So. It’s Christmas, and being a nerd, I want some tech for Christmas and I’ve managed to persuade my significant other half to buy me a Samsung Gear S3 Frontier. And I’m wearing it 7 days early!
I was pretty excited to get this one in the post and so far I’ve not been disappointed. I bought it directly from Samsung, surprisingly one of the cheapest places to buy it at the time and by clicking through TopCashBack, I’ve also managed to get an additional 4% cashback. Free delivery too.
It comes in a nice snazzy cylindrical box, complete with the wireless charging unit and a spare strap for those with smaller wrists. Everything about this watch screams quality and craftsmanship. Very often I’m left disappointed with the look and feel of new technology so it is nice to be pleasantly surprised. It looks good on the wrist. It’s big and chunky and it weighs some and so the Classic version might suit others. It was definitely too big for my other half when she tried it on. There’s the option to buy other straps too and I quite liked the look of the chain-link one.
The instructions say it needs a charge before use but on placing it on the wireless charger, where it snaps in to place and sits snuggly, it lets me know it has 90% charge. This is my first look at the bright, clear screen. After a few minutes it is at 100% and I turn it on and it takes me through pairing it with my LG G5 phone. The phone requires 3 or 4 apps, I can’t remember exactly, but after a couple of minutes it’s done. I realise quickly that I can make changes to the watch from my phone, such as changing the clock display, even customizing each individual display such as the colour of the number or replacing the temperature readout with the date. I can change notification settings, such as turning on notifications for Android’s stock Mail app, and turning off notifications for Facebook – I can also block these from the phone. It doesn’t take long to learn how to use it either. The bezel rotates, there is a back button and a home button and you tap the screen. Simples!
I’ve since installed some apps, including Spotify, which I’m pleasently surprised to see allows me to play music from my playlists from the phone itself. I can pair the watch with a set of Bluetooth headphones too and stream from a WiFi network. There’s also internal memory of 4GB allowing me to save music to the phone. I think the watch is almost 100% compatible with the LG, and I’m not sure if updates to the Tizen OS has improved compatibility with non-Samsung phones. Certainly, I haven’t noticed any issues yet.
It’s not all sunshine and light however. The pre-installed S-Voice app, Samsung’s answer to Siri and OK Google, barely works half the time. If it doesn’t pop up an error then it gets what I say completely wrong. Apparently, according to the numerous forum discussions, things have taken a turn for the worse with the app since the latest Tizen version 3 update. I guess the only light at the end of the tunnel is that there are updates at all, so at least things can be fixed at a later date. However, the S Voice complaints go back years. This is disappointing as talking to your phone to make it do things, is a pretty integral part of what a smartwatch is all about. If you read the discussion boards, you’ll see that a lot of people are asked to send back the watch for another, but that rarely fixes the problem. I know the speaker and microphone are fine because I have used them with calls and playing music, etc. The problem can only be at Samsung’s end, so I hope that they very quickly improve the app. In the meantime, I’ll look around for an alternative from the 10,000 apps available.
That’s right! Over 10,000 apps. Out of the box, the S3 is already letting me know when I have sat too long in front of my work PC, it’s giving me reminders from my numerous e-mail calendars, it’s counting my steps (accurately, I’m not so sure), I’m replying to Whatsapp messages with stock answers like Yes, No, smiley face or typing out replies on the keyboard. I’m pressing a picture of my missus and calling her, speaking to her on my wrist like Michael Knight from Knightrider. And after using it constantly for 12 hours, I’m still left with 50% battery life.
Thankfully the S3 is resistant to water and dust, although I wont go swimming with it just yet. It’s resistant to being submerged up to 1.5 metres (that’s IP68 rating to those in the know) and will withstand being under water for up to 30 minutes. It has Super amoled gorilla glass too, so hopefully I’ll never crack the screen.
It’s early days, but I already love my new watch and I’m looking forward to seeing what else it can do in the coming days!
It seems like S voice will never be fixed. I loved the watch but Svoice being useless bloatware was a deal breaker and I ended up selling it a few months after purchase. No more Samsung watches in my foreseeable future