£209, buy on samsung.com

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Samsung Gear Fit2 Pro In-Depth

Using The Samsung Gear Fit2 Pro To Track Activity

The Gear Fit2 Pro covers all the bases for activity tracking and covers them well: steps, floors climbed, calories burned, active minutes, and, for the latter, automatically tracking and adding anything above a moderately fast walk to your number. I had no complaints virtually the accuracy, information technology passed all the basic sense tests and the details are all available on the sentry itself – if anything, the app is a bit lacking in detail.

The default daily targets are 6,000 steps and ascending the equivalent of ten flights of stairs but each is easily changed on the watch, and the stats screens on the watch gives an average for the previous four weeks equally well as the count for each day. That may sound like a lot of data to display on a pretty small screen, but the layout is piece of cake to read. The app adds monthly trends and the "average steps at a salubrious stride" number, a squeamish extra that might reveal that you're juicing your step count with frequent trips to the vending auto.

Equally with almost all activeness bands, the Gear Fit2 Pro volition fizz at you later a menstruum of inactivity, in this case 50 minutes of stillness (although the feature is suppressed when yous're sleeping or if you turn Do Non Disturb on). It'll advise a few torso twists, demonstrate the motion on the screen and count the reps, but if you get upwardly and make a cup of tea information technology'll be satisfied.

You lot'll as well receive a weekly activity summary on the watch every Monday at apex detailing your calorie burn, steps taken, flights of stairs climbed, time spent moving at a "healthy pace" and sleep, plus a percentage change compared with the week earlier. It's a comprehensive offering and packaged up smartly.

Using The Samsung Gear Fit2 Pro For Working Out

If y'all're a fan of fitness classes the Gear Fit2 Pro will track sessions and show the duration, calories burned and your heart rate during exercise. The latter is as well color-coded so you can see which eye rate zone you're in – especially useful during HIIT classes.

Nonetheless, if you similar to follow interval workouts on your own, you'll find the Gear Fit2 Pro is lacking a customisable interval timer to guide you through work and residue periods. I likewise couldn't find an app on the Samsung Galaxy shop (at least that works with iOS) that will satisfy this need. Fifty-fifty the Endomondo app, which normally offers interval workouts, can't on the Gear Fit2 Pro.

At that place are specific modes for sessions on cardio machines, similar an exercise bike, treadmill, rowing machine, elliptical and step machine, but each option tracks the same matter: center rate – it just labels information technology accurately in the app. You can set a calorie burn target or the elapsing of the session and the device volition buzz when you reach your goal.

There's the option to runway reps of some bodyweight exercises. Customise the number of sets and reps to perform, and the watch will demonstrate the motion on screen. Information technology asks y'all to adopt the outset position and buzzes when it's happy with your form, then you consummate the reps. I tried unweighted squats and lunges and the rep counter was spot on. The watch then counts down a infinitesimal of residue (although yous tin skip this) until the next set.

It'south a neat feature only information technology would be far meliorate if it had been developed further into a guided workout. Sure, you could string together a bunch of exercises, but at that place's more to creating a workout than picking a few gym moves. It's as well a footstep behind the rep counting feature on some Garmin models, which takes an impressive stab at automatically recognising exercises in a multi-move workout.

Using The Samsung Gear Fit2 Pro For Running

With the add-on of congenital-in GPS, the Samsung Gear Fit2 Pro should appeal to semi-serious runners eager to get authentic pace stats on the hoof and pour over their splits afterwards. Frustratingly, the native tracking app has some serious flaws that means runners should think twice.

The biggest beefiness I have is that you tin can't fire up the GPS, await for it to lock on to a betoken, and then start the session. Instead, y'all hit start, get a 3-second countdown before the timer starts and the Gear Fit2 Pro starts looking for a satellite. You can either stand there every bit the timer ticks away, throwing off your footstep stats for the first kilometre and your average speed for the whole run, or you tin can prepare off and hope the GPS clicks in quickly. Unfortunately, it'due south harder for any device to get a signal on the movement so while I tended to cull the latter, I managed to go through a forty-minute run in central London without GPS.

