David Bridges
In a surprising twist of product synergy, Samsung has introduced the capability to control its 2025 television lineup using its smartwatches. This innovation means that if your remote goes missing—perhaps lost in the depths of your couch—you can still enjoy your favorite shows like Daredevil: Born Again or The Residence. However, you will need either a Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 or the Galaxy Watch Ultra, along with a brand new Samsung TV. I recently had the chance to experience this technology firsthand with the Samsung Neo QLED 4K (QN90F), one of Samsung’s latest flagship televisions. While the learning curve was steep, I found the functionality to be quite effective.
During my demonstration, I equipped the Galaxy Watch Ultra and navigated the QN90F using a combination of gesture controls and specific arm movements. Upon connecting the devices, a cursor appeared, allowing me to operate it by moving my arm in various directions. Imagine a one-person Hokey-Pokey dance, and you’ll get a good visual of my attempts. To select a streaming service, I simply hovered over the icon and pinched my fingers together. Surprisingly, it was more responsive than I had anticipated. For instance, to exit a show, I clenched my fist, and to return to the home screen, I did the gesture twice. Scrolling was achieved by gliding my finger along the interior bezel of the watch.
Establishing a connection between the Watch Ultra and the QN90F requires a few steps that might feel a bit counterintuitive. First, you must disable the Universal Gestures feature on the watch. Then, with a swift shake of your wrist, a message will appear on the TV screen confirming the connection. At the same time, a Pointer Mode notification pops up on the watch, signaling that you are ready to begin. Additionally, the watch allows you to control the volume, which can be quite convenient when you’re in a hurry.
While the smartwatch controls function as intended, there are occasional quirks that need addressing. For example, I find it distracting to see the cursor and scroll bar when watching a YouTube video. Generally, stopping the movement of the mouse makes these elements disappear, particularly on a stunning display like the QN90F. However, with the pointer being controlled by my arm, I realized how often I fidgeted—maintaining stillness to eliminate the cursor became a challenge.
Several additional aspects require fine-tuning, particularly regarding precision and hit boxes. While using your arm for navigation works well for larger, sweeping motions, it can be cumbersome for smaller movements, such as hovering over the play/pause button in YouTube or dragging the cursor along the progress bar. Moreover, I wish there were an option to adjust the scrolling speed on the bezel control; if you’re not careful with how you move your finger, you might zip past your desired content too quickly, which can be frustrating.
In summary, utilizing your smartwatch as a remote control is an intriguing concept, yet I question whether it has the potential to become a must-have feature in technology. To enhance its practicality, it would be beneficial to incorporate functions that allow users to input channels or switch to their favorite ones, although this may be challenging given the limitations of a small screen primarily designed for timekeeping and fitness tracking.
