over 10 years, I first-handedly understand the issues of battery-powered devices,” he told Digital Trends. “So developing the technology will not only help myself but also the millions of other powered mobility device users.”

At present, the team is busy testing the prototypes to ensure they meet the necessary wheelchair standards. Plans to perform a pilot study using the devices are also in development to gain feedback from potential users, with the intent to eventually pursue a grant to perform a larger clinical trial.

And after that? Hopefully FDA approval, and marketing the technology to potential customers.

“I hope that the PneuMobility products will gain world-wide reach and help to solve problems associated with batteries for people in low-income countries where reliable electric power is a problem, in long-term care facilities where safety and battery maintenance is a problem — [and] perhaps even grocery stores, malls, and big-box stores,” Dr. Rory Cooper, Director of HERL, told Digital Trends.

Keep tabs on those no-good kids of yours with Amazon’s new Parent Dashboard

Why it matters to you

Knowing what your kids are doing on their tablets isn’t easy, but Parent Dashboard lays it all out for you.

Kid-friendly devices are fast becoming a cottage industry, but few are as holistic as Amazon’s FreeTime. The retailer’s service preloads its kid-friendly Fire tablets with tens of thousands of apps, games, and movies appropriate for specific ages. And starting Tuesday, it’s getting even better.

Amazon’s launching Parent Dashboard, a new way for parents to keep tabs on their children’s digital activity. Parents who have enrolled kids in FreeTime can see a breakdown of apps they’ve used, websites they’ve visited, and books they’ve read over the past 90 days. They can pull up a graphical view of the past week’s activity, and scroll through content in chronological list form.

More: Here’s what’s new on Amazon Prime video in April

Parent Dashboard is built on Amazon’s FreeTime, a growing library of Amazon-curated content for kids on Fire tablets. An editorial team sifts through books and thousands of videos, apps, TV shows, and movies aimed at specific age ranges and approves each individually.

That’s harder than it sounds. Amazon’s editorial staff checks every web link to ensure they don’t contain harmful material, and watch YouTube videos from beginning to end. “We take a conservative approach,” Kurt Beidler, director and general manager of Amazon FreeTime, told Digital Trends.

More: Need something to watch? Here are our favorite TV shows on Amazon Prime

The new Parents Dashboard is similarly streamlined. When parents log in via parents.amazon.com, they’ll get a detailed overview of their kids’ usage habits by day and category. A bar graph compares the percentage time they’ve spent reading versus, say, the hours they’ve spent in a game. And Dashboard lets them drill down by section — tapping on Books, for example, pulls up a list of every title their kid has read, along with the amount of time they’ve spent reading each one.

Parents Dashboard marks the introduction of a new FreeTime feature: Discussion cards. Select books and TV shows have a little chat bubble icon next to them, and tapping on it brings up a card with a “cheat sheet” of useful information. They include a plot synopsis, discussion questions for parents to pose to their kids, and related activities parents and kids can do together.

“It’s a refresher for parents,” Beidler said. “It’s not just fact-based stuff.”

Some of those summaries come from Common Sense Media, a nonprofit organization that reviews books, movies, and other media for age-appropriateness, and others come from Amazon’s team. Beidler said that going forward, new titles added to FreeTime will get discussion cards.

In that sense, Parent Dashboard’s less about monitoring activity than fostering engagement. “It helps parents [connect] with kids,” Beidler said. “They can share in what their kids are doing.”

More: Here’s everything you need to know about Amazon’s Drone Delivery Project, Prime Air

Seeing a detailed breakdown of a kids’ digital data is a little unnerving, especially given Amazon’s bread-and-butter business: Selling products. But Beidler said that Parent Dashboard and FreeTime are fully compliant with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which prohibits online services and websites from collecting certain personal information on kids under 13 years of age, and stressed that any data Amazon does collect is only stored for 90 days.

“Parent trust is important,” he said. “We only store what we need to store. We’re not using it to advertise to parents — we make no attempt to upsell.”

Master Android Wear 2.0 with these 15 essential tips and tricks

Google has been busy packing new functionality into Android Wear 2.0, and though smartwatches — like any new piece of tech — have a learning curve, they’re quickly becoming more practical with each and every iteration. To that point, here are some essential tips to get the most out of your Android Wear smartwatch, whether you want to listen to music offline, dim the display, or take copious notes.

