Samsung Gear S3 hands-on – Samsung’s bigger smartwatch for fans of the outdoors launched at IFA 2016
The Gear S3 is considerably bigger than its Gear S2 predecessor. That’s the most immediately obvious thing. It also more closely resembles a standard analogue watch than the S2 does. Did I already mention that it’s considerably bigger?
If you have small wrists, this watch is going to look massive on you – and it's also very masculine.
The Gear S3 is actually available in two models: the Gear S3 Classic and the Gear S3 Frontier. There are no major functional differences between the two models, just a change in the strap design. This results in the Frontier being fractionally heavier at 62g versus the 57g of the Classic. You'll have to go Frontier if you want built-in LTE, too.
Related: Everything you need to know about IFA 2016
The Gear S3 actually takes standard 22mm watch straps in any case, so you can always personalise it to your own taste. It's available with a silver or dark grey case, with the finish extended to the rotary bezel that continues from the Gear S2.
Measuring 46.1 x 49.1 x 12.9mm, there’s no getting away from the fact that this is a chunky watch. The extra size does mean the display is now 1.3-inch – larger than the Gear S2's. It’s the same resolution at 360 x 360 pixels, but Samsung told me it's done work around the anti-aliasing to help smooth out the edges of text and icons.
The always-on display makes a return too, but it’s been improved over the Gear S2's. It now supports up to 16 million colours, rather than just the 8 colours of the older model. The always-on display plays into Samsung’s aim to make the Gear S3 first and foremost a timepiece.
Samsung teamed up with Yvan Arpa, a Swiss watch designer, in coming up with the Gear S3's styling. It got Arik Levy, an industrial designer, on board to craft the faces and straps. There are some nice design flourishes to some of the watchfaces, such as one that emulates the reflections of light on a metallic surface when you tilt the watch.
Related: What is IP68? IP ratings explained
The Gear S3 is IP68 rated, so there should be no problems wearing it in the shower. It’s also dustproof.
Using the rotary bezel to control the interface of the Gear S2 is one of my favourite methods of interacting with a smartwatch. It means your fingers don’t obstruct the display and it feels intuitive. What I don’t like about the standard Gear S2’s bezel is how slippery it feels – it means rotating can be difficult. The Gear S2 Classic introduced a serrated bezel edge, which alleviated the issue. Fortunately, the Gear S3 improves on that even further.
The Gear S3’s rotary bezel sees the return of those serrations for both the Frontier and Classic, but there’s also some tactile feedback from magnets within the bezel that make the rotary motion much more satisfying and easy to use. It’s a subtle but welcome change.
The UI for answering and rejecting calls has evolved, too, and you can use the bezel instead. Samsung says its rotary UI has been opened up to third-party developers, so apps such as Nest can now control your home temperature when you rotate the bezel like a dial.
In part, the size of the Gear S3 can be excused considering there’s a raft of sensors inside that make it more like a dedicated sports watch. There's an altimeter, barometer, accelerometer, GPS and an optical heart rate monitor on the back. It's also capable of the usual step counting and sleep tracking.
For fans of hiking or outdoor sports, the location tracking can be used to send an SOS message with your location by triple-tapping the home button on the edge of the watch.
The Gear S3 runs on Samsung’s Tizen OS 2.3.1 and has a dual-core 1GHz processor. There’s 768MB of RAM and 4GB of internal storage. Beyond that there’s Bluetooth 4.2, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi and NFC built in.
Samsung says there are 10,000 apps on Tizen now. Fans of Spotify will be pleased to hear that there’s a standalone app available, so you can stream music directly from the watch itself. You can even play music through the built-in speaker if you’re so inclined, but you’ll obviously have a much more enjoyable experience using Bluetooth headphones or speakers. Disappointingly, there’s no offline Spotify support.
With the increased size, battery capacity has improved, too. It’s now a 380mAh cell, which will get you up to four days of battery life with the always-on display turned off. Turn this on and you’re looking at around two days, which is still better than the Gear S2 offers. Wireless charging has made a return and I was told you can get 10 hours of operation by charging for 15 minutes.
Related: Best smartwatches
First Impressions
The Samsung Gear S3 packs in a lot of useful features that will appeal to fans of the outdoors and sports. It shares many of the sports elements of Samsung’s Gear Fit 2.
Related: Best running watches roundup
If you look at it compared to other dedicated sports watches from the likes of Suunto, its size becomes a little more understandable, but I do feel its gargantuan size will rule it out for many people. There’s a reason the Gear S2 is remaining on sale, and that’s for us smaller-wristed folk.
Improvements to battery life are great, as are those to the always-on display. The rotary bezel has been improved and is a welcome return. The S3 seems like a well-constructed watch for the most part, although it's not very elegant to my eyes.
Unfortunately pricing and availability have yet to be confirmed, but I was told it would be comparable to the Gear S2. We’ll be sure to update when that info's announced.
Watch: Trusted Explains – Wearables and Fitness Buying Guide
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar