Samsung Gear S3: Classic
Hello, all. This is Simon.
Today, I will be talking about a smartwatch that I recently bought.
This watch has been introduced by Samsung mobile. The watch is called “Samsung Gear S3 – Classic”.
I have been waiting for this opportunity for more than few months and finally concluded to Gear S3. There are a lot of smartwatches out there in the market with many options such as -constantly keeping you on track with meetings, calls etc. A smartwatch is one of the devices that is connected to your mobile and tracks down almost every data of what you do/did. It can track how many steps you took, or it can record your heart rate, or it can even allow you to talk to the person who’s on the other side of the phone without touching your phone.
Why Samsung Gear S3?
Now, when it comes to consumer electronics there are a wide variety of options that you can hear about or see for yourself. Like a fit bit, Huawei etc. However, one of the giant electronics, such as Samsung has done a perfect job in designing and manufacturing a smartwatch that is identical to your daily drive watch. Now, Samsung offers many features that most of the rival companies fail to do so. Obviously, I had to opt for this smartwatch.
Price?
This smartwatch comes with a price of 28,900 INR. Though, this is a little expensive it surely holds up to its promise as a smartwatch. The watch comes with a pricey band, one smaller and other larger.
Where to buy?
This smartwatch is sold around many online websites and offline stores at some discounted price. But I would advise you to choose the Samsung online site for the factory sealed and genuineness of the product. There are a lot of Chinese companies faking the Samsung smartwatch and phones. I better not hand my money over to some cheap fakes. So, I choose the Samsung online shop. The good news is if you have a credit card you may opt no cost EMI options too. Happy shopping!
Specs and good/bad!
Unboxing:
The carton was a circular one (kinda cylindrical). It was easy to open and when one opened the top lid, the smartwatch with a screen protector on it was visible. Keeping it aside, you may have a look at the accessories like an extra band for a small hand, a charger, cables and few documents. The band is a standard 22 mm, which can be used with the regular watches too. You may want to Google it first, whether all bands would fit into this or not. I haven’t done my research on the bands yet.
Once the top compartment of the carton was cleared off, a charger, a wireless adapter and a cable can be seen. Yes, the charger is a wireless one. The watch has to be placed on the charger and, it will start to charge. A complete charge might take more than 2 hours!
Once done with all the unpacking, I hastily switched on the smartwatch. Please note that I had bought a classic one and not the frontier. I had to choose the classic because the frontier was out of stock and they told me it might be restocked after a while, which I couldn’t wait for. The turning on the smartwatch is easy. You have to hold the bottom right button for 3 seconds and it will boot up. Once it booted up, all I had to do is to install an app called Samsung gear from play store. Once the app was installed I had to turn on the Bluetooth on mobile to connect each other. After they were paired that’s it. The smartwatch started to work like a normal watch. Initially, it had turned off the display after a while, I just had to turn on the always-on display option from the settings. Voila, that’s it.
Specs:
Dimension: Classic 46 x 49 x 12.9T (59 g)
Display: 1.3” (33 mm) 360 x 360 (~278 ppi pixel density) Full colour AOD, Corning® Gorilla® Glass SR+
OS: Tizen Based Wearable OS 2.3.2.
Chipset: Exynos 7270, Dual 1.0GHz.
Network: No network
Connectivity: Bluetooth
Memory: 768MB + 4GB (Internal Memory)
Battery: 380mAh (3~4 days), Non-removable Li-Ion 380 mAh battery
Sensors: Accelerometer, gyro, heart rate, barometer
Others: - Samsung Pay
- IP68 certified - dust/waterproof over 1.5 meters and 30 minutes
- Compatible with standard 22mm straps
- WPC wireless charging
- S-Voice natural language commands and dictation
- MP3/M4A/AAC/WAV player
- Photo viewer
- Voice memo/dial/commands
Aesthetic:
The smartwatch has little mass and could feel big for small hands. The entire watch screen is touch sensitive. That means you can use your fingers to move the apps or change the dials etc. It also has an option to turn the dial using a mechanical rotor on the screen, which would change the screen to a different option. Times like when you are wearing a glove or your hands are wet you can choose this option to navigate between apps. The rear side of the watch has heart rate sensor to measure the heart rate and record it via apps pre-installed in it. It has 4 GB of internal storage and the rest can be managed with the cloud storage, of course, if you subscribe one. The bands seemed premium leather and work well with hand. The buttons on the watch work great without any issues. The screen is super cool. And it is a worthy watch to wear for formal as well as casual parties.
Samsung claims that it had approached an Italian watch manufacturer for the aesthetic work and it holds its promise on that.
Options:
The smartwatch connects to your phone via Bluetooth 4.0, low energy consumption. And also it will connect to the wireless network at your home or at work.
