14 DAY TRIAL // | INTRODUCTION | DESIGN |
|---|---|
| HARDWARE | FEATURES |
| BATTERY LIFE | CONCLUSIONS |
Right now, the wearables industry is pretty much split into two different major categories: smartwatches and fitness trackers. Despite the fact that several companies have tried to tackle both worlds with just one device, their products have more or less failed to impress, losing points where others have gained.
The Apple Watch and Fitbit Blaze are the two best examples. Apple’s device is one of the best smartwatches to date, but it doesn’t meet expectations when it comes to activity tracking and lacks features that a hardcore athlete would otherwise need. The Fitbit Blaze, on the other hand, is more focused on the activity tracking side but lacks more advanced smartwatch features, such as better notification control, third-party app support, and more.
In most of the cases, features aren’t necessarily what's holding producers back from building a phone that can tackle both worlds. There's also the design, as a powerful smartwatch and fitness tracker would have to be feather-light, match every outfit, including office, and come with options such as interchangeable bands that would add a little bit of style for every buyer.
This is what Samsung has tried to do with the Gear Fit 2, although it’s very clear from the very beginning that the Koreans were a bit more focused on the activity tracking thing. But when looking at the specs sheet, the Gear Fit 2 seems to be tackling the smartwatch business in a much more effective way, offering features that other devices are currently lacking.
At $179 in the United States, the Gear Fit 2 is not an expensive product and aligns with the other smartwatches and activity trackers on the market. Still, it’s a bit cheaper than the Microsoft Band 2, which launched with a price of $249 but can now be purchased for $199 or even lower thanks to discounts.
To discover the full capabilities of the Gear Fit 2, we put it up to test in day-to-day activities, but also in several sports, including biking, running, and… walking, so read on to find out what it’s up to. A comparison review with the Microsoft Band 2 will also be published in a few days, so stay tuned.
DESIGN AND BUILD QUALITY
If you’ve used the original Gear Fit model, the first thing you’ll notice when looking at the new generation is that it was designed to get closer to the smartwatch concept. So while it does come with increased focus on activity tracking, it’s very clear that Samsung was trying to kill two birds with one stone here.
The device comes with a strap that’s made from the typical elastomer and that you can find on many other smartwatches and activity trackers, but hats off to Samsung for creating an adjustment system that’s super easy to use with just one hand.
As a person who wears the watch on the right wrist and who has tried pretty much all smartwatches launched by big OEMs so far, I must applaud Samsung for going for such an easy solution. You just need to pull the strap, find the right position, press the clip, and you’re done. The strap design reminds me of the old-school Fitbit Flex, with a small clip wearing the Samsung brand name, but it’s a good thing that it works like a charm for both lefties and righties.
The band comes in two different sizes, small and large, so there’s no medium version, but here’s how it goes. Samsung says that the small version is appropriate for those whose wrist measures between 125 and 170 mm while the large one can be used on a wrist with a size of 155 to 210 mm. So if you have between 155 and 170 mm, which is exactly what the average person has, you can choose any of them, but we’d recommend choosing the large for more adjusting freedom.
But it goes without saying that what sets the watch apart is the display. Surprisingly, Samsung has decided to make the screen smaller than on the first generation (1.84-inch versus 1.5-inch screen on the new model). However, the company has retained almost the same resolution (432x128 px versus 432x216 px), which proves that we now have a better quality AMOLED display with touch support.
“Vertically, not horizontally.”
As compared to Microsoft’s Band 2, the display allows you to read information vertically, and not horizontally, and although you could think that this is weird on a device that looks more like a band, it’s not, mostly thanks to the operating system, called Tizen, which makes everything possible. Samsung has worked a lot on optimizing menus, fonts, icons, and graphs to look good on the screen, and while it’s true that you need to swipe up and down to read more information pretty much everywhere, you’ll find this approach super comfortable to use most of the time.
The Gear Fit 2 is very light - the large version tips the scale at 30 grams while the smaller weighs just 28 grams, so there are big chances that you’ll find it easier to wear than the Microsoft Band 2, which is nearly twice as heavy, at 60 grams. Additionally, as compared to the Band, the Gear Fit 2 has no intrusive parts that could create pressure on your wrist, so Samsung has managed to create a more flush design without impacting sensor (especially the heart rate) readings.
The device is IP68 certificated, so Samsung says that it shouldn’t break if you take it in water as deep as 1.5 meters for up to 30 minutes, but you’re still not supposed to shower or swim while wearing it. Also, it’s worth mentioning that the watch can only be submerged in clean water, so if you use it in a pool or in the sea, it might stop working because of the salt.
All in all, the Gear Fit 2 comes with above-average build quality, and it’s more of a band than the Microsoft Band, which might be a little surprising, given Microsoft’s investments in its activity tracker. But as mentioned, a full in-depth comparison review between the two will be published soon, so we’ll talk more about this in the upcoming article.
HARDWARE
In terms of hardware, the Gear Fit 2 is just the typical activity tracker but comes with one thing that makes it stand out from the crowd: a GPS sensor.
