galaxy watch active 3

With the latest addition to its smartwatch lineup, Samsung is putting the focus on your health. Starting at $399.99, the Watch3 offers significant health-focused upgrades over its predecessors, including an electrocardiogram (ECG) app, trip detection (aka fall detection), new sleep insights, and more. In that regard, it's well stacked against the Apple Scout Series five. It'south too gorgeous, with a sparse and light design, a rotating bezel for piece of cake navigation, and a classy leather strap. Information technology offers an excellent texting experience, a terrific Spotify app, and support for Samsung Pay contactless transactions. It'due south ane of the best alternatives to the Apple Sentry we've come across, though the latter remains our Editors' Choice for its superior selection of quality third-party apps.

Blueprint, Cost, Battery Life

The Galaxy Watch3 follows 2018'south Galaxy Lookout man and 2019's Milky way Watch Agile and Galaxy Watch Active2. There was never a Galaxy Watch2; Samsung skipped right to the Watch3 moniker because it released a second-generation Active last yr and this new model builds upon it.

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The Watch3 comes in two sizes, 41mm and 45mm, with or without LTE. Price-wise, it starts at $399.99 for the 41mm Bluetooth-only model and $449.99 for the 41mm LTE model. The larger 45mm version costs $429.99 for the Bluetooth-merely model and $479.99 for the LTE version.

1 Cool Affair: Samsung Milky way Note 20 Effect Unpacked

The 41mm lookout comes in statuary or silver colour options, and the 45mm version comes in black or silverish. All models come with a leather strap with a traditional lookout man clasp, but you lot tin swap out the included band for whatsoever standard 20mm watch ring on the 41mm version or 22mm band on the 45mm model.

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For this review, Samsung sent me the 41mm Bluetooth-simply model in bronze. The bronze color has more of a rose gilt tone than bronze. While beautiful, it's not equally versatile as the silverish and black variants, which volition match with pretty much anything. That said, the bronze Watch3 is i of the most beautiful smartwatches I've seen, rivaling the gorgeous Garmin Vivoactive 4s. I prefer its blueprint to the Apple Watch, partly considering I prefer a round watch face in general.

Since I'm vegan, I wouldn't normally wear a lookout man with a leather strap, just I must admit it looks classy. I do wish Samsung offered a like-looking vegan leather strap, or fifty-fifty a textured silicone 1 instead. Ethical concerns aside, the leather strap isn't practical for sweaty workouts, showering, or my Florida beach lifestyle.

The Watch3 has a classic round lookout design with a slim, physical rotating bezel for navigation. The original Galaxy Watch had a rotating bezel, which Samsung got rid of on the Milky way Watch Active. The Galaxy Watch Active two included a digital rotating bezel, but I'g happy to run across the signature physical rotating bezel from the original Galaxy Watch return here. You can plough the bezel to access apps, command music, sift through notifications, and toggle betwixt widgets.

Samsung says the Galaxy Watch3 is xiv percent thinner and xv percent lighter than its predecessor, but it has a larger screen thank you to a slimmer bezel. Without the strap, the 45mm stainless steel version weighs 1.9 ounces, and its titanium counterpart weighs 1.five ounces. The 41mm version, which just comes in stainless steel, weighs 1.vii ounces. The 41mm model feels light and comfortable on my wrist.

Left to right: Apple Sentry Series five, Samsung Milky way Watch3

On its official spec sheet, Samsung says the 45mm version of the sentinel measures 0.43 inches in depth, and the 41mm version is really a touch thicker at 0.44 inches. According to my measuring tape, still, the 41mm is really closer to 0.5 inches. The Watch3 is noticeably thicker than the Apple Watch Series 5, which measures 0.42 inches in depth.

Adding to the Watch3's thickness is a large tiered blackness back console. I wish Samsung made the back the same color as the rest of the device on all models, because if you expect at the bronze version from the side, the black lesser stands out. This obviously won't be an issue with the blackness model, but information technology's worth keeping in mind.

