[Samsung Gear Fit] Sparky86:
Disappointed in new Gear Fit 2

Well I just received the new Gear Fit 2 I bought and I'm pretty disappointed that it seems to have less functionality than the original Gear Fit, despite the hardware upgrades. I had an original Gear Fit for a while but I lost it - with the help of one poor design choice that has now been rectified with the new model; the strap was only held in place by one pin which must have come loose without me noticing hence the loss, at the least the new model has the strap going through a loop as well as a pin to hold it more securely. Everything else is a disappointment though. I bought the Gear Fit 2 thinking I'd be able to use apps to go through text messages on my phone (not just notifications of unread messages like the Fit 2, but full access to all messages and a full keyboard to type replies rather than just preset responses), proper calendar app, calculator etc. You can see all the apps that I was able to use with the original Gear Fit by searching 'Gear Fit' in Google play - there are a fair few available like text message reader, calendar, plus photo viewer, calculator etc.

It's only after finding this thread I understand that Samsung is deliberately limiting the Gear Fit 2 to fitness functionality (I see a few posters say that Samsung won't allow 3rd party apps for the Fit 2), I can see it's a business decision for them but it's a shame that the new version of this product is therefore artificially less capable than the older version, despite having the hardware to run better apps than those made for the original Gear Fit. I'm also finding the sleep tracking useless on the Fit 2 - with the original Gear Fit you pressed a button on the touchscreen to tell it you were going to sleep and then again when you woke up, and it would use the movement sensors to calculate your quality of sleep. The Gear Fit 2 doesn't let you tell it when you go to sleep or wake it, it's automatic - sounds great in practice but it doesn't work for me. And you still have to press a button - the Do Not Disturb function - to prevent notifications and so on from disturbing you during sleep so I don't know why there isn't the option to tell it when you're going to sleep for 100% accuracy when you are going to press a button before sleeping anyway. I haven't had the Gear Fit 2 for long but it's already hours out of my actual sleeping and waking times. Another shame as the more advanced sensors and automatic heart rate monitoring during sleep have the potential to make it a lot more useful than the original Gear Fit at providing a sleep analysis, one of the features that I would find the most useful.

Definitely going to return the Gear Fit 2, just need to decide if I'm prepared to get a Gear S2 in it's place to be able to have the app functionality. Not sure if I would be any better off with the sleep tracking on the S2 though - will have to do some more research into this. I bought the Gear Fit 2 with the intention of wearing on one wrist, with my normal analogue watch on the other - a combination I think makes sense with the Gear Fit 2 styled as a band. Having the Gear S2 smartwatch on one wrist and a normal watch on the other might look a bit silly though - as if wearing two watches. So if I exchanged my Gear Fit 2 for a (more expensive) Gear S2 smartwatch my traditional analogue watch which I've owned for years and cost me a similar amount to the Gear Fit 2 may end up gathering dust, something I wouldn't need to consider if the Gear Fit 2 at least matched the functionality I got from the original model :(