Samsung Gear S3 Frontier Review

With Gear S3 Frontier Samsung has proved that the range of wearables can be expanded beyond time and health charts. Samsung Gear S3 Frontier allows you to attend your call, reply to your emails, read the news and a lot more. The Gear S3's stainless-steel case is attractive and looks like a high-end timepiece. However, the Gear S3 is much larger and heavier than the Apple Watch and the Gear S2. It is water and dust resistant, has GPS, tracks fitness and heart rate, has a speakerphone and is powered by Tizen-based OS. You will also find a pre-loaded Monster Vampire game inside which actually is a good time killer.

Our review for Samsung Gear S3 Frontier.

Design and Features

Samsung has packed some pretty awesome features in the Gear S3. The design feels like a massive sports watch but it is meant for people with thick wrists. Built like a tank, Samsung S3 is dust and water resistant and it is rated IP68 so it's able to withstand dust and dirt and being up to 1.5 meters or for up to 30 minutes underwater. You can also pick and choose from 15 preloaded designs and more available at Gear App Store. Each one comes with a corresponding Always on Display version so you get a seamless look through and through.

The right side of the watch has two buttons: The upper one is a back button, and the bottom button allows you to return to the home screen or the app menu.

Protected by Gorilla Glass it is MIL-SPEC-810G rated to withstand drops of about 5 feet. The watch can withstand being submerged in up to 5 feet (about 1.5 meters) of water for up to 30 minutes.

The Gear S3 has 1.3-inch Super AMOLED display that looks very realistic and is bright enough to view, day or night. With a resolution of 360 x 360 pixels, the images and texts were crisp and the colours were vivid. Samsung has added 15 watch faces which allow you to select the face and customise it further.

For looking up the time just raise your wrist and the watch instantly comes alive.

Interface and performance

The S3 Frontier runs on Dual-core 1GHz CPU with 768MB RAM and 4GB internal memory. It is powered by Tizen OS instead of Android Wear and works equally well with Android and iPhones. However, iOS connection is very buggy if you connect it with an iPhone. You can access the notifications, recently used apps, create reminders, and check the weather and health stats by rotating the bezel left or right. When you press the bottom button on the side you can see the app menu where circular app icons are arranged around the edge of the S3's display. However, the biggest issue with Samsung S3 is the lack of apps.

S3 is packed with an altimeter and a barometer apart from a GPS and a heart-rate monitor. You can rotate the bezel to switch between distance, calories, pace, speed, cadence, heart rate and even music controls.

The call quality on S3 is superb and you can easily hear everything clearly but you'll have to crank the volume on the speaker if you are outside.

S Voice and S Health

The S3 can listen to your commands and respond to them. Just say "Hi, Gear," and you can speak to the watch to do things such as send an email, call someone or check the weather. The S3 can track a wide variety of activities and it has an altimeter and barometer to measure your elevation and the weather. S Health records heart rate and can track your physical activity accurately apart from logging water and coffee intake, and also keeps a check on your sleeping pattern. It automatically recommends stretching exercises if you are inactive for a while.

S Health records heart rate and can track your physical activity accurately apart from logging water and coffee intake, and also keeps a check on your sleeping pattern. It automatically recommends stretching exercises if you are inactive for a while.

Battery

The S3's 380-mAh battery can easily last for three days on a single charge if you are not using any other features. However, if you are going to use other features like GPS, checking notifications and running fitness app then the battery will last for a single day. The S3 comes with a wireless charger. Just set the watch on the charging dock and the dial turns 90 degrees so that you can easily see the time and charge status.

Verdict

Currently, Samsung Gear S3 is the best smartwatch out there in the market but it fails in some important areas. For android users, it is certainly the best smartwatch and the design is attractive if you compare it to an Apple smartwatch.

However, the lack of apps is the biggest drawback of this Tizen-based smartwatch. Gear S3 Frontier's biggest downside is that there simply aren't enough apps. Call quality is awesome and you can hear everything clearly from the other side with any break. The Gear S3 Frontier is absolutely attractive, looks catchy and is certainly way ahead of all the smartwatches currently available in the market.

In short, with Gear S3 Frontier Samsung has nailed the basics and there are certain features here that are unavailable on other smartwatches.