The Samsung Gear S3 was first revealed at the IFA trade show which was held in Berlin. Back then, it was rumored that Samsung will put the Gear S3 on sale at the end of October. However, that seems to be not quite the case as Samsung is reported to have released an official statement saying that the Gear S3 will be released in mid-November.
The smartwatch which comes in two variants, the Gear S3 Classic and the Gear S3 Frontier is expected to help the South Korean company recover from the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 fiasco it is currently facing. On Wednesday, the company said that the smartwatch will debut in its home country of South Korea, the US, and certain European countries. China, which is one of the largest electronics market, is said to not be included on the list, but a Samsung official stated that it will be launched in the country at a later date. The Samsung official went on to say that the price would be disclosed once the release date is fixed, but it is likely that the smartwatch will cost around $350 and up. While the Gear S3 is yet to be released, it is already available for pre-order in Canada from Best Buy, where it costs $470 CAD ($358) for both variants. However, the Gear S3 smartwatches being sold by Best Buy Canada, do not support 4G LTE or NFC.
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 12.9 mm thick with a streamlined design, while the Gear S3 Frontier shares a similar 12.9 mm 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 along, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.2 connectivity, as well as GPS are included. The Gear S3 also comes packed with a 380 mAh 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.