More: The 5 best Android Wear devices right now

Install new watch faces

The watch face is the most important part of a smartwatch, and you’ll want to make sure you pick ones suitable to your tastes as there may only be a limited collection pre-installed on your watch. Google has a catalog of hand-picked watch faces in the Google Play Store, and you can even access a “Featured Watch Faces” section in the Wear Play Store on your watch. All you need to do is download the app from your phone or watch and it’ll appear as a choice when you’re switching watch faces.

Switch between watch faces

Once watch faces are installed, it’s extremely easy to switch between them — which is perfect for those who might want to use different faces in different situations. Simply swipe from the left or right from your current watch face to navigate between all of them. If you want to get rid of a watch face, swipe it up or down in this screen. Scroll all the way to the right and you’ll see an icon that allows you to add more watch faces — click here to find and add any new watch faces you recently downloaded.

Edit your watch face and personalize your device

In Android Wear 2.0, you can customize subdials or “Complications” on your watch face so you can see information like your fitness goals or upcoming calendar events at a glance. You can also change things like background color, and whether you want a notification indicator. To edit your watch face, press down on the background of the face. You’ll then be presented with a few options, including “Styles,” and “Data,” depending on your watch model.

• Hit “Data” or “Layout” to customize your complications. You’ll be presented with a view of the complications you have installed, and you can tap one to change it. Complications vary depending on the apps you have installed, and you can also opt to have none.
• Hit “Styles” to change the color scheme of your watch face.

If your Android Wear smartwatch has more than one button, you can customize what app you want the second button to open. Swipe down from the watch face and tap the gear icon. Scroll down to Personalization, and tap Customize hardware buttons. Here you can choose what app you want each button to open.

Install apps on your watch

With Android Wear 2.0, you can now install stand-alone apps on your watch with the pre-installed Wear Google Play Store. To access all your installed apps, press down on your watch’s main button. To install new ones, scroll to the Google Play Store, and when you tap on it you can scroll through categories and install apps.

Check and manage battery life

Checking the battery life is a cinch. Simply swipe down to see a quick summary of your battery life. If you need more information, go to the Android Wear app on your phone by choosing Settings > Watch Battery. From here you can see how much juice you’ve got left, which apps are burning the most battery, and enable power saving features like dimming and theater mode.

You can still have your phone ring and not your watch

If you’re not impressed by Android Wear’s vibrating notifications you can always mute watch notifications by swiping from the top to the bottom of the watch face. Touch the “do not disturb” icon to mute your watch.

Use Theater Mode to mute and silence notifications

If you’re in the theater and don’t want your watch’s screen to light up during the movie, you can use Theater Mode turn your screen off. Swipe down from the top of the watch face, and depending on your device, you’ll see a watch with a diagonal line over it (Theater Mode) or a brightness indicator. Tap the brightness indicator and you’ll be able to access the same watch indicator — tap on it to trigger Theater Mode. Even if you move your wrist, the screen will not light up now, and you won’t see notifications. To deactivate Theater Mode, press your watch’s main button.

Install a web browser

It’s hard to think of practical reasons for accessing a web browser from a smartwatch, but Wear Internet Browser lets you do just that. You can tap into your phone’s browsing history and access bookmarks. Expect a frustrating experience, though, and you will have to pay for the full version of the app if you want to use this for more than search.

Block notifications from specific apps

You can block notifications for specific apps from your phone. Go to your Android Wear app on your phone, choose Settings > block app notifications. Touch the plus icon then select the apps you want to block.

Dim screen with your palm

Dimming the screen on your Android Wear watch is actually very easy. All you need to do is place your palm over the watch screen until you feel it vibrate. Take your hand off again and you should see a dimmed screen.

Use voice commands

Taking advantage of all that is Android Wear means using voice commands. It all works with Google Assistant, though you won’t find the same features on your phone’s Assistant. Press and hold down your watch’s main button and say your command. On many watches you can also use the classic “OK, Google” voice command to activate Google Assistant. You can Assistant the weather, to place a call, send a text, set a reminder, create an alarm, and more.

