Hands On: Samsung Gear Fit

Samsung has added a third wearable gadget to its arsenal with the Gear Fit fitness band. Smaller, lighter and slimmer than Samsung’s Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo watches, the Gear Fit is focused more as a fitness tracker and coach than an all-in-one device.

Also, the Gear Fit is the first fitness band to use a curved AMOLED display. Measuring 1.84 inches in diagonal, and with a pixel resolution of 432 x 120, the screen is colourful and bright, easy to view, and the gentle curve fits nicely against your wrist.

On the other side of the watch is a heart rate sensor, which can detect your pulse without needing the band to fit tightly around your wrist. There’s also an accelerometer and gyro to track your movement and speed.

The menu items can be scrolled left to right via the touch-screen, and include a fitness coach, which helps manage your training sessions, and a tracker for measuring heart rate, calorie burn, sleep time, steps taken and more.

Also, based on your heart rate, the trainer will create personalised training plans and you when to increase your intensity in order to help you meet your fitness goals.

Unlike Samsung’s first Gear smart watch, which was launched about year ago, the Fit can operate in a ‘stand alone’ mode, meaning that it doesn’t need to be tethered to your Samsung Galaxy-based smartphone to operate. With the fitness coach, it can track your measurements and sync the data back to your phone later.

When tethered to your phone via Bluetooth, the Fit can do much more than track fitness such as answer incoming calls, provide access to emails, text messages, set an alarm and provide access to your S-planner. The Fit can also run 3rd-party apps, but since it’s not an Android device, and built on a proprietary software platform, your choices will be limited.

You can customise the look of the Gear Fit, with swappable straps in black, orange and mocha grey, as well as choose different screen wallpapers to match.

Samsung expects the Fit to be on-sale in Australia at the same time that the Galaxy S5 is released, in April, although no pricing has been set as of yet.

Gear Fit Specifications:

– 1.84” Curved Super AMOLED (432 x 128)
– 23.4 x 57.4 x 11.95 mm, 27g
– Standard Battery 210mAh
– Typical Usage 3~4 days, Low Usage up to 5 days.