Samsung Gear S3 battery & charger options

In an ideal scenario, the Samsung Gear S3’s battery life is up to four days without having to put the watch on the charging dock. This means that the Gear S3 smartwatch is one of the longest battery life smartwatches on the market.

But what is an “ideal” scenario, and how can you really enjoy the full battery life that Samsung promises? In fact, if you use your watch regularly or leave the watch face “always on”, your actual battery life will be much less.

You can also really make charging your watch less of a hassle by putting the right charger in the right spot.

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Samsung Gear S3 battery life: A closer look

You can get the promised 4 days of battery life under ideal conditions. Those ideal conditions look like this:

Your watch face is in timeout mode (empty face)
GPS is off
Wi-Fi is off
Bluetooth is off
You don’t use your watch often, just to check the time or for notifications

If you use your watch more often or turn on GPS so that you can record your runs or navigate while driving, battery life is likely to average 1-2 days. If you use the always-on watch face feature, you’re considering most likely having to charge your watch at least every night.

The good news is that it doesn’t take long to fully charge the watch. A fully discharged Samsung Gear S3 placed on the charging dock will take approximately 2 hours to fully charge to 100%.

Optional Samsung Gear S3 . battery charger

There are many ways to extend the battery life of Samsung Gear S3. But if you’re someone who likes to use your smartwatch frequently during the day, you’ll want to buy more than one wireless charger and place them in convenient charging locations.

When wireless charging technology started, the Wireless Power Supply Consortium (WPC) established a standard called Qi. This standard means that chargers and devices with wireless charging capabilities both use the same technology. This helps consumers by allowing the use of a wireless charging pad or dock for several devices.

So when you are looking for a wireless charger for your Samsung Gear S3 smartwatch, you just want to make sure it is “Qi Certified” to know that it will work.

Samsung Gear S3 standard charging dock

When you first bought the Samsung Gear S3, it came with a single charging pin.

The stand comes with a USB cable that you can plug into a computer USB port or a standard USB wall adapter.

Ideal locations for this type of charger include:

At the office, where you will probably remove your watch so you can rest your wrist on the keyboard without the watch getting in the way.
On the bedside table, if you don’t plan on wearing a watch to track your sleep.
Near the door, if you don’t plan to use your phone at home and want it to be available whenever you leave the house.

These chargers are not expensiveso you can easily buy a few and keep them in all the places where you normally take off your watch.

Samsung DUO Pad

If you have a smartphone capable of charging with a Qi-certified charger (all newer iPhones and most Android smartphones are Qi-certified), you can save some money on chargers by purchasing Samsung’s DUO pads.

This is a flat charging dock where you place your smartphones and smartwatches to charge when you’re not using them.

The main difference between flat charger and straight charger is the assumption that when you are using flat charger, you don’t need to see the device screen.

So, the ideal locations for this charger would be those out of sight where you just leave your Samsung Gear S3 to charge and forget about it.

Ideal locations for this type of charger include:

On your bedroom closet or bedside table.
On a shelf in your house, where it’s hidden.
The flat design and the ability to charge multiple devices make this charger ideal for traveling.

These chargers are about 5 times more expensive compared to a single charger, so you’ll probably want to buy a charger to take with you whenever you need it for both your phone and your smartwatch.

Universal Qi Charging Station

One of the best ways to save money while preserving battery life on your Gear S3 is to buy a single charging station that can charge all of your devices in one place. The many charging stations available today include Qi-certified charging docks for a variety of smartphones and smartwatches.

There are many types of these charging stations on the market. The good thing is that they allow you to charge all your devices without having to buy multiple chargers.

The cool thing about the stand style is that you can still use your phone or watch even while they’re charging. This makes it ideal for a home or office location where you still want to see your screens even while they’re charging.

Ideal locations for this type of charger include:

On your office desk where you can see the screen when the devices charge
On the bedside table where you can see your notifications and alarms in the morning
Place it on a table near the couch, where you can keep all your notifications in sight even when you’re at home.

These chargers are about the same price as a flat “duo” charger. So it really depends on whether you want to let your devices charge and forget about them or you want to see the screen even while they are charging.

Portable charging case

If you are more adventurous, then a protective dock is the perfect choice. Sometimes it can be difficult to know where all your chargers are located so you always have charging options available. It can also be difficult to pack some of these chargers when you’re traveling.

The portable charging case is a perfect solution. It houses the Samsung Gear S3 charger inside a sturdy clamshell case and includes everything you need to charge. Once the case is closed, you can use the external clip to attach the charging case to your backpack.

Keep in mind that the Samsung Gear S3 charger itself doesn’t come with a clamshell, so you’ll need to purchase that as well.

But all in all, it’s the perfect solution for those who travel a lot and don’t want to have to worry about their phone running out of battery.

Extend battery life for Samsung Gear S3

As mentioned earlier in this article, there are a few things you can do to make sure your Samsung Gear S3 battery life lasts as long as possible.

The first thing to do is reduce the screen timeout to just one minute. To do this, go to your Samsung Gear S3 Settings menu.
Clap Display.
Clap Screen timeout and set it to a minute or less.

The next thing to do is turn off Touch Wake so the screen doesn’t fire every time you touch it.

To do this, go to Settings and tap Advanced.
Clap Wake-up gesture and turn off the option.

You’ll also want to turn off GPS, Wi-Fi, and bluetooth until you need them.

To do this, go to Settings and tap Connection.
Knock on WIFI, Locationand Bluetooth individually and set to Automatic or Turn off.

Note: Since your watch is normally synced to your phone via Bluetooth, you won’t want to disable Bluetooth on your smartwatch.

Finally, make sure that the display’s Always-On feature is not turned on. You can find this in Settings and Always watch on. Make sure this setting is Turn off.