Review the list of voice commands

Hold down your power button. A black screen will appear with a the Google Assistant colored dots. Say “show me a list of voice commands.” You’ll then see some suggested commands that you can try. We’ve listed some of our favorites below:

• When is [Valentine’s Day]
• Should I bring a jacket today?
• Who is [the Speaker of the House]
• Show me the stocks for [Sony]
• Set a reminder
• Play [Modern Love]
• Start [stopwatch]
• Define [oxymoron]

Voice texting

Voice texting is easy — activate Google Assistant with the main button or your voice. Then say “Send a text to [insert contact here].” Assuming that person is in your contact list, you’ll be prompted to voice your message. You’ll get a chance to review the content of your message before sending. Google does a pretty good job of transcribing your messages, but it may have some trouble sorting between the three different Kates or four Joes in your contacts.

Take notes with your watch

Android Wear also lets you take notes. Using your voice, you can prompt your watch to transcribe a quick memo by saying “take a note.” The note will then land in your inbox or to Google Keep (if you have it installed). If you don’t want to use your voice to write a note, you can open the Google Keep app, press the “+” icon, and choose the keyboard to write it manually.

Navigation

Android Wear can be be used for navigation too. Say “Navigate to Mt. Hood” and you’ll get turn commands, but no voice commands. If you need audible assistance, make sure your watch is paired with its smartphone and your phone will provide audio commands.

Updated on 04-12-2017 by Christian de Looper: Updated article to reflect release of Android Wear 2.0.

Turing’s Appassionato phone has a dedicated button that links you to a concierge

Why it matters to you

Turing’s high-end Appassionato smartphone make your life easier by putting a human concierge at your fingertips.

When it comes to smartphones, machine learning is the next big thing. The Pixel and Pixel XL pack Google’s computer-powered Assistant, and Samsung’s Galaxy S8 has Bixby. So it’s no surprise that Turing’s next smartphone ships with the firm’s take on an AI. What is surprising is that it’s powered by humans.

The Android 7.1.1-powered Appassionato is a smartphone of superlatives. It’s machined from a “liquidmorphium alloy,” with a diamond-like carbon coating. It features a scratch-resistant sapphire screen. And it boasts a Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 processor, 6GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage.

More: Turing phone Dark Wyvern review

But by far the most intriguing feature is a dedicated physical button — dubbed the “Sir Alan” on the Appassionato’s side. Borrowing a page from the Galaxy S8 and its Bixby button, the Appassionato’s button launches an AI-powered concierge on demand.

Turing’s chief executive, Syl Chao, described it as “amplified intelligence.”

AI with a human twist

Here’s how it’ll work: When you press the Appassionato’s concierge button, you’ll be connected to a personal assistant who can schedule flights, book hotels, and perform other tasks on your behalf. Turing’s human assistants will be able to glean information from AI software that has access to your chat history, emails, calendar, and more.

More: Are you paranoid, patient, and rich? This super-secure smartphone is for you

Say you task a concierge with booking a flight to Thailand — if you’ve traveled there before, the AI collates such information as which airline you booked (from your email), where you stayed (from your phone’s location history), and the people with whom you traveled (from your text message conversations). It then supplies that information to the concierge, who’ll suggest a travel plan that best fits you.

More: 16GB RAM? Why not? Turing monolith Chaccone phablet will not be here to party … hopefully

Turning’s terrible track record

It seems like a lot to promise, and Turing doesn’t have great track record of delivering on its promises. The eponymous Turing Phone was scheduled to ship in December 2015, but was delayed till April 2016, and then again to June 2016. When it finally did arrive, the operating system had changed, and it performed so poorly that we gave it a low score of two stars out of five.

More: You don’t have to be a supervillian to appreciate the ultra-secure Turing phone

But Chao said the company is committed to meeting expectations and shipping the Appassionato on time. Turing has contracted TCL, the Chinese manufacturing partner behind the BlackBerry KeyOne, and expects the Appassionato to ship to customers in the U.S. and China this summer.

More: More delays and a new operating system for the super-secure Turing phone

A sky-high price for vaporware

One thing is for sure: If and when the Appasionato does arrive, it won’t be cheap. A low-end version that lacks the sapphire display, diamond-like carbon (DLC) coating, and access to Turing’s concierge service will start at $1,100. The top-of-the-line Appassionato GX8 will run $1,600 and only comes with one year of concierge access — Chao declinedg to break down service pricing.

