Samsung finally made the LTE variant of their Gear S3 Classic smartwatch today, after seeing numerous models pass through the FCC in recent weeks. When Samsung announced the Gear S3 Classic and Gear S3 Frontier last year, the initial plan was to only offer the Gear S3 Frontier with 4G LTE connectivity, but obviously plans have changed for the company. The Gear S3 Classic will now have an LTE version, and it’s coming soon to AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon. None of the carriers have yet announced pricing or availability for the smartwatch, but it’ll likely launch around the same time as the upcoming Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus.
The Samsung Gear S3 Classic hasn’t changed a whole lot for the LTE model. The major difference is the addition of LTE and a slightly larger battery. The Gear S3 Classic LTE sports a 1.3-inch rounded AMOLED display with a resolution of 360×360 which gives you a ppi of about 278. It’s powered by a dual-core 1GHz processor, and it also has 768MB of RAM and 4GB of storage. It’s running on Tizen, so no Android Wear 2.0 here, but luckily Samsung has opened up their smartwatches to work with more than just Samsung devices. So the Gear S3 Classic LTE will work with your LG, Huawei, HTC or any other Android smartphone that is running Android 4.4 KitKat or higher. It does also work with iOS devices like the iPhone, running on iOS 9.0 and higher. Finally, the Gear S3 Classic LTE does have a 380mAh battery inside.
Since the specs between the Gear S3 Classic and Gear S3 Frontier are for the most part, the same, the real difference here is the design. The Gear S3 Classic is made to look a bit more like a classic time-piece, while the Gear S3 Frontier is made to look more like a watch an adventurer would take along with them. For someone that doesn’t care as much about the design but still wants a nicely designed smartwatch on their wrist. The three carriers should be announcing their pricing and availability for the Gear S3 Classic LTE in the next few weeks.