[Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge Accessories] Pilz:
Intro

I'm a big fan of smart watches in general; the Gear Fit (GF) was my first true smart watch type device. I've owned a few Android wear watches as well including the LG G Watch, LG Urbane, and Huawei Watch. I really liked the idea of Android Wear it just lacked a lot of benefits for the price. Now, with Samsungs re-emergence into the fitness tracker world I'm hoping for a much improved product. I realized that what I really wanted was a solid fitness tracker with a nice screen, and dedicated GPS; unfortunately none existed until I read about the least fir the Gear Fit 2 (GF2). I'm excited to bring everyone my views as a long time smartwatch and fitness band user (also tried to the Fitbit and xiamoi mi band), so stay tuned for my review today.

Overview:

Samsung made a great looking device this year for people that want less of a smart watch, and more of a fitness band that doesn't look hideous. The Gear Fit 2 (GF2) is very light given how sizable it is compared to the first generation Samsung made. Samsung carried over their seamless band design used in the Gear S2 which is nothing short of fantastic looking. My GF2 does have a small defect on one side where the band meets the frame, but that is not characteristic of all GF2’s, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

Unboxing Video

What’s in the box:

Samsung Gear Fit 2

Charging cradle

Documentation

Note: There is no wall adapter included in the box, so you can use any adapter from a reputable brand of course to charge the GF2.

Charging Cradle:

Band Removal & HR Sensor

Sizing and Fitment:

I originally purchased the large band size given how my wrists are 6.5in as I measured via a body tape measure. I found the large to be way too big overall; I had to use the second to last notch inward for it to even remotely not slide around my wrists. Now, if you look at Samsung’s sizing information that I took from their website below, you will see how that might be slightly off what most people would expect like myself. With the small size GF2, I have the band somewhere in the middle in terms of the notches. Since you want the GF2 to read your HR accurately (we can only hope), I would ensure that you can make it slightly tighter if you want to just in case it cannot read your HR correctly. I feel that Samsung made the device itself nearly the perfect size for the average person like myself. For reference I am 5’8” and weight 142lbs, and active daily.

Wrist Measurement:

Large 155-210mm (6.1-8.26in)

Small 125-170mm (4.9- 6.69in)

Build and Design:

Samsung opted to make their GF2 out of anodized aluminum (from the feel and my understanding after checking), which is a big step up from the plastic faux chrome Gear Fit (GF) that was released back in 2014. I really enjoyed all of my Android Wear watches, but I felt something was missing from them to make the purchase feel less like you’re buying a $3-400 notification machine. My Huawei Watch was a beautiful amalgamation of stainless steel, sapphire and modern design, but it couldn’t deliver the extra functionality to justify its price which is why I sold mine after 9 months. If you have very small wrists like my wife, the GF2 will look very strange, and most likely be uncomfortable for daily use (as my wife said). The band is made out of a elastomer type material that is both soft, durable and flexible, plus it is easily changed via Samsung’s proprietary connectors that are also used on the Gear S2. On the right hand side of the display you will find a set of buttons. Each button serves a different purpose, but unfortunately Samsung did not texture the power button like most companies do for phones. The smaller button is used for powering on/off the device, and can be programmed to do different things via quick double press while the bigger button’s main function is to go back.

On the front you will of course find a Super AMOLED panel curved to perfection and wrapped in Gorilla Glass 3 (too bad they didn’t use GG4) that bursts with the vivid colors, deep blacks and other great things you expect from Samsung. I am a huge AMOLED fan, in fact I don’t think I could use another phone (HTC 10 included) that uses a non AMOLED display because they are simply stunning to look at in any light. As for the brightness, you can see it in direct sunlight, but the brightness needs to be manually adjusted since there is no light sensor to be found. There are 10 conventional brightness levels, and 1 (level 11) that is only intended for outdoor usage as the popup notification states when you adjust it that high.

