SAMSUNG Gear S3 Frontier Smartwatch Pedometer (Bluetooth), SM-R760NDAAXAR

I've had this watch now for 4 days and the Gear S3 Frontier (non 4G LTE Version) is a great watch so far. It is a beautiful and it does more than I expected. I bought the watch on sale and I am glad I did because I now see that the prices is $100 dollars more than I paid for it. The band that come with the watch is comfortable, but I hate that band style, so I purchased the Solid Stainless Steel Watch Band Link Bracelet Strap that matches the Frontier and that added more style to the watch and it is comfortable too. I thought the watch itself may have been a little too big at first, but after putting it on, it feels nice and it does not look big at all on my wrist.. The watch is paired to a Galaxy S7 Edge and the watch linked up nicely and seamlessly with the Samsung Gear app. Through either the watch or the gear app, additional features are easy to install and remove. I use the watch to monitor my sleep, and other bio data, and it seems ok. I measured my heart rate manually with the watch and with the phone and it was accurate.The watch can be set up to also auto measure your heart rate and it updates the info to the phone. Very slick... Calls made and received from the watch are clear and when asked, no one could tell that I was talking through my watch. I can have the watch on my lap when talking and no one complained about talk quality. Text messages and emails are easy to get a quick read. It has a built in GPS and Wi-Fi, and the watch synced to my home network without having to do anything. Samsung Gear stores your Wi-Fi and other information through your Amazon account, and sends it to the watch, so when I am out of bluetooth range, the watch shifts to my home network so if I misplace it in the house, I will be able to locate it through the Gear app. S-Voice works well too as do the other apps I've used and I've got no complaints with S-Voice yet. As for Battery life, so far I'm getting almost 2 days of battery with moderate to heavy use. Always On Display is disabled, but I use the wrist motion to activate the watch face. I also use the "do not disturb" function and after 10pm (I set that time), the watch does not come on unless I manually activate it with a button. I have not received any calls or text messages in this mode, so I do not know if calls and texts will come through between 10pm and 6am. Samsung Pay works great too. It requires you to set a password since it will have your credit/debit cards stored on the phone, and at first, I did want to have to go through the pain of having to punch in my passcode. However, what I learned is that as long as the watch is on your wrist, you only have to enter the passcode once a day, and I can live with that. I used the watch's Samsung Pay at Walmart and Macy's so far with no trouble. It logged my transaction in Samsung Gear and it sends me an alert that my watch was used to purchase something. The watch's battery is not user accessible, so the only question I have so far is what happens in the next two years or so when the battery begins to lose its ability to hold a charge and needs to be replaced. I haven't seen any comments about battery replacement solutions yet, but I suspect that there will be more said about that later after the watch has been around for a year or two. The watch comes with a wireless cradle that is great and it charges fairly quickly. I really love this watch! It is full of all kinds of features that I have not yet explored, but I learn something everyday and look forward to the watch's evolution. I have read a lot of reviews about the watch, and there is a lot of positive feedback out there, but it seems for some, their expectations are a bit high. I see this watch as an extension of my smartphone and for me, the Samsung Gear S3 Frontier is exceeding those expectations so far.

One week ago, I would have rated this with 5-stars. However, for some unknown reason, the battery life, which was 3+ days, has gone down to about 8 hours. I haven't downloaded any apps or changed the settings I have been using for the past month; the only change has been some sort of software update. I'm giving a temporary 3-stars in hopes that I can figure out a solution. If I can, I'll bring this up to 5-stars. If I can't, I'll lower this to 1-star and return it. Either way, once I figure out what I'm going to do, I'll provide better feedback with what I like and dislike, etc.... ==== Update: So, after the watch completely discharged its battery, and I let it fully charge again, I'm back to a full 3 days of use. The only setting I changed after it charged was turning the 'connections -> wifi' from 'auto' to 'off'. I figure I almost always have my phone, and if I don't, I'm probably not near an open access point WITHOUT a captive portal (requiring browser-based login). That doesn't necessarily explain the battery drain because this was how I had the setting previously. This is a great watch, based on what I was looking for. I previously had an LG G watch, one of those goofy-ass rectangular smartwatches, and other than the style, i really liked the functionality. I like the style of many new round smartwatches, but they were either prohibitively expensive (Tag Heuer), or the battery life was crap (most smartwatches), or, in the case of the LG Watch Sport and Style, you either got more than you wanted and paid for it, or not enough. My criteria: Looks (subjective, but essentially, a round smartwatch that wasn't too bulky, but with a screen big enough to use) Functionality (had to work with a non-Samsung Android smartwatch, show notifications from