Smartwatch enthusiasts have a slew of new wearables to look forward to.
The Samsung Gear S3 and the Asus ZenWatch 3 will soon hit the shelves, giving stiff competition to the Huawei Watch, which was released in 2015 and the Apple Watch 2, which debuted in September this year.
We take a look at which of the four wearables is the best buy.
Display
The Samsung Gear S3 touts a 1.3-inch Super AMOLED display with a pixel resolution of 360 x 360. It has a circular dial, an always-on display and offers a pixel density of 278 ppi. The wearable uses Corning Gorilla Glass SR+ and is 12.9 millimeters (0.51 inches) thick.
The Huawei Watch also has a circular dial and boasts a bigger 1.4-inch AMOLED panel, which is made using Sapphire Crystal. The smartwatch boasts a 400 x 400 pixel resolution and a pixel density of 286 ppi, which better the Gear S3 with ease. The device is just 11.3 millimeters (0.44 inches) thick, making it the second sleekest smartwatch of the four.
The Asus ZenWatch 3 also has a circular dial - a 1.39-inch one with an AMOLED screen and touts the same resolution as the Huawei Watch. It has a 278 ppi pixel density, which is fractionally better than that of the Huawei Watch. The latest ZenWatch 3 also has Gorilla Glass 3 to offer resistance against scratches. At 10.75 millimeters (0.42 inches) thick, the Asus offering is easily the thinnest smartwatch on the market.
The Apple Watch Series 2 is the only one of the four to have a rectangular display. It is the biggest of the lot and has a 1.65-inch OLEd Retina display with a resolution of 390 x 312 pixels and 303 ppi pixel density. It is 11.4 millimeters (0.45 inches) thick, making it a whisker thicker than the Huawei Watch.
Processor And Memory
The Gear S3 packs in a dual-core Exynos 7270 processor, which is clocked at 1 GHz. The Apple Watch 2 has a "lightning fast" dual-core Apple S2 processor, while the ZenWatch 3 houses a Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 2100 SoC.
The Huawei Watch, which is the oldest of the four, has a quad-core Snapdragon 400 processor and clocks at 1.2 GHz. Since it is the oldest, the wearable's processor may be edged out by the other three in real-world speed tests.
Memory-wise, the ZenWatch 3 and the Huawei Watch both have 512 MB of RAM and support 4 GB of on-board storage. The Gear S3 boasts 768 MB of RAM and also offers 4 GB of storage. The memory and storage capacity of the Apple Watch 2 is not known.
Battery
The Samsung watch has a 380 mAh battery that should support four days of use on a single charge if the always-on display is turned off. Otherwise, battery life is two days.
The Huawei Watch packs in a smaller 300 mAh battery by comparison, which offers support for two days of use. The ZenWatch 3 has a 340 mAh battery, which also supports two days of usage.
Apple does not disclose the battery size details of its smartwatch, but says it supports 18 hours of use. This is the least battery capacity of the four wearables.
Both the Gear S3 and the Apple Watch 2 support wireless charging unlike the Asus and Huawei smartwatches.
OS
The Samsung Gear S3 runs on Tizen OS 2.3. Samsung asserts that its wearable is compatible with devices that run Android 4.4 or above. However, they should have a minimum of 1.5 GB of RAM
While the Huawei Watch deploys the Android Wear OS (compatible with devices that run Android 4.3 or above), the ZenWatch 3 runs on Android Wear OS 2.0. The Apple Watch 2 runs on watchOS 3.
Price
The Gear S3 is available for preorder from Nov. 6 in the United States and starts at $350. It will hit the shelves on Nov. 18. The Apple Watch 2 starts at $369 and is available for purchase.
The Huawei Watch was has received a price cut and is now available for $246.99 on Amazon.
The ZenWatch 3 is available for preorder in the United States. It is priced at $229 and will hit the shelves on Nov. 11.
Of the four, the ZenWatch 3 is the best buy for those on a budget. Not only is it robust, it is also the sleekest smartwatch of the lot. It also offers a decent battery life and while wireless charging is not an available option, the smartwatch supports quick charging.
