Samsung Gear S3 Frontier Smartwatch - UK Version

I have waited a couple of weeks since receiving the watch in order to fully get to grips with it before writing my review. I am also an owner of the s2 classic smartwatch. First impressions – packaging and contents: The packaging is very stylish with a high quality cylindrical box encased in shiny acetate film. Inside the box, the watch is presented neatly and all its shiny bits were protected with film – which I always enjoy removing from new gadgets! Enclosed in the box with the watch is a magnetic wireless charging base and micro-usb hard wired mains plug which is nice and compact. Also enclosed is a smaller wrist band. The larger band is already fitted to the watch. A flick of the quick release stud on the back of the strap and it comes off easily. Fitting the strap is done the same way. The straps on the Frontier are made of a very soft, flexible black silicone material which is very comfortable. I find the only downside over a traditional leather strap is that it can make your wrist a bit hot after prolonged use. Charging: The watch battery came pre-charged to 77% out of the box. While charging the watch sits snugly and securely on the magnetic charging base and charges wirelessly. From nearly empty the watch charges in about an hour. When charging beside the bed at night the red/green charging light on the base unit is a little bright for my liking so I have to turn it away. Switching on and first use: The watch is powered on by holding in the bottom button on the right side of the watch. After a short startup sequence you are ready to go. The watch quickly connected to my phone’s Bluetooth connection and on opening the gear manager app which I downloaded in advance, the time, date and regional settings were transferred to the watch. First impressions – wearing the watch: It is BIG. A lot bigger than the s2. I have fairly small wrists and needed to use the small strap. Coming from the s2 I initially thought that I wouldn’t get on with this watch. How wrong I was! Once I got used to the bigger screen I would not go back. Seriously. The screen is stunningly clear and bright with vibrant colours and the watch really stands out. I get the impression that Samsung has gone big and bold and firmly targeted the male market with this watch. It is not feminine in any way. The one downside of the size of the watch is that it gets caught on close-fitting shirt cuffs and this can be a bit annoying. Features: Health. The watch integrates fully with s-health on the phone and syncs steps, heart rate, a range of activities (walking, running, working out) and floors climbed. Apps – are a bit limited but the store has a lot more choice than when the s2 first came out. The watch integrates with Facebook notifications and WhatsApp messages without a dedicated app, and has apps for texts, emails, calls, calendar, fitness, weather, news, alarm and more. Make sure you download the calculator, speedometer, stopwatch, timer, alti-barometer – all made by Samsung. Text input - is achieved with a range of pre-programmed responses, typing on a small t9 keyboard or, if you select US language, on screen hand-writing recognition – which is pretty cool. S-voice is also available for various functions but I have really tested this out as I never have much luck with my accent. Hardware – the bezel. Its best feature. Rotate to move around menus, accept calls, accept calendar notifications, dismiss alarms – really intuitive. Two buttons on the side with a knurled texture are useful – the top button goes back, the bottom button opens the app drawer and doubles as the power button when long pressed. The touch screen – works just like your phone. A useful gesture is swiping down quickly to go back. Speaker and mic - allows you to make and receive calls via the watch, you can also set ringtones and notification tones. Watch Faces - compared to the s2 the fitness themed watch faces are better and more varied, but I feel the traditional watch faces lack the range of customisation options available in comparison to the s2. That said, the faces look good but for me, do not have the customisation options I wanted. However, watch faces is one thing the gear store has a great choice of – both free and paid. Battery Life: With the Always On Display set, a 1 minute screen timeout, occasional exercise and regular checking throughout the day I get a solid two days with some room to spare. With AOD off but everything else the same I get 3 days – which is pretty good. In summary: Pros: It is big – and the screen is stunning The build quality is superb The hardware / software interaction is intuitive and responsive The battery lasts 2-3 days with heavy use The strap is comfy, easy to change and the watch is compatible with any standard 22mm strap. Great choice of watch faces in the Gear store Cons: It is big - it gets caught on clothing occasionally Silicone strap makes your wrist hot Apps are limited in the Gear store, but choice is improving

