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DGraham79's Reviews
 
The Gear S3 has the esthetics of a truly premium watch with advanced features built right into the watch design. That's why it's so easy and effortless to use the Gear S3. It's also built for you to go days without needing your phone or to recharge. You get to feel free with the Gear S3.
 
  • My Best Buy® Elite Plus Member
Customer Rating
5 out of 5
5
Worthy Upgrade
on November 25, 2016
Posted by: DGraham79
For reference purposes, I have owned the following watches: Sony SmartWatch 3, Moto 360 (2n gen), Huawei Watch, Gear S2, and now the Gear S3 Frontier LTE.
I find that Samsung S2/3 is lightyears better than Android Wear when it comes to usability. Using the Gear watches feels natural and simpler to use. But I'm not here to write about Android Wear vs Samsung Tizen.
Now for the Gear S2 vs the S3. I had the S2 classic (non LTE). I loved every bit of it for notifications, information, and usability, but moving to the S3 was leaps and bounds better.
The isn't directly apples to apples comparison since I am using LTE version now, but here are my key differences that I find better. The battery life is the biggest benefit. The S2 classic would last me 2.5 days. That is nice, but to get a full 3 days, I would have to turn it off at night. Since I would just shut it off, I didn't wear it and so I ended up charging it every night. I didn't have to worry about forgetting to charge it every night but I couldn't go leave on a long weekend without it shutting down before I got back home. By the way, the S2 is pointless to wear at night anyways so this wasn't a big deal unless you would want to use the alarm which would vibrate the S2.
The S3 Frontier with LTE has a larger battery, but the difference is stark.
I have had the watch for a week as of today. After 40 hours of use my watch right now is at 60% left. This is with it remaining on over night in Do Not Disturb mode. This would equate to about 4 days of continuous use, and possibly 6 days with shutting it off overnight. I haven't test that yet since the S3 has a sleep mode that lets me know how well I sleep. (Something the S2 didn't do) I have LTE and Bluetooth on, with WIFi off. GPS and NFC is also on.
Next big different is the size of the watch. It is larger, but I like it better. I am not a huge guy but I am 6' tall, 240lbs. The look and feel is better in my opinion and is similar sized so many Android Wear watches. The usability for me for typing on the screen is easier, plus the larger watch allows for a larger battery.
It appears that the S3 LTE has a newer version of Tizen. Since the internal hardware is nearly identical to the S2, I was surprised to see that some newer features were on the S3 software but not the S2.
I actually use Samsung pay, but find that many terminals I shop at still lack NFC. Thankfully the new S3 also supports the MST use of Samsung pay. I love being able to use just my watch when I need to run out to the store real quick and not worry about having my wallet on me. Plus the speed is so much faster than using chip cards.
As for the S3 LTE vs S2 non LTE, I love the fact is has a speaker, calling, GPS for standalone navigation, better fitness tracking (flights of stairs, better HR monitoring, calorie burn, sleep tracking etc)
A few things I wish were different. I never use S Voice. I wish it used Google Now or Cortana, or had the options to use them. I have to install Android Wear to be able to reply to messages on SMS or Hangouts. I don't use the default messaging app. If I used the default messaging app, I wouldn't need Android Wear app installed for SMS, but I prefer Google's Messenger app, and I use Hangouts all the time which still needs the Wear app installed. Android Wear just being installed allows for replies to work. Don't need to ever open the Wear app, just have it installed, but why can't this be default? And when I receive a facebook message, I don't see what the message is, only that I got a message from person x or person y.
I wish there were more apps for the ecosystem. Every app that I use, I love better than any other implementation, but outside of watch faces, the app selection is still limited. The default apps and the ones that are available are more than enough for now, but I would love more.
I don't need to have this watch to replace my phone and wouldn't want it to, but a few more integrations would be welcome. But saying this, I don't feel like I'm being hindered by missing something.
One thing I can't wait to test it out Tasker for Gear. I never used it on the S2, but I am going to be setting it up for the S3 for automation. Setting up tasks on my phone for home automation, then setting up those actions on the S3 sounds too good to be true. Plus if I can get Tasker to work with a few other things, it would be awesome!!
I'll add more when I have more but right now, the S3 Frontier has been amazing.
My Best Buy number: 0907052157
I would recommend this to a friend!
+286points
318of 350voted this as helpful.
 
DGraham79's Review Comments
 
The Gear S3 has the esthetics of a truly premium watch with advanced features built right into the watch design. That's why it's so easy and effortless to use the Gear S3. It's also built for you to go days without needing your phone or to recharge. You get to feel free with the Gear S3.
 
