Return Gear S3 for Huawei Sport

[clerk]

Hi, I'm coming up on the end of my return period for my LTE Gear S3. I've given this a good rundown over the past 12 days and thing it's a solid offering. Coming from an Apple Watch S2 from comparison.

Things I like about the Gear S3:

1. Ridiculous battery life. 2 - 3 days without a charge is great.
2. Nice screen and easy UI.
3. Does most of the things I care about. I really only use my watch to read (rarely respond) to notifications and for fitness tracking. I am not so into fitness that something like a Garmin would be worth it to me.

Here's what I don't like:

1. Poor integration of Bluetooth. Swapping among BT headsets and my car is a pain in the ***. There almost always is an issue. I can live with it but Apple Watch has no such issues.
2. No offline music. I use streaming services and don't really care which one. I was prepared to switch to Spotify but no offline mode is a killer. I haven't been running outside due to injury but when I recover, GPS and offline music is a big deal. I suppose I could activate LTE and stream Spotify but it's not my preferred approach.
3. S-Health Fitness. The HR monitor on this thing is inconsistent. Some days, the auto HR works, some days it doesn't. Some workouts it grabs my HR quickly, others it can take over 5 minutes to get a reading. S-Health is a disaster. If I run for 45 minutes with a HR of 150, it says I burn 550 calories. If I do a stairmaster workout for 45 minutes at 150 HR, it says I burned 200 calories. This is absurd.

So, my dilemma is that the HW2 is just around the corner. It will fix the offline music issue. Presumably, the fitness tracking via google fit will be better than S Health. It will be more integrated with my Pixel XL. Alternatively, it looks like the build quality and feel won't be as nice as the S3. The frontier feels like a real watch.

I'm down to the wire. Thoughts?

 

[triolight]

Hi there

Off line music is available for S3. Just look into Gear app on your mobile phone. I run with my watch using off line music all the time.

About running apps, Endomondo and Map my run are available for S3 now. They are not erfect yet, but updates are coming every 2 weeks.

Never had issues with auto HR monitor

HW2 looks good, specially the 20 days of battery life in " watch mode" , but the quality of the watch has dropped a lot vs HW1.

 

[afblangley]

I've not been impressed with the hardware of any of the AW watches announced thus far. I think the S3 is a superior design. But there should be better watches released as the year progresses. The question is, how long are you willing to wait? I am patiently waiting for a manufacturer to retool and make something really good. Until then, I'm perfectly content using my S3. The rotating bezel, standard size bands, long battery life and SPay are enough to tide me over. While your criteria are different than mine, given the state of flux in the current market, no matter what you have now, its likely you'll lust after a better model in 6 months. So would you be happier biding your time with the Hauwai or the S3?

 

[xman1102]

Hi, I'm coming up on the end of my return period for my LTE Gear S3. I've given this a good rundown over the past 12 days and thing it's a solid offering. Coming from an Apple Watch S2 from comparison.

Things I like about the Gear S3:

1. Ridiculous battery life. 2 - 3 days without a charge is great.
2. Nice screen and easy UI.
3. Does most of the things I care about. I really only use my watch to read (rarely respond) to notifications and for fitness tracking. I am not so into fitness that something like a Garmin would be worth it to me.

Here's what I don't like:

1. Poor integration of Bluetooth. Swapping among BT headsets and my car is a pain in the ***. There almost always is an issue. I can live with it but Apple Watch has no such issues.
2. No offline music. I use streaming services and don't really care which one. I was prepared to switch to Spotify but no offline mode is a killer. I haven't been running outside due to injury but when I recover, GPS and offline music is a big deal. I suppose I could activate LTE and stream Spotify but it's not my preferred approach.
3. S-Health Fitness. The HR monitor on this thing is inconsistent. Some days, the auto HR works, some days it doesn't. Some workouts it grabs my HR quickly, others it can take over 5 minutes to get a reading. S-Health is a disaster. If I run for 45 minutes with a HR of 150, it says I burn 550 calories. If I do a stairmaster workout for 45 minutes at 150 HR, it says I burned 200 calories. This is absurd.

