Samsung Gear S3 Classic with LTE is here, is it the watch we’ve been waiting for?

SIM connected super Samsung smartwatch finally gets outed

Samsung has chosen to quietly announce the launch of its Gear S3 Classic with LTE connectivity. The fact it’s done this during the Baselworld watch show clearly isn’t a coincidence - this is it’s classiest looking smartwatch after all.

By adding LTE connectivity to the Gear S3 Classic it allows wearers to access online functionality at high speeds without a tethered phone. That should mean exercise tracking, music on the go and more with just the watch. Crucially this also means texts and calls can be responded to right there on the watch - minus the phone.

How can you have one number but two SIMs? That’s an option now - in the US at least. As such there’s no word on how international the release of this connected smartwatch will be. Right now Samsung has mentioned AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon as carriers, who are all US only. But that’s not to say it won’t hit the UK too, potentially.

The Samsung Gear S3 Classic comes with a high-end metallic rotating bezel control, 278ppi 1.3-inch Super AMOLED display encased in Gorilla Glass SR+, built-in GPS, altimeter and barometer for altitude and weather measurements, voice and writing recognition, wireless charging plus Samsung Pay via NFC. The operating system is Tizen based but is compatible with Android and iOS phones.

Expect to hear more as carriers, pricing and release date follow.

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Luke Edwards

Luke is a former freelance writer for T3 with over two decades of experience covering tech, science and health. Among many others Luke wrote about health tech, software and apps, VPNs, TV, audio, smart home, antivirus, broadband, smartphones, cars and plenty more. In his free time, Luke used to climb mountains, swim outside and contort his body into silly positions while breathing as calmly as possible.