Samsung introduces Gear S3 smartwatch with larger battery
Samsung announced the Gear S3 at its Unpacked event at IFA. There will be two variants of the smartwatch: the Classic and the Frontier. Both models are slightly larger than their predecessors and have a larger capacity battery.
The new S3 models have a 380mAh battery, while that was 250mAh with the predecessor. According to Samsung, the Gear S3 can therefore be used for three to four days on a full charge; with the S2, it’s two to three days.
Samsung provides the Gear S3 watches with a 1.3 “amoled screen. That is slightly larger than the 1.2” display of the Gear S2, but the resolution is unchanged at 360×360 pixels. The always-on screen now shows all colors, instead of eight. The display is finished with Gorilla Glass SR+, which Corning announced earlier on Wednesday. According to the manufacturer, that material is almost as scratch-resistant as sapphire glass.
Like Samsung’s previous smartwatches, the Gear S3 runs on Tizen. It concerns version 2.3.1 of the operating system of the South Korean manufacturer. The new wearables contain an Exynos 7270-soc, a dual-core with a speed of 1GHz that is made at 14nm. There is 768MB of RAM and 4GB of flash memory for storage.
The difference between the two models is in appearance and weight. The Classic version weighs 57 grams and the Frontier is slightly heavier at 62 grams. Samsung puts the Frontier version on the market as a model with a somewhat ‘sportier’ appearance. The smartwatches are somewhat larger and heavier than the Gear S2 models and are again waterproof, according to the ip68 standard.
Compared to the S2, no new sensors have been added in the Gear S3. The wearables include an accelerometer, gyroscope, barometer and light sensor. The watches can connect with bluetooth 4.2, wifi, nfc and gps.
The Samsung Gear S3 will be available from the fourth quarter. The classic model is silver and the Frontier is dark grey. Both variants have a suggested retail price of 399 euros.
| Weight | 47g | 57g | 62g |
| Screen | 1.2″ OLED 360×360 pixels |
1.3″ OLED 360×360 pixels |
1.3″ OLED 360×360 pixels |
| social | Exynos 3250 2x Cortex A7 @ 1GHz Mali 400MP2 |
Exynos 7270 2x Cortex A53? @ 1GHz Unknown GPU |
Exynos 7270 2x Cortex A53? @ 1GHz Unknown GPU |
| Ram | 512MB | 768MB | 768MB |
| Storage | 4GB | 4GB | 4GB |
| Glass | Gorilla Glass 3 | GG SR+ | GG SR+ |
| 3g/4g | new | new | Yes |
| GPS | new | Yes | Yes |
| Price at release | 349 euros | 399 euros | 399 euros |