Samsung's new Gear S3 smartwatches features bigger screens and batteries

12:29:00 PM dickwyn 0 Comments

Just last month, Samsung unveiled the Galaxy Note7 and today at their IFA 2016 event, Samsung is showing off their third generation Tizen based smartwatch which will support Android phones running Android 4.4 and above (and iPhones in the near future) The biggest change that the Gear S3 is bringing to the table compared to last year's Gear S2 is a bigger display that is covered by Corning's new Gorilla Glass SR. Samsung is baking in a full color always on display with the Gear S3.

Like last year, Samsung's new Gear S3 series will have two variants, the Gear S3 Frontier and Gear S3 Classic. The biggest difference between the two is that the Gear S3 Frontier features LTE and a more aggressive industrial look. Both versions feature MST and NFC which enables Samsung Pay transactions and they are also IP68 water resistant. Samsung is also adding a microphone and speaker to execute various commands.

But that's not all, the company says that they have done extensive research in designing the Gear S3 and the Gear S3 Frontier is the result of the research. Additionally, Samsung has also collaborated with designers Yvan Arpa and Arik Levy to design straps and watch faces for the Gear S3.

In terms of the actual functionality of the Gear S3, the device itself will count health data like calories and sleep but it will now also track GPS data. Also, Samsung says that they have tuned the software to improve battery life and the Gear S3 will last up to 4 days on a single charge. Things like the rotating bezel and wireless charging is still present.

Right now, Samsung isn't talking about pricing but they are quoting that the Gear S3 will be available beginning October 2016. And given that Samsung is planning to continue offering the Gear S2, expect the Gear S3 to be priced higher than the current Gear S2 models.