When the GPS did become a lock, I constitute that the alive stride stat quickly jumped around all over the identify – sometimes from four minutes a kilometre to viii to six and and so on. I'll admit my footstep probably isn't smooth, only I'd expect the software to shine the readings out (I assume that's what Fitbit does on its congenital-in GPS devices, the Surge and Ionic, where I've relied on the stride reading without outcome).

This mistake also torpedoes the step-setter sessions available on the device. There are 7 runs to follow, with the device setting the pace at which you run to achieve dissimilar goals (from calorie-free jogging to speed endurance), buzzing at you if you're going too fast or too wearisome. I tried it in one case, it continually buzzed at me and I gave up, which is a shame because it'south a great idea that'due south more commonly found on running watches than fitness smartwatches.

The effect is less pronounced if yous utilize a tertiary-political party app to rails your run. I ran using Endomondo also and institute it to be more than usable, although still jumpier than I'd like. There is too MapMyRun and Nether Armour Record to attempt, simply sadly not Strava, although you tin can ready the Samsung Wellness smartphone app to automatically export GPS sessions to the social network.

I huge do good for runners is that there'south born memory for music that y'all can stream directly to Bluetooth earphones, so you can head out without your phone – but but for a limited amount of time. I got 1 hr xv minutes of GPS and music off of a full charge. Not enough considering I was running a half marathon and I am non that quick. It's one area where the Gear Fit2 Pro can't compete with more than expensive smartwatches.

For runners who aren't that bothered about more avant-garde features, which is probably the majority, the Gear Fit2 Pro will exercise the job. However, it does lag behind other devices, both smartwatches and cheaper GPS running watches. The Garmin Vivoactive 3 tin can handle music and GPS for five hours, the Apple tree Watch 3 even more.

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Using The Samsung Gear Fit2 Pro For Cycling

The Gear Fit2 Pro is suitable for casual cyclists, only fifty-fifty and so information technology'southward far from the best in class. The GPS suffers from the aforementioned problem of not existence able to lock on to a GPS signal before starting a ride. This screenshot besides shows the accurateness of the GPS in one case information technology's locked on.

For the avoidance of doubt I started at Alfred Place and cycled along Windmill Street. This lack of accuracy isn't confined to the Gear Fit2 Pro (especially in central London), but reinforces the sense that you lot shouldn't inquire too much of the Gear Fit2 Pro's GPS.

The Gear Fit2 Pro does automatically log cycling, so in theory you shouldn't need to worry almost manually starting and stopping a session and however have the activity contribute to your calorie burn and agile minutes stats, but it seemed to take as well long to recognise when I was moving. My cycle commute is always somewhere between 40 and 45 minutes. On one twenty-four hour period the Gear Fit2 Pro logged 12 minutes there and 17 minutes dorsum. This is something Fitbit and Garmin can do with a much higher caste of accurateness.

Using The Samsung Gear Fit2 Pro For Pond

The Gear Fit2 Pro has taken its lumps up till this point, but swimming may well be the killer app that persuades you to purchase ane.

For starters the heart rate monitor remains on in the water, something many brands shy away from. It worked well, matching my expectations of how difficult I was working.

I was also very impressed with the device's automatic stroke recognition, nailing breastroke and backstroke, although it did telephone call my really, really poor forepart crawl attempted without goggles as "mixed" (the stroke was, to exist fair, all over the identify). It also counted lengths correctly, which is no small feat.

The only issue with the native app on the device is that y'all can merely set the pool length equally 25 metres, l metres or 25 yards. No good if yous swim in a small pool at your gym.

In the Samsung Health app there'due south a breakup of lengths, along with your all-time and average length duration. It'll also tell you your pace and SWOLF score, the latter a measure of your efficiency in the water.

This is the showtime swim tracker I've tried that brings tracking upwardly to the level I'd expect for running and cycling. It'south useful, intuitive and more chiefly it works reliably.