This is my first smart-watch so I can't compare it to anything else. The rotating bezel is very useful and used for many things depending on what you're doing with the watch at that moment, from selecting widgets from the home screen, to navigating through settings, to adjusting the volume during a call and so on. In fact it's so useful I think that having a smart-watch without an interactive bezel would be a big disadvantage. The watch's operating system is fast and intuitive and it's great being able to change the watch-face. Sometimes I'll choose one of the many free digital watch-faces and other times an analogue version. Some are already installed on the watch but others can be installed in seconds either directly by using the watch or by finding them within the Gear app on your phone, and then sending them to your watch. It's incredibly simple. I'm also surprised by how accurate the heart monitor is. I used it the other day while on a cross-trainer which has a heart monitor where you wear the sensor like a belt around your chest. I checked the watch against the cross-trainer three times, twice the watch gave the exact same reading and the third time it was only two BPM out. I was surprised as I'd often heard heart monitors on watches weren't usually very reliable. In fact, I was also amazed that the watch automatically detected I was on a cross-trainer without me telling it I was doing a workout, really impressive. As for durability, it's definitely well made and a solid watch but like anything metal or glass, try to avoid scratching it. I've since changed the supplied leather strap to (in my opinion) a much nicer looking silicon 22mm strap from Amazon, which is also far more flexible and therefore easier/quicker to take on and off. I actually bought a bright orange strap and then used a pre-installed black/orange digital watch-face and I think it looks pretty smart. Making/receiving calls through the watch is easy and surprisingly good. I wouldn't want to use it where there's a lot of background noise but if I'm at home it's ideal if I've got my hands full and don't want to take my phone out of my pocket. This version of the S3 cannot however make or receive calls on its own, it does it by connecting to your phone via Bluetooth. For its size the sound is more than acceptable. Don't expect wonders if you want it to play music as look at the size of it, it's a watch. It's fine to hear notifications and make a call in a relatively quiet room and that's all you should expect from it anyway. I like being able to customise the watch with which widgets I want to be easily accessible from the home-screen and in what order. I also like being able to quickly check to see if a notification is worthy of attention rather than having to get my phone out of my pocket. I'll make this my last point, as I could go on and on, but I only have positives to say about this watch. Battery life, it's great and will easily last me four or five days at a time between charges, and it doesn't take long to charge back up. I do take it off and switch it off at night though, have a mainly black watch-face and set it only to illuminate if I press a button or raise my arm to see the time. If you chose a bright watch-face and set it to always on then obviously the battery life would be drastically reduced. Without doubt an excellent watch.

So I had watch for a few days now and I'm very impressed with it! First of all Gear S3 Classic looks really smart and expensive. With only couple touches you can change the face of watch from classic watch face to let say sport watch or something really wacky! There's hundreds of watch faces that you can find in Samsung App store for any occasion. Other fantastic feature is GPS built in. I have test GPS next to mine Garmin Fenix 3 and it was spot on! I measured cadence, heart rate, pace, average speed etc you name it. I look with a pinch of salt at HR built in watches and always use chest strap to get proper readings during workout. Saying that heart rate measured by Gear S3 during my 5K run was same as the one measured with chest strap on Garmin Fenix 3 which impressed me a lot. Another feature that I absolutely loved was able to get music on my watch, meaning I can leave my phone at home and stream music from my watch to my bluetooth earphones. Love it Love it Love it. Having Spotify app is great and love being able to control my spotify from my watch. Wish there was option to save music for offline listening to your watch but hopefully will see that enabled with future updates. Shame we don't have samsung pay in UK yet as ability to pay with your phone sounds amazing! Once again no doubt that will come in early 2017 or with the launch of Samsung Galaxy S8. Activity tracking on Gear S3 has everything you would expect: steps counter, Sleep tracking, heart rate tracking, stress levels and so on. I recommend you to use it with Samsung S-Health to take full advantage of it. I short it's perfect watch for any occasion from business meeting to great fitness watch. Pros: GPS WiFi Hundreds of face washes Great battery life Samsung Pay Spotify Storage for music Fitness watch capabilities Design (Looks Gorgeous) Built Quality feels premium Display looks stunning Fantastic rotating bezel implementation HR monitor IP68 rating Cons: Nothing so far

