Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 review: The best non-Apple smartwatch By Engadget

Samsung has made many smartwatches and through all that experience, the company has refined its ti zen software so much that it has completely ditched google's Wear OS the galaxy watch.3 is the latest effort to keep up with reigning smartwatch ruler apple, introducing familiar features like fall, detection and ECG, but Samsung also does a few things better, like sleep tracking and getting you to move plus its hallmark. Physical rotating bezel is still a superior way to navigate a smartwatch at 400. The watch 3 costs the same as the Apple Watch Series 5, making it clear who Samsung sees as competition Samsung is going for the smartwatch crown for android users, at least, and despite a few quirks, the galaxy watch 3 has potential Samsung's mystic bronze color, for this year's devices looks nicer on the note 20 ultra than on the watch 3. The case itself has a more coppers hue, while the leather ban on my review unit is closer to mauve than bronze. If you prefer something more conservative, there's always the generic black option, regardless of the hue. The galaxy watches.3 is noticeably lighter and slimmer than the galaxy watch, and it doesn't feel as overwhelming its stainless steel case is shinier and classier than the galaxy watch active 2, although its underside is noticeably chunkier. There is also a bump in between the two buttons on the right side that prevents them from being accidentally pressed when the back of my hand presses into the watch.

I was a little worried when my colleague Chris Velasco came back from his hands on saying that the watch 3's rotating bezel was lighter and smaller than the originals and that it didn't clunk into each notch as definitively as before. But I was relieved when I used the wheel on my review unit. It's a lot lighter and smaller, yes and glides past each notch more smoothly than before, but it's not like it's spinning freely and there's enough resistance here that you have to be fairly deliberate when twisting it from one notch to the next. If the original galaxy watches bezel move like the big wheel on the price is right, then the watch threes feels more like the whizzing spinner. That's on the wheel of fortune in between the rotating bezel and the 1.2 inch display, sits a ring of small carvings for 5, 10 and 15 minute marks and so on. It's a design flourish that isn't actually helpful, especially since a regular watch would have one two and three to show the hours rather than the 5 10 and 15 here.

But it's nice to look at the Apple Watch and Fitbit versa.2, both sport, more minimalist and basic designs with squarish, faces that I don't care for. Most of the galaxy watch.3's new features revolve around making it a better health and fitness companion. The upcoming ECG tool, for example, along with new blood pressure readings, could help provide more insight to your overall health. But these are pending a software update and a regulatory approval in the latter case, so I wasn't able to test them for this review. One of the updates that I was able to try was the new running coach Samsung's, not the first company to provide real-time audio and visual feedback on your jog, but the latest wearables from its main competitors, like apple Fitbit and Garmin, don't offer this plus Samsung is doing it for free, which is rare.

After selecting a goal from options like light running calorie burning and speed endurance, you can start your run in the light mode. I was guided through four stages at gradually increasing speeds and the watch buzzed and told me to either slow down or speed up to hit the targets. When I met, and also when I stayed within the recommended range, the coach would tell me I was doing well all with corresponding graphics on the display. Every so often too, the watch would say things like great pace, keep up this pace or think positively you're getting closer to your goal. With every step, it's meant to be encouraging, but when delivered in its very robotic voice it borders on creepy, you've reached your target.

The watch 3 shows more comprehensive analysis for runs than other workouts. In addition to your usual average heart rate session duration and calories, burned, you'll see feedback on your symmetry contact time, flight time, stiffness and regularity. With advice on what areas you need to improve, you get more guidance like suggested, drills and charts, showing your cadence and pace. When you view your session in the Samsung health app on your phone, I'm not a hardcore runner. So this information isn't super useful to me, but exacting athletes will likely appreciate the extra data.

I may not be an expert in exercising, but I'm basically an Olympic gold medalist when it comes to sleeping Samsung, updated the watch, 3's sleep tracking to use the heart rate, monitor and accelerometer data. This is a very similar approach to Fitbit and uses the info to estimate how much time you spend in zones like rem, light, sleep, deep sleep or when you are awake, Samsung will count the time you spend to sleep and other factors like restlessness to assign you a score. I had a terrible night of drifting in and out of sleep before being awoken at 6.45 am by a delivery person. When I looked at my watch later, I felt vindicated to see the watch three had recorded four separate sleep sessions for the night each period corresponding with times I had woken up. I don't know all the exact times, but the watch accurately matched one instance when I remember noticing the sun was beginning to rise.

