Data shows one of the primary uses for a smartwatch is to track the details of life; including sleep, stress, activity, eating, and focused exercise. The new Samsung Galaxy Watch optimizes life tracking, while also providing a high capacity battery so you can use it for days without charging. The Tizen OS with the rotating bezel is arguably the best smartwatch interface available today, making the Galaxy Watch a wearable for the masses.

It has been nearly two years since I bought a Samsung Gear S3 Frontier from T-Mobile. That watch is fantastic, but battery life has disappointed me when trying to add in a focused workout after using it to track my entire day of activity. The new Galaxy Watch has the potential to improve in a couple key areas and after a day of use, it appears Samsung is on the right track.

Hardware

The Samsung Gear S3 Frontier, see our full review, has been my primary smartwatch for nearly two years and the only complaint I have with the hardware is the battery capacity. It is 380 mAh and can get me through a day when LTE is not used and I don't try to track my life and then go for an hour long run.

The new Galaxy Watch continues with Samsung's top notch design and construction through the use of stainless steel and high quality plastic. When setting the new Galaxy Watch adjacent to my Gear S3 Frontier, the only way I can identify one over the other is the silver versus black stainless steel housing. The bezel is elegant, the buttons have awesome design and texture, and from the front things look about the same. The back of the Galaxy Watch has less glass than the Gear S3.

This year, you can choose from three variations of the Galaxy Watch, including a smaller size since that was a complaint of many folks. I personally like bigger watches, the 47mm Garmin Fenix 5 Plus is my current daily watch, so I am testing out the larger 46mm model that comes with silver stainless steel and a black silicone band. You can also choose a 42mm midnight black model or a 42mm rose gold model. Various band colors are available for each model too.

Specifications of the Samsung Galaxy Watch include:

• Processor: Samsung Exynos 9110 1.15GHz dual-core/li>
• Display: 1.3 inch (1.2 inch for 42mm models) 360x360 pixels resolution Super AMOLED, Gorilla Glass DX+
• Operating system: Tizen OS 4.0
• RAM: 768MB (1.5GB for LTE model)
• Storage: 4 GB internal storage
• Wireless technology: NFC, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 4.2, and GPS/Glonass. LTE is available on select models too.
• Sensors: Accelerometer, barometer, gyro, heart rate, ambient light
• Other features: IP68 and 5 ATM dust and water resistant, MIL-STD-810G rated, integrated microphone and speaker
• Battery: 472 mAh battery with wireless charging dock (270 mAh on 42mm model)
• Dimensions: 46 x 49 x 13 mm and 63 grams (46mm model) and 41.9 x 45.7 x 12.7 mm and 49 grams (42mm models)

The larger Galaxy Watch is only 0.1mm thicker than the Gear S3 Frontier and 1 gram heavier. However, the battery has a 92 mAh higher capacity, which is nearly 25 percent greater than the Gear S3 Frontier.

The larger model also uses a standard 22mm strap configuration so you can purchase replacement bands to match your needs and style, such as the awesome Strap Studio bands I have tested a couple of times over the last two years. The smaller two models use a standard 20mm strap design so you can also find alternative bands for very reasonable prices online or pick up official Samsung bands at a premium price.

One specification that was actually removed from the Galaxy Watch is the MST radio. Samsung stated it was removed to provide a larger capacity battery. I personally agree with the trade-off to provide more battery life, especially since MST is older payment technology and should be phased out anyway. You can still use your Samsung phone to pay with Samsung Pay and MST or use Samsung Pay via NFC with the new Galaxy Watch.

Software

The Galaxy Watch thankfully continues to run Tizen (there were rumors of Samsung moving to Android Wear) and it is fully optimized for the round wearable experience. There are a number of optional watch faces with a ton more available, Samsung says 60,000+, in the Samsung Gear store. Buttons, screen swipes and taps, and the rotating bezel are all used to navigate around on the watch.

A rotation or swipe to the left reveals your notifications and then moving to the right jumps through various customizable widgets you select. Pressing in on the home key, bottom right, takes you to the app launcher that you can easily spin or tap through to launch apps loaded by default and those you install through the Gear app store.

Swiping down from the top reveals the connectivity status and several quick controls. Settings can be managed right from the Galaxy Watch or through the companion Galaxy Wearable, previously named Samsung Gear, application.

The Galaxy Wearable application is available for all Android 5.0 and higher smartphones and the iPhone. The app allows you to fully setup and customize your Galaxy Watch experience. This includes viewing the Galaxy Watch connection status, finding and installing apps and watch faces, managing your notifications that are shared with the Galaxy Watch, sending pictures and music to the Galaxy Watch, and more. The Galaxy Wearable app also then to the Samsung Health application.

Initial setup and pairing with a Galaxy Note 9 was quick and easy with a pop-up appearing on the Note 9 as soon as I turned on the Galaxy Watch.

New software features, some hardware dependent, include more automatic and manual activities, stress tracking, advanced sleep tracking, new voice assistant, daily assistant capability, cool My Day watchface, and much more. There is also more integration with the Samsung ecosystem, including Samsung Health, Samsung Pay, Knox, Samsung Flow, and Bixby. The software and ecosystem support are areas I will be focusing on over the next week.

How is the Galaxy Watch 46mm different than the Gear S3 Frontier?

• Larger battery capacity: 472 vs 380 mAh. The 42mm Galaxy Watch only has a 270 mAh battery
• Newer Samsung Exynos processor
• Improved variant of Gorilla Glass
• 5 ATM water resistance so you can now swim with the watch
• Ability to charge via any WPC-compatible (Qi) source
• No MST support
• Bixby instead of S Voice
• REM added to sleep tracking details
• HRV support to aid with stress tracking

Concluding initial impressions

The size of the Gear S3 Frontier never bothered me so when comparing the new larger Galaxy Watch, the increased battery capacity, updated OS, and hardware support for REM sleep and stress tracking capability may be enough to upgrade. However, if you use Samsung Pay with MST, then you will want to stick with the Gear S3 Frontier.

The smaller Galaxy Watch with small battery does not interest me at all since I find the compromise on battery capacity to be too great. However, if you find the current Gear S3 too large and want all of the excellent smartwatch capability while having a shorter battery life, at least there is an option available for you.

The software improvements are interesting with REM sleep and stress calculation functionality I now have on the Garmin Fenix 5 Plus. The Galaxy Watch is a powerful smartwatch though while the Garmin has very basic smartwatch functions as it focuses on health and exercise tracking.

The Galaxy Watch is priced competitively and offers more health and activity tracking than the Apple Watch. While it is a Samsung-branded watch, it also works with iOS and Android watches so may even be the best smartwatch for iPhone users who have health tracking as their primary need.

The larger 46mm model is priced at $349.99 with the smaller 42mm just $20 less at $329.99. The 42mm Apple Watch Series 3 start at $359.

Please let me know in the comments if there is anything you would like me to test as I work on my full review of this new smartwatch.