Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch looks good, but doesn't do enough (pictures)

The Samsung Galaxy Gear connects to your phone over Bluetooth, letting you take phone calls and send texts without needing to fish your phone from your jeans.

It's not what you'd call massive, and it sits comfortably on your wrist.

There's a 1.9-megapixel camera tucked into the strap.

Only a single button sits on the outside. It wakes the watch up and activates the S Voice voice control.

The clasp is secure and easily adjustable.

The black and silver colours look quite smart.

It's not much bigger than a regular watch, and isn't unduly heavy, either.

It only pairs with the Galaxy Note 3 for now, although it will be updated to work with the Galaxy S4, S3, and Note 2.

It's available in a range of colours if black doesn't suit.

The watch clips easily into its charging caddy.

The charging caddy is not a huge burden to carry, but it's easy to forget -- or lose -- and then there's not much you can do.

The caddy also provides NFC functionality.

If S Voice can't understand your contact's name, you can manually go into your contact list to find the person.

Most of your calling and texting will be done using the S Voice voice control software.

The gallery icon sits in the middle of the panels, making it time consuming to scroll to.

Images are fairly easy to see on the small screen, but you can tap on them to see the full-size version.

The media controller is a handy way of pausing your music, but that's about all it can do -- you'll need to go back to your phone to change albums or artists.

There's a built-in pedometer that syncs your steps back to the S Health app on the Note 3.

Other apps can be found in the app list, making it even more time consuming to find the tool you need.

The Evernote app allows you to record a voice message or take a picture and have it sync immediately to your Evernote account.

You can set a more classic watch face if you feel so inclined.

Or go for something a bit more modern.

There are various third-party watch faces to browse round in the Samsung app store.

Getting S Voice to work properly can be a bit tricky.

Incoming calls are displayed clearly, and it's easy to hang up if you don't feel like chatting.

If you take a call using the watch, you'll need to use its built-in speakerphone and microphone, rather than your phone or headset.

Messages are simple to flick through.

Responding can be awkward, as you have to dictate your message using S Voice -- it's not a good way of sending a private message.

The Gear's app store isn't what you'd call well stocked.

There are various categories to choose from.

The majority of things on offer are different watch faces. Still, it's nice to be able to give your watch a bit of a personal touch.

The bulk of the settings for the watch are handled by the Gear manager app on the Note 3.

You can see all available watch faces to quickly select the one you like the most.