The lifespan of a smartwatch battery is usually of huge concern because in most cases it barely takes you through 24 hours but this depends largely on the usage. If you are using a WiFi and some apps, then the battery will drain like a waterfall. The Samsung Gear S3 is a Tizen-based military-grade smartwatch which was released last year and just yesterday, the Korean manufacturing giant rolled out a new update for the Gear S3 dubbed “Value Pack” which updates this smartwatch to Tizen 3.0 thus bringing it to par with the Gear Sport which was only released some months ago at Internationale Funkausstellung (IFA) 2017 held in Berlin.
One of the features that come with the recent update is called “Watch Only” mode. This feature disables all the smart functionalities in this watch and in this mode, all the watch does is to show you the time and nothing else. Interestingly, this mode can extend the Gear S3 battery life by 40 days. This sounds amazing but it also has some troubles. When the “watch only” mode is initiated, you can not see the time continuously. Whenever the screen goes blank, you will have to press the power button to see the time. If the “Watch Only” mode and “watch always-on” are activated at the same time, the “Watch Only” mode features will hold sway. Although this specialty is exceptional and preserves your battery, it does not completely transform the smartwatch into a conventional watch.
The Gear S3 comes with a 380 mAh battery and naturally it would not be able to go for 40 days, not with the features it packs. This is now possible with “Watch Only” mode which tries to convert this smartwatch to a regular watch. If Samsung can redesign the feature so you have the option that it can continuously display time, it would be much better because, with this, the Gear S3 will be truly converted to a regular watch.
How to Activate Watch Only Mode on the Gear S3
To activate “watch only” mode, go to “settings”, enter “watch faces and styles” and click on “watch only” option. To get back to regular functionality, press the power button for 3 seconds.
