What’s your take on the Samsung Gear Fit 2, a health bracelet that was one of the best fitness trackers available? If you’re a Samsung fan you’ll obviously take the Samsung Gear Fit 2 Pro despite its tiny steps forward.
However, what’s Pro about Samsung’s latest fitness bracelet? Nothing much, the same size, battery capacity, and design features. Meanwhile, you’ll be treated with a built-in GPS to track your runs and walks too.
However, What’s different? Fortunately, the Samsung Gear Fit 2 Pro features built-in fitness-centric apps including UA Record, Speed Go, MapMyRun, and Endomondo. The main benefit of these pre-installed fitness apps is that they tend to motivate you on getting just a bit faster. Also, Samsung has improved the original IP68 rating to add MIL-STD-810G certification. This means the Fit 2 Pro is more durable and can withstand 5ATM of water pressure.
For most fans, the main improvement of this bracelet is that Spotify’s sought-after offline mode works here, meaning the Samsung Gear Fit 2 Pro can act as a standalone music player which you can connect to your Bluetooth Speaker or wireless Headphones.
However, not all of these changes are the best. In fact, most of these tweaks simply create longstanding issues. Spotify, for instance, offers the coolest features here but isn’t pre-installed. Also, you’ll need to download most of these apps to your phone and connect them before getting started. So for fans who expect to get all of these features on the device alone, this change is meaningless. Fortunately, they’re time saver and prevents you from navigating through Samsung’s app store looking for a compatible app to download.
After going through the Samsung Galaxy Fit 2 Pro, we found out that the changes made aren’t worth it if you’re jumping in for the first time. In fact, not only there are better incentives, it makes the original Fit 2 even easier to recommend because of its lower price. Sometimes, a total overhaul isn’t necessary, but it turns out a pinch of it would have been better and make the Gear Fit 2 Pro worth it.
Samsung Gear Fit 2 Pro: Design and Display
The Samsung Gear Fit 2 was, and it’s still one of the most attractive health bracelets around, and this Pro model reiterates Samsung’s long-term tradition of producing the best-looking fitness trackers.
Around the front is the same curved Super AMOLED display that’s crisp and shines brighter with more quality detail than you’ll ever find in the average wearable. The interface is positioned vertically, meaning you can easily read the watch content without tweaking your head sideways like in the fantastic Microsoft Band 2.
The Samsung Gear Fit 2 Pro offers amazing touch functionality when it comes to controls. Unlike the Galaxy Fit 2, there are two physical buttons on the Gear Fit 2 Pro which the first one is used for waking and jumping into the app’s main menu, while the other functions as the “go back” button. Thankfully, you can easily put the watch to sleep by simply placing your hand over the screen.
However, the biggest physical changes here is that Samsung has equipped the Gear Fit 2 Pro with a standard watch strap clasp instead of the normal latch strap. Fortunately, this strap is also compatible with the original model, though you can’t buy it separately.
Over the back is the same physical components including a heart rate sensor, and a few pins to charge the device when rested on the included USB-powered charger. Charging the Samsung Gear Fit 2 Pro is a breeze, thanks to its fail-proof magnetic charging feature. Notwithstanding the position you align the device, it’ll start charging immediately without any fuse.
Samsung Gear Fit 2 Pro: Performance
In as much as this bracelet design remain unchanged, the same thing applies to its user interface and general performance. However, the Gear Fit 2 Pro is a solid performer in various use cases, whether you’re an occasional jogger, gym instructor, or simply someone who fancies wearing a competent smartwatch.
When compared to other fitness devices in the market, the Samsung Gear Fit 2 Pro is among the best option available. Once you connect the fitness bracelet to your smartphone, you can easily receive and send SMS, accept or deny calls, and comfortably control your music through the device’s native music player. Added to its numerous advantages, this Bluetooth and Wi-fi connected bracelet can stream Spotify wirelessly and connect to any speaker or headphones.
If you want to fully enjoy the benefits of this Samsung wearable, you’ll need to install the Samsung Gear app that’s compatible with Android and iOS devices. Also, you’ll need to download an additional Gear Fit applet, alongside Samsung Health to get the most out of this fitness tracker. However, this is obviously a lot of procedures and would become tiresome. Unfortunately, it’s a shame that Samsung failed to streamline this process in the slightest.
As this wearable shines in fitness, you’ll enjoy putting it to task on the go. However, no matter what you bought it for, you’ll likely have plenty of reasons to make it your perfect companion. Thankfully, you’ll be able to load tons of music on the 4GB onboard storage.
Samsung Gear Fit 2 Pro: Fitness
This wearable offers a very good experience between serving hardcore fitness fans and giving its users the freedom to manually begin exercises, set targets, and modify through a well-presented matrix or let the software automatically detect the exercise you’re doing so you don’t have to do the work. Interestingly, you don’t have to waste your time when the wearable can automatically begin tracking without any input.
When it comes to customization, the Samsung Gear Fit 2 Pro makes it easier for you to personalize the interface blades. Care about checking only your heart rate, counting calories, checking the amount of your daily water intake? You can easily limit your health bracelet to show you only these three features. Of course, there are more interesting tweaks including some of the built-in apps like UA Record offering their own view of fitness. In any way, you’ll enjoy it more while viewing the matrix on your smartphone. However, Samsung handles navigation perfectly notwithstanding the device’s small but wonderfully designed display.
One of the many advantages of this wearable is the gentle motivation it provides after ten minutes of each activity. Also, the Samsung Gear Fit 2 Pro automatically detects when you pause to take water or catch your breath in an exercise. This is something you have to be mindful of if recording every details of your workout is important.
Another good feature of the health tracker is the built-in GPS function. Unlike most fitness trackers, the Gear Fit 2 Pro detects signal almost immediately. Despite taking much of the device’s battery, it’s always reliable and the colorful map on the screen is very satisfying.
Although you’ll equally need to download the fitness apps on your smartphone, the Gear Fit 2 Pro’s enhanced IP68 rated water-resistant turns on once you take it out of the box. The built-in Speedo On app might be basic in execution despite taking your swim sample and works to introduce a new “water lock” feature. However, this isn’t as fancy as Apple Watch 2’s hardware that spurts out water out of its speaker and automatically locks the screen from being turned on by the wave of water rushing against it. Unfortunately, you’ll need to manually turn the Gear Fit 2 Pro off by pressing and holding the main button for three seconds.
Samsung Gear Fit 2 Pro: Battery Capacity
Similar to the original Gear Fit 2, you’ll be expecting an average battery life that’ll last for two or three days before needing a refill. One disadvantage of this bracelet is that even if you’re not using some of the workout features, they’ll automatically trigger once you start moving. However, you can adjust it through the settings if you want to preserve the battery life.
The Samsung Gear Fit 2 Pro comes with a charger, but not a power adapter for fast charging. The device will take close to 90 minutes to fully charge when plugged into a USB 3.0 port. However, if you have a spare charger, you’ll charge it with less time – only about an hour.
Samsung Gear Fit 2 Pro: Price in Nigeria and Availability
The Samsung Gear Fit 2 Pro was launched across several regions of the world for ₦125,000 (about $315). However, the price has slightly dropped putting the watch currently on sale for ₦95,000 (roughly $239) which is in line with the newer Fitbit Charge 3.