Aside from changing the ring, you tin can customize the look of your device with many watch confront options. Across the Galaxy Wearable app and Milky way Store, there are more than fourscore,000 watch faces available, though you take to pay for many of them.

On the right side, the Watch3 has two concrete buttons, in the form of a back push on top and a power/home button beneath, as well as a tiny pigsty for the microphone. On the left side, it has an inconspicuous speaker.

The 41mm has a 247mAh battery and the 45mm version has a 340mAh cell. Samsung says both models should get around two days of bombardment life on a charge, which is disappointing given the original model'due south five-day battery life. In testing, I couldn't replicate Samsung's 2-day battery life estimate, even with light utilize and the always-on brandish disabled. Under these circumstances, the watch got close to two days, but died in the eye of the second night. With normal to heavy employ and the always-on display enabled, it lasted less than 15 hours. The Apple Watch similarly gets effectually 18 hours of battery life on a charge. The Watch3 takes effectually three hours to accuse from dead to 100 pct.

The 360-past-360 Super AMOLED display is bright, vibrant, and piece of cake to read. The e'er-on option is a nice characteristic many people volition want to utilize (myself included; it'due south disabled by default, and turning information technology on was the get-go affair I did when I set the picket), simply it drains battery life quickly. The good news is that when your battery starts running low, you can easily disable the always-on display via the quick panel, accessible with a swipe down on the lookout face.

Specs, Setup, and Navigation

The Watch3 has 5ATM and IP68 ratings, significant it's water resistant to a depth of 164 feet for 10 minutes, and tin can as well concur up to grit, dirt, and sand. It has besides passed war machine specification testing ensuring it can withstand drops from four.9 feet, extreme temperatures, shock, vibration, low pressure, and high distance. I swapped out the leather strap for a water-friendly silicone band, and wore it in the bathroom, pool, and shower without incident.

On the inside, the Watch3 runs the Linux-based Tizen 5.5 mobile operating system. It'southward powered by an Exynos 9110 dual-core 1.fifteen GHz processor, has 1GB of RAM, and 8GB of internal retentivity. Information technology also has an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a barometer, a heart rate monitor, an ECG, and an ambient light sensor.

In terms of compatibility, the Watch3 works with Android phones running version 5.0 and higher with at least 1.5GB of RAM. Information technology also works with the iPhone 5 and newer Apple phones running at to the lowest degree iOS ix.

After unboxing the Watch3, the first thing you need to do is place it on its charger and permit it fully juice upwardly. It comes partially charged, so it simply took around 30 minutes to go to 100 percent. When yous press the bottom button to turn it on for the first fourth dimension, you'll see a yellow screen that says "Let's become!" Just swipe up, and the spotter instructs yous to open the Galaxy Wearable app on your phone to get started.

Samsung sent me the new Milky way Annotation 20 Ultra to pair with the Watch3 for this review. Before I could fifty-fifty open up the Milky way Article of clothing app, I got a notification on the Note 20 Ultra proverb information technology detected the wearable, which is a benefit of using the watch with a Galaxy telephone. It then asked for permission to let the watch access my contacts, location, photos, media, files, and make and manage phone calls.

From there, a check mark appeared on the sentry asking me if I wanted to connect the devices. I pressed it, and the watch told me to check my telephone to complete the setup. I so pressed a check mark on my phone, and they finished pairing. After that, the app asks if you desire to allow the watch send and view SMS messages and admission your contacts, agenda, and phone phone call logs.

Only like with whatsoever sophisticated smartwatch with a lot of features, you have to spend some fourth dimension exploring the Watch3 to figure out where everything is and what everything does. You tin swipe left from the watch face up to run into your widgets and right to see your notifications. Yous tin turn the bezel clockwise for widgets, or counterclockwise to become back to the watch face and access your notifications.

