Samsung-Galaxy-Gear-Fit-6

“If at first you don’t succeed, keep releasing products till people forget.” Samsung product development strategy*

Almost a year ago, the Pebble entered my life and nothing has been the same since. Having a second screen on your wrist can change the way you interact with your main device. Notifications, snippets of data and basic applications remove the need to be constantly glancing at your fondleslab every few seconds.

Samsung’s first entry in to the wearables market didn’t go so well. The Galaxy Gear was not just badly received, it was completely panned by the majority of the tech press resulting in my favourite quote about the product from BGR: The Galaxy Gear is a “we were here first” device that feels like a half-baked response to an Apple product that doesn’t even exist.

Ouch.

So, as per Samsung’s product development strategy, to follow up the original Gear, they have launched three new versions:

  • The Galaxy Gear 2
  • The Galaxy Gear 2 Neo
  • The Galaxy Gear Fit

For our little review, I got to spend some wrist time with the Gear Fit. The smallest of the bunch with the oddest dimensions.

Looking at the hardware, the Gear Fit actually feels relatively well put together. Interestingly, Samsung’s ability to use lots of plastic and charge quite a bit of money for it, feels like less of a rip-off when it comes to the Gear Fit. Given that the Fit has more of a fitness focus to it, a waterproof and dust proof to IP67 standards and has a built in heart rate monitor, it seems more focused on fitness than being a communications tool. The main unit of the Fit is snapped in to a strap that is not dissimilar to that of a FitBit but it’s not a standard fitting by any means, so any replacements will need to be made my Samsung or an OEM. No nice leather or metal options here.

The screen on the Fit is very impressive. The curved AMOLED touch-screen just screams ‘futuristic’. Unfortunately, being the size of a screen from an 90’s pager, you can only get the same amount of information on there. Luckily, Samsung saw the error of their ways and when the device was launched, introduced a portrait view mode. The landscape only layout seemed to have been thought up by someone who had never actually put the device on to actually, you know, see what it was like to use.

With the hardware covered, it’s time to look towards Samsung’s usual Achilles heel. Software.

As previously mentioned, the Gear Fit was supposed to launch only being able to to be used in landscape mode. This was rectified before the launch, but given the proportions of the screen, that may not have been the best idea. The issue comes with notifications. All the text starts to get broken up and messages no longer become useful, they become confusing. There’s some saving graces to the software though. Firstly, it’s snappy. The actions on the touch screen are registered better than an Android device’s screen. The software falls down again when it comes to Android though. Given that the Gear family only work with modern (read, about 15 months old) Samsung devices, the target market is some what limited.

The owner of this Gear Fit has a Note 3 and also a FitBit. He loves his FitBit due to how completely the software is integrated with the readings from the sensors. The app is great and he can even access the data from a desktop through a web browsers. The Gear Fit offers none of this. He, like the rest of the web, have said that Samsung’s actions to get the Gear Fit to be a true fitness tracker have fallen flat. The pedometer has to be manually activated and stopped and even then, it’s not what you’d call accurate. The rest of the health tracking applications are for ‘recreational use only’ according to Samsung, so If you’re doctor is wanting you to track your heart rate, this is not the device for you.

Battery life wise, it’s a bit early to tell, but most people are reporting about 3 days of use. Not great considering a Pebble can go over a week and health bands like the FitBit and the Nike Fuelband can go on longer.

As a smartwatch, the Gear Fit looks smart, but can’t have apps loaded on to it and eve if it could, there’s not much you’d want to be doing with that odd screen. As a fitness tracker, there’s better dedicated options out there that are compatible with more handsets and have better software support.

Yet again, we have a Samsung ‘swing and a miss’. There’s some things to like in the Gear Fit, but at £170, you could buy a Pebble and a FitBit and have a better experience. Let’s see what Samsung can come up with next year. Third times a charm! Right?

 

*This may or may not be their actual strategy, but it can’t be a million miles away.