The Samsung Gear S3 debuted during IFA 2016 but it is yet to go on sale. The smartwatch is expected to go on sale in early November but so far, no retailers have made the smartwatch available for pre-order. That is until now, as Best Buy Canada has now listed the Gear S3 Classic and Gear S3 Frontier for pre-order on its website. While it was initially thought that the Gear S3 would be available for purchase on November 4th, Best Buy Canada lists the smartwatch to be released on November 18th.
Both the Gear S3 Classic and Gear S3 Frontier, can be pre-ordered now from the online store of Best Buy Canada for $469.99 CAD ($358). You could also get 10 percent off your Gear S3 purchase if you apply the coupon code “WTPREORDER” when you checkout. It should also be noted that this is an online only offer, and you aren’t permitted to reserve a unit to collect it from a physical Best Buy Canada store. The site lists the estimated shipping to be as early as November 19th, the day after the Gear S3 is released in Canada, but it could be later. During IFA 2016, Samsung announced a Gear S3 variant which comes with 4G LTE connectivity and NFC to make payments via Samsung Pay, but it seems that the variants up for pre-order sports neither of those features.
As far as the specs of the Gear S3 go, the smartwatch comes with a 1.3-inch circular Super AMOLED display, protected by Corning’s new Gorilla Glass SR+. The Gear S3 Classic is 12.9mm thick with a streamlined design, while the Gear S3 Frontier shares a similar 12.9mm thick casing, but it appears to be a little more edgy and sporty looking. Both come with IP68 water and dust-resistance, an optical heart rate sensor, 4GB of storage and 768MB of RAM, as well as Samsung’s own Tizen 2.3.2 OS. A dual-core CPU clocked at 1.0 GHz keeps everything ticking here, WiFi and Bluetooth 4.2 connectivity, as well as GPS are included. The Gear S3 also comes packed with a 380mAh battery, which Samsung says can offer up to three-to-four days of battery life on a single charge. The latest offering from Samsung also supports wireless charging.