First and foremost, it’s worth noting that the Fit 2 boasts a 1.0 GHz dual-core processor that Samsung itself developed for the device and optimized it specifically for use with Tizen, the company’s in-house wearable operating system (there are rumors that a Tizen-powered phone could launch as well in the coming years, but for the moment, the OS is only used on wearables).
The device also features 512 MB of RAM and 4 GB of storage, which allows you to copy your music and listen to your favorite tracks when working out using Bluetooth headsets.
In addition to the super useful GPS sensor, the Gear Fit 2 also comes with the typical accelerometer and gyroscope, but also with a barometer to measure elevation and a heart rate sensor to keep an eye on your heart activity.
The device features a battery life of 200 mAh, whose performance varies depending on usage, but we’ll talk more about this in the dedicated “Battery life” section below.
Samsung has made it compatible with Android 4.4 only, and this is one of the main drawbacks because, if you have an iPhone, it could be a nightmare to sync data. The company is currently working on an iOS version of Samsung Gear, but the app is still in development. A version that got leaked online recently provides some sort of functionality for those who want to use the Gear Fit 2 with an iPhone, but this is really buggy and often crashes, fails to sync, or even launch for many people.
FEATURES
As we’ve said in the “Intro” section, the Gear Fit 2 was designed to tackle both the world of smartwatches and that of activity trackers, so it goes without saying that, in order to succeed in this mission, it needs to come with a huge collection of features. And it certainly does. In fact, it boasts so many features that there are big chances we’re going to miss a few. But we’ll split this section into two parts to discuss them one at a time.
#The smartwatch
The Fit 2 comes with an interface that’s really easy to navigate, and the introductory tips that are presented after setting up the device for the first time get you through the basics.
For example, swiping down from the main screen gets you to several quick actions, such as brightness level adjustment, Do Not Disturb toggle, and music player controls. If you swipe right, you access the notification center, where you can read the latest messages without even touching the phone, and if you swipe left, there are shortcuts to apps installed on watch.
There are two physical buttons, one for “back” and another one for “home,” both of which working just fine once you get used to their purpose. I was surprised that pressing the back button to navigate to the previous menu actually takes more time than expected, but this is probably because I previously used devices where swiping across the display to get to the previous menu was the main navigation method.
As far as notifications are concerned, pretty much everything that lands on your phone shows up on the smartwatch too. You get messages, emails, calendar notifications, calls, and third-party notifications (such as WhatsApp, Skype, and others), and most of them come with options to interact with them in some way or another. For emails, you can delete the email or reply with a quick message, while for other apps, you can only dismiss the message or mark it as read.
The list of pre-defined messages that can be used for quick replying is available on the phone and can be customized from there with lines that make more sense for you. You can configure which apps to show notifications, limit notifications, turn on the screen when a new notification arrives, hide or show content of notifications, and show an indicator on the home screen when new content is available.
It’s worth noting that there’s no microphone and speaker, so once you receive a call, you won’t be able to answer and talk to your contact as you’d do with an Apple Watch, so you have to pull out the phone for that.
Although it’s focused on fitness tracking, the Gear Fit 2 comes with several faces, and many more are available in the store - some free, some paid. There are plenty to choose from, and this is a major advantage over Microsoft’s Band 2, where you can only change the home wallpaper and colors. Faces can be changed from the Samsung Gear app on the phone or by pressing and holding on the home screen, letting your swipe between available faces. Some come with small tweaks, such as colors.
Other than that, you get the typical time, stopwatch, and music player apps, but once again, the major drawback is that it only works with Android. You could get it working on iOS with a leaked IPA file that’s up for grabs right now, but this app crashes for most of the users, as it’s not an official release just yet.
#The fitness tracker
As you could easily guess by simply reading its name, the Gear Fit 2 is supposed to help you stay fit, so it comes with an increased focus on activity tracking.
First and foremost, the device offers support for a wide variety of workouts, including walking, running, biking, squats, hiking, and so many others. What’s more, it can automatically detect when you’re performing any of these and start tracking your activity without any input from you, but we’ve discovered this to be slightly off the mark at some moments, and we’d rather recommend you to stick to manually choosing the activity and tracking.
When biking, for example, it could take a while until the Fit 2 discovers that you’re riding a bike, especially if you’re not moving very fast, so there are big chances you could lose some data unless the monitoring starts.
Once you complete a workout, you are provided with a very rich set of statistics, including HR figures (average and top), distance, speed, splits, calories, and much more, depending on the type of workout. For activities that involve GPS, you also get a map showing the covered distance, along with information for each split. As compared to the Microsoft Band, the map is displayed directly on the screen, and you can get a quick idea of how you performed without pulling out the phone. Truth be told, many more details are shown on the smartphone in the companion S Health app that’s the heaven of fitness tracking on Android devices.
What we missed when it comes to statistics is heart rate activity, which helps you tailor your workouts to specific goals. This is a feature that’s available on Microsoft’s Band 2 and that comes in handy to those who want to exercise for weight losing or for cardio, for example.