hangouts, SMS, calendar, etc) Battery Life (had to very easily make it through 24 hours) Non-LTE version I think the watch looks great. I'm a bigger dude, so the watch doesn't look out of place and huge on my wrist like some of the other photos I've seen. If you have svelte features, maybe the size would be problematic. I'm using the standard band that comes with the watch, which looks good, but I like that I can easily switch bands if I want to. Functionally, the watch is great. I get notifications from SMS and Hangouts, as well as from Google calendar, which I use at work for upcoming meetings. Initially, as I was researching the watch, I wasn't sure if a non-Samsung watch would pair well with this, since it doesn't run Android Wear (it runs Samsung's Tizen OS). The only issue with regard to Tizen is the lack of apps, but I don't really care about extending the capabilities beyond what it already does (wihch is what I need/want). The watch has decent sensors for 'exercise', though I suspect there are superior watches for that. I don't exercise that much and don't care about measuring my heart-rate anyway. I can feel my heart about to explode out of my chest when I play hockey, which is a good enough indicator that I'm getting some exercise. Battery life is awesome. I'm currently on my third day since its last charge, and other than the weird drain issue I first wrote about, the watch has been solid. I do currently have wifi off, as well as location, since I usually have my cell phone nearby; the watch gets that info from the phone. Knowing I can turn either of those on, if I needed to, is nice. I also have my watch face set to only turn on when I move my wrist or push a button. I've read that keeping the display always-on would reduce battery quite a bit. Good thing I'm not always looking at the watch face. Bonus features! Samsung Pay. I never used Android pay (NFC) for purchases. I was sort of waiting until it was more ubiquitous and expected, as opposed to everyone looking at you like 'one of those types'. That's just my own insecurity though. But with this watch, I just press a button, select a card, and then hold the watch near the card-paying-thingie (NFC terminal) at the store. That's great and all, but what's really super great is that it doesn't have to be an NFC terminal. As long as it's got the magnetic strip, this watch will work! I tried it at a local liquor store and the woman said, "this device is really old and doesn't have that fancy technology." I replied, "this watch is magic, check this out!". We were both pretty impressed. Another feature I really like is how you can reply to messages. There is an old phone style keyboard, with 2-3 letter per number, which is just terrible. There is the ability to speak into the watch, which I don't use because nothing comes close to Google's speech recognition, in my option. And the other option is to draw the letters on the screen. I wasn't sure how well that would work; it works great! Just draw each letter, quickly, if you want, with an underscore for a 'space', and then send. Love it. Finally, Dick Tracy, you can answer phone calls through your watch. Just speak into it. I haven't really used this, and figure I will never use it unless I'm tied to a shark, which is tied to a missile, or maybe if I'm driving (I don't have Bluetooth in my car). But it's cool. Anyway, this is a good watch.

Note: I have a Samsung Note 5, and that is the phone this watch was used with. I did a ton of research before buying my first smart watch about 6 months ago. Before I purchased this, I did some cursory research and found the Gear S3 was still pretty great, despite newcomers to the market, so I purchased it. When I first got the watch, I was so excited. I put it on and paired it and was super impressed with the exceptionally well designed and responsive UI. Using the bezel to control the watch is a stroke of pure genius, honestly. Despite the small area of the physical face of the watch, and how very tiny the icons on it are, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was able to easily and without error interact with the small icons. Then came the disappointment. The app store for the Gear is exceptionally anemic, primarily consisting of watch faces and applications that are very niche. There is no Gear support for Pandora, or Audible. Absolutely no Google apps are available for it. No Google Now. No Google Maps (although there is a well-designed app available in the store that uses Google Maps for like $2). No Android Pay. No Gmail. Nothing. The Spotify app is pretty nice, but for some reason I can't select Spotify Radio stations in it, only playlists. I was exceptionally disappointed as I have based everything in Google. Pretty much, the only apps that are really any good are from Samsung. This was a further disappointment as Samsung apps are usually fat and offensively slow. I contemplated returning it in favor of a Huwaii or a LG Watch Sport, but I figured I'd give it a few days. The interface is just SO well made. It is very responsive. The Samsung apps actually aren't crap this time, and they covered most of the use cases I have for my watch. So I gave it a few days. This is the part where the 5 stars come in. After using it for a few days and acquainting myself with it's various idiosyncrasies, I began to realize that all I actually need for it are the Samsung apps. It *would* be nice if there were apps from Pandora and Audible and CityMapper and Moovit and it supported Google Now, but it doesn't and that is actually a very workable scenario. The watch allows me to control my phone, basically, without taking it out of my pocket. So while I'm on