….Back in August 2014 Samsung announced its first Gear S wearable, a 2” curved beast which looked positively gigantic on even the largest of wrists, and whilst it never really set the world on fire with its kitchen sink load of features, it was the beginning of a new line of smart wearables for the brand following their quirky line of previous Galaxy Gear line of devices. Fast forward to 2015 and Samsung ditched the curves in favour of a more traditional watch approach, bringing us the excellent Gear S2 & Gear S2 classic which were more, well, watchy, than space age wrist computer. Combined with their home grown Tizen operating system and a cool rotating bezel the new Gear S line demonstrated a more grown up approach and were well received by many. ...so this brings us to the subject of this review, the Samsung Gear S3 - here in its sportier Frontier clothes, a more rugged brother to it’s business class sibling the Gear S3 Classic. I love the look of a chunky timepiece and wanted to see if the Frontier could persuade me to part with my trusty mechanical Fossil as my daily timekeeper…At the time of this review Samsung have added support for iOS and having tested it the watch performs pretty much just as well as it did with my One Plus 3T Android, there are some ommissions but i am sure these will be added as time goes on. Right from the unboxing the Frontier means business, it’s beautifully sculpted 316L stainless steel casing feels great in the hand and gives a reassuring heft and weight to remind you this beastly timepiece has what it takes to last in the wild. LIke it’s predecessor the Frontier is IP68 certified which means water resistance for up to 30 minutes and a dunk in fresh water up to 1 metre. The Frontier is also MIL-STD-810G compliant, say what i hear you ask? Basically this means the watch has some military grade resistance, like shock protection and exposure to extreme low and high temperatures. Whilst i would steer clear of cooking your watch or freezing it for the fun of it, it’s nice to know the watch has been made to cope with the more rigorous demands which may be thrown at it, such as winter sports or high humidity environments. Like many smart wearables these days the frontier also has a variety of sensors which integrate with its software, there’s a heart rate sensor underneath which is set to constantly monitor your heart rate, a gyro sensor to measure movement and position, a barometer to let you know things like air pressure and elevation, GPS and an ambient light sensor to light and up and dim the screen depending on environment… Speaking of the screen, the Frontier has a great looking 1.3 inch full circle Super Amoled touchscreen with 360 x 36 pixel density. It’s protected by Gorilla Glass SR+, designed to be thin, light and damage resistant and certainly feels up to some wear and tear. And as wearable screens go this is a great looking display, with those signature AMOLED inky blacks colours which are rich and saturated. Everything looks sharp and during the review period i had no issues using the watch inside or outside and touches are responsive and smooth. Flanking the screen is the excellent rotating bezel from last years Gear S2. I really wish more smartwatches used this feature as i absolutely love it - it has great tactility and feels great moving through menus, changing the display brightness and even increasing volume or skipping that rubbish song you forgot was in your Spotify playlist…. On the wrist the Frontier is comfortable and the supplied sport band is great quality and can be easily swapped out for various other straps using a small locking pin on the underside of strap. Like any watch you will need to clean the underside of perspiration to ensure the heart rate sensor can do its job, but despite its chunky appearance this is a smart and good looking wearable which looks good when you’re suited and booted or feeling in a more casual mood… Battery power is supplied by a 380 mAh unit which gives the Frontier some serious staying power. On my first charge i had easily two days of heavy usage and as i write this review there’s still 70% left after over 2 days of usage. This will vary but after switching off some features like the auto heart rate sensor and annoying exercise reminders this will easily sail through two days of moderate daily use. There’s also 4GB of storage, but in typical Samsung style a great deal of this is used up with built in apps, leaving you with a little over 1.5GB of storage - although most files are small enough not to make this a bug issue. There’s a built in music player which you can use on its own via Bluetooth headphones, even a Spotify widget which beams all of your playlist info and can be controlled from the watch while your phone is out of sight. Neat. The 768MB of RAM is ample and i’m yet to run into any issues with