Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 41mm: the complete Review

Samsung has just renewed its high-end smart health connected watch. The Korean company is releasing the Galaxy Watch 3 two years after the first Galaxy Watch. This model also follows on from the more affordable Galaxy Watch Active 2 version. As much to say it from the start, we were convinced by this product and its Tizen OS operating system which allows the watch to be used with both an Android smartphone and an iPhone.

A case still too massive

We got to try out the first Galaxy Watch when it launched. We therefore measured the distance traveled between the two models. Let’s start with the worst. Its shapes have melted very slightly, but its case remains too massive for our taste, especially as the rotating bezel which overhangs the screen reinforces this impression of bulk. The battery lost endurance as the autonomy went from three to two days for the 41mm Bluetooth version (the smallest) that we tested. Note that this allows you to take about two days so … activities included! As for the recharging of the battery, it is completed in two hours.

The larger models, 45 mm for the Watch 3, should offer a little more autonomy, since they have a higher capacity battery (340 mAh against 237 mAh on the 41 mm version)

The price has taken off somewhat and is now equivalent to that of the Apple Watch with prices starting at 429 euros. This is the top of the basket for generalist smart health connected watches and we can regret this rise in prices. We were finally a little surprised to have to install plug-ins during the installation. This is in addition to downloading the two apps needed to use the watch: Galaxy Wearable, for watch settings, and Samsung Health, for health and physical activity tracking. It should be noted that we also encountered a small bug when connecting to Samsung Health: the start-up was therefore more tedious than expected.

We are not the biggest fans of the rotating bezel but we understand its followers who like to use it to interact with the watch without having to touch the screen. And it is true that it works with great precision. A swipe to the left and you access the notifications, a swipe to the right and you open the widgets. Those opposed to this system can swipe directly on the screen, obtaining the same results. The two buttons on the right are still there. The highest one allows you to go back, the lower one to land on the menu with the applications.

We found the Galaxy Watch3 to be more responsive at the screen level. This time, she wakes up at the slightest flick of the wrist. The optimum brightness of this same screen also makes it very pleasant to use on a daily basis, even outdoors.

An efficient operating system

We will add that we were quite impressed by the efficiency of the Tizen OS operating system. Not only, it responds extremely quickly to requests, which allows you to quickly switch from one application to another. But in addition, its design is pleasant with the right amount of information displayed on the screen that can be deciphered without problem even without glasses. We will greet in passing all the small color animations that encourage you to move and salute your performance. They are pretty well made and friendly, although some might find them a bit intrusive.

Another good point, Tizen OS allows you to customize a lot of features. In addition to watch faces and widgets, it is possible to select the information and its display when recording an activity training, for example.

We strongly regret that it is excluded from sending and receiving SMS with Android smartphones other than Samsung. It is all the more annoying that instant messaging and large social networks do not appear in the catalog of the Galaxy Store which remains quite poor after all. Forget Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Twitter or Snapchat! You can still read your messages in the notifications but you cannot send any.

A sports watch

Side sensors, the watch is full since there is a heart rate monitoring, a GPS, a barometer, an altimeter, a gyroscope and an accelerometer. This explains the accuracy and reliability of the information collected during training. Riding also detects all the physical activities you start with great acuity. You could almost do without starting the recording.

But like all smartwatches, its heart rate sensor isn’t as accurate as a heart rate monitoring. And above all, it is not capable of providing interval training because it is too slow to detect accelerations and decelerations. Better to equip yourself with a specialized watch for this type of exercise or a competition.

We weren’t able to Review the ECG and blood saturation measurement which are supposed to make the Galaxy Watch 3 more of a health-tracking watch. These features should soon be available in France.

Detailed training data

To use all this data, you must therefore use the Samsung Heath application. For everyday life, we will say that it does the job with all the health features expected from a product of this type. Sleep tracking, number of steps, heart rate, number of floors climbed. The little extra? Stress measurement, made from data from the cardiac sensor. You can also enter the amount of water drunk and calories swallowed in the case of fitness or diet.

But it is the detail of the training, and in particular those of the running, which pleasantly surprised us. You have access to a multitude of information: VO2 max (maximum oxygen consumption), speed and pace, highest and lowest points, number of kilometers uphill and downhill. Apart from the reconstructed route outdoors, the speed per lap and the heart rate zones which are now classics, you can even compare your different workouts in graphs using the “Advanced race measurements” option. Exercises are also offered to improve. Finally, it is possible to export the reports in GPX file. These functions were yesterday the prerogative of specialized watches, so it is very satisfying to find them now in a generalist smart health connected watch.