According to the watch too, I barely spent any time in the restorative deep sleep zone instead, mostly hanging around light and rem. Sleep there's no real way to tell if Samsung is accurate in detecting these zones, but the watch 3 so far matches my experience with this Samsung joins Fitbit, offering more insight on your sleep than apple, even with the new watch OS 7 beta that has yet to publicly roll out on that beta. The Apple Watch will log how long you were asleep and note interruptions, but won't tell you what zones you were in which paints a better picture of sleep quality. Your overall well-being isn't just about working out and sleeping ti zen OS health tracking continues to outshine, Wear OS and Fitbit OS. It offers helpful widgets for logging, your food and water intake and, while I'm dubious on the accuracy of its stress tracking tool, it at least offers some guided breathing exercises to help you relax.

I especially like that when the watch 3 notices, you haven't moved in an hour, it'll not only prompt you to get up and move, but also suggest some easy exercises that you can do at your desk. I like a lot of things about Samsung's software, but I wish his heart rate monitor were faster. It takes about 10 to 13 seconds to get a reading, at which point impatience has usually driven my pulse up. Meanwhile, the Fitbit versa 2 and the Apple Watch generally take about 5 seconds. Although Samsung added some new tools to make the watch 3 a more serious fitness companion, it still feels better suited for a more mainstream user than a professional athlete.

New stats, like vo2max, give more insight into your body's performance during a workout while blood oxygen readings are sometimes called the fifth vital metric by which to assess your health. The first four are pulse temperature, blood pressure and respiratory rate. These are useful in specific circumstances, but not of much use to the average person. Samsung just released a software update that allows you to get your blood oxygen readings on the watch 3, and I got results of 98, 99 and 99. The watch 3 interfaces showed me that this was on the extreme right end of a spectrum, but there was no other way to understand what that meant.

Was I healthy? How did I rank against other people of my age and gender? I always appreciate more data, but this time I had to go to google to make sense of it. Thankfully my result is normal above 95 is normal, and you should see a doctor if you get something lower. The galaxy watches.3 also offers a feature that first showed up on an Apple Watch trip detection, it's more like apple's fall detection for bigger stumbles, except Samsung used a different name. The galaxy watch 3 will notice if you've fallen, while you're in motion, not when you're still and send a SOS message with your location to up to 4 contacts. You've selected, I deliberately hurled myself onto a yoga mat a few times but never triggered the system.

I also felt a couple of times during my workouts, but the watch 3 never registered them, possibly because I was tracking my exercise. I can't safely test this feature to see if it will work in life-threatening situations, but at least you don't have to wait till the watch.3 determines you fall in to get help. You can push the home button on the right side three times to call your emergency contacts and share your location with them too. One of Samsung's, smartwatch strengths, at least against competitors like Fitbit and Garmin, is how it syncs with your phone ti zen, is far better equipped at handling things like replying to messages controlling your music summoning, an Uber or controlling your smart home, then the versus and the vocatives. When you receive a message, the watch will show some exchange before it, so you can get some context for your conversation.

Pictures and messages also show up in notifications, which is something the fit bits and garments don't offer. If you want to, you can also use the Samsung watch to call your friends and the onboard mic will make you sound clear. The speakers are loud enough to hear over some light background noise too hi hello. My watch 3 had some bugs and missing features, though there's no qwerty style swipe keyboard for composing messages like in previous galaxy watches. This Spotify controller was also finicky.

It would skip and pause my music but refused to change the song title or album art on the watch. That issue was fixed after Spotify updated his mobile app, though the galaxy watch 3 consistently lasts about 2 days before running out of juice, offering a few hours extra. If I didn't spend part of the day tracking, a workout, that's in line with the watch active and more than the watch active 2. The original galaxy watch generally clocked about 4 days on light use, though, while fit bits and Garmin smartwatches typically stick around for 5 days or more Samsung does beat its main competitor, though, as apple watches generally come in at between 1 and 2 days, depending on use. Samsung also offers a battery saving mode that turns the watch to a basic timekeeper and step tracker.

When my watch 3 was down to 9, I switched to battery saving and got close to another day out of it. This is useful when you're out and don't want to be left with a dead screen on your wrist, but don't expect days of extra juice out of it and if you've bought the LTE version expect runtime to be shorter than my non-cellular model. There are still some features missing on my review unit of the galaxy watch 3 like ECG and potential blood pressure monitoring, but even without those Samsung has a winner here. The galaxy watch 3 offers improved sleep, tracking and more comprehensive monitoring of various health. Metrics ti zen OS is also better than fit bits and Garmin's at apps and syncing with your phone.

If you're, considering an upgrade from a galaxy watch, active know that you'll mostly be paying more for that spinning bezel and upcoming ECG feature for people on android, who aren't looking for the niche insight and feedback from the likes of Garmin and polar the watch.3 has a robust and well-rounded set of features with the galaxy watch.3 Samsung easily holds onto the title of the best smartwatch for android users, an honor it's held for the past two years for more in-depth reviews on other smartwatches you might want to buy and the Apple Watch Series 5 make sure you subscribe to Engadget and as always, thank you for watching. You.

Source : Engadget