The watch to end all watches.... for me.... for now....

[Grant Lamontagne]

A couple of months ago I spotted someone selling a Samsung Galaxy Gear S3 Frontier watch on Facebook marketplace for less than half what they normally go for, and I couldn't pass it up.

I think I like it most because, unlike my original Samsung Galaxy watch, this one looks like a normal watch, at least, depending on what face you have it on.  It doesn't look like a smart watch if you don't want it to.  I'll get some comparison pics shortly, but it's really no bigger than a G Shock or regular dive watch, like my beloved Seiko Orange Monster.

I didn't like the rubber strap that it came with, so I picked up an olive drab faux NATO type strap on eBay with all black hardware, and I have to say, it looks pretty sharp.  The rubber strap wasn't bad, I just found that it either needed to be too tight or too loose- there were no holes in it that were exactly where I wanted them to be, but that could be a problem with any strap, so I don't count it against the watch.

The smart watch functions are also fantastic, easy to navigate by either twisting the bezel, using one of the two buttons, or just using the touch screen.  It's very intuitive, and I find it a lot easier to use than the older Gear, and more versatile than the Pebble watches I used to love.

Battery life is pretty good- with some conservation efforts I was able to get three days out of it, but under normal use I charge it every night.  As I write this it is 8:30 pm and it is still reading 43% battery, which is not bad because I have it set to always on.  As it still has plenty of juice at the end of the day, I see no reason to conserve power.

I have to say that it checks pretty much all of the boxes for me.  It looks good and it works good.  It is a bit on the pricey side, but not compared to an Apple watch or many regular watches.  Still, I have a personal limit of $100 on watches- I have never paid more than $100 on a watch, and, because I got this one on a heck of a deal, I still haven't broken that rule.  I definitely feel like it is worth more than $100, I am just glad that I didn't have to pay it!   

If I could change one thing on it, I would like to be able to access Google Assistant on it instead of trying to use the Samsung version, which is actually (I think) worse than Alexa.

Def

[Max Stone]

Great find Grant. 
I used to be an ‘early adopter’ of many smart watches (even the Microsoft Band), but after collecting a draw full of them I’ve realized that I still prefer my G-Shocks... 

[kakashi]

I sold my old suunto traverse alpha to buy one. It was okay but having to charge it every couple of days was an arse. I'd hate to be somewhere without a means to charge it.

I got rid of it and bought another suunto traverse.

I then found the garmin instinct tactical. It does everything the suunto did only better. No messing around with taking off nato straps when they get stinky. The silicone strap is comfortable. Built in hr monitor and bluetooth with a good 30+ ft radius. I get a long battery life with either the suunto or garmin. The garmin is much quicker to charger though and you can download much more useful data to your phone than the traverse allows.

[eamo]

My partner got me a garmin instinct (non tactical ) for Christmas and I really like it - my biggest peeve is i find the altimeter quite inaccurate regardless of how I calibrate it - using GPS or manually entering my elevation it just seems to have a mind of its own.

[eamo]

for anyone interested, Garmin have a firmware update for the instinct, and while the altimeter issue doesn't seem 100% fixed it seem much much better. Updated a few days ago and so far much happier with it.