[Review] Samsung Gear S3 -The Smartwatch Refined

Round and Round we Go
Running under the hood of the Gear S3 is a 1GHz dual-core processor along with 768MB RAM and 4GB of onboard non-expandable memory that you can use to store pictures, music and the like. Rather than going the cookie cutter way of plonking Android Wear on the watch, Samsung is running their own Tizen OS on it with their Circular UX user interface.

Getting about the Circular UX is via the touchscreen, the knurled button inset into the 1 o’clock position and 5 o’clock position of the watch and the rotatable bezel around the display. Rotating the bezel lets you rapidly move and back forth through the menus, which are arranged in a wheel with each twist of the bezel letting you go back and forth. Confirming selections on the menu is by tapping the touchscreen and using the 5 o’lock button while going back is  by tapping the 1 o’clock button. It takes a bit of getting used to but quickly becomes second nature with the watch feeling fast and responsive.

The Gear S3’s Super AMOLED screen is beautifully vivid, bright and crisp with superb visibility even under bright daylight conditions. Via the Samsung Gear app on your phone, you’re able to add and remove apps and transfer content like music and pics to the watch. The Gear app also works closely with Samsung’s S Health app for fitness tracking functionality.

Assuming you’re just using stock apps preloaded on the Gear S3, the watch is able to, at a minimum, push you weather reports for the day, allow you to create short text reminders, add speed dial contacts from your phone, see calendar events and track a number of fitness variables like calories burned and steps taken. It’s even able to push short one sentence snippets of news that you’re able to read on your watch display or off your phone with a link to the full article to read at leisure later. The watch was also able to display notifications from Wechat, Whatsapp and other social media apps on the watch face itself off a paired phone with the option to reply via canned answers, via a T9 pad to actually type one out or via S Voice to dictate a text. Accuracy was reasonable and it was able to take a local accent in English without too much trouble.

Adding and removing apps is a cinch though all of the apps have to be acquired from Samsung’s own app store via the Gear app. A huge chunk are games and alternative watch faces with a smattering of finance, lifestyle and social networking apps along with several other more eclectic ones like a soundboard app. Not all are free and some require payment for them to work. One particularly novel one is their free HERE WeGo map app that pairs up with your phone and gives you map directions via the watch display by car or on foot though it’s not truly standalone as yet as it doesn’t offer offline access nor does it offer directions via bike or public transport routes. There’s also a Flappy Bird clone and a rather entertaining Sea Wolf game that has you firing torpedoes into hapless ships by rotating the bezel back and forth. Hopefully the number of available apps will increase later on.

Apps aside, the Gear S3 also acts as a handsfree set.  A built-in microphone and speakers allow you to make or take calls with voice commands via S Voice. You’re also able to play music streamed off your phone off the Gear S3’s speakers. Alternatively, you can load your tracklist onto the Gear S3’s 4GB of onboard memory. There’s more than enough space to get a decent tracklist loaded for a good jog with plenty to spare.

The built-in speakers proved to be surprisingly loud and, in lieu of headphones, are good enough to play a tune or two at the risk of everyone within five paces appreciating your taste, or lack thereof, in music. Calls taken on the watch itself were clear with good audio clarity on either side of the divide. Voice quality was perfectly serviceable. If you’re not particularly keen to share your taste in music, you can also pair it with a wireless headset which comes in handy if you want to leave the phone at home on a jog.