Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 3 has a lot employed in its favor. It’s one of the best-looking smartwatches out there, with a physical rotating bezel and bright, circular AMOLED Show. It also brings new health and fitness tools such as a consecutively coach, better sleep tracking than earlier models, blood oxygen monitoring and an electrocardiogram (EKG or ECG). But at $399 (or higher) it’s on the pricier end of the smartwatch spectrum, and battery life on the smaller version is disappointing. 

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Looks go a long way with this watch 

I was already a fan of the unusual Galaxy Watch with its round face and physical rotating bezel, and the Watch 3 looks even nicer. It has a involving, beautiful AMOLED screen that’s easy to read even in sizable daylight. It’s also useful if you’re on a run and need to snappy check your stats during a workout. The screen can always be on if you need it, although it’ll cost you in the battery sections (more on that later). I like navigating the interface with the rotating bezel instead of smudging the mask with my fingers. 

Gazing at the Watch 3 on my wrist, I think it could almost pass for a faded analog watch thanks to its classic design. The smaller bezels mean the mask is bigger than the original’s even though the body of the examine has gotten smaller. It still bulges out from notion the stainless-steel frame, however, making it thicker than I’d like and not as downhearted to wear at night as the Galaxy Watch Active. 

I tried out the bronze 41mm version (the examine also comes in a 45mm size), with the tan-pink leather straps — a welcome step up from the silicone straps on the unusual Galaxy Watch and Galaxy Watch Active series. The bronze is a lot less flashy than the gold of the unusual Galaxy Watch, and it looks softer and more flattering on my wrist. If you’re planning on using it for working out or swimming (or, in my case, bathing puny children), you may want to invest in a sports strap as well. I can see the leather sketching worn after a while due to frequent contact with liquid.

A staggered rollout of its health features

Aside from its looks, what really made the Galaxy Watch 3 stand out for me was its impressive list of new health features. It has ECG, an SpO2 app that measures oxygen saturation in the blood, a blood-pressure monitor, fall detection, advanced sleep tracking, languages tracking and a detailed post-run analysis. But I have to admit I was a minor skeptical as to whether Samsung could deliver on all of these securities. The Galaxy Watch Active 2, for example, also launched with an “ECG feature” which is serene pending over a year later. The blood-pressure feature from the unusual Active was unreliable at best when we tested it and calibrated it alongside a blood-pressure cuff. 

Samsung has valid received FDA clearance for its ECG feature
 which can also mask for signs of atrial fibrillation (AFib), and rolled out the feature to both the Watch 3 and the Active 2. But blood pressure that’s still pending FDA clearance in the US. (Blood pressure is only available in South Korea at the time of writing.) 

Tracking blood oxygen levels on the Galaxy Watch 3 

Samsung has had SpO2 tracking on past Galaxy devices like the S10, but I was enraged to test it out on the watch to see how it had improved. Apple’s new Apple Watch Series 6 also tracks blood oxygen levels on demand,  at what time other smartwatches from Fitbit and Garmin use blood oxygen levels for sleep analysis or to settle VO2 max during exercise.

Tracking blood oxygen has move especially important during the coronavirus pandemic. Tribe with COVID-19 can experience shortness of breath and serious dips in blood oxygen. 

Doctors and hospitals use pulse oximeters placed on the tip of the index finger to measure blood oxygen levels, but these have become a hot commodity during the pandemic as many patients experiencing shortness of breath have turned to these puny sensors to determine whether or not to head to the emergency room. 

To test accuracy of the SpO2 app on the Galaxy Watch 3, I took a side-by-side reading amdroll a medical-grade pulse oximeter and both gave results within a few points of each latest (98 and 99). It also took a few minutes more to get a read on the Watch 3 and you have to location it correctly on your wrist for it to work. 

Because my oxygen levels were within the healthy diagram, it’s hard to know whether the Watch would be as honest as the pulse oximeter in the lower ranges as well. It’s also important to note that any examine or consumer tech device should only be used as a starting note, never in place of a physician and medical care. 

