The Gear Sport smartwatch is - not shockingly - aimed at sports enthusiasts, which will come as no surprise when you consider its name. But the watch itself is also perfectly in tune with non-sports minded people, and it's smaller and arguably more comfortable design makes it a far better everyday watch than the Gear S3 before it.
*The Samsung Gear Sport 3 was reviewed using hardware provided and sent to us by EE/Samsung.
Returning features include Samsung’s now trademark rotating bezel interface, always-on AMOLED display, decent battery life and Samsungs own Tizen operating system. Another point over the Gear S3, is the Gear Sports swim-friendly water-resistance to 50 metres, which is up there with the latest Apple Watch devices.
The Gear Sport comes in a choice of either blue or black finishes; and whilst we was sent the black version to review, I would say I'd still opt for the black due to the more minimal style. However, the two-toned blue is definitely more eye-catching.
For the sports enthusiasts, there are a heap of great fitness trackers; calories burned, steps taken, floor targets, heart-rate monitoring, workout regimes, plus a sleep tracker. These are all easily accessed by either swiping or using the brilliant rotating bezel.
The rotating bezel has ridged edges that make it easy to spin, and has fantastic clicks thanks to magnets inside that give it some subtle (but noticeable) tactile feedback.
I stand adamant that the rotating bezel is the best interface for round watches, since it feels so logical and intuitive for round displays.
The display itself, whilst only being a 1.2-inch AMOLED screen, with a 360 x 360 resolution, is beautifully crisp and vibrant, with deep blacks and bright whites. I haven’t encountered any issues with visibility outdoors and text always looks sharp regardless of how bright the surrounding is.
The wearable also has a always-on display mode, which means the Gear Sport resembles a traditional watch when not in use. I opted for the 'wrist gesture', turning the display on when I raise my wrist, and whilst it works 98% of the time, there is a few times where I've been greeted with a black display, rather than the time. A quick click of a button fixes this, and mostly the gesture works fine.
There are two physical hardware buttons on the side, one for 'home' and one for 'back', along with a microphone for Samsung’s S Voice assistant. It’s as basic as it ever was, and just as finicky too, but the option is there if you need to talk to your watch.
Inside the Samsung Gear Sport is a dual-core 1GHz processor, 768MB of RAM and 4GB of storage. The whole device is extremely snappy, and rotating the bezel between screens is instantaneous, whilst menus respond without a stutter.
Battery life is pretty good at just over three days for general activity tracking and the always-on display turned off, whilst it’s closer to two days with the always-on display active.
Samsung includes a handy charging dock that doubles as a nice table stand, which charges the devices via magnets.
There are a number of watch faces to customise the look of the watch, and third-party apps such as Facer allow you access to thousands of custom made watch faces, meaning you can change the look whenever you feel like it.
Review Overview
Samsung Gear Sport
Summary : The Gear Sport is a fast, reliable and intuitive smartwatch, but the Tizen OS is limited by the number of compatible apps available. Still, it's an excellent step forward, and the rotating bezel is a joy to use, whilst the crisp and vibrant screen is one of the best available.
The Samsung Gear Sport 3 was reviewed using hardware provided and sent to us by EE/Samsung.
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