Battle of the wristbands: why you should pick the Gear S3 Frontier over the LG Watch Sport

Cellular data is becoming one of the newest iterations of smartwatch advancement, though companies such as Samsung have been offering at least 3G cellular data with its smartwatches since the Gear S back in 2014 (three years ago).

Google and LG partnered together on the newly-announced LG Watch Sport, one of the first Android Wear smartwatches to feature Google Assistant out of the box as well as Google’s long-promised Android Wear 2.0 update, to bring 4G cellular data in hopes of leading the way on Google’s own wearables platform. Huawei appears interested in bringing 4G cellular data to its own Android Wear-powered Watch 2 and female watch lines (Watch Jewel, Watch Elegant), this year, rumors state.

So, it appears as though cellular data, something that Samsung has been doing since the Gear S in 2014 and the Gear S2 in 2015 (that has better call quality than a certain smartphone with a self-named AI) and LG followed soon after with the Watch Urbane LTE, is making its way to more and more smartwatches in the future. This will give smartwatches some standalone capabilities that users have longed for in previous versions. Only the LG Watch Sport has cellular connectivity, so those who are interested in getting a 4G-connected smartwatch and want something as a Gear S3 alternative are stuck with the LG Watch Sport as their only alternative for now.

When it comes to the Gear S3 though, few smartwatches stand up to it. There’s Samsung Pay and MST, which allows Gear S3 users to pay with their wrist at traditional card readers (the best the LG Watch Sport can do is NFC, which is still no match for Samsung Pay). There’s the rotating bezel, which has become the most intuitive way to interact with small smartwatch displays. Google and LG implemented a digital crown on its new Android Wear smartwatches (both the Watch Sport and Watch Style), but those who have used the rotating bezel to navigate Samsung’s Gear S3 can attest to its superiority over alternative navigation methods on the market.

The Gear S3 has exceptional battery life, anywhere from 2-4 days on a single charge, a feat that Android Wear smartwatches still have yet to accomplish. And though analysts and tech media continue to berate Samsung that Tizen “doesn’t have enough apps,” average consumers don’t mind the reduction in apps and find the totality of the Gear S3 experience a more compelling buy than an experience that seems uniform across the board (bland, some say) with slightly differentiated hardware by various OEMs.

The Watch Sport costs $349, the same as the starting price for Samsung’s Gear S3 Frontier, so price won’t be the deciding factor between these two robust smartwatches. The Watch Sport, in addition to 4G cellular connectivity, also has Google Assistant, which the Gear S3 Frontier does not, and Google is hoping that the AI that first appeared on its Pixel-branded smartphones last Fall will entice you to pick up its most expensive wearable.

The Watch Sport does have water and dust resistance, making it a head-on rival to Samsung’s Gear S3 Frontier. But, if the rotating bezel, MST mobile payments, battery life, and design alone aren’t enough to influence you in the direction of the Gear S3, perhaps the Gear S3 Frontier’s wristband interchangeability will.

The LG Watch Sport is crafted with water and dust resistance and comes with screws that fix the wristband in place. The reason behind this design choice has to do with the fact that the LTE, GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC, and other antennas are housed within the wristband. Thus, to remove the wristband is to essentially break the device and render it unusable.

The Gear S3 Frontier, the water-and-dust-resistant challenger to the LG Watch Sport, does have compatibility with 22mm wristbands, despite the lot of parts that have been placed into the smartwatch. In a strange move, though, LG and Google did make the $249 LG Watch Style wristband-changeable, though why they would give greater customization to the more inexpensive smartwatch instead of their top wearable is beyond me.

Sure, interchangeable wristbands are not everything when it comes to the smartwatch experience, but these are wearables after all. In 2017, high-end smartwatches should have interchangeable wristbands by default, considering that most consumers prefer the option to swap wristbands regardless of which smartwatch model or brand appeals to them.

In the battle between these two smartwatches, then, we see Samsung win again. To add to the compelling package that the Gear S3 Frontier already presents is the ability to swap wristbands and customize the look to one that appeals to you but may change throughout the day or from one occasion to another.

Some will choose the LG Watch Sport (or Watch Style) anyway because they feel compelled by Android Wear, but, in the face of Samsung’s latest smartwatch lineup, the apps argument is insufficient. To gain a large app selection and lose battery life efficiency, MST, the rotating bezel, and design is not a gamble I’m willing to make.