Buttons & Body

Software and Apps:

First, for those of you that don’t already know this device runs Samsung’s own OS called Tizen. This was done because the OS itself is more efficient for wearables than Android which seems to remain true still. My Android Wear watches had batteries 1.5-2x bigger and didn’t last as long as this is supposed to. Since I just got my Gear Fit today (6/10/2016), I cannot speak for how long it will last fully just yet, but my original gear fit lasted 7 days. Granted the original gear fit didn’t have automatic activity tracking, GPS, or HR monitor while working out; I would expect the GF2 to last 1.5-2 days with my usage. I will conduct a full drain test and post daily updates below with notes about what I did that day, brightness level(s) used, GPS on/off etc. (see Battery life test below)

The Gear Fit 2 is compatible with all Android devices running Android 4.4 Kitkat and above which is a good start for Samsung. I am glad they added support for non-Samsung phones because that’s why I stopped using my original Gear Fit. Everything can be managed from the Gear Fit 2 itself, but you need to first set it up on a phone before using standalone mode. Music is also transferred directly to the GF2 via the gear manager like many tasks. There is a little over 2GB free for music and other things which isn’t a huge amount; I wasn’t expecting a lot of storage anyway for music, so while 2GB isn’t ideal it is still enough for some workout music. When I installed the Gear Manager app on my Nexus 6P, the app prompted me to download 2 additional apps for the GF2 to work. I was not a big fan of being forced to install more apps just to use it on my non-Samsung phone, but the apps are not intrusive like some of Samsung’s other apps, so at least it’s not all bad. I haven’t experienced any issues using the GF2 via my Nexus 6P, but you do need to also download S Health if you want to sync your fitness activities. There is no Google Fit integration that I have seen, so I hope Samsung adds it in at some point because Google Fit is more streamlined. S Health does offer some things that Google Fit does not such as sleep tracking via the GF2, yet that isn’t a deal breaker for me.

I tested the GPS lock which seems to be nearly instant, and accurate as far as I could tell. The GPS location icon will blink during activities when you have it enabled (see my software hands on video) making it easy to know whether or not it’s on or off. For notifications you will get a nice little “buzz” which is very noticeable compared to my Huawei Watch and hard to not feel due to how close the fit is strapped to your wrist. On the ‘watch face’ you can also enable a notification icon which is a little yellow dot (on my current face) in the upper left hand corner that lets you know there’s a notification waiting for you.

Currently there are only a handful of 3rd party apps including Spotify, and some watch faces for the GF2. I really hope Samsung gets other developers onboard to make more useful apps for the GF2 like one for your loyalty cards (Starbucks, grocery stores etc) because it really helps out when you need to quickly scan a card. This isn’t a huge deal, but rather it’s something that I miss from my Android Wear watches.

On the software side there are a ton of things to discuss, so I tried to briefly cover what I felt was relevant; however, if anyone has specific questions please feel free to let me know below. I will try to answer all of the questions that I can in a timely manner.

Update [6/12]: As [MENTION=4256585]Sher The Love[/MENTION] pointed out there are some small ways Tizen operations on the GF2 that might bother people.

First:

There is no way to have a split view of your distance and speed while tracking activities, or any combination of that data besides the stock (speed, distance, time vs HR), or HR with time.

Second:

While the GF2 does post weather data when you record an activity there is no native app for it on the GF2 itself. There is a way to view weather via some of the 'watch faces', but that isn't always ideal for everyone.

Third:

Samsung only has an option to clear all notifications or none at all; this means you cannot swipe a single one away like you would expect. Now that I've spent more time with the device I can say this is a little annoying, yet at the same time I like clearing all of them at once is nice most of the time.

Lastly:

If you are out of Bluetooth range notifications can be pushed from your phone to the GF2 over WiFi just like an Android Wear watch can. This is a great feature to have, and gives the GF2 more of a smartwatch like ability to go alongside the fitness tracking.

Some of you asked about the constant HRM during workouts, and its accuracy. I wanted to post some screenshots from my HRM throughout the day (today), and data for a short walk I did yesterday which also used GPS for the speed data.

Workout HRM Log Sample

Software Overview Video

Update 6/17

A more in-depth look at the software and hardware:

In-depth Look Part 1

In-depth Look Part 2

In-depth Look Part 3

Gear Manager App:

Gear Manager & S Health App Overview

Music Transfer:

Installed Apps (for non-Samsung phones)

View while tracking an activity:

Activity tracking on the device with GPS map

Battery life test:

I am going to charge my device to 100%, then proceed to wear it without charging until it dies. My settings for the test are as follows (unless otherwise noted)

-GPS: on for activity tracking (only when you start activities)

-Brightness level 5

-Ambient always on mode: Off

-WiFi: Off

-Tilt to wake: Off

-Auto HR monitoring periodically throughout the day

-Sleep tracking

App Notifications: On for about 12 apps (this isn’t a huge amount if you consider how many apps give you notifications daily)

I will add an update 24 hours from the time I post this showing the battery %, and detailing my daily usage.

Day 1 Battery (Start time 2350 6/10):

The sleep tracking isn't accurate, at least not during the first night from what I've seen. I went to bed around 0030, and woke up at 0630. The Gear Fit 2 reported that I went to sleep at 0400 and woke up at 0630 which is only partially accurate.

