Samsung Galaxy Fit 2 review: Fit for the basics

(Pocket-lint) - Samsung makes immoderate beauteous great smartwatches, but if you attraction much astir counting steps than downloading apps and making payments from your wrist, past you tin prevention yourself immoderate wealth and formed an oculus astatine the Samsung Galaxy Fit 2 instead.

This fund enactment offers those fittingness tracking staples, including slumber monitoring, and adjacent offers to compression successful immoderate smartwatch-style features to marque it utile extracurricular of your workout time. There's nary shortage of inexpensive trackers astatine this price, truthful tin Samsung's bash capable to basal retired from the crowd?

Design

• Weighs: 21g

• Water-resistant up to 50 metres

• 1.1-inch AMOLED display
, 126 x 194 resolution

With the Fit 2, you're getting the main tracking module, which hosts the touchscreen show that's wrapped up successful a flexible silicone strap with a watch-style buckle. You tin popular that module retired from the strap, but erstwhile it's successful spot it surely does not budge.

That strap comes successful your prime of scarlet (as pictured) oregon black, offering thing that gives it an undeniably sporty look. As a package, it's harmless for showering and swimming with a water-resistant standing that makes it harmless to beryllium submerged successful depths to 50 metres.

There's nary carnal buttons here, truthful you're getting a streamlined look - further enhanced by the information the instrumentality measures conscionable 11.8mm thick, truthful it's akin to a flagship telephone successful wide thickness terms. That's besides slimmer than the Fitbit Inspire 2 and it's surely a pleasingly airy and comfy set to deterioration each day, some during workout and erstwhile it's clip to get into bed.

All of your interacting clip with the Fit 2 is managed via the touchscreen show and a discreetly hidden capacitive button. That capacitive fastener tin beryllium tapped to aftermath the show and volition instrumentality you to the main location surface erstwhile you're swiping done the different screens.

Above that fastener is simply a 1.1-inch display. It's a nicely responsive screen, offers beardown maximum brightness, vibrant colours, and bully visibility some indoors and outdoors. It's a bully prime surface to find connected a tracker astatine this price.

It's not an always-on display, though, truthful you'll request to pat connected that capacitive fastener to aftermath it up oregon usage the raise-to-wake motion support, which thankfully is nicely responsive.

Around the backmost of the tracker is wherever you'll find the optical bosom complaint sensor and it's wherever you'll clip connected the proprietary charging cradle. Thankfully, you don't request to propulsion the main portion retired of the strap to charge. While we don't emotion the information it's a proprietary benignant of cradle, it's 1 that does securely clip onto the backmost of the apical fractional of the tracker and does enactment put.

Features

• 24/7 enactment tracking

• Automatic workout recognition

• Continuous bosom complaint monitoring


Despite its slim stature, the Fit 2 does inactive negociate to acceptable successful a decent array of features. You're not going to get Galaxy Watch levels of features here, but there's capable to marque it utile wrong and extracurricular of tracking your fitness.

There's accelerometer and gyro question sensors to way regular measurement counts and alteration slumber monitoring. There's dedicated sports modes for walking, running, cycling, excavation swimming - on with a generic workout mode to screen everything other that involves getting the bosom pumping. 

There isn't onboard GPS tracking oregon adjacent the quality to link to the GPS connected your phone, though, leaving you with accelerometer based tracking for outdoor activities. You tin marque usage of Samsung's automatic workout designation software, which works for each 5 workout modes and saves you going done the process of manually tracking activities, but non-GPS tracking is obscurity astir close capable for astir sports - particularly cycling.

An optical bosom complaint show volition way bosom complaint continuously, including during slumber and tin assistance you measurement effort levels during workout time. It besides brings accent tracking into play, utilizing bosom complaint variability to fto you instrumentality connected the spot accent measurements.

Outside of wellness and fittingness tracking, you tin presumption telephone notifications from some Android phones and iPhones, including the quality to nonstop a speedy reply to immoderate notifications. There's besides euphony controls, the quality to presumption upwind forecasts, acceptable timers, a manus lavation timer, and a sizable postulation of ticker faces.

Performance and artillery life

• 159mAh artillery capacity
• Claimed: to 15 days life

• 5 workout modes


In presumption of performance, the Galaxy Fit 2 does a bully occupation overall, but it's not without immoderate issues. For regular measurement counts and slumber monitoring it held up good against different rival trackers from Fitbit and Garmin, truthful handles those tracking staples good capable to support you moving and amended recognize however you're sleeping.

When it comes to bosom complaint monitoring whether it's for capturing resting bosom complaint information oregon measuring effort levels during exercise, it mostly recorded higher maximum readings crossed the committee - adjacent with the tracker sitting snug and securely successful spot connected our wrist. So if you attraction astir bosom rate, this is surely not the Fit 2's strength.

The deficiency of GPS for outdoor workout tracking and reliance connected the accelerometer to way question means you're not getting supremely reliable region tracking present either for indoor and outdoor workout modes. On outdoor runs, it was usually 1-2km retired compared to a GPS sports watch. That's a full lot!

When you chuck the moving shoes to 1 side, the Fit 2's smartwatch features enactment good contempt the tiny magnitude of surface property that's available. It handles displaying notifications amazingly well, the euphony controls are casual to use, and there's a bully premix of digital-style ticker faces that marque bully usage of the AMOLED screen.

On the artillery front, Samsung claims you should get up to 15 days with emblematic usage and up to 21 days successful debased usage. Ultimately, it's a fittingness tracker that volition comfortably clasp up for a week's worthy of usage with each features successful usage and is susceptible of making it to 15 days if you're not tapping into workout tracking connected a regular ground oregon person the surface cranked up to afloat brightness.

Software

• Samsung Galaxy Wearable app (iOS and Android)

• Runs connected FreeRTOS


Unlike Samsung's smartwatches, there's nary Tizen oregon Wear OS here, with the Fit 2 moving connected a overmuch simpler FreeRTOS operating system. Crucially, it's bundle that's casual to get around. You tin swipe near and close from the main ticker surface to presumption your antithetic information screens and swipe down to get the speedy sheet settings.

Off the band, you're dealing with Samsung's Galaxy Wearable companion app, which is compatible with Android phones and iPhones. It's from determination you tin tinker with ticker faces, widgets and the speedy sheet settings. 

This is besides the spot to setup alarms, marque definite upwind information is being pulled done from your phone, and you besides person a utile 'Find my Band' feature, if you've forgotten wherever you past mislaid your Fit 2.

If you're readying to cheque successful connected your wellness and fittingness stats, you'll additionally request to download Samsung's Health app, which on with storing tracker data, volition besides fto you manually number calories, h2o intake, and adjacent humor pressure. You tin besides articulation successful connected fitness-focused challenges and marque usage of fittingness programmes and mindfulness modes similar meditation and slumber stories to get you into a overmuch calmer, much relaxed state.

It would beryllium bully to spot Samsung physique these 2 apps into one, but arsenic solo apps they are astatine slightest casual to get to grips with, making it truly straightforward to set Fit 2 settings oregon excavation deeper into your astir caller night's sleep.

Writing by Michael Sawh. Editing by Mike Lowe. Originally published connected 27 October 2021.