Overall5 out of 55 out of 5
Worthy Upgrade
By DGraham79
For reference purposes, I have owned the following watches: Sony SmartWatch 3, Moto 360 (2n gen), Huawei Watch, Gear S2, and now the Gear S3 Frontier LTE.
I find that Samsung S2/3 is lightyears better than Android Wear when it comes to usability. Using the Gear watches feels natural and simpler to use. But I'm not here to write about Android Wear vs Samsung Tizen.
Now for the Gear S2 vs the S3. I had the S2 classic (non LTE). I loved every bit of it for notifications, information, and usability, but moving to the S3 was leaps and bounds better.
The isn't directly apples to apples comparison since I am using LTE version now, but here are my key differences that I find better. The battery life is the biggest benefit. The S2 classic would last me 2.5 days. That is nice, but to get a full 3 days, I would have to turn it off at night. Since I would just shut it off, I didn't wear it and so I ended up charging it every night. I didn't have to worry about forgetting to charge it every night but I couldn't go leave on a long weekend without it shutting down before I got back home. By the way, the S2 is pointless to wear at night anyways so this wasn't a big deal unless you would want to use the alarm which would vibrate the S2.
The S3 Frontier with LTE has a larger battery, but the difference is stark.
I have had the watch for a week as of today. After 40 hours of use my watch right now is at 60% left. This is with it remaining on over night in Do Not Disturb mode. This would equate to about 4 days of continuous use, and possibly 6 days with shutting it off overnight. I haven't test that yet since the S3 has a sleep mode that lets me know how well I sleep. (Something the S2 didn't do) I have LTE and Bluetooth on, with WIFi off. GPS and NFC is also on.
Next big different is the size of the watch. It is larger, but I like it better. I am not a huge guy but I am 6' tall, 240lbs. The look and feel is better in my opinion and is similar sized so many Android Wear watches. The usability for me for typing on the screen is easier, plus the larger watch allows for a larger battery.
It appears that the S3 LTE has a newer version of Tizen. Since the internal hardware is nearly identical to the S2, I was surprised to see that some newer features were on the S3 software but not the S2.
I actually use Samsung pay, but find that many terminals I shop at still lack NFC. Thankfully the new S3 also supports the MST use of Samsung pay. I love being able to use just my watch when I need to run out to the store real quick and not worry about having my wallet on me. Plus the speed is so much faster than using chip cards.
As for the S3 LTE vs S2 non LTE, I love the fact is has a speaker, calling, GPS for standalone navigation, better fitness tracking (flights of stairs, better HR monitoring, calorie burn, sleep tracking etc)
A few things I wish were different. I never use S Voice. I wish it used Google Now or Cortana, or had the options to use them. I have to install Android Wear to be able to reply to messages on SMS or Hangouts. I don't use the default messaging app. If I used the default messaging app, I wouldn't need Android Wear app installed for SMS, but I prefer Google's Messenger app, and I use Hangouts all the time which still needs the Wear app installed. Android Wear just being installed allows for replies to work. Don't need to ever open the Wear app, just have it installed, but why can't this be default? And when I receive a facebook message, I don't see what the message is, only that I got a message from person x or person y.
I wish there were more apps for the ecosystem. Every app that I use, I love better than any other implementation, but outside of watch faces, the app selection is still limited. The default apps and the ones that are available are more than enough for now, but I would love more.
I don't need to have this watch to replace my phone and wouldn't want it to, but a few more integrations would be welcome. But saying this, I don't feel like I'm being hindered by missing something.
One thing I can't wait to test it out Tasker for Gear. I never used it on the S2, but I am going to be setting it up for the S3 for automation. Setting up tasks on my phone for home automation, then setting up those actions on the S3 sounds too good to be true. Plus if I can get Tasker to work with a few other things, it would be awesome!!
I'll add more when I have more but right now, the S3 Frontier has been amazing.
Customer Avatar
DGraham79
In reply to CrypticBlade07
November 28, 2016
How did you install android wear? I had to go to the default messenger app to reply to texts which is annoying since i use hangouts primarily. I looked on the gear store (I think) and couldn't figure out how to find android wear. Did you go through your play store and that transfer over or what?
I downloaded it from the Google Play store. Just install android wear and you will be able to reply to messages. I use hangouts now, and when I get a message, and click on it on the watch, I have the reply option which I have used for voice to text. Before android wear, all i could do was have the option to show on phone.
And once you got it, if you did it on your phone did you have to sync your watch to the app or anything?
Nothing required to do but install Android wear from the play store. Now this is not the same as the messenger app. The app isn't on the watch at all where the default one does sync allowing you to create messages. Installing wear just lets you reply to messages on hangouts, google messenger, etc. Which is very convenient especially when you can't use your phone like while driving. Just a click, and voice to text a reply. I wish the app did since allowing creation of messages without the need to reply. But it works well as a way to reply and I use it often enough.
As far as 6 days lifetime, do you use always on watch faces?
I turn off WiFi and never turn it on, leave on NFC, GPS, LTE. I spent most of the time connected via bluetooth, so LTE isn't used often. I was able to get 4 days of use and 4 nights with one charge. I do not use an always on watch face, only gesture to turn on, and I leave my watch on while I sleep. While I sleep I set the watch to do not disturb, but have noticed the watch turning on while I sleep since I will rotate the dial while I toss over on occassion. Do not disturb disable notifications and gesture, but not the dial. However, I was extrapolating that I could get to 6 days if I turned the watch off completely at night. Have not tested it myself, but based on usage I lose about 15-18% a day from 9am to 11pm.
Did you change your brightness or amount of time on from the default of 15 seconds?
Screen settings remain stock, brightness at 7 and default 15 seconds with gesture activation to turn on and off.
+2points
2of 2voted this comment as helpful.
 
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