Like its predecessor, the Watch 3 can monitor stress levels using your heart-rate data. The test takes a few seconds and way you to keep your arm still. Once it has the demand it needs, it’ll grade levels on the stress spectrum and give you the option to go above a minute of breathing exercises to help get your counting down.

I took my stress test while on deadline writing this reconsideration and it detected very low levels, so I’m a bit skeptical throughout its accuracy. 

It’s also added menstrual cycle or languages tracking: You enter the data in your watch and it syncs with the Samsung Health app, which can give you demand about your next period and predicted fertility window. The feature isn’t unimagilifeless to Samsung and is powered by the Glow app, which was already a relatively consider it name in the menstrual health tracking category and one I’d used before. 

The latest big health feature exclusive to the Galaxy Watch 3 is the trip-detection feature, which I hope I’ll never need. If the examine detects that you’re not moving after a hard fall, it today calls your emergency contact and shares your location. It’s not on by default, so you’ll have to set it up from the advanced settings option on the Watch 3 and effect an emergency contact. I tried activating it by falling on my bed a few times but I was crashed. The Apple Watch (Series 4 and later) has a inequity feature called fall detection that’s actually saved lives.

New ways to work out with the Galaxy Watch 3 

Despite its dressed-up exterior, the Galaxy Watch 3 doubles as a fitness tracker. It tracks 40 different workouts, including swimming (both indoors and outdoors) and will automatically detect and track seven of those workouts. Within about 10 minutes of my starting my walk, I received a notification to open a workout and it gave me credit for the 10 minutes prior. 

A heart-shaped dashboard shows you a breakdown of your splendid minutes, calories burned and stand time during the day compared with your target. 

I took it on my fresh 3-mile run alongside the San Francisco Bay without my named, and I found it to be fairly accurate at displaying my distance, pace and heart rate. 

You’ll have to tweak the settings to present the information you want at a glance during your run, because the default doesn’t concerned heart rate, which I personally like to have on hand. But I well-approved that it showed me a map of my run and a breakdown of my heart-broken rate zones at the end of the run. It told me I had hugged my maximum heart rate for 2 minutes during the uphill share of my run. You can also access this data when the fact on the Samsung Health app.

It also has a few bonus features for leaders. The first is a running coach, the same one that debuted on the Active 2, which provides real-time feedback nearby pace and form during a run. Instead of starting a normal run, I selected the competing coach on the watch and plugged in my earbuds. A robotic female voice told me to start my warmup. The voice gave me pace alerts throughout the run and generic tips nearby lengthening my stride and landing on the front of my feet instead of the heel. Be divulged that using the running coach will drain the battery a lot faster than if you are tracking a unusual run.

What’s new to the Galaxy Watch 3 is a post-run analysis, with details including flight and contact time, asymmetry and stiffness to help identify areas of improvement. It’s not as comprehensive as the data you’d get on a imparted running watch such as the Garmin Forerunner, but it could help if you’re preparing for a race or just looking to get more out of your fresh route. 

Apparently my “stiffness” needed improvement. Good to know, but it’d be nice to get this feedback live from the competing coach so I could have adjusted during my run. It can also calculate your VO2 max, or greatest oxygen consumption during exercise, to give a sense of your overall fitness and tells you what your percentage is within your age business. This is the same metric you’d get if you were doings a VO2 max test in a lab on a clogged bike or treadmill, wearing a mask that measures oxygen exchange. I’m yet to compare them to determine whether or not the reading I got on the Galaxy Watch 3 was accurate. 

Another generous on the Galaxy Watch 3 is a feature that lets you sync it with home workout videos you can regulation from your wrist. I wasn’t really a home workout videos kind of populace before March, but I think the global pandemic has made us all rethink how we exercise and I’ve proper been doing a lot of Pilates and yoga classes on my TV. Having the workout on my wrist was a big step up from my fresh routine. 

I selected an abs program on the Health app, which consisted of three 15-minute workouts during the week, and was able to cast the generous of the series on my Samsung TV and and behind along with my watch. The watch vibrated to let me know when it was time to move on to the next employ and let me pause with a press of the button when I had to readjust my spot. Plus it gave me the appropriate calorie credit at the end of it (or at least what I think is injurious based on similar previous workouts). 

