Samsung’s Gear S3 has both brawn and brains

The first impression one gets of Samsung’s Gear S3 is of sheer size. I saw the Frontier version, which is the more sporty of the two variants and it’s a big beefy watch, make no mistake. I had thought the earlier versions of Samsung’s smartwatch large, but this is larger. It has solidity and toughness about it and no doubt has no place on a small female wrist like mine — though it did fit firmly and gave me an extra dollop of attitude whenever I wore it. Where it will undoubtedly look better is on a broad masculine wrist, where it belongs. It has a thick and very strong silicon strap that looks like it’ll last a lifetime, going perfectly with the black metallic chassis. If you look at it and think military grade, you would be on the right track.

Samsung is particularly proud of what it has achieved with the Gear S3’s design, making it look every bit like a traditional watch but with smart interiors that come alive when you touch the display, bezel or buttons. The screen, incidentally, can stay in an always-on mode so that a large watch like that doesn’t have a dark black blank face most of the time. What it will show is your chosen watchface, which could well be something analog, adding to the traditional look. It’s meant for watch lovers who don’t want to settle for a flimsy fitness tracker.

The Gear S series has had one marquee feature right from the start and that’s its brilliant rotating bezel. It’s not only back on this third gen watch but improved because it has a wonderful soft click when you turn it. It could easily have been too smooth, which would have meant flipping wildly through screens and getting frustrated. Instead, a single touch on that edge will move it a single notch at a time. While you can swipe the display, the bezel is the best way to move around the watch and look for what you want. The display is so big and bright, visible outdoors as well as indoors, that it’s compelling to look at and easier to use because you can use it with a quick glance. It’s water and dust resistant and also Gorilla Glass protected and toughened to resist temperature. So, if you’re going to take it with you on an adventurous hiking trip, it should fare just fine. In fact, the watch now has barometer and altimeter sensors.

The Gear S3 gets its apps from its own Galaxy app store, though you may find many of them (even the watchfaces) needing to be paid for. Not that these cost too much. Samsung has now increased both the number and category of apps available for the watch and if you equip it well, you can reach into your pocket for the phone much less or even leave it behind for a bit. You can take calls, receive and respond to messages, input using voice, keyboard or even handwriting (if you’re fast with individual letters) and of course see all your notifications, mail, and keep an eye on the news — my favourite app for that is Flipboard, which looks pretty good on this watch — stay a step ahead of your social networks, and track your to-do list and agenda. Gaming, travel, health and other categories have been populated with more apps. Just as with a phone, it takes an initial bit of work to pull in the applications useful to you, but thereafter, it becomes a quick way to do many things without poring over the phone.

What this watch does best, like other smartwatches, is to track your activities and fitness goals. And the Gear S3 can do that without much prompting. The watch auto-detects your activities, even distinguishing between the type of exercise (cycling, running, yoga, etc) and starts to track and log. All the statistics go to the companion S-Health app, which you must download unless you have a Samsung phone with it preloaded. To use the watch in any case you need to download the Gear Manager app from where you connect the watch and phone and control many of its features. Once done, there are enough controls on the watch as well. I do have other smartwatches and found the step tracking a tiny bit ahead of the others. Same goes for the heart rate measurements. But let’s remember that one should use these measures to exercise more rather than log every single step and beat and measure for the sake of measuring. The Gear S3 also auto-detects and tracks your sleep. You can get the full stats on that and figure out what you need to correct. The only problem I see is that the watch being weighty doesn’t really make it that suitable for wearing through the night.

The Frontier’s dimensions are 46 x 49 x 12.9T and it weighs 63 grams. It works on the Exynos 7270, Dual 1.0GHz processor and has 768MB RAM and 4GB of storage. The 380mAh battery can take you through over three days. Charging happens through a little cradle into which you dock the watch. The cradle is connected via a USB cable into the power source. The S3 offers connectivity options in the form of Bluetooth and WiFi, and the Frontier variant of the smartwatch also offers LTE support.

Price: ₹28,500

Love: Rotating bezel works beautifully, bright display, great battery life, tough

Hate: No women’s version, heavy

COMMENT NOW