the bus, if I swipe down on the watch face and hit the music note icon, I can control all aspects of the playback on my phone from the watch. Rewind, fast forward, pause, change the volume, change tracks, all of it. The altimeter is very accurate. I can create reminders and appointments right on the watch face. It displays the weather and my agenda using very will designed UIs. With a tap, I can zoom in on the weather and agenda to get more information, and I can plot the route to an appointment, if I included location information in the calendar item (although you have to open the phone to see the route). There is an Uber app for the watch that makes it very easy to call a cab. Finally, the watchfaces. Yes, they do get their own section because they are varied and amazing. Personally, I love the PipBoy Fallout 4 watch face. It displays an amazing amount of information using the interface of one of my favorite games. This watch face displays the following information, but you can find probably another 100 that do the same in zany and creative ways: Time, Date, Heartrate, Water Consumption, Coffee Consumption, Battery Level, Step Count, plus shortcuts to Music and Pictures, Samsung Health Daily Review, Alarms and Calendar. I wish the PipBoy interface showed the temperature, because if it did it would be on there too. Now, for the downsides, and there are some doozies. 1) Samsung Pay does not work on my phone because I enabled the Samsung-provided Knox feature. I later disabled it because I didn't like it. But you know what that did? It flipped flag on my phone that disables Samsung Pay. The Gear only works with Samsung Pay. Let me repeat that - A Samsung supplied feature, Knox, disables Samsung Pay, because it flips the flag that says the device has been rooted. You are probably thinking "OK, so I contact Samsung support and they fix it, right?" Nope. Samsung has no way to flip this flag back. They designed Knox in such a way that it makes your phone think it has been rooted, and they have no way to fix it if Knox is later disabled. That is exceptionally stupid. I am an engineer. I am aghast to think of the internal processes at Samsung that allowed a feature to be released into the wild that breaks your phone and does not supply a fix. It requires a monumental level of dysfunction for that to happen. 2) You are limited to the Samsung ecosystem. So if you don't like Samsung mail, too bad. No other mail client available. Don't like Samsung Pay? Too bad. No other option available. Etc. 3) If Samsung Mail is enabled, and it is connected to a company mail server that requires the watch to be encrypted to view mail, you will have to type in a pin just to check the time. Yup, you read that right. Want to just check the time really quick? Nope! You gotta type in your password first. Again, as an engineer, how does that get through focus testing without any developer hearing a customer say "that is amazingly stupid". How does a developer, in their OWN DEVELOPMENT of the software, not get tired of typing in their password to check the time? It's amazing. 4) When you make the motion typical of checking the time on a watch, the watch face is supposed to light up automatically. I've found this to be rather untrue. I've found that it pretty much doesn't work unless you are moving your hand from a stationary position, such as standing at a bus stop or sitting at your desk. If your hand is in motion it doesn't seem to recognize the motion to look at it, despite the rather unique motion of rotating the wrist. That is a very unique movement, and I noticed that this does not happen to a friend who has the Apple watch. It seems to actually be keyed on the wrist flip to turn on, as it turns on in a movie theatre when you place your hands behind your head. In summary, great watch despite the lack of app support

This little watch was awesome when I got it as a birthday gift from my wife. I didn't really think I'd care much for a smartwatch, having always worn an analog watch through my adult life. But after I received it and was able to change the watch faces - how cool is that? Okay, what else can this little thing do? Well, it can measure your heartbeat - neat - oh wait, it can track my steps too? Okay - so now I can see if I've been a lazy fat butt. Now it's telling me I'm really lazy and should do a torso twist. Thanks, but I'm in the middle of an important meeting with a customer. I'm sure they'd appreciate it if I did a "torso twist" in the middle of our meeting because my watch said to. So what else - there's some apps out there, you can get navigation, which sounds neat but the reality is, I'm over 40 and can't see up close that great when I'm wearing my contacts. Last thing I need to be doing while driving is squinting to look at my watch for directions. Then there's weather, and the fact that I can do the Dick Tracy thing (call someone or receive a call) on my watch. (If you don't know who Dick Tracy is, Google it.) That's come in handy several times. I'm able to text (though if you're a long-time user of Google Voice like I am, it will use your paired device's number to send/reply with and not your GV number.) Wish there was a GV app for this! There's a weather app in case you don't go outside (why do you care about the weather if you're only inside? Go look out a window already!) I even found a nifty Powerpoint app that I can link my watch to my laptop and use it as a remote. That is, until the watch goes to sleep in the middle of a slideshow. Everything in the Tizen OS seems to be nice and fast, no lagging at all. Keep in mind, this is not a Google or Android OS, it's Samsung's proprietary OS, they