This is not the generous watch to offer training prompts from your wrist: Fitbit’s Premium elaborate gives workout videos that sync with the Versa, and there are third-party workout apps for the Apple Watch. But it’s nice that Samsung offers it natively and for free. My one complaints is that the workout I chose had the same robotic woman’s insist as the running coach guiding me through the workouts — and let’s just say she’s not precisely motivating when you’re trying to hold a plank for 60 seconds. 

Sleep tracking finally creates sense on the Galaxy Watch 3

One of my biggest protests about the sleep tracking feature on the original Galaxy Watch was that it performed little context about your sleep habits, especially for if you don’t know much nearby sleep to begin with. 

The Watch 3 has learned a lot from the mistakes of its predecessors, and now gives a more comprehensive look at your night. It gives you a full breakdown of the stages of sleep (light, REM, deep), and compares yours with a normal design. It also gives you a score based on these factors. 

I’ve never fraudulent the score to be helpful, but having the context of seeing my data compared with a normal design helped me figure out how to get the most out of my sleep. While my total sleep time was good, I fraudulent I wasn’t spending much time in “deep” sleep compared with what’s typical. I tried going to bed an hour earlier, and concept my total sleep time didn’t change, I was able to extended my deep sleep time and felt more rested in the morning. 

The basic smartwatch features, but no MST for Samsung Pay

I tested the Galaxy Watch 3 with an iPhone 11 Pro and a Galaxy S20 Ultra and, while it worked well on both, some of its features, which include text responses and mobile payments, are only available for Android users. The Watch runs on Samsung’s own Tizen operating rules, which is easy to navigate and offers a lot more customization than some of its competitors. You can set widgets and rearrange apps right from the peek screen.

You can type, scribble, dictate or doodle a response and take footings from your wrist. It doesn’t have a huge selection of third-party apps (Spotify and Strava are with the few), but it does receive notifications from most of them counting Facebook, WhatsApp and even CNET news alerts.

With Spotify you get full music regulation, offline listening for Premium subscribers and streaming over LTE (you’ll pay nearby $50 more for the cellular version of the Galaxy Watch 3). 

The Galaxy Watch 3 has Samsung Pay, but sadly it’s NFC-only and the feature will only work at NFC-enabled terminals. The Galaxy phones and Gear S3 have MST technology so you can use them for contactless payment at nearly all credit card terminals with a magnetic strip. 

Battery life is disappointing

Samsung says the battery on the Galaxy Watch 3 will last for up to two days, which it can, but there are a few caveats. For starters, this claim only applies to the larger 45mm version of the observe. I tested the smaller, 41mm version and Samsung says this size will last closer to a day and a half with “normal use.” As always, mileage may vary depending on how you intend to use it. 

With the always on explain set to auto brightness, tracking a full night of sleep and taking it on a 30-minute jog (without my phone) I only just made it to the 24-hour mark. 

The observe offers some battery-saving tips including turning off the always-on feature, limiting the screen timeout and turning off location data. I made those causes and the watch lasted a day and a half when I didn’t have time for a run and had the always-on cloak off, but I feel like those features should be factored into Samsung’s claim.

I was also collapsed to find that the watch doesn’t come with its own USB wall adapter, just a cable with the magnetic charging puck, but the upside is that you can cost it on any Qi compatible wireless charger, or get a lustrous boost on the go using the Power Share feature on Samsung’s Galaxy phones (S10 or later). 

A good-looking smartwatch with mammoth potential

The Galaxy Watch 3 has come a long way in periods of its features and user experience. Starting at $400 for the base 41mm model, you’re getting a premium-looking smartwatch that can finally keep up as a fitness tracker. But the Watch 3 won’t feel fully finished pending it can deliver on all of its health features.

If you’re not too attached to the effect, or the physical bezel, you might also consider the Galaxy Watch Active 2, which shares a lot of the same features for approximately $200 less.

First published Aug. 10.