To get dorsum to the previous screen, just press the physical back central (the i on top). To go back to the lookout face, press the home fundamental (the one on the bottom). Yous can likewise press the dwelling primal twice chop-chop to access your open apps, or press and hold it to access Samsung's Bixby virtual banana. Afterward you lot set it up, you tin as well access Bixby by saying, "Howdy, Bixby," when the screen is on.

Swipe down on the spotter face to open the quick panel, where you tin access Goodnight manner, Do Not Disturb way, volume controls, settings, enable or disable the always-on display, adjust the screen brightness, connect Bluetooth headphones, and more. To plow off the screen, you can only touch it with your palm.

You tin as well control the sentry with a few experimental gestures. When enabled (in the Galaxy Wearable app, navigate to Labs and toggle on the ones y'all want), you can respond calls by clenching and uncleching your fist, and mute alarms and incoming calls past rotating your wrist.

Later getting it set, ane of the first things I did was modify the watch face. There's absolutely something for anybody in the watch face library, simply I'll call out a few of my favorites. The customizable My Mode sentry confront, also available on the Active2, lets you lot snap a photo or select ane from your library and it volition offer a selection of designs based on the colors in your image. You can take a photo of your outfit, for example, then your lookout face tin can match it. You tin also customize the clock type, and add together upwardly to four complications that display information like your step count, the atmospheric condition, the watch'south battery life, or give you easy admission to your oftentimes used features like the workout app.

Samsung also has a couple of beautiful Live wallpaper options that animate, and a My Photo+ watch face you can customize with an image yous choose. In the Galaxy Store, there's tons of watch faces available for free and to purchase, including some new ones with MLB themes.

Smartwatch Features

1 of the all-time things about a smartwatch is being able to customize information technology with downloadable apps. In the Galaxy Store, you can find enough of downloadable apps for the Watch3 like Strava (free), Yelp (free), Exhale ($0.99), Fruit Ninja Plus ($one.00), Galactica ($ane.00), One thousand-Maps Pro ($2.99), and many, many more than. Yet, some popular apps available on the Apple Sentinel are either missing from the Milky way Shop or don't work on the Watch3, including Citymapper, ESPN, Evernote, Facebook Messenger, Runkeeper, Shazam, and Uber.

As for the congenital-in apps, i of the handiest things about the Watch3 is that it puts Bixby on your wrist. With Bixby, you tin employ your vocalisation to set reminders, pull upward contacts, check the news and weather condition, make calls, send and cheque your text messages, set alarms, calculate tips, and more than. Just call up that when you access Bixby via the abode button, y'all need to press and hold the home fundamental while speaking your request. Earlier I realized you lot had to keep holding the push button down, Bixby kept saying, "Hmm, I didn't go that. Please effort again." When you lot access the virtual assistant by proverb, "Hey Bixby," when the screen is on, you don't have to hold down the home button when speaking your command.

The Watch3 offers an excellent texting experience. You tin can speak to text, write each letter past paw, or rotate the bezel to apply the keyboard. The phonation input option is definitely the easiest, and worked well in testing. Y'all can as well text with emojis and Bitmoji stickers. A smart reply feature analyzes incoming texts and photos, and offers suggested responses.

When you receive a text, it shows your conversation history instead of a unmarried message, so yous don't have to manually await back if yous forgot what you were talking about. Information technology fifty-fifty shows images and emoticons, so you can view them right on the watch. Images look overnice on the Watch3, just you'll probably desire to grab your phone to see them on a bigger screen.

When you lot get a call, you have the pick to answer it on the watch, decline it, or yous can swipe upwards from the screen to quickly transport a suggested text.

In testing, I was able to make and respond calls on the lookout via Wi-Fi, simply reception wasn't e'er the all-time. The calling characteristic works in a pinch, but I'd never use it for a long chat. With the LTE model, yous can leave your phone at home and make calls from the lookout when you lot're out and nigh.

Meanwhile, if you accept a Galaxy telephone, you can have advantage of apps similar Find My Phone, Gallery (to view photos from your phone on the lookout), and Reminders (to keep tabs on your to-practice list). With the SmartThings app, you can use the watch to remotely control smart home devices such as security cameras, thermostats, and lights from wherever you are.

