UPDATE: Samsung’s Gear S3 price is official. Available 8th of December 2016
After we saw it officially being launched. And after we saw it pop up in SIRIM’s database. It looks like we will finally be seeing Samsung’s Gear S3 launch here in Malaysia.
When? December 2016.
Samsung’s Gear S3 is the company’s follow-up to the already refined Gear S2 smartwatch. The Tizen Wearable OS-based smartwatch comes in two flavours — Frontier and Classic editions. According to Samsung Malaysia, both models will be arriving in Malaysia.
Samsung’s Gear S3 is largely a polished version of the Gear S2 with some added features. The Gear S3 turns the dials up a notch to include a larger 1.3″ 320×320 pixel AMOLED display and includes built-in GPS.
Besides that, the smartwatch will feature a toughened Gorilla Glass SR+ display, 768MB of RAM and 4GB of internal storage. Samsung also bundled it with a larger 380 mAh battery that the company claims can last about 3-4 days of use on a single charge.
The Gear S3 also comes with a new colour always-on display so it behaves a little more like an actual watch. It also features support for Samsung Pay, heart-rate monitoring, a barometer and an ambient light sensor.
What’s most impressive is the build quality. Having spent some time with the watches during IFA 2016, I can say that these are easily one of the best-built smartwatches in the market right now. Not only do both wearables ooze class, they’re pretty rugged too.
Both the Frontier and Classic editions are IP68 water resistant (like the S7 edge) and have a really nice rotatable bezel for navigation. What’s more, the Frontier edition comes with an MIL-STD-810G rating.
According to TheStar, the Samsung Gear S3 models will be priced at RM1,399, which is an incredibly competitive price point especially when you compare it to its competitors like the Apple Watch Series 2 (from RM1,799) and the Huawei Watch (RM1,799).
It seems like just plain good value.
UPDATE: We have the official price for the devices. Both variants will be available on the 8th of December 2016.
Thanks Vel for the photos and the heads up.