The smart watch is destined to be the next big thing in tech, with Samsung and Sony getting the jump on Apple and launching their own pieces of wearable tech.

Sony's Smart Watch 2 consists of a 1.6-inch screen attached to a choice of multiple coloured watch straps. It uses NFC to pair with your phone and then acts like a second display, pushing notifications to your wrist.

Samsung's Galaxy Gear has a 1.63-inch display and like the Sony, comes in a range of different coloured straps. The second screen experience here is augmented by the addition of a 1.9-megapixel camera on the strap, but more on that later.

First to the most significant difference between the two: how they behave as watches. The Sony's screen remains permanently on and uses simple black on white watch faces so you can see it in bright sunlight. Samsung's device requires you to hit a button or shake your wrist to wake it up, so it's not as easy to tell the time with at a glance.

Then there is battery life. Samsung expects a charge every night, Sony wants you to do it every three days.

The operating system feels much more bespoke on the Samsung and is a bit more intuitive with its left to right swiping control, but then its a lot more laggy than the shrunken down Android you see on the SmartWatch 2.

Design and looks is a matter of opinion of course, but we prefer the slick and simple look of the SmartWatch to Samsung's. Then again, you do get a camera with the Galaxy Gear.

Called the 'Memographer' camera, it is activated by swiping down across the watch face. It can record video and stills which can be viewed back on the device's screen. You get 4GB of internal storage to fill with pictures.

Sony's SmartWatch 2 is the company's second attempt at building a piece of tech, as such it has a wider selection of apps to play with than Samsung's, including Twitter. More will be coming for the Galaxy Gear, but right now Sony takes the win here.

In the end, there is little to distinguish the two aside from Samsung's camera. The Galaxy Gear does restrict itself to Note 2 owners for the time being, along with Galaxy S4 users after an update. Sony's will work with any Android device that has Bluetooth, so it may be the only choice for some potential smart watch buyers.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io