Features:
When you turn the bezel, you can add the widgets you like. For example, add contacts or calendar or any app or setting you would like. My favourite is the contact, turn the bezel and the contact shows up and I can either call the person or send a text. Now, that’s an amazing feature. Moving ahead to other features. It includes Alarm, App shortcuts, Contacts, Multiple contacts, Reminders, Samsung health, Schedule, Weather and World clock. Rotating the bezel clockwise would move on to the widgets, however, if you rotate it in the counter-clockwise you will see the recent notifications. Notifications such as email, SMS, WhatsApp can be seen and replied too. When you try to reply, it pops a small keyboard, initially, a handwriting recognition or character recognition. And turn the bezel clockwise would take you to an old-school keyboard, further turning the bezel would open the smileys and voice command system.
If you are in clock display mode and press-hold for 2 seconds would pop a new window with many new style dials. Say for an example, you are in a party, you can change the dial to causal dial and light up your party style. The dials can be downloaded from the internet or via the Samsung Gear app. There are tons of dials and other apps that will support SG3. Some are costlier and others are either free or cost less. Thanks to the Samsung’s own OS, Tizen, which works smooth and efficiently most of the times.
Reviews:
I have been using this watch for a little while and haven’t had any issues yet. Though the watch is little big when compared to the normal watches, it surely stands as a smartwatch in this category. The watch intends to reflect the luxurious person within you and surely marks its performance as well as aesthetics without any hiccups.
What I am really worried is the best that I wear with this watch. The belt seems legit and is rigid enough to hold of the normal tugging of it in daily uses. But it seems to deteriorate while water comes into the picture. I believe a spare band is preferred if you want to be careful or cautious about this tugging of belt/band in daily use.
There are a wide variety of bands that are available in the market. The favourite band of mine is the dark brown leather, croc style one. It looks so promising about the watches’ aesthetic as well as premium look.
Juicing up the watch is simple. It has no wires. Take the watch and place it in the holder and then it starts to charge. As I said earlier, it will take > 2 hours to completely charge. But once charged, it can manage to pull through for 2 days with maximum usage and maybe 4-5 days with casual usage, of course, you may have to turn on the power saver in the watch. I recommend this watch to be at its fullest potential by using all options such as always on display and others. It surely cranks the battery but you will feel much happy using it.
The classic one looks much formal than casual whereas the frontier looks better in a casual way than this. I recommend the classic to business people and frontier to the people who party a lot and stay with a casual outfit. However, both the watches go well with jeans and a tee.
The good:
• The watch looks beautiful and has good design
• The rotating bezel helps you in times when touch screen doesn’t work
• Calling and texting is smooth
• Notifications will be sent to the watch immediately, a small vibration would let you know
• Has a microphone and a speaker to talk to people when you can't use mobile
• Can be used even if you’re wearing a glove
• The band is standard 22 mm, so you can buy normal bands and use it
• Has 4 GB storage to store your favourite songs and pictures and can be viewed even if the watch and the mobile aren’t paired
• Good battery life, 2 days for medium to heavy use and 4 days of standby
• Is water and dustproof
• App is user-friendly to change the screen dial or any other settings
• Complete data migration from Samsung app from watch to mobile
The bad:
• The watch frame is thick
• Rotating bezel is sometimes hard when you’re wearing gloves
• Touch sensitivity will be more if you opt for glove operating conditions
• Small keyboard layout and no qwerty style
• Voice over the watch is not that good, average
• Screen consumes more battery
• Takes a lot of time to charge
• Needs specific charger and it is wireless, no slot for micro USB or type C cable
• Should be controlled mostly by the Samsung Gear App
• No default browser
Final words:
The watch is surely a promise for smart future ahead of us. The watch is smart, intuitive and definitely speaks the premium look. Being said that, I needed a thinner bezel and thickness of the watch. But everything cannot be added at the same time. Maybe Samsung Gear S4 might have some really futuristic ideas. The price is expensive, but it has water and dust resistant like most watches. It comes with gorilla glass to prevent any scratches. The watch pairs seamlessly to the mobile but sometimes if it gets disconnected, it is quite hard to connect it back again. Samsung has sent a hotfix to this issue, so it works a charm. If you really want to save battery you have to turn on the airplane mode or turn off the AOD option.
Finally, at this price, this smartwatch beats most of the smartwatches out there on the market. The watch sticks to its promise and delivers an amazing performance with the good engine under the hood. Samsung surely has done a good job and has secured my trust via this watch.
Good Luck Sammy, looking forward to seeing some great gadgets soon.
Thanks for reading this article/review. Glad you enjoyed it. Stay tuned for next reviews.
With love, peace and respects,
This is your Simon.
Have a spiffing day.
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