Samsung has launched the Gear S3 smartwatch in India. The Samsung Gear S3 comes in Classic and Frontier variants – price in India is the same for both variants at Rs. 28,500. Check this review to know more.
Unboxing the Gear S3 Classic : Inside the box you will get the S3 Classic smartwatch, user manual, warranty card, extra leather strap, magnetic charging dock and charger.
Design and Display
The Gear S3 Classic looks really classic, though it is a smartwatch it looks and feels like a traditional watch. The body is made of stainless steel and the straps are made of genuine leather. If need be you can easily replace the straps.
Build quality and finishing is excellent. There are two buttons on the right side along with built in speaker and microphone. Just like the Samsung Gear S2 the Samsung Gear S3 also comes with circular rotating bezel (Gear shaped) that can also be used for navigation.
Samsung Gear S3 classic sports a 1.3 inch circular screen with 360 x 360 pixels resolution and protected with corning gorilla glass SR+. The screen looks awesome, color reproduction, touch response are very good. The display is also comfortably visible under direct sunlight.
Gear S3 weight is 71 grams, you will feel the weight when you are wearing it.
Specifications
Samsung Gear S3 comes with two buttons home & back, users can use touch, buttons or rotate the dial for navigation / options. S3 is running Tizen OS version 2.3.2 and powered by Exynos 7270 dual core processor clocked at 1GHz.
This smartwatch is IP68 certified (water / dust resistant). There is 768MB RAM, 4GB ROM, accelerometer, gyro, light, HRM and barometer sensor. There is also built in microphone and loudspeaker.
S3 is packed with Bluetooth, WiFi, GPS and NFC.
Performance
Samsung Gear S3 can monitor your physical activities, your sleep and your heart rate. This watch will also show you the time / date, many other options (weather, alert, etc.), notifications, app notification, you can control media on your smartphone and you can also make / receive calls on this watch (connected to smartphone via Bluetooth).
The heart rate sensor on the back is pretty accurate. This watch will occasionally check your heart rate. Also by default the smartwatch will also track your physical activities and automatically detect the exercise mode – walking, jogging, cycling etc. It can also count steps – for every 10 feet it will count 1 floor.
You will need to download the gear app as well as other supporting apps – you will get the notification for the same once the gear app is installed and the S3 watch is paired. You can connect this watch with any smartphone.
For best results download the S-Health application too. Auto mode is good but at times it might take into account false reading like while driving it assumed that I was cycling. You can easily delete such data from S-Health section.
In auto mode the heart rate will not be continuously monitored. For best results use S-Health and select from the list of exercises listed there. When you use this method, the Samsung Gear S3 smartwatch will continuously monitor your heart rate – this is a very good option in fact. Try using it while cycling, walking etc.
There is built in GPS, that will keep track of your path you might have taken while walking, cycling etc. and you can view the same on the S3 smartwatch.
The S3 will also occasionally give you voice alerts about your progress (when using manual S-Health mode).
You can select watch faces, customize them and even download more if you want.
Battery
There is 380 mAh non-removable battery. You can charge it wirelessly using the magnetic charging dock. It will take 2 hours 30 minutes to charge from 0% to 100%. Battery life is impressive for a smartwatch. On a full charge you can get 3 to 4 days of battery life with always on off and with always on display you will easily get from 1.5 days to 2 days of battery life.
Verdict
The Samsung Gear S3 is an excellent wearable device with premium classic look and it comes with a premium price tag. If you have the budget and looking for a perfect wearable device go ahead with the S3.
Rating 4.5 out of 5
Samsung Gear S3 is available for Rs. 28,500.