have their own apps for it, and the app store is somewhat lacking in my opinion. I wanted a simple stock ticker but apparently to do that, you have to have a constantly-on connection with your phone to receive updates as well as a separate app on your phone. I kept getting this popup on the watch when I'd hit he buttons wrong - "Try Samsung Pay!" Finally, I broke down and decided to give it a try. I read up on the whole "LoopPay" setup and realized - this could actually be kinda cool! I setup a couple of cards in the system and decided to give it a shot at a few places while on a business trip. The area I was in was very tech saavy so most places had Near Field Communications (NFC) POS terminals. Beep! Payment accepted. Whoa. This is cool! Then, back to where I live - out in the country where some merchants still take checks. I nervously walked up to the POS terminal - everything I read says this should work. No NFC tap-type POS terminal here, just an older swipe terminal. Alright, deep breath - look for the mag-stripe read heads, hover the watch over it - BEEP - payment accepted. The clerk gives me this WTF look and said "is that Apple Pay?? I didn't think we could do that!" Then I have to explain to them, no, it's a special watch that can do this pretty much anywhere because it emulates a card swipe. The looks I get when I do this at these rinky-dink out-in-the-middle-of-nowhere merchants are priceless. Everything from the hair-grabbing "ER MEH GERD!" to open-mouthed googly-eyes. Once in a while I get someone giving me that skeptical "are you trying to hack us?" look, but it's extremely rare. I will warn you, if you use it at Wal-Mart they think you're using their Wal-Mart pay thing. So now you're thinking - okay, this actually sounds pretty darn cool - why the heck did you give it one star? Sometime early in 2018, they issued out new firmware. Being that I keep my equipment updated, I went ahead and did it. (After all, it does nag you to do it all the time anyway.) I had no indication that this could be problematic. Update done. Supposed to "fix battery problems" they said. Wait, I was getting a whole day out of my watch, now I'm getting maybe 3-4 hours? That didn't fix anything, it made it worse! Well at least the Samsung Pay thing is pretty cool. That is, now the update causes the whole watch to completely shut down after I use Samsung Pay. I have to start it back up. This goes on for several weeks and I realize - the update has completely hosed my really cool watch. So I read up and sure enough, LOTS of people are complaining about this update. Not just a handful, but a LOT. Check YouTube. Okay, so what can I do to see if I can fix it? Reset it, everyone says - as a troubleshooting measure. Nice, now all my settings are gone (note to myself and others - you CAN backup your settings so you don't lose them through the phone app!) Still, no dice. Watch still has horrible battery life, yet when I put it on the charger it says 95% after it dies? I called Samsung support and they didn't even question me other than asking if I had tried resetting it. They didn't even flinch - here's your ticket number and a UPS label to send it back. Today, I tried to turn it on, and can't even get it to turn on after being on the charger all night. Today it goes to UPS and off to a "repair center" for 9-11 business days. I'll update this review once I get it back and have it for a week or two to see if it's fixed. Update 6/22/2018 - I received the watch back, even though it was out of warranty they apparently opted to fix it for free since the update apparently caused the issue. They had it back to me within their 9-11 days easily so it wasn't gone too long. So far it's functioning like it used to before the update and I'm enjoying it again! Of course it was reset when I received it so I had to set everything up again, but while it was gone I discovered Samsung has a watch face designer where I was able to import a watch design I liked into the watch from a website.I also bought a Fossil Q gen 3 watch while this one was out for repair and while it's fairly nice, it doesn't even compare to this one. Lots more features and I still really like the ability to use Samsung Pay directly on the watch. (Lots of my local haunts know me as the guy that pays with his watch.)

UPDATE: 8\12\19 I just wanted to come back and report that my original Gear S3 is still going strong and that I ended up giving it to my Mom who is still using it without any issue. I loved my bluetooth version so much that I purchased another one off of Ebay for a mere $100.00! This was probably 8 or 9 months ago and it is the AT and T version and it was used in like new condition. I do not use the LTE, I continue to use it as a bluetooth device only and it works flawlessly!! Samsung really hit it out of the park with the Gear S3 Frontier. I can still get 2 and a half days out of it and it is running the latest software. I can not no comment on the current versions of these watches but if The Gear S3 Frontier is any indication, I'd say get one if you want a smartwatch! First off, this is my review for my Bluetooth Only model Gear S3 Frontier running Tizen 3.0.0.1 that I purchased here on Amazon from the seller Ocean Reef Electronics.I am using a Nexus 6P running Nougat 7.1.2. Now, on with the review! UPDATE: Had a defect with the used 6P that I purchased so I returned it and am now using a Motorola X Pure Edition and I must say, battery life is even BETTER!! I guess it's the better radios in Motorola devices, so my watch isn't working as hard to maintain a connection maybe? I'm not sure but it has greatly improved my battery life. It used to be