Smartwatch review: What does the Galaxy Watch 3 do?

Smartwatch market is growing with the release of the Galaxy Watch 3. These devices can’t replace smartphones yet, however, they have been really useful, especially for fitness tracking and seeing notifications from your phone. So what does the Galaxy Watch 3 do? Read on to figure out!

Design

The Galaxy Watch 3 has a similar look to other smartwatches from Samsung. It comes with a round face and there are two round pushers on the side. This smartwatch’s design is suitable for lifestyle instead of fitness.

Compared to the Galaxy Watch, this device is smaller and lighter, but it doesn’t mean that the Galaxy Watch 3 is not big. It fits well on average-sized wrists, just not as sleek as the Galaxy Watch Active 2. 

It comes with leather bands

While the 41mm version has the same display size as previous versions, on the 45mm version, the size of the display is increased to 1.4 inches. This change actually makes the device look bigger on your wrist. The display is bright and colorful with a sharp resolution. Users will find it easy to see both indoors and outdoors. 

When it comes to the Galaxy Watch 3, there are some options for you to choose from, the Bluetooth-only or LTE-equipped versions. Of course these versions are slightly more expensive, but the features are really useful.

The Watch 3 also comes with a rotating bezel. You can use it to scroll through the interface which is extremely easy to use for navigating a smartwatch.

Besides, it is the most costly model from Samsung so far, because it has really nice materials and build quality. You will find stainless steel, metal pushers, Gorilla Glass DX on top of the display, and 5ATM of water resistance. 

Performance

So what does the Galaxy watch 3 do? Does it have good performance? To answer these questions, the Galaxy Watch 3’s interface is easy to swipe or scroll through. Using the same processor as the Active 2, but the Watch 3 has a 1GB RAM and a large storage of 8GB. That means you can save music playlists directly to the watch.

It doesn’t offer great in-app support

Its performance can be compared to new models of Apple Watch. However, it works faster with Samsung own’s apps than a third-party app. Besides, the battery is claimed to last up to two days. Users can enable battery-saving modes or disable the always-on display to extend the battery life.

Software

The Galaxy Watch 3 uses the in-house Tizen operating system. In addition, the messaging app displays pictures and emoji and the conversation history. Users will also find some new gesture controls. Firstly, you can silence alarms or incoming calls by shaking your wrist or answer a call by opening and closing your fist.

However, the native mapping app is not available on the Watch 3, and this model doesn’t have great in-app support. For example, a few apps that you want are unlikely to be available for the Watch 3. 

On the other hand, if you don’t care too much about the mapping app, you can use other useful ones like calendar, weather, timer, stopwatch, Spotify, Samsung Health for fitness tracking, alarms, world clock, voice recorder, Samsung Pay for mobile payments, and many more.

Furthermore, Samsung phone users have an advantage when using this smartwatch. You don’t have to install plenty of necessary phone apps and services to make the Watch 3 work. 

When it comes to watch face options, users can customize an analog or digital face. There is also a new animated weather face that will update itself based on the time and location. Users can install new watch faces from the Galaxy Apps store.

Additionally, the Galaxy Watch 3 comes with Samsung’s Bixby assistant which is not perfectly excellent at responses and it also has limited capabilities. 

Fitness tracking

One of the main reasons why people are using smartwatch is because of its fitness tracking features. As we mentioned earlier, the Watch 3 is designed for everyday use and it is not a fitness-focused device. However, users can still find many useful fitness tracking features such as the usual activity tracking, automatic workout detection, and heart rate monitoring. Not to mention, this smartwatch also improves sleep tracking, blood oxygen monitoring, and VO2 Max reporting. Besides, when you fall, it will automatically call an emergency contact.

This smartwatch model can track a total of 40 activities, and seven of them can be tracked automatically. This eliminates the necessity of selecting what kind of exercise you’re doing beforehand. The on-board GPS also measures pretty accurately, whether you take it to casual biking or running, and even training.

There are a few awesome fitness tracking features

The leather straps might have a cool appearance, but it isn’t great with sweat. Even though it comes with a 5ATM rating for water resistance, you might not want to take it to swimming, either. That’s why we mentioned that this smartwatch is more suitable for daily wear. If you do a lot of exercise during the day, you probably want to look at silicone bands.

ECG readings and blood pressure monitoring

To continue answering the question of what does the Galaxy Watch 3 do, it comes with a FDA-approved ECG monitor. That means it has the ability to detect signs of atrial fibrillation. 

It also offers a blood pressure monitor but just within South Korea. The sensor is still waiting for approval from the FDA. Once it gets the green light, it would be the first smartwatch that offers a working blood pressure monitoring system. 

Sleep tracking

So what does the Galaxy Watch 3 do when you sleep? The sleep tracking feature of this smartwatch works with the National Sleep Institute. It will provide an insight on your REM cycle, a report on quality of sleep in the morning and tips on how to improve your sleep. 

You just need to wear it to bed, and the smartwatch will do the job. If you are one of those people who always care about a good sleep, having a smart watch with precise sleep tracking is important and helpful. 

Apart from the Galaxy Watch 3, there are other good models in the market with cheaper prices. However, this new smartwatch has some interesting features that are worth considering.