Following an initial debut back at IFA 2017 at the end of August, Samsung is ready to sell the new Gear Sport smartwatch and Gear IconX 2018 truly wireless headphones. The fitness-focused Gear Sport will cost $299, and the IconX 2018 headphones will be $199 — both are on sale now from multiple retailers, including Samsung's own website and Best Buy.
- See Gear Sport at Best Buy
- See Gear Sport at Samsung
- See IconX 2018 at Amazon
- See IconX 2018 at Samsung
It's great that both products are hitting shelves well before the holiday buying season. On the other side of the coin, these prices are a bit higher than we had expected. The Gear Sport at $299 gets surprisingly close to the price of the full-featured (albeit larger and clunkier) Gear S3, which itself is down to around the $315 mark at retail. It's also a big step up from the Gear S2, which previously held that sub-S3 level wearable spot in the $249, and eventually down to $159, range.
Gear Sport vs. Gear S3: What's the difference?
At the same time, the Gear IconX 2018 earbuds have set themselves near the top of this "truly wireless headphones" market at $199. Apple has picked up quite a bit of traction with its $159 AirPods, and Google just launched its new (albeit wired) Pixel Buds at the same price. The IconX 2018 thankfully have much longer battery life than their predecessors and are more fitness-focused with features like heart rate monitoring, but that $199 price will be tough for many to swallow — even if they're pairing them up with their $900+ Galaxy Note 8.
Samsung obviously has actual sales data on its end to back up the pricing of its products, so we'll see how the market takes to them when they've been in stores for a bit.