down to about 55% to 58% when I'd go to charge it the next day, now it's still at at a good solid 78% charge. *NOTE: Just a suggestion but after having issues with my Fitbit Blaze failing after a year and one month due to the thin layer of film on the back cracking from sweat and causing the battery to overheat and the tracker to die, I decided to put a tempered glass screen protector on the display AND the back panel of my Gear S3 Frontier. Some folks seem to be having the same issue with their S3's that I had with my Blaze and I'm hoping that the additional protective layer will keep my Gear S3 Frontier from suffering the same fate. You may also want to add one as well if you have not already. Just wanted to throw that in there. Now back to the review! I absolutely LOVE LOVE L-O-V-E LOVE this watch!!! First off, I am one of those people who thought smartwatches were just a gimmick to get people to spend money needlessly. The reason I purchased this watch is because I got mad at Fitbit LOL! Seriously. I bought a Fitbit Blaze a year and a month ago and one silly little flimsy piece wore out (because of poor quality material used) and instead of letting me use my offered 50% discount towards a new model tracker that has addressed the admitted material issue, they told me I could either get a free replacement Blaze Pebble (the tracker without the straps) pay them for a new Blaze or pay them for a model that was inferior to my Blaze. Instead, I went with a free Blaze Pebble, and while I was waiting for it to arrive I came here on Amazon to look at smartwatches. I ended up going with the Gear S3 Frontier and I am SO glad I did!! PROS: I live in the boonies and connection is spotty in my house so what can I do now? I can leave my phone in the living room where I get good signal and walk around the rest of my small house and still receive notifications, text messages, and make and receive phone calls over bluetooth ON MY WATCH!!! I know some folks say the fun of this wears off quickly but because of the poor reception on my phone, it has been an absolute Godsend to be able to leave my phone in a good reception location and still make and receive phone calls and get notifications on my watch. The sound quality is exactly that of my phone on speaker. I use this feature almost exclusively when I'm at home. I don't have bluetooth in my car so I use an output jack in my car and while I don't talk on my watch in the car very often, I do use the controls on my watch to answer calls that go to my phone so I do not have to reach down and get my phone to answer calls. It is so much easier to swipe to answer on my wrist while driving. MUSIC I easily figured out how to transfer music from my phone to my watch and I have had no trouble listening to the songs on my watch, both through the built in speaker and by way of bluetooth earbuds without any trouble. I also have no trouble with using the music controls on my watch to control the music player on my phone and I love how quick and easy it is to switch sources right there on the watch screen. Now, I've only tested this in the house. The true test will be when I'm outside mowing grass and I have my phone wrapped in a bandana in my pocket. I imagine it will work just fine but I've not been out to mow since I've gotten my watch. It's so nice, I'm not even sure I'm going to use it while mowing. UPDATE 10/2/18 I have had many opportunities to use the music controls in and outside the house and they work brilliantly! I am able to use the watch to control the music that I have stored on my watch AND I can also use my watch to control my playlist if I am listening to music that is stored on my phone. Infact you can go back and forth between the two immediately, right there on the watch. I had RF ablations done on the right and left side of my back and both times I went for the procedure, the surgeon and his staff had my play the music on my watch! The first time internet was down and they couldn't access Pandora and I had left my phone out in the waiting room with family so I volunteered to play music out loud that I have stored on my watch. They were all blown away lol! So much so that when I went back a few weeks later for the procedure to be done on the other side of my back, the surgeon said, where's that awesome watch, I want you to use it again to play music! I thought that was funny. :-D SOS: I have not had a chance to actually try this out but I do have emergency contacts plugged in and I am happy to know I can use my watch to ring for help if my phone is out of reach. CUSTOMIZATION: I love just how customizable this watch is. Everything is so easy to replace or customize. The bands are easy to replace, the watch faces are easy to change and customize. I use the Gear store as well as the Facer app and while you can pay for your watchfaces, there are so MANY free ones that I can't see myself ever needing to shell out money for new watchfaces. I even purchased some Awinner brand rubber body guards to not only add a layer of protection to my watch, but also allow me to change up the colors of my watch. I like how I can use one of my songs as a ringtone or notification tone and how it give me an option to start the song from the beginning, or where the song becomes enthusiastic, if that is where I would prefer my ringtone to start. UPDATE 10/2/18 This is an update about the Awinner colored protectors, not the watch watch itself. I mentioned above that I use the Awinner frame covers not only to change the look of my watch, but to protect my watch during periods of high activity but I stopped using them for that purpose because sweat was collecting under the