Highlights | Samsung Gear S3

Smartwatches are the future. While it may seem cumbersome for some, it may be useful for others. It features ease of use and does not require you to check your phone every few minutes to see if you have any message or notification. Samsung’s contribution to the world of wearables is the Samsung Gear S3. While it was manufactured with the intent of easing the user’s world, it does not feel like that. The second iteration of the smartwatch is not as polished and solid as one would expect it to be. It’s a unique design and the ton of features it offers makes it a great product. But, Samsung needs to ensure it supports more app and offers a better user experience to the users. 

Samsung Gear S3 

One great thing about this smartwatch is that you can pair to an iOS device via the new iOS smartwatch-pairing app. From its last update, the hardware and the features have undergone a tremendous change. The software, however, leaves us wanting. With the Android Wear 2.0 just about to be released, the market for Android watches has started booming. While Samsung’s second attempt clearly showcases the hardware improvements, it is not so great to attract everyone just yet. Check out the reviews of the best Samsung smartwatches.

Features of Samsung Gear S3

The design

The company has designed the Gear S3 smart watch in two versions. The larger one looks and feels like a huge sports watch. Since not many like massive faces on their wrists, it did not become very popular. The other one is your usual design, but it is more versatile and is likely to make more people happier. 

Samsung Pay

Samsung Pay is obviously present in Samsung’s latest offering. The MST, a magnetic technology, usually present in Galaxy Phones is found here as well. This will allow you to simply tap and pay at places that accept Android Pay, Google Play, and Apple Pay. 

S Health fitness

S Health by Samsung is a built-in way for the watch to track your heart rate, log water and coffee intake, track activity, and overall fitness level. It is also designed to remind you to stretch when you stand up after sitting down for long. 

iOS apps

Samsung’s iOS app is not great. However, it has become a bit better and more versatile. You can connect to Samsung S Health, download watch faces, and other popular apps. However, not every in-demand app is available. For instance, Uber and Spotify are not compatible here. 

Samsung S-Voice

Surprisingly, the Samsung S Voice works quite well. When compared to Siri on Apple Watch and Google Assistant on Android Wear, Samsung S-Voice lags behind. However, it can still do a lot, such as getting weather, setting alarms, calling a contact, and getting you the traffic. You can also ask questions and receive answers. 

Spotify

Spotify on the Gear S3 can now stream over LTE or Wi-Fi. However, you can’t download the tracks. Another drawback is that the interface and the user experience are very poor. While you will require a paid Spotify account, you can listen to music on the go. 

Stand-alone phone with LTE model

If you purchase the LTE version, you would be able to connect apps, take calls, and do so much more with your Gear S3 smart watch. With Bluetooth headphones, you can use your watch to make and attend calls. One thing to note here is that you might have to pay additional charges to use this as an LTE phone. 

What Could Be Improved?

Design: A better design would be more efficient. While it is better than Android Wear, it has a lot of potential to grow. To get some apps to work seamlessly, there are many things that you have to go through, such as logging in multiple times, have different apps, and more. 

Interface: While the interface seems good enough at first glance, it needs to be improved as well. This is because users will have to go through various menus and icons to reach what they want. It is not nearly as user-friendly as the Apple Watch. There are also no shortcuts that you can use to get weather, calendar, or music on the main screen.

Battery life: The battery life of Samsung Gear S3 Smartwatch is extremely poor, especially if you use LTE. Without it, you can expect to get about 2 days’ worth of use. However, with LTE, you will be lucky if your watch lasts for a few hours. Until battery life is improved, users will not be able to use the watch and its rich features for long. 

Tizen OS: Tizen OS is a Linux-based operating system, developed and used by Samsung. It is Samsung’s very own app ecosystem which no one else shares. The number of apps that are compatible with Gear watches is no longer increasing. While there are many great apps, such as Bloomberg, CNN, Uber, Spotify, and ESPN, the list is actually quite small. Theoretically, Gear S3 has thousands of compatible apps, but not the ones anyone would ever want to use. 

Swim-proof: The Gear S3 smart watch is IP68 rated. This means that the phone is waterproof for a quick shower or in the rain, but it is not advisable for swimming. It is also dust friendly. 

A Quick Summary

The Samsung Gear S3 is a great smart watch for Android phone owners. However, the decision is not so easy to make if you are an iPhone user. The Gear S3 by Samsung features some nice and interesting uses. Some users may find the LYE model quite attractive, despite the low battery life. The Gear S3 clearly has improved hardware, but when the software undergoes an improvement as well is when the product would become more worthy. Currently, the Gear S3 is a better choice than the Android Wear smartwatch. But, after the pending release of the new version of Android Wear, opinions may change.