If you haven’t yet considered a Samsung smartwatch, the company has a new offering to entice you. Samsung has teamed up with Tumi to offer a new version of the company’s flagship smartwatch: The Gear S3 Frontier Tumi Edition, which now offers a custom Tumi watch face, as well as a classy looking grey Italian canvas strap. According to Samsung, that strap is durable enough to handle water and rough conditions, just like the watch body.
Of course, under the hood the device is exactly the same as the original Samsung Gear S3 Frontier. It still offers a 1.3-inch display with a 360 x 360 resolution, and it still has a 380mAh battery, 768MB of RAM, and 4GB of storage. Not bad specs, to be sure — but no different than the already-available smartwatch.
The TUMI strap and watch face won’t come for free. While the standard Samsung Gear S3 Frontier is priced at $349, the TUMI Edition device will set you back $449 from Best Buy and Samsung. It’s on sale now if you buy it online, and you can get it in-store starting on August 6.
The Gear S3 Frontier was first launched last August, and is one of two Samsung Gear S3 devices — the other being the Samsung Gear S3 Classic. As the names suggest, the Gear S3 Frontier is a little more rugged and aimed at sports-use, while the Gear S3 Classic is targeted at business people or those looking for a slightly classier look. That’s not to say that the Gear S3 Frontier isn’t classy — it is, but the Gear S3 Classic is a little more refined.
Some have been expecting a Samsung Gear S4 to be launched toward the end of August, but this new release suggests that may not be the case. If Samsung and Tumi really wanted to team up, they could have done so for a Gear S4 rather than Gear S3, if the Gear S4 was set to launch within a few weeks. We also haven’t seen any rumors about a possible Samsung Gear S4 apart from a patent filing for a wireless charging method, and while that in itself doesn’t mean there won’t be one, it’s a little unusual these days for a major device to launch without at least a leak or two. Meanwhile, our list of the best smartwatches on the market has plenty of good choices.