Despite the sky-high price tag, Chao sees the Appassionato as the first Turing phone aimed at average buyers. “We’re very much after designers and fashion-savvy customers, but we think it’s priced competitively,” he told Digital Trends. “If you compare the price of the Appassionato to an iPhone with the same storage, it’s pretty close.”

Time will tell. But Chao is confident the Appassionato will turn heads. “It’s a life organizer,” he said. “People will love it.”

Tarzan the Robot will swing over the heads of farmers to monitor their crops

Why it matters to you

Monitoring crops is hard work. This Tarzan-inspired robot aims to make it easier by traversing wires to get a better view of what’s happening.

Tarzan is lord of the jungle, but according to some fascinating work being done by a team at Georgia Institute of Technology, he may also be lord of our robotics labs — and perhaps our farms, too.

That’s because the team has developed Tarzan the Robot, a robot capable of traversing a high-wire in a manner not dissimilar to the way Edgar Rice Burroughs’ hero swings through the trees. The energy-efficient robot’s unusual form of locomotion was actually modeled on the movement of sloths, and is designed in such a way that it might one day be able to benefit from its high-flying position by being powered directly by the sun.

Unlike a lot of innovative robotics projects, however, the team behind this particular robot isn’t just developing it for open-ended research. Instead, the researchers have a very specific real-world use case for it.

“Our first immediate application is for something called high-throughput phenotyping, which is a method of experimentally evaluating plant attributes for different breeds to evaluate [things like] drought tolerance,” Jonathan Rogers, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, told Digital Trends. “We plan on deploying this system at a farm field at the University of Georgia where they do phenotyping, which is a very labor intensive process that we hope to better automate. Moving forward, we see this as a key capability that can be deployed across the agricultural sector.”

More: Watch MIT’s swimming hydrogel robot sneak up and grab a passing fish

The idea of using such a visually outlandish robot for agriculture may sound like overkill, but as Rogers pointed out, a lot of the more traditional solutions simply don’t work all that well.

“A few years back, some colleagues and I were exploring ways for small, persistent monitoring robots to traverse crop fields,” he continued. “These robots had to survive and move throughout the field over long periods of time without human intervention. There was no easy solution to this problem, as wheeled robots were likely to get stuck, and flying robots typically have flight times only in the tens of minutes. So we developed [this] so-called brachiating robot, or swinging robot, that can traverse elevated wires above the plant rows. Many agricultural settings already have some type of elevated wire, or they can be easily installed. Our robot can swing along a wire, or between wires, allowing it to monitor an entire field using sensors installed between the arms.”

These sensors can then collect data and transmit it wirelessly back to a base station for processing and analysis. When it comes to monitoring and inspection, the hope is that farmers will be able to inspect plants from their home computer, rather than having to physically walk the field.

Next up, the team plans to make the Tarzan the Robot more energy efficient by optimizing the way its swing motor operates, and using solar panels so it won’t have to worry about recharging. They also want to improve its design to make it more survivable in outdoor environments, so it can be left outdoors among the plants for an entire growing season.

Wi-Fi calling is coming soon to Pixel, Pixel XL on India’s Jio

Wi-Fi calling is coming with Android 7.1.2 Nougat to the Pixel and Pixel XL on Jio.

Google added VoLTE support for the Pixel and Pixel XL on Jio back in December, and will soon offer Wi-Fi calling via an upcoming Nougat update. The update will make it easier for customers to make calls using Wi-Fi in situations where they don’t have great cellular coverage in their homes. The call will be routed through your phone number, but instead of mobile data like VoLTE, it uses your Wi-Fi connection.

Now say hi over wi-fi. VoLTE and WiFi calling, now available to Pixel on Jio. Watch out for the next Nougat update. pic.twitter.com/C80XFKM9g4

— Google India (@GoogleIndia) April 10, 2017

The update will likely be the Android 7.1.2 Nougat build that Google started rolling out to Pixel and Nexus devices last week. In addition to Wi-Fi calling, customers can expect to see speed optimizations and bug fixes. If you don’t want to wait for the OTA to hit, you can get the update by flashing the factory images right now:

How to install Android 7.1.2 on your Nexus or Pixel right now

What was your first phone? Taking a walk down cell phone memory lane

Forget the smart little powerhouses we have in our hands today. We’re throwing it back to the olden days, before unlimited anything.