With Samsung Pay, you tin can consummate contactless transactions correct from your wrist. But keep in mind that the mobile payment system isn't available on iPhones.

For music playback, I love the Watch3's Spotify app. You can play your music directly through the lookout man's speaker or Bluetooth headphones. Samsung didn't send me a pair of matching Milky way Buds Live to employ with the Watch3, simply I had no problem streaming music to my AirPods.

You can even stream Spotify over Wi-Fi on the Watch3 when you lot don't have your phone connected. The lookout man'due south speaker doesn't get super loud, only in a quiet room you lot can easily hear music and it sounds fine. If you're streaming Spotify on a different device, you tin can use your Watch3 as a remote to control the playback.

The Spotify app on the Watch3 lets you access your entire music collection, including all of your playlists and recently played tracks. Yous tin likewise browse featured playlists, charts, new releases, genres, and moods, and access the Discover section. When yous're streaming music, y'all'll see the comprehend art in the background with on-screen controls to play/interruption, skip forward, or go back. You can also use the rotating bezel to skip forward or go back.

Health and Rubber Features

The Watch3 offers automatic activity tracking for seven exercises, a digital Running Motorbus, new sleep assay tools, support for a home exercise feature called Samsung Smart View, and trip detection.

Automatic activity tracking on the Watch3

Earlier the end of September, Samsung plans to release a software update that enables on-demand VO2 max and SpO2 readings. Used to measure cardiovascular fitness, VO2 max refers to the maximum amount of oxygen your body can utilize during intense practice. SpO2, a metric that can exist used to find sleep apnea, measures your blood'southward oxygen saturation level. Since these two features aren't all the same available in the U.s., I'yard unable to test them at this time.

The Galaxy Watch3 also features blood pressure and electrocardiogram (ECG) apps, but but the latter has been authorized in the US. Samsung only received FDA clearance for the ECG monitor app, and then it's not yet bachelor on my review unit, and there'southward no give-and-take as to when it will arrive. The claret pressure level app won't be available in the US unless Samsung receives say-so from the FDA.

With support for Samsung Smart View, the spotter can sync with conditioning videos bandage to your Samsung Smart TV from the Samsung Health app. The app offers more than 120 workout videos; just pick the one you want and cast information technology to your Boob tube, then you lot tin can use the Galaxy Watch3 to pause, play, or stop the action. As y'all work out, you'll see your centre charge per unit on the big screen in existent time.

Samsung is taking on the Apple Watch's fall detection safety feature with a similar one it calls trip detection. If the sentinel'due south accelerometer detects y'all took a hard tumble outdoors or in your home during a workout, it will notify an emergency contact and share your location. On the downside, trip detection only recognizes falls when you lot're "engaged in dynamic motion," not when yous're still. You'll too demand an LTE or Wi-Fi connectedness to notify an emergency contact.

To actuate this feature, go to the Galaxy Wearable mobile app > SOS. Here, y'all can add up to 4 emergency contacts, one of which can be designated equally an automatic call contact. You lot can also enable a feature that volition send your emergency contacts an SOS message when you lot printing the dwelling house key apace three times.

The watch monitors your stress level and offers animate exercises if it senses y'all need to relax. I really savour the inactive time alerts. Later nearly an 60 minutes of being in the zone at my desk writing, the watch urged me, "Get moving!" I ignored the suggestion, and an hour later, it encouraged me again.

It too asked if I wanted to endeavour a stretch. I decided it would be a practiced idea, and it offered three options: torso twist, up stretch, or squats. I selected torso twist, and information technology told me to practice v reps while showing an animation on the screen demonstrating how to do it. When I started doing the stretch, it automatically counted my reps. After I finished the five, information technology congratulated me for beingness active. Another fourth dimension I did the squats conditioning, which consisted of three sets of 10 reps with a i-minute interruption in between each set.

