By Edd K. Usman
Expanding its smartwatch portfolio, Samsung Philippines introduced on Monday, Dec. 12, the Gear S3 smartwatch just in time for the Christmas shopping season.
The smartwatch, which starts at P16,000, will be able in Philippine stores on January 14 next year. However, the Samsung local office has opened pre-orders starting Dec. 12 to January 8, 2017.
The Gear S3’s two designs — the Frontier and the Classic ? are outdoors-friendly, the company said. The Frontie variant comes in two choices: the first one has LTE connectivity while the second model only a standard Bluetooth connectivity .
Samsung first launched Gear S3 in August this year at Europe’s yearly gadget convention, the IFA 2016.
Ivan Pua, head of smartphone category, at Samsung Philippines, told journalists during the launch at the Bonifacio Global City that the Gear S3 was designed by the company based on a man’s watch.
“It is really a device geared for men. The face of the Gear S3 is based on an average size of men’s watch,” said Pua. He hastened to add, however, “that we are not limiting the market to men only” and that women could also have it their wrists.
The executive said users have a number of options on how to wear the S3 because it comes with multiple different faces; it has more than 10 faces in fact and even has interchangeable bands.
Users may also answer calls to their smartphone through the S3, or stream their music and listen through its speaker. Its battery can last for three to four days, he added.
The Frontier model is made of United States military steel and is equipped with altimeter, barometer, and speedometer as outdoor activity sensors, Pua said.
Armed with 4GB internal memory, the Gear S3 has a fitness tracker, automatic activity recognition, and can share workout records online, Pua pointed out. It can also track and locate the user’s car through its built-in GPS, the Samsung executive said.
It sports “a crisp 1.3″ super AMOLED display and has a customizable ?always-on display mode? that lets users keep track of time, date, missed call and message alerts.”