I’ve officially reached the point in my life that I can now look back nostalgically at my technology past. And since we’ve been talking about escapism, I thought it would be fun to start off the week with a trip down memory lane.

Lately, I’ve been thinking about my first cell phone, the Motorola StarTac. It was a dull, clunky flip phone with a retractable antenna. (I’m chuckling as I’m recalling it.) I tried desperately to cover it in stickers and make it look cool, but it was still relatively utilitarian-looking. I remember it was marketed more towards business folk and contractors rather than socially awkward teenagers like me. I needed something hip to fit in with the masses, like a Nokia 3310, but it wasn’t offered by Verizon at the time. And anyway, the StarTac was a hand-me-down that was initially meant as a tracking device.

Via DeviantArt user Redfield-1982.

Each minute of talk cost a whopping 30 cents.

Per my parents, the StarTac was only to be used to call for a ride home. I wasn’t allowed to text anyone or make phone calls without permission because the phone was on a severely limited plan. Any time I spent on the phone had to be carefully counted because each minute of talk cost a whopping 30 cents.

Eventually, I lobbied for a better deal. Rather than spend $3 for 10 minutes of talking, I argued, why not switch the plan so that I’m primarily texting instead? It’s quieter for everyone at home, it’s cheaper, and it was the cool new way to communicate with friends. My parents agreed to this, and it felt like the path had cleared for my ever-so-slightly burgeoning social life.

My friend’s Motorola T900 2-Way Pager.

I spent a few months texting back and forth with one friend in particular. She was on a text-only device: the Motorola T900 2-Way Pager, which came with a miniature QWERTY keyboard. She was not only more thorough in her replies, but she sent longer messages, too, which counted against my allowance. I would reply to her the next day, in person, because I didn’t want to scare her away with the realities of my messaging limitations. Or rather, I didn’t want it to get out that was all my parents would pay for.

By my 16th birthday, I was better equipped for socializing in high school. My parents used an upgrade on their account and allowed me to pick out the phone. It was the Motorola T720 and it was the cutest little thing. It could download apps, play games, and go on the internet, in addition to making phone calls and sending text messages — and it did all this on a color display! I didn’t have to cover it in stickers to make it look decent, either. Instead, I bought translucent neon face plates for it from a kiosk at the mall, like the rest of my friends did with their Nokia 3310s.

An original advertisement from 2001 for the Motorola T720.

What was your first cell phone?

For fun, I put out this question on Twitter to see what the replies might be like. I’ve pasted a few below, though you can view the whole thread here. Unsurprisingly, I received many replies about a Nokia cell phone being the first mobile device.

@Ohthatflo Nokia 3210. Bullet proof.

— Richard Williams (@rlswilliams) April 8, 2017

@Ohthatflo Mine was a Nokia 5560.

— SirMars (@sirmars) April 7, 2017

@Ohthatflo Fun remembering. First was Motorola Micro Tac. Favorite ever was my Star Tac. Most coveted, never owned? Motorola Vader!

— Gina Smith (@ginasmith) April 7, 2017

@Ohthatflo Some cute black Samsung flip phone. I think it was like A900 something, not sure.

— Izzy Oji ✨ (@izzyoji) April 7, 2017

@Ohthatflo first I actually used was the Nokia.Where I could get free incoming texts with the old AT&T Wireless before it was Cingular then at&t again pic.twitter.com/asRC56E7fi

— James (@JamesKoltiska) April 7, 2017

@Ohthatflo The Nokia 3310😍 Saved up my allowance to get it..Awesome phone! #memories

— Rashad (@shad876) April 7, 2017

Alright, I’ve told you my story and a few others have told you theirs. Now it’s your turn: What was your first mobile device? Tell us about it in the comments! We’ll showcase some of your answers in a post later this week.

Pay what you want and learn how to develop your own Android apps

Android is the world’s most popular operating system with millions of apps available in the Google Play Store. New apps are released by indie developers every day. Do you have a brilliant idea for a new app? Don’t wait for someone else to make it — learn how to build and monetize your own Android apps.

