A Review After 3 Months of Ownership and Usage

mountainbikermark

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Feb 28, 2015
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Like far too many, the end of the year brings a reminder that many of us aren't in the physical shape we once were . Having a Note4 phone I started using the S Health application to monitor steps , heart rate, etc but found the pedometer to be woefully inaccurate and the heart rate monitoring to be cumbersome at best so I started looking at fitness bands from every manufacturer I could find locally. All seemed to have their positive and negative attributes so I was just going to dig out my old pedometer and start using my hrm watch again BUT accidentally saw a review of a Galaxy Gear Fit that got me intrigued that I might be able to skip wearing the old hrm watch (I loathe wearing watches) in favor of something that would meet my desire and have bonus points of text and email alerts .
I won't get into the whole shopping experience other than say I got a half price deal offer at my local AT&T store and so I took the plunge.
Setting things up with the phone was a simple download an app from the Galaxy store and follow the prompts. A firmware update caused it to take a few minutes but it went fine and off to playing with my new gadget I went, digging deeply into the settings without bothering to look for instructions anywhere. The settings are pretty straightforward with nothing hidden deeply within that make the watch work a ton better once you finally find them. I set a custom wallpaper from my phone gallery, set it to vertical display and off for a walk I went to test out the abilities and see how to sync with S Health.
What I have found over the months is it can be as limited in functionality as I am willing to think outside the box. What I mean is as a kayaker, there was no kayak option so I set it up for a walk exercise and it mapped my route, gave my heart rate average and maximum and approximate calories burned , all shown on the phone after a sync. The pedometer can be accurate or very inaccurate, depending on what you do with it on. When I'm turning wrenches at work the thing is very inaccurate, adding thousands of false steps to my work day graph unless I pause it. When walking it's pretty darn accurate no matter what I'm doing with my hands. The heart rate monitor is spot on with my Nike hrm watch and blood pressure monitor (the one you wrap around your arm like at the doctor) and stays that way when using during exercise sessions when compared to the Nike. Some say you've got to keep checking and stand still when doing so but I've only found the need to do that when I don't use an exercise session to monitor it. Set a walk session, for example, and it takes readings on its own as I walk until I end the session.
I've found a few apps that make the Fit more useful as a notifier than just remove the notification, such as a messaging app that comes with a keyboard , scrolls my entire conversation list on my phones messaging app or I can initiate a text as well along with one that lets me answer my phone instead of just reject with or without canned message. Since I use Bluetooth frequently for phone calls and music being able to answer the call via the watch is a natural thing to do now or if not on Bluetooth it answers and switches the phone to speakerphone. My favorite non fitness and non communication function is the music control of my phone with it. I use Power Amp music player on my phone and it works flawlessly with that app for play/pause, ff/rw, next/previous and volume along with the song info scrolling along the bottom of the screen.
The battery life averages about 4 days between charges if I don't shut it off at night,a week if I do. I keep brightness on 3 and a double tap with 2 fingers from any screen brings up the brightness setting if I need to change that due to getting in total dark or direct sunlight.
The feel on my wrist, again I loathe wearing a watch, was noticeable and a bit annoying with the stock band but I found an elcheapo one on Amazon to have a backup in case of the oem breaking. It is a little more rubbery feeling and flexible so in a matter of hours the watch felt "forget it's on" comfortable. I added a clasp I found for it on Amazon as well making the HUGE problem with the clasp design not being secure at all a thing of the past. If anyone is interested I can post links to the bands and clasp cover I use in a reply but being a newbie here I don't want to come across as an advertiser .
The bling appeal is determined by the individual, myself wanting it to not be noticed by others and I have found it failed slightly in that regard. I have never gotten "is that an Apple watch?" but have gotten a lot of stares and quite a few "is that one of those watches that makes phone calls and takes pictures?", to which I reply no it isn't, then the "is it a fitness band" to which I respond "it's a fitness band that I can text on and answer my phone with", striking up a conversation often times when it's inconvenient. The strangest part for me is the S I also have, which I'll review after giving it months instead of just weeks, gets a lot less inquiry though it is the phwatch of smartwatches.
There is an app available on the Google Play store for $7.99 that opens up the ability of the Fit to work on non Samsung phones and models not currently supported by Samsung, but again I'll only post a link if asked. This is a nice thing to have for those of us not married to Samsung as our only choice for our next phone.
Overall I'm glad I got the Fit and plan to continue to use it as my beater watch when fishing, kayaking, bike riding, or other activities where it could take some dings because I need a daily reminder to keep me getting up off the sofa and into the glorious world that awaits outside of my residence. Using in conjunction with S Health has really kept me finding excuses to get up and get moving instead of ones to sit back down. One out of the box use I did back in December was mapped a kayak excursion on a pond to specifically take depth measurements of areas both near its shores and away from them. I wrote the depths I found by taking screen shots of the maps and using the s pen on the phone to write the findings and notes of things on the shots. I also use the same method when out hiking or walking to take note of way points, points of interest and/or circumstances that I run into for future reference or sharing with others. The pond I mentioned doesn't have access to anything bigger than a kayak or small canoe so my fishing buddies and I now have a better feel for where to seek the fish out at during different times of the year that we didn't have before because using bigger boats with depth finders just weren't going to work.
Anyway, I hope that helps someone who might be on the fence about a Gear Fit or someone looking to get a little more out of the one they already have.



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mountainbikermark

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I'd be interested in the links for the clasp and bands your went with
Thank you
Here's one of the bands. You can choose the color you want
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00P7...ag=hawk-future-20&ascsubtag=UUacUvbUpU4301012
Here's the clasp cover but Amazon is currently out of stock on them
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00R2...ag=hawk-future-20&ascsubtag=UUacUvbUpU4301012
Here's an alternate clasp cover but I can't personally speak for how good they are
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00KD...ag=hawk-future-20&ascsubtag=UUacUvbUpU4301012
 

jrsharp70

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Thanks for the info!

Can you tell me if it will measure your heart rate during at intervals, or do you have to tell it to every time? Can you tell me what the sleep tracking is like please?

I just got an update to the s health app, and I'd really like to know if it tracks heart rate and movement during sleep, and what it tells you.

I appreciate the time you took to write the review. Thanks.
 

mountainbikermark

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Feb 28, 2015
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The sleep function is ok but not great. I'm a pretty restless sleeper when my allergies are kicking but it showed I was "motionless" 90+% of the time each night. That's all the sleep tracker does. On the s health it shows a graph of when you moved vs when you didn't but no heart rate or any of that stuff.
As far as measuring heart rate during exercise, yes . I'll use Walking as an example. Once you start your walk session it will show current heart rate , average and maximum as you're walking when you wake the screen and look at the watch. You can set it for screen on all the time but there's no need to. Just set it to wake to last screen and set motion to wake device with wrist turn. This works for hiking, bicycling and running as well but does not do so when just using the pedometer with no other exercise session going.
Hope that helps.
 

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