At IFA in Berlin a couple of months ago Samsung announced their new Tizen-powered smartwatches designed to take their Gear line to the next level. At the time we wondered whether we would end up seeing both versions in Australia, suspecting that we would only see the classic version. According to the Samsung Australia website, happily it seems we were wrong.
This afternoon the Gear S3 Classic and the Gear S3 Frontier appeared on the Samsung Australia site, setting off speculation that a release of both smartwatches here in Australia is imminent.
Rumours are that the watches will launch in the US on November 18, but that timeframe isn’t confirmed for either the US or locally at this stage.
The specs of both devices are fairly impressive, as is their styling. Both have a bezel that turns around to help select the app you want to use, IP68 dust and water protection and a 1.3″ circular Super AMOLED display. Both models have built in GPS, Bluetooth, WiFi, and NFC. Of note is that the website says that both smartwatches support both MST (Magnetic Secure Transmission) and NFC (Near Field Communication) payment technologies (ie. not just Samsung Pay).
The S3 Classic is similar in looks to the S2 we reviewed late last year, a premium elegant design, while the S3 Frontier is a more rugged design that has a more outdoorsy-type appearance. As mentioned above, inside the watches appear to be the same with the promise of 3-4 days of battery life. Both watches run Tizen with a promise of over 10000 available apps.
| Samsung Gear S3 frontier | Samsung Gear S3 classic | Screen size | 1.3-inch | 1.3-inch | Screen technology | AMOLED | AMOLED | Resolution | 360 x 360 | 360 x 360 | PPI | 278 | 278 | Chipset | Exynos7270 | Exynos7270 | Core config | 1.0 GHz x 2 | 1.0 GHz x 2 | Ram | 768MB | 768MB | Storage | 4GB | 4GB | MicroSD | — | — | Battery | 380 mAh | 380 mAh | Charging method | Wireless | Wireless | Cellular | 3G/LTE | No | NFC | Yes | Yes | Speaker | Yes | Yes | Android OS | Tizen | Tizen | Dimensions | 46 x 49 x 12.9 | 46 x 49 x 12.9 | Weight | 62g | 57g | Colours | - | - | Build materials | - | - | Band colours | - | - | Band materials | - | - | Band swappable | Yes | Yes |
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At this stage the pricing and availability is unknown but if you are in the market for a new smartwatch, even though it is not Android Wear, I suggest you head over to the Samsung website to check out these stylish, impressively specced smartwatches.
We have reached out to Samsung for more information and will of course let you know more as soon as we do.
I was going to wait for this, but as I feared they are the price of a phone. Way too much for what it is.
I bought the Huawei watch that runs android wear, supports everything android, and has call functionality. I got mine for 300 from eBay.
You won’t get much phone nowadays for $600… S7 Edge is $1200+, iPhones even more…. $600 will get you low-mid range phone or something a few generations old. For me, smart watches are all about notifications… anything to stop you getting your phone out of your pocket 10 times a minute. This one has the always-on display and lasts 4 days… unlike the iWatch which is blank unless you flick your wrist and needs charging daily…. I have high hopes this Gear S3 will be useful
Yeah, LG G5, HTC 10 and galaxy s7 are ~600 from grey imports.
Honestly if you want notifications and the ability to control things without pulling out your phone, the tizen powered gear S3 is not the way to go.
Back android wear. Every android application is supported. Tizen, not so much.
Available now on pre-order from Harvey Norman. Cost is $597 for both variants and they are throwing in a free second strap. Availability is November 18th
Frontier, here I come! Been waiting to long for a nice smartwatch.
Probably be before Xmas, hope so cause these look awesome