rubber. After 3 or 4 hours of pushmowing the yard, I'd come in and take the frame off and there would be alot of sweat pooled on the inside of the rubber, so much so that I became worried it would cause sweat damage to my watch so now I use the colored frame covers for asthetics only. Right now I'm wearing a gray and black stripped nylon band with the white colored Awinner rubber frame protector and it's kind of looks like I'm wearing Jack Skellington on my wrist! I get a chuckle everytime I get a glimpse of my watch on my wrist, besides it is October right now as I type this lol. FITNESS FEATURES: Ok let me first start off by saying I am not a super fitnessy person. With that said, I think this watch blows my Fitbit Blaze out of the water with it's fitness capabilities. While I have had a chance to wear both my Blaze and my Gear S3 Frontier at the same time to try and do a comparison, the comparison could not be perfectly accurate because I had my watch on my right wrist and my fitbit on my left. The first time I tested it, of course the watch logged about 600 more steps than my fitbit blaze did, but I think that's because I had the watch on my dominant hand and so far as I can tell, there is no way to adjust that setting like you can on a Fitbit. So what I ended up doing is the next day, I wore the watch on my less dominant hand and the fitbit on my more dominant hand and this time the Fitbit was logging more steps, so I have come to the conclusion, that atleast when it comes to the Blaze and the Gear S3 Frontier, the step count is roughly the same and definitely more accurate if you wear it on your non-dominant hand. Another fitness feature I love is the "get up and move" nudges! These are AWESOME because they aren't just nudges to get up and take some steps, it actually gives you an option to perform one of three preloaded exercises. "Twist", which is locking your fingers together, pushing your arms straight out in front of you and twisting from left to right. There is "Reach Up" where you do your arms the same but you go up and down instead of side to side. Then there are "squats" where you cross your arms across your chest and push your elbows out and squat down. Or if you don't want to do those options and you'd rather just get up and walk around you can do that too. The only thing I do wish, is that it would keep counting after I do the initial 5 reps. It is neat how it counts them down four you but it only counts 5 and then the screen goes back to the homescreen even if you keep doing the reps. It would be nice to have a bit of continued on screen encouragement from the watch. UPDATE 10/2/18: I still love the watch for fitness BUT Fitbit really is on to something with their 250 steps an hour goal reminders per hour because while the move reminders are nice what with having onscreen choices for other activities besides walking, I REALLY wish it were more like the 250 steps an hour that Fitbit has going on their trackers. I wish I could customize and hourly goal or even have the same set hourly goal like Fitbit and get reminders and incouragement that keeps you going for more than 5 counts. I NEED that motivation lol! Unfortunately the fitness aspects of the watch are not quite as motivating as I would like for them to be. I still prefer it for the build quality, over anything Fitbit has to offer though but I really do wish they would update their fitness software to better compete with Fitbit's. I don't even need the SHealth app to be like the Fitbit community, I just want the tracker software to be more like that of Fitbit's tracking software with the hourly nudges and onscreen encouragement. HEART RATE SENSOR: The heart rate sensor on my watch performs about as accurate as the one on my Blaze did and both where in a few beats of the heart rate sensor I use on the nursing unit where I work. FIND MY PHONE/GEAR: YEAH!!! It is so nice to finally have a way to find my phone when I've set it down somewhere and I can not remember where lol! UPDATE 10/2/18 I use the find my phone/ gear feature ALL THE TIME!! I mean, the frustration I have saved (alone) has made this watch worth it to me lol! BATTERY LIFE: I work at night so I charge my watch before I go to bed during the day so that it can be fully charged by the time I go to bed. This allows me to leave my phone in my living room and still go to bed being able to make and received calls. My battery could probably last me a good two and 1/2 days with the way I have mine set up but I chose to charge it everyday an hour or so before I go to bed. I usually get down to 48 to 53% after a 24 hour period which is quite acceptable to me considering all my watch does. UPDATE: as I stated at the top, I switched to a motorola device and now my battery is at a solid 78% battery life after a 24 hour period the way I have it set up. CONS: I only really have one and if they fixed it this watch would be 100% perfect to me and that is the notifications. If you receive a series of notifications from the same source, messaging, facebook messenger, etc, you only see the latest one that was sent to you so if you are asleep or somehow don't notice you've received a message, when you open your notifications on your watch, it will only show you the last response sent to you and none of the previous ones which is probably the silliest think ever. It's not a huge deal for me because I really do not have contact with very many people but if you use your phone for business or you are very social, this is going to bug the heck out of you. All in all this watch is AMAZING!!!! Easily the best electronical purchase I have ever made and I have absolutely zero regrets so far.

