Samsung announced an update to its popular smartwatches today. The Galaxy Watch 3 follows on from the original Galaxy Watch and Galaxy Watch Active 2.
The Watch 3 resembles a traditional analogue watch, with a bigger screen and a slimmer, lighter body than its predecessors, available in 41mm and 45mm case sizes costing £399 and £419 respectively.
Like the rest of Samsung’s recent smartwatches, the Galaxy Watch 3 will be powered by a 1.15GHz Exynos 9110 chip. However, this time around it’ll be running Tizen OS 5.5 and RAM has been boosted to 1GB from the Galaxy Watch’s 768MB. Samsung’s also doubling onboard storage to 8GB.
As for sensors, it’ll have the requisite accelerometer, gyroscope, barometer, ambient light sensor, optical heart rate sensor, built-in GPS, and NFC payment capabilities.
For connectivity, the Galaxy Watch 3 will support LTE, Bluetooth 5.0, and wifi b/g/n. The watch will work with all major carriers, though extra data fees will depend on the individual carrier.
Samsung’s favoured rotating bezel returns for controlling the watch, while blood oxygen monitoring, fall detection and enhanced running analytics help enhance its health-tracking abilities.
The Galaxy Watch 3 is 14% slimmer and 15% slimmer than the original Galaxy Watch, which makes it more wearable and, more importantly, unisex.
You do get a bigger battery inside the larger case, with the Watch 3 packing in 247mAh (41mm) or 340mAh (45mm).
There are stainless steel and black options in both sizes. However, the 46mm will come in black titanium, and the 41mm has a Mystic Bronze option too.
Inside the case is a 1.2-inch (41mm) or 1.3-inch (45mm) Circular Super AMOLED panel, with which looks crisp and sharp. Displays have always been the strongest suit of Samsung wearables, and that’s no different here.
And that should be good for showing off the 80,000 available watch faces, which Samsung says is the biggest in the industry.
And like Oppo and Fossil watches before it, you can take a picture of your outfit and have the Samsung app select colour-matched watch faces. What’s more, there’s a special weather watch face too.
There’s 40 workout tracking profiles, and 11 will be auto-detected. That includes running, walking, swimming, cycling, rowing, elliptical workouts, and dynamic workouts.
Running also features body form as well as the standard pace/distance/time, with balance, symmetry and contact time all tracked on the watch. And there’s a focus on advanced fitness, with VO2 Max scores.
You can also start workouts by asking Bixby because Samsung’s assistant is back on the Galaxy Watch 3.
Sleep tracking is boosted with a partnership with the US National Sleep Institute, which the company says will offer deeper insights into REM cycles.
While Samsung was able to get approval from South Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, it’s still waiting on regulators to clear it for use elsewhere. So while these features will be live at launch in Korea, the ECG and blood pressure apps won’t be available for foreign customers until they get the go-ahead.
However, you will get blood oxygen tracking via the SpO2 sensor, but this is best automated during sleep. Stress tracking also makes it to the Galaxy Watch 3, although details are a little scant on what that involves.
Not only is the Galaxy Watch 3 capable of taking ECG and blood pressure readings, but it’s also added something it calls “trip detection.” Trip detection is exactly what it sounds like. If you fall and don’t get up, the Galaxy Watch 3 will send a custom SOS message to up to four chosen contacts.
The Galaxy Watch 3 will be available starting August 6 from Samsung’s website, carriers, and major retailers. The Bluetooth version of the 41mm watch will retail for £399, while the 45mm watch will go for £419. The LTE versions will cost more but UK pricing hasn’t been announced yet.
Galaxy Watch3 Specifications
| Colour | Stainless Steel: Mystic Bronze, Mystic Black, Mystic Silver | |
| Material | Stainless Steel case with leather strap | |
| Dimensions& Weight | 45mm: 45 x 46.2 x 11.1 mm, 53.8g (Stainless Steel)41mm: 41 x 42.5 x 11.3 mm, 48.2g (Stainless Steel)*measured without strap | |
| Display | 45mm: 1.4” (34mm) / 41mm: 1.2” (30mm)360 x 360 Super AMOLED, Full Colour Always On Display,Corning® Gorilla® Glass DX | |
| Battery | 45mm: 340mAh / 41mm: 247mAhWPC-based wireless charging | |
| AP | Exynos 9110 Dual core 1.15 GHz | |
| OS | Tizen Based Wearable OS 5.5 | |
| Memory | 1GB RAM + 8GB internal storage | |
| Connectivity | LTE*, Bluetooth v5.0, Wi-Fi b/g/n, NFC, GPS/Glonass/Beidou/Galileo *LTE connectivity only available in LTE models | |
| Sensor | Accelerometer, Barometer, Gyro Sensor, Light Sensor, Optical Heart Rate Monitor | |
| Durability | 5ATM + IP68 / MIL-STD-810G | |
| Compatibility | Android: Android 5.0↑, RAM 1.5GB↑ / iOS: iPhone 5↑, iOS 9.0↑ |
