The Samsung Gear Fit band is something new in the world of wearable technology, and Samsung finally has something pretty cool to show off, after their first smartwatch, the Galaxy Gear, which was disappointing not just with the looks but with the pricing too. But finally, alongside the Gear 2 smartwatch, Samsung showcased this piece of beauty which looked excellent, was feather-light (exaggerated term but still, it´s quite light) and has some useful functionality.
We were quite happy to see the LG Lifeband Touch and the Sony’s Smartband coming out at the same time, but Samsung did a pretty neat job, thanks to the colorful OLED display which flaunts itself on the wrist, and the band is totally in control with the smartphone. You could do everything, including setting the wallpaper, alarm, clocks etc. using the app in the smartphone.
One good advantage for Samsung with the Gear Fit is that at least the design team of Samsung won’t get a beating this time, as this is something real good at looks, and Samsung took a right chance before the designers at HTC and Apple come out with what they have. Now, getting into the details about the Gear Fit, it can do most of the stuff which the smartwatches in the recent times were boasting – notifications, custom straps changeable anytime, themes. But to add to that, the Fitness manager is something real good with the heart rate monitor, thanks to the sensor which would do the proper reading and let you know the heart rate whenever you wanted it to do.
Keeping the users connected to the web and things around is done with the Bluetooth connectivity with the smartphone, and you would get the notifications for the SMS, incoming calls, Emails and various third party apps that you set. It is all a simple touch and swipe needed on the Curved OLED display to read or ignore those notifications.
The strap is quite loose and that’s what would provide the comfort to the wrist as you aren’t getting something hard like the Jawbone Up which keeps itself at an exact curve and that is not very comfortable to wear, when compared with the Gear Fit. Again, you can change the straps as there are a few available in different colors.
The best part about controlling the Gear Fit is the app available in the Galaxy S5, and the support might be extended to the other Galaxy smartphones too, in the coming days. The app has got several sections such as the clocks, the wallpapers and the other stuff about notifications. It’s so fast and accurate that you don’t have to sync it. Once you select a new wallpaper in the app, the changes would reflect in the Gear Fit in the next moment without you having to search and hit the refresh button expecting for a sync.
With the weight of just 27gm, the Gear Fit from Samsung does steal the show in the wearable category, but there are quite a lot of competitors who could take it away when the pricing is concerned. For us, the Gear Fit is something one should surely use, to replace the watch, or smartwatch if someone is using it (e.g. Pebble, Metawatch, iWatch, Gear). We’ll look out for the launch of this, and be keen to check out the pricing of the Gear Fit. Again, we hope Samsung doesn’t disappoint with the limited compatibility list, and keeps the Gear Fit usable with any Android device in the near future.