As I write this, I've had this watch around 2.5 weeks. I feel comfortable writing my review now since I have plenty of confidence in the device. My previous experience with Smartwatches was with the 1st gen Motorola 360, which I liked well enough, but was fully aware of its 1st generation shortcomings. I was worried about its ability to work with the Z2 Play since it isn't on Samsung's list of supported devices for the watch. But it works just fine with the Z2 Play. I'm pretty confident that any conventional Android phone that meets the minimum requirements for the watch will work reasonably well. I bought the S3 Frontier, primarily for fitness tracking and notifications which it does very well. I am a late middle aged guy and would consider myself a bit more than casual fitness person, but not a hard core exercise guy. I don't run, that's for young people with good knees! I could have gotten a cheaper watch to do those things, but I really liked the S3 Frontier's looks. The only other watches that appealed to me, were the Huawei Watch 2, which was a tiny bit cheaper, and the Tic Watch E, which was significantly cheaper. I worried about the smaller size of the face screen of the Huawei, and the Tic Watch was . . . well, a boring looking, if well reviewed, watch. I had the money to burn, so I bought the watch with the most 'sizzle'! I'm a sucker for good looking things. OK enough background on my goals and experience. ****** What I have personally verified works for me: * I've never had any disconnect issues between the phone and watch. * Heart rate monitor is accurate. It tracks Identically with the Life-Fitness brand of elliptical trainer at my gym. It's never been off more that 1 heart beat from the elliptical machine in either direction (Over/Under). I did notice that 4 days ago, it registered that I had 197 BPM, which is crazy since I would be in the hospital if I actually had a heart rate that high. 4 days ago was a very lazy day for me. I'm 99% certain my HR never got that high. I didn't wear the watch all that much that day, so I'm comfortable in thinking that was an anomaly in something I did to the watch. The HR monitor has been very reliable otherwise. * The S-Health app on the watch syncs up with the S-Health app on my phone. I love S-Health! I think it is the best overall health tracking software out there, and Samsung provides it for free for your phone. * the sleep monitoring works well and syncs with SHealth, SHealth doesn't do a lot of sleep analysis, but there are add on apps to provide that sort of thing if you want it. * When I am connected to the phone, I can actually answer the phone and talk and listen thru the watch. Surprisingly good sound quality considering. * Notifications work well. At times too well, I had to adjust which phone apps that offer notifications to the phone. The Google calendar syncs up with the watch's calendar just fine, No complaints * The watch works well when disconnected from the phone, though it isn't quite as robust when disconnected. * Watch faces are EASY to change, and there are Plenty of free and paid for faces to select from. * Software is easy to load and in spite of the complaints, I didn't feel there was an inconvenient shortage of available apps to me. * Battery life is excellent, considering how much it does.I get roughly 2.5 days per charge. I spend between 6 and 8 hours a week at the gym where the watch monitors my exercise, and plays music, Plus I monitor my sleep with it. No, it isn't a weekly charge, but it's WAY better than the 6-8 hours I got with my Moto 360! Charging is reasonably fast, BTW, about an hour and a half to two hours to charge from about a 20% charge remaining. * VERY easy to change watch bands, I have the original sport band and an inexpensive leather band for non sport/exercise situations. Any 22 mm watchband will work, but I recommend that you buy the kind with the little lever attached to the spring bars. ****** Things I Don't like: * While the magnetic charger is nice, my moto 360 went into alarm clock mode when on the charger, so you could use the watch on your night stand as you alarm clock. It would be nice if the S3 did that. * The flight of stairs count is very unreliable.It's supposed to measure every 12 feet of elevation, and I have to climb stairs quite a bit in my house that more than qualify, but the count is always way off. My experience says it's pretty useless. * The watch's S-Health app doesn't support all the exercise functions that the phone app does. The phone app supports monitoring weight machine exercises, but you have to use "Other Exercice" to track on the watch. I'm not sure how well the two compare to each other. * The calories burned calculator varies about 10% - !5% from the devices at my gym. Not sure this is a major issue, but it might be for some. * I'm a Pandora user, I wish Pandor or Samsung would create a controller app for Pandora for the watch. It allows you to skip songs in Pandora, but that's about it. It appears to do well with Spotify however, but I prefer Pandora. *********** On the whole, I like the S3 Frontier watch very much. It does more than I need it to do, and it does almost everything well. It isn't perfect, there is plenty of room for an S4!, (And it COULD be cheaper!) But I can recommend this watch to any Android user without any reservation.

I like this watch because it taught me to NEVER buy a "smart" watch again. I ordered mine on March 19, 2017 and some days, the battery would last almost 15 hours. It is now Jan 2, 2020 and the battery lasts about 6 hours and that's with all of the power saving features enabled. For me, the power saving features make the watch only marginally more useful than the first digital watch I had (in the mid '70s) because it requires a button press to even see the time! I looked in to getting a new battery, but they are not "field replaceable" and it apparently costs almost as much to get a better replaced as it does for a new watch, which is obscene and unforgivable. That said, I gave it two stars because for the first few weeks, it was fun to play with, trying out new watch faces, using it to talk to friends like a "Dick Tracy" wrist communicator, etc. But that fun quickly went away when I discovered that a few minutes trying new faces killed a few HOURS of 'normal' battery time. There's little point to the faces once you are required to keep the watch face dark/OFF 99.9% of the time, just hoping the battery will last from breakfast to dinner. If they ever have a field replaceable battery or have a battery that will last more than 24 hours WHILE THE WATCH IS ACTUALLY BEING USED (not almost always dark and untouched), I might consider trying another one. Until then, I'm going back to a real watch. This was NOT worth the $330 it cost me -- a $300+ watch should work for years and years and years, generations even. Since this one now requires charging a few times each day (which cannot be done while wearing it) it spends more time on a charger than on my wrist, making it a clock not a watch. EDIT: I am updating my review to one star because only a month or so after writing the review my watch's battery life dropped to less then an hour on my wrist before it powered itself off. That is just ON MY WRIST, not actually being used or anything that might actually drain the battery. Yes, the bluetooth link to my phone is active, but what's the point of having a dumb smart-watch? So, after two years, this is basically a piece of junk and I paid about $150/year to rent what started as a kinda nice watch. As I said earlier: NEVER AGAIN.

