The introduction of the new Galaxy Watch has sent Samsung fans into a frenzy. While some of them are just super-excited to get their hands on the watch, I could find a lot of people desperate to know what they should opt for – Gear S3 or Galaxy Watch, or if it is worth upgrading from Gear S3 to Galaxy Watch. Or will it really be an upgrade?
The Galaxy Watch obviously got a new design, new features, and a better battery life, but how different is it from the Gear S3? Let’s find out.
Samsung Galaxy Watch Vs Gear S3
Design
The Galaxy Watch is an outright winner when it comes to design. It’s got a much more sophisticated look while staying classy with the patented rotating bezel. The Gear S3 Frontier had a much sporty look, whereas the Classic version looks too bland for a smartwatch for me, but does look great with a suit. Galaxy Watch is somewhere in-between the two, catering the users of both kinds.
Unlike Gear S3, the Galaxy Watch comes in two different sizes, 42mm and 46mm. Once again, kudos to Samsung for developing a watch that caters to people of all wrist sizes with one single product. The Gear S3 comes only in 46mm and looks comically large on smaller wrists.
Also for the first time ever in Samsung watches, Galaxy Watch features analog watch ticks and hourly chimes. There’s also a depth effect that casts shadows defining every detail on the watch face for a traditional look and feel.
As for the colour options, you can choose between a Midnight Black and Rose Gold Galaxy Watch (46mm). The 42mm model, however, is available only in Silver. The Gear S3 don’t have even this much luxury of choices.
Specifications
To begin with, both the Galaxy Watch and Gear S3 feature the same display panel, a 360 x 360 AMOLED touchscreen. Gear S3 also had a 1.3-inch screen, which is the same as the 46mm Galaxy Watch. The 42mm model sports a smaller 1.2-inch screen with same spec and resolution. The Galaxy Watch screen is covered by Corning Gorilla® DX+ glass, which should be better than Gear S3’s Corning® Gorilla Glass SR+.
Inside the Galaxy Watch is a Samsung Exynos 9110 Dual core 1.15GHz processor, which once again is an improvement over Gear S3’s Exynos 7270, Dual-core 1.0GHz processor. Both the watches have 768MB RAM and 4GB of internal storage. However, a better processor means the Galaxy Watch should see a major boost in the performance, especially in the battery efficiency.
Now as we talk about the battery, the 46mm Galaxy Watch features a 472mAh battery, whereas the smaller 42mm model houses a 270mAh battery. Gear S3, on the other hand, houses a 380mAh battery, which has been facing a lot of issues since it got the Tizen 3.0 update in November last year.
And talking about the OS, Galaxy Watch runs Tizen 4.0 out of the box! So make room for much more added features as we begin to unearth them now.
Features
No surprises here, as Samsung continues to focus on fitness features on its smartwatch. And this time, we have a plethora of them. The Samsung Health app on the Galaxy Watch adds 21 new indoor exercises, taking the total to 39 different workouts. With its new stress management tracker, Galaxy Watch is capable of automatically detecting high levels of stress, offering users with breathing exercises. Then there’s a new advanced sleep tracker to monitor all levels of sleep, including REM cycles.
The Galaxy Watch automatically detects six of the most common exercises including cycling, swimming, walking and running. The watch has a built-in GPS to keep you connected while out on a run.
With Bixby Vision, users can stay on track of their meals with intuitive calorie tracking and personalized alerts.
And last, but not least, the Galaxy Watch is compatible with both Android (5.0 or later) and iOS (9.0 or later) smartphones. However, Samsung Pay will not work on a Galaxy Watch paired with an iPhone. And quite surprisingly, Galaxy Watch supports Samsung Pay only via NFC, whereas Gear S3 supports both NFC and MST.
Verdict
Samsung Galaxy Watch is a big big improvement over the Gear S3 and definitely deserves the thunder. Anyone looking to buy a Samsung smartwatch should go for the Galaxy Watch. Interestingly, it costs the same as the Gear S3, $329.99 for 42mm model and $349.99 for the 46mm one. Pre-orders are open now for anyone interested.
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