performance. Next in the kitchen sink is the call integration, with a built in mic and speakerphone so you can make and receive calls right from the watch itself while connected to your phone. Despite some odd looks, i quite enjoyed this feature - allowing me to leave my OnePlus 3T recharge downstairs at home whilst i moved around upstairs using the remote features of the watch. Calls sounded fine on the watch speaker but i was reminded on a few occasions i sounded like i was in some dark place somewhere…. But the point is, the convenience outweighs the slightly iffy audio quality and there were a number of times i was glad of this feature and found it useful. In some markets the Gear S3 range are available with 3G connectivity so the watch can work completely on it’s own providing you’re willing to put up with some app limitations... Up to this point this would seem the ideal smartwatch, but there are a few points for me which spoil the mix a little. This is largely down to the choice of using the Tizen operating system which powers the watch OS. If you’re heavily into Google’s app ecosystem then you may be left wanting and disappointed in some aspects of daily use. You see, the Frontier mimics several of the built in apps of pretty much every Samsung phone out there on the market, meaning instead of my favourite to do app Google Keep, i have to make do with S Memo which feels clunky and not intuitive by comparison. There’s also no Google Voice integration - this is handled by Samsung's S Voice instead and whilst it’s serviceable and accurate, it just doesn’t feel as polished as our more recognisable search assistant. The OS is also let down quite a bit by its lack of support by app developers and whilst we can hardly lay all the blame on Samsung for this, it does feel like there’s a missed opportunity here on so many levels. Scrolling through apps on the Gear Manager support app shows there are more watch faces than apps themselves, and the ones which are there seem gimmicky and hardly grab your attention - so as far as content goes i felt a little wanting if truth be told… Speaking of watch faces, there’s a great selection, some traditional, some sporty, some strange. But this said there’s something for everyone and there’s a superb collection of classic watch faces - but beware, my experience with the Facer app saw a significant drop in battery life depending on the watch face selected. So in summary, whilst i was able to get over the lack of app support, in the back of my mind i couldn’t help thinking if this had Android Wear this would be an absolutely killer wearable and easily the best on the market right now. Even though Android Wear is having a period of uncertainty with some manufacturers holding off introducing new models until the new Wear 2.0 update, this would be a different beast altogether with Google's otherwise excellent wrist friendly OS. Alas, Samsung's decision to stick with their homegrown Tizen OS is both a blessing and a curse and spoiled my enjoyment just a bit, of what is otherwise a superbly crafted piece of digital jewellery. This is not to do the Gear S3 range a dis-service though, as the Frontier was enough to persuade me to pick it up instead of my beloved Fossil on more than a few days of the week - having info right there at a glance without having to have my phone to hand made me appreciate its benefits and at the same time this is also a nice watch to wear around, even if it is a little bulky for some shirt sleeves. When i did put my Fossil back on, i found myself wondering more than a few times why the screen wouldn’t light up when i turned to look at the watch face, and i certainly missed those subtle vibrations which reminded of notifications - all of which can be acknowledged and even replied to on the crazy small, but useful on screen keyboard. So, is the Gear S3 Frontier enough to make me forego a few days now and then with my standard mechanical watch? I can answer this with a resounding yes. Some omissions aside, my overall opinion is apps alone do not make a great watch and i can forgive the Frontier these faults given it’s other qualities which make me enjoy wearing it day to day. From its excellent build quality to stellar battery life this is a useful and great looking wrist companion that i wouldn’t hesitate to recommend to those looking to move into the smartwatch era. At around £350.00 this is not cheap but for the money you're getting a superbly crafted piece of technology which Samsung have worked hard on to create a very polished looking product. There are times a more traditional watch will fit the bill, you wouldn't dare wear this to a wedding or to the final farewell of a beloved, but in all other aspects I’ve really enjoyed my time with the Gear S3 and cannot wait to see where Samsung go next with the Gear S line. Once app developers get on board this would most certainly move from good to excellent and i hope Samsung can do enough to get developers to get behind them - or maybe release two editions - one with Tizen and the other with Android Wear??