I am one of those unlucky one who got scammed on "Indiegogo" about the "Cronovo" smart watch. So after giving up on that one and some more research I decided to go with the Gear S3. Especially attracted by the Frontier, since it has a bigger and more "adventurer" design than the regular or "sport" one. Plus, I have a quite large wrist, so that was also a perfect fit for me. But in case the band was too big (long), they also added in the box a smaller (shorter) one. Worked perfectly right out of the box, after the initial required full charge (the watch was at 50% when I received it). Setup may be a bit complicated for those who aren't used to smart watch, so I advice you to read the user manual that comes with it (or watch YouTube video about the watch and how to set it up). Also, after the first setup, Samsung send you an email reminding you of your watch serial number (useful if your watch got stolen), along with the user manual in .PDF format, which is much more easier to read than the included small paper version, and also search-able too. I had a Android watch before, so using this one and set it up was pretty straight forward for me, even if this is a Samsung Gear watch and not Android specific watch. Which means there may be some Android apps that will not be compatible with it. But so far, all the apps I used with my old Android watch, works fine with this one. Some review state that Samsung do not have enough apps selection, but so far I was happy with the quite a great selection of apps available, so I was able to choose a neat face watch, along with some other great apps I needed for the watch. Heart monitor works flawlessly, but I do have to tighten the watch a little bit more for it to read the hear beats accurately. Love the turning bezel as well, and it give a nice genuine watch look to it. Matter of fact, if I change the watch face to be a classic one with analog display (the needles one), the watch look like if it was one of those genuine expensive analog one. The screen resolution is so great and bright (even outside), that if you don't look closer you really think that those needles pointing at the time are real. On the battery side, I have everything on in the watch (except GPS for now), and it run for about 1 day and 20 hours without a charge. If I select "power saving" mode, then I could have up to 4 days of battery without charging the watch. Although, I have a habit to charge it every night before bed, so that's not a problem for me to leave all the gadgets on, and I can fully enjoy the watch and its performance. In short this was a great buy, which I definitely recommend if you're looking for a new smart watch, or replacement to an old one.

Todo estuvo excelente, llegó antes de lo estimado, venía perfectamente sellado y empaquetado. El reloj funciona perfecto, ideal para no sacar el celular en la calle. Actualizacion 17/10/2020 A casi tres años de mi compra puedo decir que no estoy arrepentido de nada, el reloj continúa como el primer día que lo adquirí. Cabe mencionar que originalmente venía con una correa como de goma, como al año y medio comencé a notar que tenía un desgaste considerable, sin que esta llegase a romperse, así que le compre una correa metálica y aparte de verse más elegante, es súper resistente. En resumen el reloj nunca me ha fallado, la batería es duradera, aproximadamente dos días y medio, solo que tengan cuidado si lo llevan a la playa, ya que los granos de arena se atoran dentro del altavoz y del micrófono del reloj, pero nada que una limpieza con aire comprimido no solucione.

Das Gerät ist nicht gut das kaputt gegangen.

Me encanto este gadget, puedes instalar distintas apps y caratulas, contestar llamadas (aunque no es muy cómodo), ver tus mensajes de texto y whatsapp (con imágenes) e incluso contestarlos con respuestas rápidas. Tiene distintos sensores, mide tu pulso, cuenta los pasos y puedes establecer metas. Lo único que no me agrado tanto es la correa de plástico, pero se la puedes cambiar fácilmente, aquí en Amazon encuentras distintas opciones y el cambio es muy sencillo y rápido, no requieres herramientas.

Excelente. El paquete llegó en perfectas condiciones, en el tiempo estimado, y sobre todo, el reloj es completamente funcional. Muy recomendable.

EXELENTE PRODUCTO EN SU DISEÑO, CALIDAD SUPERIOR LE DURA LA PILA HASTA 4 DÍAS DE USO CONTÍNUO SU SOFTWARE ES DE LO MEJOR UN PRODUCTO DE PRIMERA