Kathmandu Samsung Gear S3 is the best smartwatch you can get in Nepal and also the only one I can recommend to buyers whole heartedly. There are two variants of the Gear S3 — the Classic and the Frontier. The Gear S3 Frontier is coming officially to Nepal by the end of March. The Gear S3 looks and feels like a premium product. It also has all the bells and whistles of a good smartwatch. But is it enough for you to go and get one for yourself? Let’s find out. Design Samsung Gear S3 Frontier is a rugged looking smartwatch with case size of 46mm. It’s quite chunky for a watch and is something that is clearly designed for men. The Classic edition could be worn by both men and women, but unfortunately it won’t be available in our country. If you are a man who likes wearing rugged sophisticated watches, you clearly can’t go wrong with this one. The smartwatch looks and feels really good on the wrist. I wore the watch for a week and not even once did I feel uncomfortable. The rotating bezels and the large buttons look beautiful while adding functionality to the smartwatch. The watch is also IP68 certified and can be submerged in water up to 1.5 metres. The watch has two buttons out of which one acts as a back button and the other acts as a home button in addition to the rotating bezels which makes navigating through the watch very easy. Display Samsung Gear S3 Frontier has a 1.3-inch Circular Amoled Display with screen resolution of 360x360. The smartwatch enjoys all the native benefits of being an Amoled display including infinite contrast, impressive black levels and low power consumption followed by crisp and vibrant graphics. In this iteration, you also get an Always-On display which shows the watch face all the time. The sunlight legibility is also excellent and you can change the brightness of the display in a fly. Software Samsung Gear S3 Frontier runs on Tizen platform and not on Android wear platform as one would expect. It has both pros and cons. Let’s start with the cons first. There’s no Google services like the Google Now voice command or the Google Maps. You also miss out on a lot of apps found in the Android Wear platform. Apart from these, there’s very little to complain about the software of the Gear S3 Frontier. First party apps are excellent and work as intended on the watch. The S3 is also a great sport watch with all the fitness features you will ever need. The watch can track your steps, floors climbed, calories burnt and also measure the heart rate. Performance Samsung Galaxy S3 Frontier is zippy and performs better than I expected it to. The smartwatch has 1GHz Dual Core Processor coupled with 768MB of RAM. There’s also 4GB of onboard storage which can be used to store music. It’s especially helpful when you want to go for a run without carrying your phone. Navigating through different screens and through multiple applications is also a breeze. Connectivity Samsung Galaxy S3 Frontier comes in Wi-Fi only variant in Nepal. In terms of connectivity, the smartwatch comes with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, altimeter, barometer, NFC and also wireless charging. The Bluetooth connection is also very reliable and there was no loss of signal even when my phone was far from the watch. The watch is compatible with devices running on Android 4.4 and above as well as iPhones running iOS 9 or above. Battery Samsung Galaxy S3 Frontier comes with a beefy 380mAh battery which easily lasts over a day. In fact, I could get two days worth of battery from the smartwatch. Luckily though, the Gear S3 charges wirelessly through a cradle that is supplied in the box. The smartwatch charges from zero to 100 per cent in two hours. The battery life is better than most of the smartwatches out there. Conclusion All in all, Samsung Galaxy S3 Frontier is a great smartwatch and the best you can buy in Nepal right now. Although you miss out on Android Wear platform and limited to two-day battery life, it is still the most versatile watch you can get. The pros of the watch easily outweighs its cons. If you are really in need of a smartwatch, the Gear S3 Frontier is the way to go.

• Overall Score: 4.2/5
• Design: 4.5/5
• Display: 4.5/5
• Software UI: 3.5/5
• Performance: 4.5/5
• Connectivity: 4/5
• Battery: 4/5