Samsung Gear Fit2 Is Half Fitness Tracker, Half Smartwatch

Samsung Gear Fit2 Is Half Fitness Tracker, Half Smartwatch

 

When it comes to your wrist, there are two kinds of wearable gadgets besides a wristwatch. You can go with a fitness tracker, an efficient little wristband that may or may not have a display. Or you can drop serious coin on a smartwatch.

Once in a while, a device splits the difference. The Samsung Gear Fit and Microsoft Band 2, both billed as fitness bands, combine the roomy touchscreens of a smartwatch with the battery life and affordability of a fitness band. The Gear Fit2 blurs the line further, providing notifications from your phone and canned one-tap responses to messages. It also sports more onboard instrumentation than rudimentary fitness trackers. And despite the added firepower, Samsung says it’s good for as long as four days on a charge.

The advantages start with the built-in GPS, which lets you view progress on a map without tethering the tracker to your phone. It’s got an impressive 4GB of storage and the ability to listen to music through Bluetooth headphones. A Spotify app lets you stream tunes, but you’ll need to use a Wi-Fi connection or tether the band to your phone.

Samsung says the Gear Fit2 riffs on the Tizen operating system powering its Gear smartwatches. The UI has been rejiggered to a vertical orientation on the 1.5-inch AMOLED waterproof (IP68-rated) touchscreen, which the company says is more natural when you’re looking down at your wrist. The extra screen real estate provides a map interface, visualizations for your activity targets, and leaderboards that let you challenge friends to feats of crushing it. Inside you’ll find a heart-rate sensor, accelerometer, gyroscope, barometer, and a dual-core 1GHz processor.

The device auto-tracks the usual categories like steps, floors, calories, and sleep, and it’s purportedly even smart enough to recognize when you’re doing squats, riding a bike, using a rowing machine, or doing hot yoga and logs those stats accordingly. A redesigned band—it’s curvier underneath—available in large or small should help provide a snugger fit for any size wrist.

Preorders for the Gear Fit2 start June 3 for $180, and it ships a week later.