Moto 360 (2nd gen) vs Samsung Gear S3

The Moto 360 is one of the few watches which will change the brightness depending on how bright the area is around you. This is very convenient when you use the watch outdoors as you don't have to manually adjust the brightness each time you step outside. The light sensor is located in the small black semi-circle at the bottom of the display.

With minimal bezels, the Moto 360 looks stunning. While it does have a 'flat tire', it's pretty small and required to have such slim bezels as well as the ambient light sensor.

Through Moto Maker you can choose either a 42mm or 46mm size, the bezel color, case color, band (2 leather options or 3 metal options), and the default watch face.

The larger 46mm size, micro knurl bezel, gold case or metal bands will increase the price slightly.

The Samsung Gear S3 has an original and easy-to-use rotating bezel around the face of the watch that is used for cycling through screens, apps, menus and seeing new notifications. The timepiece has two buttons on the right side, the upper one being the “Back” button and the lower one being the “Home” button, which can be pressed multiple times to do different things. All of this combined with a touchscreen makes browsing an effortless experience.

Some built-in highlights of the Samsung Gear S3 include a SOS command, health and fitness tracking (heart rate, daily steps, sleep tracking, distance data via GPS), weather reports, a calendar for scheduling, a music player (the device offers 4 GB of internal storage, so songs can be put straight on the smartwatch), a news reader and an optional LTE connection for making calls and sending messages (though this requires a monthly sum of 10$ and users have reported the loudspeaker not being loud enough, crackling and not dealing too great with higher pitches), all offering the possibility of using the watch as a standalone machine to your smartphone.

Tizen Wearable also offers over 10,000 (and growing) apps, many of which can effortlessly be installed on the watch without any communication to a phone. The Gear S3 is compatible with a lot of popular third-party apps, such as Spotify, Uber, Facebook Messenger, Whatsapp, Gmail and more. Another popular highlight is Samsung Pay, letting the user pay at credit card terminals with literally only a flick of the wrist by adding their credit and debit card information to the timepiece.

The Samsung Gear S3 is a powerful-looking watch with the appearance of a real wristwatch. Since it is IP68-certified and has passed military specification (MIL-STD-810G), providing protection against water (check specifications for more), dust, drops from 4.9 feet, extreme temperatures, shock/vibration, low pressure/high altitude, it lives up to the visual impression.

In terms of aesthetics, Samsung Gear S3 is compatible with standard 22mm bands which can be exchanged to better suit casual, formal or fitness attire. The timepiece also comes with 15 preloaded watch face designs and offers many more at the Gear App Store, adding to the already big scope of customizability.

The display itself is also proportionally big, the 1.3” AMOLED screen is covered by Gorilla Glass SR+ and is colorful, bright and easily visible from any angle.

Regarding battery life, the Samsung Gear S3 can last up to 4 days and can be charged fully in approximately two hours.