I have owned an Apple watch, Pebble smartwatch and a moto 360 and this is without a doubt the best smartwatch I have owned. Once you have used a smartwatch for more than about a week you soon realise the main use cases (at least for me) boil down to: checking notifications, changing songs and checking the weather or time at a glance only occasionally actually using apps. This can, of course, be done on any smartwatch but none are as streamlined as this one. Notifications behave much the same as an apple watch coming in you can keep looking and the notification will "expand" into more detail or lower your wrist and it will go away. But when it comes to checking notifications that have already come in it's as simple as turning the ring around the watch to the left to cycle through them, and your weather and music widgets are accessed by turning the ring to the right instead. It is very intuitive. The touchscreen is very responsive and is a very good resolution for its size. Anyone familiar with a Samsung device will know that they come loaded with options and this watch is no exception, there are more options than I can even be bothered to look at but the end result is a watch that can behave exactly the way you want it to. It syncs to your phone via the Gear app (which is now preloaded on most Samsung phones I think but can be downloaded from the app store, although at the time of my purchase any non-Samsung phones had to jump through multiple hurdles to get the watch to work and in some cases it didn't have all the features so it is best to check your phone is supported before purchasing). The Gear app allows you to change the order of the widgets (or remove/add new ones) as well as adding health information and transferring songs to the inbuilt 4GB of storage, useful if you intend to take it running with wireless headphones (The UK only has the WiFi version of the watch so whilst you can run with it and listen to music you will not receive texts/calls without having your phone on you). One of the best features in my opinion though is the ability to receive notifications from your phone if the watch is connected to WiFi, even if your phone is on 3G and not connected to the watch by Bluetooth. This means you can walk around the house, leaving your phone upstairs and still get texts sent to your wrist. Overall, this is a very good smartwatch, in fact probably the best you can buy right now, its crammed with features and its water resistance gives you that added piece of mind but whether it's worth the money or not is ultimately down to you and how much usage you think you will get from it.

Most people will know the features of this lovely watch so I'll just record a few thoughts having owned it now for a couple of weeks. The fit: very comfortable. I do have skinny wrists and so I was a little worried it might be too big but actually it's no bigger than the Pro-Trek I'd worn previously so it certainly doesn't look out of place. Incidentally, I tried it with the default large band straight out of the box and I wear it with 2 or 3 holes still free. The strap also fits neatly in the double clasps so there's no excess strap sticking out in a unsightly fashion. The battery life: like some other users, I also prefer to use it as a smart watch and so have bluetooth, wifi, location etc all activated and I'm still at the stage where I'm constantly ogling it but battery life has always been around the 2 day mark which is good in my opinion. I also installed the latest update which promised better battery life and improved bluetooth but I haven't noticed any difference. Battery performance is still around the 2 day mark and there weren't any issues with bluetooth prior to the update so I'm not sure what exactly the update was trying to accomplish. The apps: I do have a Samsung phone so I don't have any issues to report with apps/compatibility but I do note other non-Samsung phones/iPhones etc don't have the same full range of features when paired with the Gear S3. I've been a long-term Fitbit user and I don't like Samsung Health as much. When I compared Fitbit performance with Samsung Health, the Fitbit seemed more accurate for step counts/floors climbed etc. with SH generally recording less in each case than the actual, sometimes by about 10%. Heart rate measurements are similar on both devices. It's great being able to answer calls/texts using your watch and I've found the speaker to be very clear and the person I'm talking to has reported hearing my voice clearly when I talk at normal volume. Watch faces are awesome, I've taken advantage of the Facer app also with plenty of great choices. General thoughts: This watch is absolutely gorgeous. The screen is excellent quality with everything very clear and readable. I can expect the battery life to improve even more when I'm finally able to stop looking at it! The wireless charger is a nice touch, the phone just sitting gently in the cradle. Integration with Samsung S9+ is flawless. It's a top gadget. I wish I had bought one sooner. Also, I bought mine directly from Amazon and had no problem registering it on the Samsung website for the 2 year warranty. It was a UK model. I'd like to be able to try Samsung Pay but unfortunately my bank doesn't use it. Hope some of these comments prove to be useful. Have a good un.

