IFA 2016: Samsung’s third Gear smartwatch

Samsung sure loves doing its massive mic drops. At this year’s IFA in Berlin, Germany, the South Korean tech company did it again, revealing to the European (and global) market an entire range of curved TVs and gaming monitors, additions to its washing machine and refrigerator lines, and enhancements for its overall vision of a smart home. It’s easy to get distracted by the sheer number of new Samsung products and innovations, and their promise to “redefine the consumer experience”, but in the end we were left with three favorites out of the lot.

Advertisement

At the top of our list is the new Samsung Gear S3 smartwatch. Similar to the ASUS ZenWatch 3, this smartwatch goes for a more traditional look, but you know right off the bat the features are far from what your pops and grandpa are used to. Samsung made two variants for the Gear S3: frontier and classic. The former will appeal to the active, outdoorsy types, while the latter is geared more for the minimalist crowd.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynTB211p1PQ

Whatever variant you choose, your Gear S3 will come with water and dust resistance, Corning Gorilla Glass SR+ for wearables, a full-color screen/watch “face” with Super AMOLED and Always On Display (AOD) tech, GPS, and fitness/health tracking features such as an altimeter/barometer and speedometer. The Gear S3 also ships with Wi-Fi/LTE/NFC capability, Samsung Pay support, wireless charging, and 4GB of internal storage. Of course, you can also make and receive phone calls and messages with the Gear S3, as well as manage lists and do smartwatch customizations.

We move from our wrists to our desks with Samsung’s new curved gaming monitor, the CFG70. Available in 24” and 27” variants, this monitor employs Quantum dot tech, a 1ms Moving Picture Response Time and 144Hz refresh rate, AMD’s FreeSync, and a 3000:1 contrast ratio — all working to give you the most vivid colors, smoother playback, and deep blacks. Your eyes will also get regular reprieves with Samsung’s Eye Saver Mode and Flicker Free feature. And would we even mention the CFG70 without touching on its 1800R curved form? Immersive gaming, here we come!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMC_otXJ500

And for our last Samsung favorite for this year’s IFA… would you like to have an 88” curved SUHD TV at home? We do, although we’ll never figure out how to fit the “world’s largest Quantum dot TV” in our small sala and have a proper viewing marathon with it. The Samsung KS9800, one of the whopping 19 models it introduced this year, doesn’t just claim to be the biggest: it also spews other superlatives, the type you usually see regarding color and image reproduction, brightness and HDR, viewing angles, blacks, and additional smart-tech features. Has it earned them? Digital Trends says yes… except for two important aspects.

For the most part, we’d also say Samsung earned its event tagline. No details yet on local or regional availability for any of the products Samsung showed at IFA, but we’ll let you know if and when we get them.