Fitness Tracking

Samsung advises yous to wear the spotter almost a finger's width away from your wrist joint for the almost authentic health measurements. You should likewise make sure information technology'due south tight enough so that the back of the device touches your skin and it doesn't move around.

In the conditioning app, in that location are tracking options for running, cycling, swimming (pool), Running Charabanc, other workout, walking, hiking, swimming (outdoor), treadmill, exercise bike, elliptical trainer, circuit training, weight machine, and more workouts. In the more workouts department, there are options for arm curls, arm extensions, back extensions, bench printing, burpee test, crunches, expressionless lifts, front raises, jumping jacks, lat pull-downs, lateral raises, leg curls, leg extensions, leg press, leg raises, lunges, mountain climbers, Pilates, plank, pull-ups, push button-ups, rowing machine, shoulder press, sit-ups, squats, step machine, stretching, and yoga.

Run across How We Test Fitness Trackers

The Watch3 tin automatically detect walking, running, cycling, elliptical usage, rowing, pond, and dynamic workouts. During a walk with my canis familiaris, it automatically detected the activity and started tracking it. For activities that it doesn't automatically find, you lot can simply raise your wrist and say something like, "Hi Bixby, begin pull-ups."

The Watch3 automatically detects walking and certain other activities

It has a GPS, so y'all can track your hikes and jogs without needing your telephone. Just proceed in heed that using the GPS drains the battery quicker. When you lot're recording a run or walk, the lookout volition automatically detect when you stop, suspension tracking, and ask y'all if you're done. Afterwards tracking a workout, it shows all sorts of stats correct on the watch. The stats y'all see depend on the blazon of workout you're tracking, simply for walking, it shows your elapsing, altitude, calories burned, a graph of your speed and middle rate, how much time you spent in each middle rate zone, your average pace, average speed, average cadency, average heart rate, steps, the temperature outside, and a map of your route generated by the GPS.

In testing, I plant the Watch3's fitness metrics to be accurate. During a one-mile run, I wore the Watch3 on one wrist and the Apple tree Sentinel Series 5 on the other. The Watch3 said I burned 143 calories while the Series five said I burned 136. The Watch3 said my average heart rate was 157bpm and the Serial 5 said it was 162bpm.

During that conditioning, I tested the Watch3's Running Jitney feature, which offers helpful tips as you run. You lot tin can hear these tips through connected Bluetooth headphones or the watch's speaker. When I first started out, the Running Coach kept telling me that I was running also fast, and repeatedly told me to dull down. When I slowed downwards, it said, "Looking proficient." It later on said, "Using your arms helps you run more efficiently." When I was nearing the end of my run, it said, "Focus on your breathing and attempt to keep information technology rhythmic." Samsung says the sentinel will besides offer mail service-run feedback, but that feature isn't available yet.

After a run, the sentinel currently offers insight almost six advanced metrics, including asymmetry (the divergence in how much fourth dimension each pes is in contact with the ground), contact (the time your pes is in contact with the ground and exerting a forcefulness greater than what's needed to support your weight), flight time (when your feet are in the air or touching the ground just exerting a force lower than what'due south needed to support your weight), regularity (the consistency of your movements), stiffness (the vertical stiffness of your body equally you run), and vertical oscillation (the upwardly and down movement of your eye of mass). The Samsung Health mobile app explains in detail what each of these metrics mean, and will tell yous if yous demand to improve in these areas, or if yous did well. With the exception of flight time, I need to ameliorate in all. The app also offers running drills that tin can help build your skill level.

In the Samsung Wellness app on the scout and your phone, y'all tin see a log of all of your workouts and stats for each 1. On the watch, the Samsung Health app lets you quickly see your progress toward your activity, workout, and hourly movement goals, and you lot can adjust the goals equally needed. It also shows your footstep count, workout elapsing, sleep elapsing, eye rate range, stress level, and claret oxygen measurements. Here, you tin can also keep rails of your food and water intake, compare your weekly step count with friends, and track your menstrual cycle if you accept one.