If you lot have a Samsung telephone, y'all tin can as well download and employ the SpeedoOn app on the device. SpeedoOn is a sprawling resources of workouts, grooming plans, technique drills and more. While I was unable to endeavour it, I'm betting it adds a new dimension to swim trackers.

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Using The Samsung Gear Fit2 Pro Equally A Heart Rate Monitor

The heart rate monitor on the Gear Fit2 Pro works besides equally you'd expect any wrist-worn tracker to – a few readings seemed way off mid-do but that'south par for the class.

For monitoring your middle during the twenty-four hours you tin turn the HRM off (which didn't relieve battery like I hoped it would), or have it taking readings ofttimes or ever. Keeping it always on allows the Gear Fit2 Pro to showtime recording any small-scale bit of action during your day, like a fast walk.

There's plenty of information available on the smartphone app – the time y'all spent in various zones, your maximum, minimum and average heart rate – simply strangely resting heart rate isn't prominently displayed as a single number, but rather equally a range on a graph.

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Using The Gear Fit2 Pro For Calorie Counting

The calories you lot've burned are merely viewable on the Gear Fit2 Pro, non the app strangely, but information technology's the best layout of the information I've seen. The color coded timeline breaks up your day – from sleeping to light activeness, to walking, cycling, running, working out or moving at a good for you stride – to bear witness when you were burning the most calories. Click on each segment for your heart rate and calorie burn during that period.

Using The Samsung Gear Fit2 Pro As A Smartwatch

Apple Watch users and owners of smartwatches that use Android Wearable every bit the operating system are spoilt for selection. Everyone else, not so much, only Samsung gear leads the balance of the pack thanks to the Under Armour and SpeedoOn apps already covered in a higher place.

Samsung is also one of the few smartwatch manufacturers to offering a Spotify app (it'due south also available on Android Wear). Once you've logged in (which I failed to do, but I'k putting this one down to user error/anger) and connected the device to WiFi, it acts as a standalone music histrion streaming through any continued Bluetooth device. Since playlists aren't available offline, it's good to utilise in your dwelling, at work or the gym (if yous accept decent WiFi in each place), just less so outside unless you tether it to your telephone.

There's as well space for music on the Gear Fit2 Pro. The Music Managing director on the watch gives a web address to hit on the browser on your computer and, as long as your device is connected to WiFi, you just drag and drop music to download to the device. No software to download, no cables. I as well constitute setting up Bluetooth headphones and streaming music from the device to them easy and reliable – basically everything you want in this section. Kudos, Samsung.

Finally, the device relayed notifications from my telephone without whatsoever additional set-upwardly and included enough characters from emails, WhatsApp and text messages that I could make a conclusion equally to whether information technology was worth getting my phone out or not. Information technology'due south what y'all'd look, but it'due south rarely executed equally cleanly as this.

Apart from being able to answer calls by swiping the Gear Fit2 Pro'southward screen, communication between phone and sentry was 1-mode, however, and then the Gear Fit2 Pro was the dumb partner in this relationship, just that's standard unless the wearable and telephone are from the same manufacturer.

Using The Samsung Gear Fit2 Pro For Sleep Tracking

Samsung is up in that location with the best in slumber tracking considering it's included guidance as to whether the sleep tracked is good-quality or not. Like many trackers, the Gear Fit2 Pro volition rails the time asleep (and become it right, coughing Garmin coughing) and split it upwardly into light, motionless (presumably deep) and restless periods. Simply on top of that information technology gives you lot a (somewhat mysterious) efficiency score and a much plainer rating of good, fair or poor.

In that location'south too a sleep goal in the app that allows y'all to ready target times to go to bed and wake upward, because consistency in this area is widely accepted as a factor in how well y'all sleep. The characteristic tin can also take your caffeine intake into account if you manually add together it in the app.

