The innovation in the face of advanced health control is not the only thing that the watch can boast. In this review, I will tell you: how convenient it is to use the watch as a pocket doctor, how accurate the measurements are, and whether the new function is just a feature for the sake of the feature itself or has a real practical application.
Samsung Galaxy Watch 3: Specifications
- OS: Tizen Based, Wearable OS 5.5.0.2.
- Chipset: dual-core Exynos 9110, 1.15 GHz.
- Memory: 1 GB RAM, 8 GB built-in memory.
- Display: 1.4 inches, 360 × 360 Super AMOLED, Corning Gorilla Glass DX.
- Sensors: drop sensor, heart rate monitor, accelerometer, gyroscope, barometer, light sensor.
- Health monitoring: electrocardiogram, blood pressure.
- Communication: Bluetooth 5.0, Wi-Fi b / g / n, NFC, GPS / GLONASS / Beidou / Galileo.
- Physical interface: rotating bezel, home key, back key.
- Protection: 5 ATM + IP68 / MIL-STD-810G.
- Material: body – stainless steel; strap – eco-leather.
- Battery: 340 mAh.
- Dimensions: 46.2 x 45 x 11.1 mm.
- Weight: 53.8 g.
Features of Appearance
Brutal, expensive, and laconic are the first words that come to mind when describing the appearance of Galaxy Watch 3. Based on the above, I would venture to draw the following conclusion: first of all, it is an expensive and beautiful accessory designed to emphasize a strict wardrobe. Completely black case (there is also a silver version) I want to both scold and praise. On the one hand, looking at him, there is nothing to catch your eye. On the other hand, the absence of any color inserts focuses only on the dial.
Dimensions, I would hardly call compact. I would recommend taking a closer look at the 41mm version for girls with a miniature brush. And, running a little ahead, I will say that some measurements, due to a loose fit to a thin brush, showed an incorrect result.
On a man’s wrist, the watch also looks very massive but organic. We need to praise the developers – the ergonomics and weight were selected optimally: sleeping in them and playing sports did not cause discomfort.
For different lifestyles, the manufacturer has provided two types of straps. My review turned out to be a version with a leather one, but there is an option with a silicone one. The maximum width in the area of the quick release is 22 mm.
Display and flexible customization
The circular 1.4-inch Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 360 × 360 pleases with good clarity and contrast. The automatic adjustment smoothly and discreetly adapts the brightness depending on the environment. Always-On time display can be enabled either on schedule or only if the watch is on. All displayed elements of the information displayed on the dials are localized into Russian, except the days of the week and months.
A wide variety of watch faces are available out of the box. There are options for sports with an emphasis on various kinds of activity, an arrow (designed for mechanical counterparts) and minimalistic (only with time display).
The color of the indicators, the type of hands, the displayed information – all this can be changed both on the watch itself and through the Galaxy Wearable application.
If the watch faces presented by the developer did not suit your liking, then an alternative can be found in the official Galaxy Store.
A maximum of 15 working active cards can be placed on the right side. Everything is flexibly edited and customized: from the order of the sequence to the specific output information. For example, showing a specific workout or a prepared timer template.
Control
The Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 is one of the few watches that offer a unique interface control option. The mechanical bezel makes it easier to navigate the menus and provides a pleasant tactile response thanks to its smooth movement and quiet metallic clicks at every position. During the operation, I got used to it so much that I practically stopped using touch controls.
The manufacturer has nicely integrated the interaction of the bezel into the system. For example, the alarm clock can be turned off by turning it two positions clockwise, while it can be set aside for 10 minutes by turning it two positions counterclockwise.
Another mechanical control element of the watch is two protruding buttons on the right side of the case. A short press on the top one – returns to the main screen, or one step back from a menu item, a long press – launches Samsung Pay. A short press on the lower-key brings up a vertical menu, a long press – a menu for switching off or high sensitivity mode for working with gloves. Pressing both keys takes a screenshot of the screen, saving it to the gallery and sending it to the smartphone if it is connected to the watch.
Working with notifications
All notifications accumulate on the left side of the interface and have a fairly wide choice of interaction with them. Scrolling down reveals the following answer choices: pre-built phrase templates, voice input with speech recognition, stickers, and keyboard input. Removal is done by simply swiping from bottom to top. Thus, the message is no longer displayed on the smartphone.
The watch is capable of displaying images in notifications, but it does so only when the smartphone is unlocked. For example, when a comment is left under a photo on Instagram.
Messages in chats are collected in a general list with full-text length and author name displayed. Instagram chats display a complete history of new messages. But in some less optimized applications (such as VK mods), it is impossible to view the message history – the display only occurs individually.
Everything for health control
The visiting card of the watch is the ability to measure ECG (electrocardiography) and blood pressure. In both the first and second cases, Samsung warns against self-medication based on the results obtained from the watch. Also, the data cannot be used to diagnose diseases. I suppose their main task is to monitor a person’s condition after a qualified doctor has already made a diagnosis. Or control of the general condition, with the identification of really significant deviations from the norm.
When taking readings, it is recommended to sit still, in a quiet room or outdoors, but without noisy places.
Measurements on a subway train or bus were unsuccessful and the clock kept giving an error.
The measured ECG is sent to the smartphone in a cardiogram, usually for doctor’s appointments. You can view it in the Samsung Health Monitor application. The entire history is stored there with the exact date and decoding of the results.
In addition to these innovations, the watch can measure the amount of oxygen in the blood, the level of stress based on the average number of heartbeats, and keep counting the liquids and calories drunk. I was also pleased with the exact definition of the boundaries of sleep, including daytime.
All data is accumulated in the Samsung Health app on the smartphone. It stores information about the number of steps taken for all time, periods of activity, types of exercises performed, calorie counts, stress data, the amount of water drunk, and much more.
So that sports are not tedious and boring, you can arrange competitions between friends. And in the “Fitness” tab, Samsung provides lessons for workouts at home or meditative tricks: music, background relaxing sounds, or fairy tales, however, voiced only in English.
Autonomy
The manufacturer claims an autonomy of more than 56 hours with standard use, close to the truth. In my moderate scenario of using the watch as a notification indicator, contactless payment, and activity tracker using GPS, the battery life averaged just over two days. With a more active mode of operation, the battery is enough for a full day of operation.
Conveniently, the Galaxy Watch 3, based on previous usage scenarios, calculates the time to discharge. Thanks to this, you can easily find out how actively you can use the watch until the moment it ends up on the charging cradle. The complete charging dock is a meter-long wire with a tablet-style magnetic connector at the end. The magnet is moderately powerful so that if accidentally touched, disconnection does not occur.
Recall after two weeks of use.
Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 is a premium watch with rich functionality, a nice interface with flexible customization, and good battery life. The user experience is brightened up by pleasant bezel control and tangible, tactile feedback, accompanied by the soft operation of the vibration motor. I can only find fault with the slight slowdowns encountered in multitasking and a little with the boring design of the case. But the last point is a purely subjective opinion. In all other respects, this is a beautiful accessory designed to reduce the need to access a smartphone to the maximum.
Pros
- Premium body materials.
- Austere classic design.
- Rotating bezel with pleasant tactile feedback.
- Widescreen with the crisp, high-contrast display.
- IP68 water and dust resistant.
- Overall smoothness and responsiveness of the interface.
- Rich functionality.
- Battery life up to two days.
- High accuracy of health monitoring sensors.
Minuses
- Small freezes in multitasking mode.
- Incorrect measurement of pressure and ECG on a thin wrist.
May not like
- Large body dimensions.