If you accidentally start tracking a conditioning, as I did when swapping out the picket band for a water-friendly alternative, you can't delete it from your log on the watch. Yous take to go to the Samsung Health app on your telephone.

Also continue in mind that if you lot use an iPhone, you lot won't be able to sync your fitness data from the Galaxy Watch3 to Apple Wellness. Instead, information technology will live inside an iOS version of the Samsung Health app.

Sleep Tracking

While the Apple Watch is finally getting a sleep tracking characteristic this year, Samsung first introduced this feature in 2014, and has ever offered it on the Milky way Watch. This twelvemonth'south model generates a slumber score in the Samsung Health mobile app based on your eye rate and move data. The app also now offers insights from the National Sleep Foundation to aid educate you about the importance of sleep.

The tidbits from the National Sleep Foundation are interesting, merely I wish they went into more than detail. For instance, one says, "Sleep is an of import part of a healthy lifestyle. Enquiry suggests that brain toxins are removed twice every bit fast when asleep compared to when we're awake." It would be nice to know a petty be more about this.

At night, the watch automatically tracks your sleeping and calories burned. In the morning, it shows your full sleep duration, and how much time you spent awake, and in REM, light, and deep slumber. It also shows your average bedtime, average wake fourth dimension, and average time slept. You can view this information on the scout itself, and in the Samsung Health app.

I noticed that if you wake upwards during the nighttime and get up, the watch will split up your sleep records. The starting time night I wore it to bed, my canis familiaris Bradley, a 50-pound pitbull, moved to lay on top of my legs at 4 a.m. and woke me up. After he woke me upward, I went to the bathroom, and so went dorsum to sleep. In the morning, I had 2 sleep records: the first for 5 hours, 5 minutes for the first function of the night, and a 2d for 3 hours, 6 minutes after Bradley woke me upwards.

For that night, information technology gave me a slumber score of 30 out of 100. The average for women in my age range is 70 out of 100. Despite that 4 a.m. disturbance, I really felt similar I got a expert night's sleep. The lookout said I got a total of more than 7 hours, so a sleep score of 30 seems as well low.

Comparisons and Conclusions

If you're a Samsung Galaxy phone user in the marketplace for a smartwatch, the Galaxy Watch3 is absolutely worth because. The main draw is its expansive selection of health features, including automatic activity tracking for select exercises, a Running Coach, slumber insights, and a home practice characteristic that works with your Galaxy phone and Samsung smart Goggle box. The improver of an electrocardiogram (ECG) app and trip detection capabilities make it a compelling upgrade over its predecessors, and a strong competitor against the Apple Watch.

Aside from its ample suite of health features, the Watch3 offers an first-class texting experience, a very expert Spotify app, and easy contactless payments with Samsung Pay. It's besides a gorgeous accessory you'll enjoy showing off, and it offers tons of watch face customization options.

That said, the Watch3 doesn't offer quite the selection of high-quality tertiary-party apps that y'all go with Apple tree Watch. If you're an iPhone user, you lot'll probably want to stick with Apple's clothing, given that Samsung Pay doesn't work on iOS and Watch3 data doesn't sync with Apple Health.

Overall, though, the Galaxy Watch3 is one of the improve Apple Sentry alternatives we've seen and so far, and definitely worth considering for all Android telephone users, not just Samsung fans. That said, nosotros likewise highly recommend the Fitbit Versa 2. It's not nearly as fancy as the Watch3 or the Apple Picket, simply it costs less than $200 and features an always-on AMOLED display, a microphone for Amazon Alexa, Fitbit Pay back up, and extensive health tracking features. It even has a solid selection of apps, earning information technology our Editors' Choice for more affordable smartwatches, especially for Android users.

The Bottom Line

With an ECG app and trip detection, the Samsung Galaxy Watch3 offers pregnant health-focused upgrades over its predecessors, and is i of the all-time alternatives to the Apple Scout.

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Source: https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/samsung-galaxy-watch3

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