A first look at the Samsung Galaxy Watch 3: Yes, the rotating bezel is coming back

For some reason, Samsung has decided to skip the “2” altogether for their Galaxy Watch series. Having used a Galaxy Watch as my regular wristwear for over a year, I’ve certainly been waiting for the next Galaxy Watch to arrive with much anticipation—and this is a first look at the Samsung Galaxy Watch 3.

The folks over at MySmartPrice spotted a series of images that show off the Galaxy Watch 3 in the flesh on the NRRA certification site for South Korea. Before we go any further, I’ll answer the most pressing (in my mind) question: yes, it looks like there will be a physical, rotating bezel.

What’s interesting is that there are two separate models that look slighly different based on the images. SM-R850 and SM-R840 both feature rotating bezels, although the former has a smooth bezel while the latter has a tooth-like ribbed edge on the bezel. Everything else appears to be identical, including two fairly prominent physical buttons on the right of the watch.

Just like the first Galaxy Watch, we’re expecting to see the Galaxy Watch 3 come in two separate sizes: 41mm and 45mm, as reported by Droid-Life. A separate report from Sammobile also claims that this translates to 1.2″ and 1.4″ displays, which isn’t too far away from the 1.3″ display on the first 46mm Galaxy Watch.

We could also be seeing titanium and steel variants, 8GB of onboard storage, either a 247mAh or 340mAh battery, and IP68 water resistance. Health monitoring won’t be too different from the Galaxy Watch Active, with 8 pulse-reading photodiodes for heart rate monitoring, blood pressure monitoring, and an ECG sensor. However, ECG functionality is something that is regulated differently in each country/market, so keep that in mind.

Samsung hasn’t confirmed a release just yet, but if the abundance of rumours (and these photos) are to be anything to go by, it should be soon. In fact, Samsung might even choose to launch the Galaxy Watch 3 alongside the next Galaxy Note smartphone. Regardless, I’m pretty thrilled that they’ve maintained a physical bezel. Tizen OS just feels a whole lot better with an actual bezel to help navigate the UI, as opposed to the virtual bezel of the Galaxy Watch Active 2.

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