So, my dilemma is that the HW2 is just around the corner. It will fix the offline music issue. Presumably, the fitness tracking via google fit will be better than S Health. It will be more integrated with my Pixel XL. Alternatively, it looks like the build quality and feel won't be as nice as the S3. The frontier feels like a real watch.

I'm down to the wire. Thoughts?

This is pretty much my dilemma as well.

I bought the Gear S3 Frontier on release and kept it for around 3 months.

I loved the battery life, smartwatch functions, aesthetics, etc. Pretty much everything that had to do with watch I liked.

However, I really want a smartwatch for the fitness tracking capabilities. At the time I had the Gear S3, the apps and fitness tracking was awful. The S Health app is a joke to anyone moderately interested in tracking their running. And don't get me started with the 3rd party apps. I also do lots of hiking here in Colorado and there's pretty much nothing to track hikes.

Anyhow, I regress.

So I currently own the new Garmin Fenix 5X and it's a fitness best. This sucker will track anything and everything and does it all very well. However, the smartphone capabilities are pretty bad. The resolution is also a joke for a $700 watch. I love the fitness tracking, but I'm having a hard time justifying the $700 for a bad and ugly watch.


So I'm really torn on either the LG Sport, Huawei Watch 2, or purchasing another Gear S3.

I'd really strongly consider the Gear 3, but I need to hear some real world reviews of the new Under Armour apps. Do they work on a non Galaxy phone?(such as the Uber app only working with Galaxy phones) Are the apps comparable to the mobile apps?

And with the LG or Huawei, it's kind of a toss up for me. I don't need to be able to swap bands. I don't mind having to charge them nightly so that's no big deal. I like what I'm reading about the fitness software for both, so I'll be happy there.

So I guess I'm just looking for anyone that has used the new Under Armour apps for running and fitness on non Galaxy phones. If experiences are good, I might purchase them again.

 

[clerk]

This is pretty much my dilemma as well.

I bought the Gear S3 Frontier on release and kept it for around 3 months.

I loved the battery life, smartwatch functions, aesthetics, etc. Pretty much everything that had to do with watch I liked.

However, I really want a smartwatch for the fitness tracking capabilities. At the time I had the Gear S3, the apps and fitness tracking was awful. The S Health app is a joke to anyone moderately interested in tracking their running. And don't get me started with the 3rd party apps. I also do lots of hiking here in Colorado and there's pretty much nothing to track hikes.

Anyhow, I regress.

So I currently own the new Garmin Fenix 5X and it's a fitness best. This sucker will track anything and everything and does it all very well. However, the smartphone capabilities are pretty bad. The resolution is also a joke for a $700 watch. I love the fitness tracking, but I'm having a hard time justifying the $700 for a bad and ugly watch.


So I'm really torn on either the LG Sport, Huawei Watch 2, or purchasing another Gear S3.

I'd really strongly consider the Gear 3, but I need to hear some real world reviews of the new Under Armour apps. Do they work on a non Galaxy phone?(such as the Uber app only working with Galaxy phones) Are the apps comparable to the mobile apps?

And with the LG or Huawei, it's kind of a toss up for me. I don't need to be able to swap bands. I don't mind having to charge them nightly so that's no big deal. I like what I'm reading about the fitness software for both, so I'll be happy there.

So I guess I'm just looking for anyone that has used the new Under Armour apps for running and fitness on non Galaxy phones. If experiences are good, I might purchase them again.

Well I ended up keeping the s3. The LG is so goddamn ugly it's brutal. And 1 day battery life is a no go. Gonna wait and see what comes next. The misfit looks terrific but is still 6 months away. I agree that the s3 is the best option out there I really hope Samsung improves s health. It's a disaster. No link between hr and calories burned! How is that possible? Just a stupid fixed calorie count t tied to activity type no matter your actual intensity. Aw was tied directly to your HR.