Ryan Dube · March 11, 2020 · 7 min read In an ideal scenario, the Samsung Gear S3 battery life is up to four days without having to place the watch on a charging pad. This means 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 actually enjoy the full battery life that Samsung promises? The reality is that if you use your watch often, or keep the watch face “always on”, your actual battery life will be far less than that.
You can also make actually charging your watch less inconvenient by placing the right chargers in the right places.
Samsung Gear S3 Battery Life: A Closer Look
You can achieve the promised four days of battery life under ideal conditions. Those ideal conditions look like this:
- Your watch face is in timeout mode (face is blank)
- GPS is turned off
- Wi-Fi is turned off
- Bluetooth is turned off
- You use the watch infrequently, only to check time or notifications
If you use the watch more frequently, or turn on GPS so you can log a run or navigate during driving, it’s much more likely the battery life will average 1-2 days. If you use the always-on watch face feature, you’re looking at most likely having to charge your watch at least every night.
The good news is that it doesn’t take very long to fully charge the watch. A fully discharged Samsung Gear S3 placed on a charger base will take about 2 hours to full charge to 100%.
Samsung Gear S3 Battery Charger Options
There are plenty of ways to extend Samsung Gear S3 battery life. But if you’re the kind of person who likes to use your smartwatch frequently throughout the day, you’re going to want to buy more than one wireless charger and place them in convenient charging locations.
When wireless charging technology started, the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) established a standard called Qi. This standard meant that chargers and the devices capable of wireless charging all used the same technology. This helps consumers by allowing the use of one wireless charging pad or stand for several devices.
So, when you’re looking for a wireless charger for your Samsung Gear S3 smartwatch, you just want to make sure it’s “Qi-Certified” to know that it’ll work.
Standard Samsung Gear S3 Charging Stand
When you first purchase a Samsung Gear S3, it comes with a single charging stand.
The stand comes with a USB cable that you can plug into a computer USB port or a standard USB wall plug adapter.
Ideal locations for this kind of charger include:
- At the office where you’ll probably take off your watch so you can rest your wrists on your keyboard without the watch getting in the way.
- On your bedside table, if you don’t plan on wearing your watch to monitor your sleeping patterns.
- Near the door, if you don’t plan on using your phone at your house and want your phone always available whenever you leave the house.
These chargers are inexpensive, so you could easily buy several and keep them at all the locations where you typically take off your watch.
Samsung DUO Pad
If you have a smartphone that’s capable of charging on Qi-certified chargers (all newer iPhones and most Android smartphones are Qi-certified), you can save some money on chargers by buying a Samsung DUO pad.
This is a flat charging base where you place your smartphone and your smartwatch to charge when you aren’t using them.
The key difference between flat chargers and upright chargers is that the assumption is when you’re using a flat charger, you have no need to see the device display.
So, ideal places for this charger will be out-of-the-way locations where you just leave your Samsung Gear S3 to charge and forget about it.
Ideal locations for this kind of charger include:
- On your bedroom dresser or bedside table.
- On a shelf in your house where it’s out of the way.
- The flat design and ability to charge multiple devices makes this charger an ideal one to take with you while traveling.
These chargers are about 5 times more expensive than the single charger, so you’ll likely want to buy one to carry around 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 but maintain your Gear S3 battery life is to buy a single charging station that charges all of your devices in one place. Many available charging stations today include Qi-certified charging pads for many types of smartphones and smartwatches.
There are a variety of these types of charging stations on the market. What’s convenient is that they let you charge all of your devices without having to buy multiple chargers.
What’s also nice about the stand-up 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 kind of charger include:
- On your office desk where you can see the screens as the devices charge
- On your bedside table where you can see your notifications and alarm in the morning
- Place on a table near your couch where you can keep all notifications just within sight even when you’re home.
These chargers are roughly about the same price as the flat “duo” chargers. So it really comes down to whether you want to leave your devices to charge and forget about them, or if you want to see the screens even while they’re charging.
Mobile Charger Case
If you’re the more adventurous type, then a protective docking station is the perfect option. Sometimes it can be difficult to know where to place all of your chargers so that you always have charging options available. It can also be difficult to pack some of these chargers when you travel.
The mobile charger case is a perfect solution. It holds the Samsung Gear S3 charger inside a hard clamshell case and includes everything you need for charging. With the case closed, you can use the outer clip to attach the charger case to your backpack.
Keep in mind that the Samsung Gear S3 charger itself doesn’t come with the clamshell case, so you’ll need to purchase that as well.
But together, it’s the perfect solution for anyone who travels a lot and doesn’t want to have to worry about their phone ever running out of power.
Extending Samsung Gear S3 Battery Life
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 lower the screen timeout to just a minute. To do this, go into your Samsung Gear S3 Settings menu.
- Tap Display.
- Tap Screen timeout and set it to one minute or less.
The next thing to do is turn off Touch wake-up so that the screen doesn’t activate every single time you touch it.
- To do this, go to Settings and tap Advanced.
- Tap Wake-up gesture and disable the option.
You’ll also want to disable GPS, Wi-Fi, and bluetooth until you need them.
- To do this, go to Settings and tap Connections.
- Tap on Wi-Fi, Location, and Bluetooth individually and set to Auto or Off.
Note: Since normally your watch works synced with your phone via Bluetooth, you won’t want to disable Bluetooth on your smartwatch.
Finally, make sure the screen Always-On feature is not enabled. You can find this in Settings, and Watch always on. Make sure this setting is Off.
By this point, you should have your Samsung Gear S3 battery life lasting as long as possible, with chargers set up at all of the locations where you need them.
