Who's got one? Impressions?

[jre72]

Curious to see what people think of it. There are a handful of "professional" reviews but some are more previews and all are prior to release and aren't that in depth. I'm coming from an Apple watch and it looks like a winner to me to pair with my S8+ but would like to hear some real-world use feedback before I dump three bills on it (I'm sure some people are wishing they waited before buying the Pixel 2 XL).

 

[masc23]

I picked up one on Friday at best buy. I like it so far but am having some random issues with continuous heart rate. Sometimes at resting it shows my heart rate over 100 for an extended period of time. I reset it a few times and switched from auto to manual and back to auto. Right now it seems to be working but I will keep an eye on it.

The battery life is also lacking but I am sure keeping continuous heart rate is the issue. Can't get over one day yet.

My polar a370 band's heart rate monitor was perfect. This one is just OK. Interval training is worthless. On the positive side GPS works great.

I really want to like it. On paper it checks all of the boxes of what I want but if the HR monitor issues don't sort out it is going back.

Feel free to ask any questions.

 

[jre72]

Thanks...good to know. I still have my Apple watch which was great for GPS and HR when running. I've kept it and my iPhone (for work) so I can still use that for fitness stuff if I want. Hopefully, they sort out the HR sensors or you get it working consistently.
Does the HR monitor have to be turned on/off all the time?

 

[masc23]

Since I turned it off and on around 5pm I have not had any issues. Currently it is showing 56bpm. If it happens again I will let you know.

 

[dnlr]

Hi - I'm interested in the new Gear Sport, but had a bad GPS experience with the Gear S3 watch. I'm curious when you say GPS works great - how have you tried it out?

The Gear S3 didn't pre-load the GPS, so you started the run and the watch started timing without a GPS lock, so the distance was always incorrect. At times it was half a kilometer off vs my Garmin!

Does this new one have the ability to pre-load the GPS so you know you have a lock before you start running? My Garmin watch has the ability to pre-load the GPS before you start the activity, I'm hoping the new Samsung Gear Sport has this functionality.

Thanks!

 

[masc23]

I just did walked once around the neighborhood 2 miles and it looked right away. It was accurate based on my previous walks of the same distance.

Still having unexplained HR jumps. Calories burned is way off as well. Says I only burned 1600 calories yesterday despite a 300 calories session on the treadmill and and a 45 minute walk burning 220 calories. Similar day's using polar a370 would be in the 2600 calorie range. Those numbers compared pretty much spot on with fitbit. So far today I only burned 1600 calories despite spending 2.5 hours cutting down a tree sweating my butt off.

I will likely exchange it tomorrow.

 

[dnlr]

Good to know, thanks. When you start a walk/run using the GPS fitness app, does it countdown to make you start walking as soon as you press the start button, or does it take a few seconds to tell you the GPS is ready?

I'm curious if they changed the functionality to that (which is what Garmin does) or if they made the GPS connect quicker hence you don't lose any tracking - to your test about accuracy.

Thanks again.

 

[masc23]

It does a 3, 2, 1 count down.

 

[edubb256]

I got mine (black one) on Saturday. I like it a lot! I had a Gear S2, and this is much nicer.

Pros:
- Perfect size
- Classy, but unique look. (the S2 was a little too shiny. The brushed bezel on the Gear Sport tones this down nicely)
- Very comfortable
- High quality band
- Better screen than the Gear S2 (which was already pretty good)
- Automatic tracking functions I've used worked very well (I've only used steps, elliptical and sleeping so far)
- Handwriting input works well
- Lots of small improvements that make this much more pleasant than the S2.

Cons:
- S-Voice
- Charging seem a little slow (or maybe I just hate taking it off!)
- Only 2 watch faces that I like (Analog Utility and Gear Dashboard)

 

[kj11]

I picked up the black one today to replace my Fitbit blaze. I had the original Galaxy gear and needles to say tizen has dramatically improved. Navigating the watch is easy and incredibly fast.