The device is comfortable enough to vesture through the night and Samsung's wisely included a Practise Not Disturb feature and then the brilliantly brilliant screen doesn't switch on when yous turn over in bed and stir yous (it actually can get quite bright). The merely downside is that the poor battery life means yous'll need be on top of charging to avoid having the device die during the nighttime.

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The Samsung Health App

Because I was using an iPhone I had to install ii apps, Samsung Gear Fit which connects your device to your phone and provides access to the Galaxy app store, and Samsung Health, the companion app proper.

I had a few syncing issues from time to time which were resolved with a few attempts or turning things on and off once again – nothing too bad but it'south non as slick as platform-doubter brands similar Fitbit and Garmin. I'll wager you lot won't become these problems if yous're on an Android or Samsung phone, though.

While the Samsung Health app doesn't look as nice as its competitors' apps, there's enough of depth if you lot spend the time clicking around. For instance, if you manually record your weight the app volition also calculate your BMI (a mensurate that's not without its bug but something worth knowing).

In particular I liked the goals for action, sleep and diet, which can help to turn dumb information into something more useful. For the latter goal, you can set up your target calorie intake and then log what you eat throughout the day too equally getting a nutrient score (low, boilerplate/recommended and high) for protein, carbs, total fat and saturated fats, fibre, potassium, vitamins A and C, calcium, iron and sodium. If you lot're buying a tracker to improve your wellness rather than, say, helping y'all train for a marathon, this feature is a fantastic addition.

How Often Am I Going To Have To Accuse It?

A lot. On a full charge the app estimates around xx hours of use, and turning the heart rate monitor off simply buys you an extra 30 minutes. Non stretching to a full solar day is a let-down in light of the solid sleep-tracking features, but peradventure you can find a regular time each day to charge it. About an hour and a one-half is enough to become from nothing to total.

Using GPS is a serious battery hog too. I wore the Gear Fit2 Pro and the Fitbit Ionic for a run of i hr and ten minutes. The Ionic used about 20% of its charge, but for the Samsung device it was more than half.

There is a power saving manner which the Gear Fit2 Pro will prompt you to turn on when it hits 20% battery, only that means a greyscale screen, and pace and stair counting only. Annoyingly, it doesn't automatically turn it off if you recharge it then I've turned the feature on, recharged information technology when convenient and strapped information technology back on only forgotten to turn off power saving mode, missing phone notifications I really could have done with seeing.

Where Tin can I Vesture It Without People Laughing At Me?

Plump for the all-blackness model and you'll get past pretty much anywhere. It's more of a ring than a picket so information technology may not fly in bourgeois workplaces, but information technology's reasonably sleek and inconspicuous. At that place are too a metal blue and pinky-red models available, but consider your choice advisedly because y'all're stuck with it – you can't change bands like you tin can with other trackers.

Should I Consider Ownership Something Else?

Until very recently I would accept said no, unless you lot're happy to pony up another £100-plus to movement up a price bracket, or ditch the smartwatch and swimming chops and go for the ultra-inexpensive Huawei Band Pro 2 or Amazfit Bip, both of which'll purse you GPS and a eye rate monitor for something in the region of £50 if you shop effectually.

However, it seems articles have cottoned on to the £200 price point for a smartwatch. Fitbit is releasing the Versa smartwatch in April, which beats the Gear Fit Pro 2 for running, cycling (fifty-fifty though it needs to piggyback off a smartphone to offer GPS tracking), battery life, general slickness of the app and experience, and way, but isn't as good at swim tracking or being a particularly smart smartwatch.

In that location'southward also a new entrant, the Mobvoi Ticwatch, which while non waterproof does have GPS and a heart rate monitor, only its biggest asset is being built on the Android platform so it should offer far, far ameliorate apps. Another option is the Suunto 3 Fitness, although initial reports from a colleague are iffy. Reviews of all three are incoming.

The Gear Fit2 Pro remains an impressive choice, though. If yous ain a Samsung telephone, are a regular swimmer or already use any of Under Armour'due south fettle apps, information technology's certainly worth serious consideration.