Samsung
Samsung announced the new Galaxy Watch 3 on its online Unpacked event Wednesday next to the new Galaxy Note 20 phones and the latter folding phone, the Galaxy Z Fold 2. The newly unveiled Galaxy Watch 3 has the same sleek look and large, round screen as the original Galaxy Watch, with all the fitness features of the 2019 Galaxy Watch Active 2. There is also the promise of advanced health features such as a FDA-removed electrocardiogram (ECG or ECG) and monitoring of blood oxygen (SpO2). But not all will roll out immediately.
Samsung
The Galaxy Watch 3 brings back the physical rotating edge of the original Galaxy Watch and the Gearline before it, except the edges of the rim are now smoother. This dial can be used to control the interface without touching the screen.
That’s probably the biggest, and argument only, difference between the new Watch and the Watch Active 2 apart from physical size. It has no new sensors, but only a few new features that are actually available at launch.
Like its predecessors, the Watch 3 has inbuilt GPS, is water resistant up to 5 atm for both indoor and outdoor pools, and can track up to 40 different activities, seven of them automatically.
It also adds a new feature that allows you to sync workout videos from the Galaxy Health app, so you get prompts for every exercise on your wrist when you stream that video on your phone or TV.
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The Galaxy Watch 3 looks great, but some health features …
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The Galaxy Watch 3 will expand on the running coach feature introduced with the Active 2 by providing real-time feedback on pace and form. At the end of the run, the watch will generate a more detailed analysis, including your flight and contact time, designed to help you improve performance and reduce injuries. It will also use maximum oxygen consumption (aka Vo2max) to determine your fitness level and recovery.
In theory, you can also measure your demand at oxygen level on demand, but this feature, along with the post-run reports, will not be available at launch. Samsung says they will come later in 2020 via software update.
And those are not the only features that are TBD on the Watch 3. It also features an ECG app that has just received approval in the US from the Food and Drug Administration. It may signal when your heart rate could be contributing to atrial fibrillation (aka aFib), a serious cardiac arrest that can lead to stroke. There’s also a blood pressure app that is still awaiting FDA clearance. In theory, these two could have been available on other Galaxy Watches such as the Active 2, but the features have remained dormant until now. Samsung could not provide a timeline for when these additional features would roll out to US users – at launch they will only be available in South Korea.
One of the new health features that will be available from the bat is the new travel detector, which works the same as the function for case detection on the Apple Watch (Series 4 and above). The watch will inform an emergency contact immediately if it detects that you have taken a hard fall, and shares your location.
The Galaxy Watch 3 is also designed to make sleep tracking more robust by analyzing the four stages of sleep and issuing a sleep score based on quality and durability, along with tips on improvement. It can also track stress levels on command like its predecessors.
The Galaxy Watch 3 will be available in options 41mm and 45mm, both available in metal finishes of silver or bronze. The 45mm version will also be available in black, and even a titanium version. The watch starts at $ 399 (£ 399, AU $ 649) for the 41mm Wi-Fi only model, and it’s $ 50 (£ 40, AU $ 150) more for LTE.
See the next few days for the full review.
