Two of the biggest names in the smartphone industry are known to be the major competitors for years now, and this time their rivalry has bled over into the world of smartwatches.

Although the Samsung Gear S3 and Apple Watch 2 both essentially do same things in similar ways like taking calls and messages without taking your phone out of the pocket, they also go about things in very different ways.

Design and Display

These two high-end wearables are different when it comes to design. The Apple Watch 2 comes in four available colors (silver, gold, rose gold, and black), while the Samsung Gear S3 is available in only two variants (silver and a darker gunmetal grey). The Gear S3 comes in a 1.3-inch 360 x 360 pixels display, while Apple Watch Series 2 is 1.65-inch (390 x 312 pixels).

The Samsung Gear S3 is round like traditional watches, while the Apple Watch 2 has a more of a boxy, squared design. Samsung also brings AMOLED technology used in smartphones to its Gear S3 which makes the device's resolution much clearer. On the other hand, Apple proudly says that the new Apple Watch 2 is more durable with ceramic composite body.

Operating System, Processor, Battery Life, RAM and Storage

The Samsung Gear S3's operating system is Tizen, which supports more than 10,000 apps and with dual-core 1.0 GHz processor. It also has 768MB RAM and 4GB storage capacity. The Apple Watch 2, on the other hand, is running on watchOS with Apple S2 dual-core processor.

The Samsung Gear S3 has a 380 mAh battery, while the Apple Watch 2 has a non-removable Li-Ion battery which has not revealed the battery capacity, but reports claimed that it is the same with original Apple Watch with 205 mAh battery.

Key Features

The Samsung Gear S3 features the various sensors (accelerometer, gyro, heart rate, and barometer), the usual messaging capabilities (SMS in threaded view, MMS, email, and IM), wireless charging, S-Voice natural language commands and dictation, MP3/M4A/AAC/WAV player, Photo viewer and voice memo/dial/commands.

The Apple Watch Series 2 has almost the same features, but with Siri for verbal commands.

Though both the Samsung Gear S3 and Apple Watch 2 might look totally different on the surface, they both offer largely similar user experiences. What is more important is the consumer's preference.