The build quality is excellent. The case is solid and has a nice weight to it. Rotating the dial gives a satisfying and addictive click you can hear and feel. The screen is of course outstanding as you'd expect on any Samsung device. The band is comfortable and feels nice. At 20mm I knew it was going to be smaller than I was used to, but I'm addition it tapers down on the underside of your wrist where it becomes much too skinny for my taste. Replacement bands will be ordered once I finish this post.

I agree with the above post about slow charging time, and I'm a little concerned about the battery. I'll be going with the AOD and custom faces, so I'm sure that won't help. Speaking of custom faces, it's a must as I've again the list above nailed it, the preloaded faces aren't great. I'm using facer currently and it's ok. The app on my Note 8 crashed a whole lot.

I'm looking forward to adding some music and going for a run without my phone. I'll update more as time goes on

 

[masc23]

Anyone having calorie count issues? Mine is still way off from my Polar and Fitbit days. Averaging less than 2000 calories per day despite lots of activity. Not sure if this is a software or hardware issue.

I agree battery takes a very long time to charge. Forget about if you want to do continous HR tracking without requiring nightly charging.

 

[Khalid Brown]

hey does anyone know if you use Spotify if you can download the podcasts straight from app?

 

[Jules_bike]

bought mine 3 days ago. can't find a way to get podcasts from Spotify only seems to have music. otherwise Spotify off line works great. did a one hour run this morning. I had about 30% battery when I started (hadn't charged from day before). listening to Spotify it cut out near the end and I saw a message saying battery was low. so I guess with GPS, constant hr, Bluetooth and music you need a full charge before you set off.

there was an option to reduce hr monitoring frequency when I set up the watch but I can't find that now??

the settings for connecting between wifi, bluetooth seem a bit strange but I think maybe a learning issue.

can't find the Speedo app which I'd like to test for swimming?

links to strava nicely.

otherwise lovely watch and great for running with music but not podcasts!

 

[Johson]

Picked up a blue one, it is sexy and all. However when i start a run with any of the under armour apps on the watch, it will show stats fine but after I end and sync it messes up and all stats go missing.

Yesterday on a 4.74km run, after sync the app tells me i ran 0km for 0:-1min with a -1 heartrate. The samsung health app works fine though. No idea if I am doing something wrong or what the issue might be.

 

[Jules_bike]

I read somewhere that the auto pause might mess with syncing to other apps. I used strava and it got the first part of my run wrong. I set off without a gps signal so Samsung heath missed the first few hundred metres, strava then corrected the distance but was a bit generous on my first split...

 

[JohnnybgoodGear]

Hi Jules,

To change the HR monitoring frequency, turn to the HR page on the watch, and tap the screen. This will bring into the measuring page. Tap on the "three dots" menu item on the right edge of the watch and should bring you to the settings menu to change the frequency.

Hope that helps.

John

 

[Jules_bike]

Thanks now I know what all those three dots mean..

Ive set it to 10 mins hr so hopefully that will reduce battery use..

 

[lindseybp]

Had mine since last Friday so about a week. Still very happy so far. Like that I can wear it both for work and play. No way could I do that with the fitbit ionic which I was looking at also. Staying away from fitbit as I've spent more on Fitbits breaking over the past 2-3 years than the gear sport cost.

 

[kj11]

So I'm finding battery life to be very unimpressive. I've tried always on display on and off, and I've tried stock faces, one I bought from the Samsung store, and facer. Facer + always on display seems to be the biggest battery killer.

With stock faces and always on display battery is dropping at a rate of about 4% - 5% per hour. With always on display off on the stock faces it's only about 2.5% - 3% per hour.

Keep in mind this is basic throughout the day use. When you use it for what you're supposed to use it for, running with GPS on, Bluetooth headphones and offline music the battery plummets quickly.

My half marathon times are under 2 hours and I have legit concerns that the battery won't make it....

 

[masc23]

Anybody having total calorie burn issues? I have had moderate activity levels each day and have barely broken 2000 calories burned? Just want to make before I return it.