Pay what you want for the Ultimate Android Development Bundle! Learn more

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Pay what you want for the Ultimate Android Development Bundle! Learn more

Ready to make a change in your career and start creating your own Android apps? This bundle will teach you everything you need to know to get started. Get lifetime access to these valuable courses so you can always consult back to them as needed when you’re building your first apps.

Samsung Gear 360 (2017) vs. Gear 360 (2016): What’s different, what’s better

One of these things is clearly not like the other.

It doesn’t take more than a passing glance to see there are some substantial differences between the new Gear 360 Samsung announced alongside the Galaxy S8 and the model from last year. The old one was built to have the processor and battery between the lenses so you could mount the camera just about anywhere, while the new one was built to be held like most of the other 360-degree cameras out in the world today. This difference is significant from a usability perspective, but what else is different about these two cameras?

Here’s a quick look at how things have improved from one generation to the next in the Gear 360 lineup.

More than a specs sheet

Anyone familiar with the original Gear 360 will look at this new model and be a little suspicious that it’s actually an upgrade, and that has a lot to do with the specs sheet. The older version of this camera has twice the number of megapixels to work with, captures in a wider aperture, and offers a slightly larger battery for recording video. Here’s the whole breakdown.

So this new camera has a smaller battery, no NFC, and takes photos with less detail and resolution? There’s a lot more to it than that in practice. The biggest “feature” of this new Gear 360 is the more than 20mm it lost between the two sensors. That decrease makes stitching together images and video much easier, which means the camera itself can take more realistic 360-degree photos. Even with twice the pixels to capture with, the previous Gear 360 frequently appeared distorted where the two halves of the image were stitched together. This smaller body makes it easier to take better photos, and as we know from smartphones more megapixels does not mean a better image.

The lack of NFC in the new model is kind of a bummer if you frequently use that feature on your phone, but the truth is Samsung has already done a great job making it easy to connect to the Gear 360 from inside the app. It wasn’t worth the extra space it took inside the body of this camera. Removing that feature likely also helped a little with battery life — not that you’ll notice any huge difference in performance between these two products. The only thing you’re likely to notice here is the USB-C port, which will let you connect a cable straight to your phone if your camera is in need little top-off.

It’s not all negatives, either. Despite having smaller sensors, this new and appreciably lighter Gear 360 is capable of taking both higher resolution and higher frame rate video. You have the ability to take higher resolution videos to share with Facebook and YouTube, but the higher frame rate videos make this camera ideal for capturing a lot of intense motion for VR. Capturing a roller coaster ride at 120fps or a dashcam-style video at 60fps makes these videos much easier to watch with a headset on, which is a big deal when thinking about who you are recording video for.

New features are where it’s at

Not only is the new Gear 360 easier to hold, there are some important new things you can do with it. New camera features that offer quite a bit of flexibility when it comes to how you use this camera and when you might think about carrying it around.

• Landscape HDR – As the name suggests, this lets you capture multiple still photos back to back at different exposures so you can enjoy a photo with greater dynamic range. It’s perfect for capturing a sunrise over the ocean or a wide open space at midday with the sun bearing down.

• Looping Video – Instead of worrying about running out of storage, this mode will record over itself when the microSD card is full. It’ll continue doing this until you tell it not to, so you can in theory record for an entire day while connected to power and be able to look back and the last couple of hours when you return to your camera.

• Little Planet – It’s not challenging to turn any 360-degree photo into a Little Planet, where the perspective is inverted and the horizon line is no longer the focal point, but the new Gear 360 lets you see a preview of this mode before taking the photo, and even letting you mess around a little with the sizing and proportions before taking a photo.

You can’t do any of these things on the previous Gear 360 as native features, and they make a big difference in the day-to-day use of this camera if your goal is to wander around and explore 360-degree photography. These aren’t likely to be features you use every day, but they are really nice to have around when you’re experimenting.

Which should I buy?

What you’re getting between these two cameras is a lot of small differences that really add up depending on how you decide to use your camera. If you want a Gear 360 you can mount somewhere and take great big photos, the original Gear 360 is still a great camera. If you want something you’re more likely to want to carry around with you, and you’re interested in exploring what is possible with a 360-degree camera, the new Gear 360 will be what you want to buy when it goes on sale.

Either way, you’re going to have a lot of fun with this weird buy fun way of taking photos.

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