I bought a Gear S2 Classic (excellent device) last year and liked the look of the Gear S3 Frontier as soon as it was announced but baulked at the £349 asking price, the recent Prime Day reduction saw the price dip to £249 so took the plunge. I'm perhaps not the most typical smart watch user in that by default I turn off all the notification features, the phone (Galaxy S8) does that perfectly so no need to replicate that on my wrist. I do however travel a great deal swapping in and out of Global time-zones and the Gear devices are fabulous for that - either manually changing the time zone on the phone or having the phone sync with local network time automatically means that the watch is always absolutely bang on with the right time. The S3 Frontier is everything that the S2 Classic was but in a lovely chunky (dare I say it; 'Manly') size, it has the wonderful tactile quality that Samsung have built into the S8, a genuinely nice device to hold and handle. I own a proper Breitling Aerospace watch and it feels every bit as nice in the hand - praise indeed. The rotating crown feels perfectly weighted and is notated with silver digits, 05,10, 15 etc, looks gorgeous. There is just one thing that disappoints, especially compared wih the S2 Classic and that's the strap - the S2 had a quality lined, black leather item that was both stylish and comfortable, the black silicone strap of the S3 Frontier whilst still a quality item detracts from the premier feel of the device however there are numerous alternatives - I bought a blue leather strap Quick Release Leather Watch Strap, Fullmosa Axus Series Genuine Leather Replacement Watch Strap with Stainless Metal Clasp 22mm Dark Blue , a truly quality product that fits perfectly and looks like it was meant to be there from day one. Both the S3 Frontier and the strap are recommended, buy! Update, one month into ownership. The S3 Frontier is a universally admired device even in the company of the 'Apple faithful' because it looks like a premium watch should. Battery life is remarkable, without the always-on display enabled it seems to consume about 15% charge a day (bear in mind I have most of the notification options turned off) so battery life in this mode is closing a week. With the always-on-display enabled after an 18 hour day it will go back onto the charging dock with 60-65% charge remaining, so good for a couple of days. Still impressed.

I spent ages looking for the smartwatch that suited my needs. The Gear S3 Frontier ticks all the boxes on paper but epically fails on execution. I wanted this as a running companion that allows me to track via GPS and listen to music. It does what I need it to do just very very badly and not in a user-friendly way. This may not be the watches fault but more the Tizen OS. The watch itself is beautiful, well built and very satisfying when scrolling the user interface using the dial. if only it was running AndroidWear. I have an Honor 8 android handset. The issues I have experienced may be because I am not using a Samsung device. So let me explain why I have given this 1 star and why I will be asking for a refund: 1. Spotify app is really buggy and unreliable - You cannot listen to Spotify on your phone and use the watch to control it remotely. You can see the details of what you are listening to and there is a button to play/pause/skip a track but they do nothing when you touch them. It tells me these only work if you are playing music that is stored directly on the watch. So you have to pull out your phone to skip the track. 2. Playing music from the Samsung audio app through Bluetooth headphones is buggy - When I pair a set of Bluetooth headphones from the settings menu, they connect fine but does not allow me to play music through them. Music instead comes through the watch's speaker. The only way I can get music to play through the headphones is if I do this. - Unpair the headphones - Go to the track and start playing it through the watch's speaker - touch the 3 dots on the right-hand side of the screen - Select the headset icon to pair headset - Once it pairs the music successfully gets diverted to the headset - The next day if I want to do this again I need to unpair the headset and repeat these steps 3. Whatsapp notifications - If you receive more than one WhatsApp notification in a chain you can only view the last one received. All the others are invisible unless you pull out your phone to look through them 4. Samsung Pay - Not installed on the watch, not in the app store, and looks to be not available in the UK at all. Either way, I cannot load a card on the watch and pay using its NFC ability which was a key feature I wanted after seeing the adverts and a primary reason for buying this device. All in all the smartwatch is meant to reduce the amount of time you're pulling your phone out of your pocket which this for me did not do. In this instance, it does not meet expectations and does not provide the user with an experience that is representative of the adverts seen. I wanted to like this so much. I'm sorry about the poor review. Maybe the Huawei watch 2 or LG watch sport?