Keeping your new year resolutions with the power of tech and the Gear S3

2017 has landed on our doorstep along with a raft of the obligatory new year resolutions. Here’s how Samsung’s latest smartwatch the Gear S3 helps you to keep your New Year’s resolution list on the straight and narrow.

The new year is here and with it comes the obligatory huge checklist of resolutions to achieve. Alas, we’re only human. The usual grand list of list of things to achieve usually has most of them falling by the wayside barely a month into the new year which invariably includes some combination of either keeping fit, keeping in touch or being more productive. Fortunately, we’ve discovered a means to harness the power of tech to help you score and keep some of the most important resolutions of all. Enter Samsung’s Gear S3 smartwatch.

The third incarnation of their wearable line, Samsung’s Gear S3 was released just last month and this time around comes with a host of beefed up features over its predecessor while looking exceptionally fetching in the bargain. It comes in two aesthetically different variants – the Gear S3 Classic and the Gear S3 Frontier, but both have identical hardware: a crisp 1.3-inch Super AMOLED round display and an Exynos 7270 processor along with 4-day battery life which puts it a step above most wearables in longevity  The magic though is not what the Gear S3 is made of but what it can potentially do. Here’s how it can help you keep your most important resolutions for 2017…

Staying More In Touch with Family and Friends
“Never missing an anniversary, call or message again”
Ever get those guilt trips because you don’t keep in touch with your relatives or with your buddies from college? Ever forgot a date, an anniversary or a get-together? Well, you’re in luck then as the Gear S3 handles all the nitty gritty for you.  You’ll never miss another anniversary or date ever again too as the Gear S3 will sync up with your calendar and flash you important reminders for dates that you need to remember like outings with friends and the like. Setting reminders is as easy as speaking into the Gear S3 too which is a lifesaver when you have your hands full though you can still opt to use the touchscreen and a virtual T9 keypad if you’re a traditionalist. Resolution saved! Aww, isn’t that a warm feeling?

The Gear S3 isn’t just there to remind you of important dates though. It is also nifty for the fact that it’s able to pop up Whatsapp, Wechat and other social media messages when they appear onscreen and lets you reply them accordingly with either canned answers (Yes, No, emoticons and the like) or text which comes in extremely handy.  It also sports a built-in microphone that lets you make and take calls straight off your smartwatch without ever having to reach for your phone.

Get More Exercise
“Getting a virtual coach that’s with you 24/7 without all the screaming”
Sure, we all know we all need to get more exercise and to get those fluids in but short of someone regularly marching you into a gym at gunpoint and filling every flat surface you lay your eyes on from your office desk to your dressing table with sticky note reminders to ‘drink more water!’, it’s an uphill task made worse with the usual daily grind between home and the office.

Fortunately, you don’t have to hire a personal trainer to get with the programme as the Gear S3 is a surprisingly effective one on its own. It comes with a pared down version of their S Health fitness tracking app and tracks multiple variables including steps taken, how well you’ve slept and it’s even smart enough to track if you’re walking, running or even – assuming you’re on a boat – rowing when working out. The Gear S3 is also able to remind you to take enough water, watch your coffee intake and tell you to get off the office chair for a walk or two. Reminders aside, it’s able to track your fitness goals and motivate you to achieve them over the long term, without burning a hole in your pocket from an expensive gym membership every month too.

The Gear S3 also packs an optical heart rate tracker on the underside of the watch face that gives you an update to the minute on whether your heart is beating faster like say you’re working out or you’re gazing upon the rugged visage of Brad Pitt and when it slows down like, say when you’re snoozing or meditating. While it’s a dab hand on its own, the Gear S3 comes into its own when paired with the S Health app that’s downloadable for free on any Android device. The S Health app expands on the functionality of the Gear S3 and lets you plan and create workouts, help keep an eye on your calorie count at every meal and more in detail. Seeing as the Gear S3 is on your wrist all the time, it’s more likely that you’ll stick to your fitness plan. That’s one resolution saved for 2017.

Learn to dress with style
“Practical prêt-à-porter”

Dressing the right way for the right occasion may just swing the odds in your favour whether it’s to score that deal or that date. If clothes maketh man, then a good accessory completes the picture and nothing, pardon the pun, is as timeless as a good looking watch to complete the picture and the Gear S3 is one of the most fetching wearables in recent memory.

Depending on your tastes, you can opt for either the posh looking Gear S3 Classic or the rugged looking Gear S3 Frontier. Both look like real timepieces in design; no surprise there seeing as Samsung called on the talents of Swiss artist and industrial designer Arik Levy, a man who’s so won so many design awards that he’s practically royalty in the profession.

In keeping with its aspirations as a working timepiece, the straps are actually designed to be compatible with any mainstream third party watch strap. If you don’t find the bundled choices appealing, you’re easily able to swap them at will with any other watch strap as you so desire.

Fortunately, the Gear S3 in both its Classic and Frontier incarnations holds up to robust use as they’re rated IP68 compliant so they’ll survive a dunking in water for up to 30 minutes and will easily shrug off a splash in the shower. To wit, they’re good looking enough to use from the gym to the boardroom and robust enough to survive almost anything you can throw at it. The best part about them is that they’re fetching enough to pass muster something that you would be able to bring to a classy evening soiree or a boardroom powwow of the power elite.