When starting a new workout, the Fit 2 gives you a three-second heads-up, allowing you to prepare for exercising. Vibrations are being used during the workout to keep you up to date with your pace, and if you’re using Bluetooth headsets, audio notifications are also generated for the same purpose.
Samsung has also tried to make the activity tracker as user-friendly as possible, so certain workouts come with instructions right on the screen to help you perform them in the correct way. Furthermore, each workout lets you provide your own goal or no goal at all, and the device vibrates whenever you reach a new milestone and you move one step closer to completion.
Tracking performance with the Gear Fit 2 is super easy, and we think this is one of the best devices an athlete could use, especially because it provides an overwhelming amount of information. The essential data is shown on the screen, while for an in-depth look at a workout, you need to check out the S Health app on the phone.
Of course, the watch also generates reports every week to show how you performed in the past 7 days, but also a daily log, highlighting the hours when you didn’t wear it in order to improve monitoring.
For those who don’t necessarily want to monitor exercises, the Gear Fit 2 can monitor regular daily activity such as steps, count floors, and offer HR activity logs all by default. Notifications that remind you to get up and walk a little bit are also issued when you’ve been sitting for too long (you can fully configure the time or disable these notifications).
As far as GPS performance is concerned, the signal is usually very strong, but this depends on your location. What’s odd, however, is that the watch doesn’t give you a notification when a GPS connection is established, so when you start a new biking session, for instance, you’re provided with the 3-second countdown, and then tracking begins, but without telling whether GPS is available or not.
In most of the cases, it is, but there might be moments when you could lose some data because the GPS connection wasn’t ready just yet. For comparison, Microsoft’s Band tells you to wait a bit longer when the GPS connection wasn’t established or to start and then get an estimate of your pre-GPS activity.
And last but not least, Gear Fit 2 can also monitor sleeping, with auto tracking available too. Once again, the detection feature can be slightly inaccurate because it’s based on your HR activity during the night, so tracking might not start in the case of light sleep, for instance.
BATTERY LIFE
As we said in the Hardware section, the Gear Fit 2 comes with a 200 mAh battery, which Samsung says should provide the following performance figures: 3 to 4 days in typical usage mode, up to 5 days in standby time, and up to 9 hours with GPS on.
After testing the device with GPS both on and off, we can confirm that Samsung is not really off the mark with these figures, but here’s battery life in our case: a maximum of 2 days (the average was somewhere around 36 hours) for typical use, 3 days and a half in standby time, and 6 to 7 hours with GPS on.
Truth be told, all these figures can be different for each person, depending on the type of workout they start. Every workout is configured to use a different set of sensors, so for instance, if you use the Gear Fit 2 for biking, the GPS sensor will also connect, while for squats, the GPS will stay off. At the same time, it also depends on location, because the strength of the GPS signal can also impact battery life.
The Gear Fit 2 comes with a proprietary charging dock that uses a magnetic system to hold the device in place, so during the night, it can also act as a nightstand clock, unless you want to wear it to track your sleep. It usually takes between 1 hour and 1 hour and a half to fully recharge the device using a 1.5A charger, while on USB, it can take anywhere up to 3.5 hours to bring it to 100 percent.
THE BOTTOM LINE
After using the Gear Fit 2 for several weeks, there’s just one conclusion: this is one of the best smartwatches/fitness trackers so far and clearly one of the most effective mixes of the two.
Not only is it super comfortable and light, but the Gear Fit 2 also comes with features that make it quite an advanced smartwatch, showing notifications for the majority of apps and letting you interact with them accordingly.
If there’s something that needs to be improved here, it’s the software support side and the bands. For the moment, the Gear Fit 2 supports Android only, and although work on iOS is believed to be advancing behind closed doors at Samsung, there’s still no confirmation that we’re close to getting the app. What’s more, if Samsung Gear for iOS ever launches, it could come with plenty of limitations in the form of watch faces, features, and app support because of the restrictions that Apple has on its operating system.
As far as the straps are concerned, it’s very clear that their design doesn’t make it the kind of device that you can wear absolutely all the time. It does fit a sporty type of person and casual clothes, but if you’re wearing a suit, the band look isn’t quite what you need. You can indeed change the straps, but it’s the design of the device that gives the sporty look, so maybe the third generation makes it even more of a smartwatch.
For the moment, if you’re looking for a fitness tracker that’s also a smartwatch, and you have an Android phone, this is the best way to go. The GPS module that lets it work without being connected to a phone and track data such as location and distance puts it on a leading spot with Microsoft Band, but it seems to win the race thanks to better ergonomics, extra features, and more customization options.
We’ll find the best of the two in the comparison review coming next week, so take a sip of water because we still have a few more kilometers before we reach our destination.
| HITS | MISSES |
|---|---|
| High-quality display | No cross-platform support |
| Very comfortable on the wrist | Lack of heart rate zones |
| Good battery life | No speaker/microphone |
| GPS sensor | |
| Affordable price |
