The Samsung Gear S3 is the smartwatch for the new generation. With the Apple Watch Series 2 heralding serious new tech, the rest of the smartwatch crowd has had to up its game.
For the Gear S3, Samsung has decided to offer up two designs. There's the more rugged Frontier for outdoor types that we've been testing out, and the Classic, which aims to be the more luxurious option of the two. Both still run on Samsung's own Tizen operating system and that rotating bezel makes a welcome return.
That's joined by features like built-in GPS for sports tracking and sending out SOS alerts, a speaker to make calls, Samsung Pay to, well, pay for stuff from your wrist, and a bigger battery.
Samsung has gone big on design and features, but has it built on what it achieved with the Gear S2? We've been living with the Gear S3 for the past couple of weeks to find out if Apple, Google and company should be casting an envious eye at Samsung's two new smartwatches.
Samsung Gear S3: Design
The Gear S3 is a big smartwatch and that's immediately going to put off anyone that was hoping for something similar in stature to the Gear S2. Its hulking 46mm frame makes it undeniably a more manly watch. It's also noticeably heavier and thicker as well, no doubt to accommodate the additional sensors and a larger battery.
Does it look nice on the wrist? It's something that has divided the Wareable team. I'm firmly in the camp that the Gear S2 is a better looking watch, and it's not at all surprising that Samsung is still offering last year's smartwatch alongside the two Gear S3 models. In short, it's not going to be for everyone. If you like outdoor watches then you'll appreciate the more rugged looking stainless steel body. But even then, something still feel a little bit ordinary about the Frontier.
Samsung Gear S3: Rotating bezel
The rotating bezel was Samsung's solution to making smartwatch interactions more fluid, saving you from continually swiping through screens and trying to find what you were looking for.
Samsung Gear S3: Screen
If there's one thing we have few complaints about it's the Gear S3's glorious screen. Like its phone displays, the one on the Gear S3 is a real beaut. For starters it's a bigger 1.3-inch, 360 x 360 AMOLED touchscreen display, so there's more screen estate for that Tizen OS to shine.
It's bright and vibrant and colours are rich, making it undoubtedly one of the best smartwatch screens out there.
Samsung Gear S3: Staying in touch and getting connected
When it comes to transferring smartphone features to a smartwatch, Samsung does not cut corners. There's a built-in speaker, which is hidden away on the side of the watch. Once you've successfully paired the S3 with a Samsung or Android phone over Bluetooth, it'll pull through your contacts letting you make calls from the wrist. Let's be clear, you will still look stupid answering a call from a watch, but if it is something you really think you'll do, the call quality is pretty decent. Just make sure you crank up the volume to the max.
Samsung Gear S3: Health and fitness
Like Apple and Pebble, Samsung is making a big play with fitness. There's built-in GPS to track activities like running and cycling, plus a host of sensors including a heart rate monitor, barometer and speedometer. Automatic exercise recognition works with multiple activities and rep counting (recently introduced to the Gear Fit2) helps you keep a check on sets of lunges, crunches, squats and burpees.
Samsung Gear S3: Apps
Apps were one of our biggest gripes with the Gear S2 and since then things have improved. Whether that's a big enough improvement for you depends on how much emphasis you place on good app support. It's better, but not much better.
Samsung says there are now more than 10,000 apps available in the Samsung App Store.