From 2350 on 6/10 to 0830 6/11 the Gear Fit 2 only drained 4% total which is really good for being idle given it's small battery. I will add more updates about today's usage as I use it today.

Daylight display test while on a walk

Day 1 Battery ~23 hours later

It is now 2237 as I'm typing this, and the battery on my GF2 is sitting at 68%. I used GPS to track a 45 minute walk, and had all of the above things enabled as I mentioned. I also brief had the brightness at 11 for a minute or two so I could show the screen outside for a video. I also had the brightness down to 1 for another video so keep that in mind because both of those could potentially impact battery life. As of right now it looks like the GF2 should last a full 2 days (48 hours), or slightly more using GPS. I will report back with the battery % tomorrow morning when I wake up.

Day 2 Battery

I woke up this morning and the battery drained ~8% overnight since I last checked it. I expect to make it through todsy but possibly not all of tomorrow depending on how much the GPS drains it during activities. I also wanted to point out how the sleep recognition is not accurate after 2 days of checking it; I hope this issue gets addressed in a future update.

Day 2 Battery end of day update

I didn't do any real exercising today as I had initially planned, so I wasn't able to use the GPS aside from when it would track my walking throughout the day. My battery is not at 39% after 48 hours off the charger; it has been on my wrist the whole time aside from when I took showers (I know it's IP68 rated, but I don't want to intentionally expose it to water).

Today I had the automatic WiFi enabled, along with all of the initially mentioned conditions outline in the test. I don't expect to make it through the whole day tomorrow, so I will update the battery test tomorrow morning when I wake up.

Day 3 Battery morning update

The battery drained 8% overnight which put me down to 30% when I woke up. The sleep tracking was slightly better tonight than the previous two nights; it actually came withing 15 minutes of when I went to bed and woke up which is a lot better than before.

I went on a 50 minute walk this morning with my wife; the GPS was on the whole time, and I ensured my phones Bluetooth was off so it would use the GF2's GPS not the one on my phone. The battery started at 28% and ended at 19% during that 50 minute interval which is more realistic than the 4% I saw during a similar period. As of right now I decided to turn the battery draining tilt-to-wake function on to see how big of an effect it has on your battery life. During the past 2 hours it has taken a 5% hit on my battery which is significant compared to how little the GPS drains relative to what both functions are doing. I don't expect to make it through the whole day, so I will post another update when it does die here in the new few hours if I had to guess since I'm using the tilt-to-wake. I enabled that to show people the high drain it causes, and so you can see how it impacts your daily use of the GF2. I hope everyone is enjoying reading about these results; stay tuned for more updates! :laugh:

Day 3 Battery Final update

I went on yet another walk with 9% battery, tilt-to-wake on, GPS on, and brightness level 6. I successfully tracked the entire 72 minute walk with my GF2 dying minutes after I got home; I couldn't have predicted, nor asked for something that perfect, but hey it all worked out!

I am more than happy with the battery life of the new GF2 given its GPS, smaller battery than the original (10mAh smaller), and constant HRM during workouts. The total battery life with my normal usage as described each day was 66 hours; that is better than most if not all Android Wear watches doing the same thing, and a fair amount of fitness trackers that have similar abilities and screens (Microsoft band).

Battery Update 6/17

After giving the GF2 another full cycle I managed to get a solid 3 days of use out of it as opposed to the 2.75 I got before. I turned power saving mode on when my battery hit 10% around 1500 (3pm), and it's now 2310 and my battery is at 7%. Power saving mode does limit the device substantially, but it just goes to show you how big of a difference it can make while still counting your steps. I might get closer to 80 hours of use at this point, so anyone that doesn't use HRM, or GPS should be able to hopefully get 4 days of battery life; if anyone does I would like to know what your set up is/was, so I can post about it here.

I hope this battery test will help everyone out, and give them a good ideal of what to expect with their GF2 based on normal to heavy usage tracking activities.

Summary:

I really like what Samsung has done with this year’s Gear Fit 2; all of the right boxes are checked as far as features, design and build quality go. I wouldn’t change more than a small thing or two personally, so if you want a fitness tracker that has a fair amount of smart watch features I don’t think the GF2 will disappoint you. While there are a limited number of useful 3rd party apps currently, I hope that changes in the future to make things better along with Google Fit integration. The SAMOLED display is nothing short of pure greatness, and the seamless flowing of the screen to band really makes this device stand out.