Samsung Gear 2 and Gear Fit review: smartwatches on the up

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/apr/11/samsung-gear-fit-review-smartwatches

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Samsung’s latest iteration of smartwatches comes in three flavours, all of which are a big improvement over the previous generation. But do they do enough to justify a space on your wrist, or supplant a normal watch (or even rival smartwatch)?

For the Gear 2, Gear 2 Neo and Gear Fit Samsung has – shock! – dumped Google’s Android for its own Tizen open-source software, although you’d be hard-pressed to tell the difference.

The Gear 2 is the flagship smartwatch in Samsung’s current lineup, while the Gear 2 Neo lacks a camera, and the Gear Fit is more of a fitness band than a smartwatch per se. Are they capable of bucking a trend that sees one-third of owners ditching their wearables within six months?

Slimmer, faster, lighter... better?

The Gear 2 is a refinement of the "unripened fruit" that was the Galaxy Gear smartwatch released last year. It has slimmed down, removed bulky additions from the microphone and camera from the strap and looks much more like a conventional watch.

The subtle changes make quite a bit of difference to the appearance of the smartwatch, and allow it to fit under a shirt cuff much more easily. As a watch, it functions much better than its predecessor, which is important if you’re trying to replace a traditional watch.

Samsung seems to have appreciated that a watch is a piece of jewellery, and that some users will thus want to customise it. The new Gears are available in a range of colours and straps, while the Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo have standard watch straps, so users aren’t limited to the colours and types Samsung sells.

A bright, high-resolution 1.63in Super AMOLED screen makes the watch easy to read on the Gear 2, while a responsive touchscreen makes it relatively easy to use. Simple swiping gestures (left or right between the multiple home screens) make navigating between functions and menus pretty intuitive once you realise that a swipe down is akin to the back button on Android.

A single button on the Gear 2 turns the screen on and off, with a double tap launching an app of your choosing. The screen also lights if you lift your wrist to read it.

The Gear Fit has more band-like design, with a narrow curved display that fits to the contours of the wrist. The screen is bright, so it's easy to read small snippets of text or alerts, while touch navigation is enhanced with more familiar back and OK buttons at the top and bottom of the screen when needed. The app functions are on a virtual carousel - keep swiping up or down and you'll eventually reach your starting point again.

A single button on the side of the Fit will light the display, and can be set for a double tap app, but again the screen will light up if the wrist is moved to look at it.

Specifications

Gear 2

Gear Fit

Three-day battery

One of the biggest improvements Samsung’s made to the new Gear smartwatches over the old Galaxy Gear is battery life. The new Gears will last three days on a charge with heavy use, but that still means you have to charge your watch twice a week.

In comparison, Sony’s Smartwatch 2 lasts about three days on a single charge. The Pebble, with its black-and-white e-ink display, manages five or more.

For charging, there's a small clip-on adapter that provides a microUSB port which can be charged by any normal USB charger. A full battery charge takes only an hour or two.

The new Gears are waterproof, although only to 1m deep for 30 minutes – so they're not for your swimming workout. (Even doing your swimming strokes will put excess pressure on them that will breach the limit.)

All three devices have a heavy focus on fitness tracking, packing accelerometers for activity and step counting as well as built-in heart rate monitors. They feed data into Samsung’s improved S Health app for tracking your activity and general wellbeing.

The heart rate monitor works well as long as you keep still and do not talk during measurement, but the pedometer function was very inaccurate compared to a dedicated wrist-worn fitness tracker like the Misfit Shine - it recorded two miles even though I'd walked three by the latters' measurement. The Gear Fit will also track your sleep, but its chunky body will make it uncomfortable to sleep with for some.

Notifications, replies and shouting at your watch

Samsung’s own apps have tight integration with the Gears, allowing short replies and other simple functions to be performed beyond simple notifications. You can accept and reject calls via the Gears, as well as activate Samsung’s S Voice digital assistant using the built-in mic of the Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo – although shouting at your watch still feels and looks ridiculous.

Other apps can have their notifications displayed on the screen of the smartwatches, pulled directly from the Android notification tray; so they are simply text alerts.

Some work better than others, and can be programmed to flash up on the screen when they come in. The problem comes when two emails or messages come in at the same time and the alert simply says "2 messages". They can often be scrolled through as one block of text, but it is hard to see where one message starts and another ends.

The built-in Samsung software handles notifications better than most other smartwatches currently available, including the Sony Smartwatch 2.

All three smartwatches can perform standard watch duties while not connected to a smartphone or tablet, including a stopwatch, timers, and fitness monitoring using the pedometer, activity tracker and heartrate monitor.

Both the Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo can also play music while not attached to a smartphone, connecting directly to a pair of Bluetooth headphones and playing music stored on their 4GB of internal memory – great for a run.

IR remote

Price: two can buy as cheaply as one

Verdict: better, but still hard to justify

Samsung has two distinct products in the Gear 2 and Gear Fit. The Gear 2 is the evolution of the Galaxy Gear, which has slimmed down, got lighter, faster, easier to use and more comfortable to wear. Every facet shows clear improvement, and it now works much better as a timepiece.

The problem is still that it doesn’t offer a lot in the way of utility to justify replacing something people often cherish (a real watch) or simply don't wear, and for £250-odd it certainly isn’t going to be cheap; if it's bundled cheaply or for free, there's no clear user wish for it. Having to charge it every three days can also get annoying, as it’s just another thin that has to be connected to the mains.

But the Gear 2 is probably the best smartwatch available right now for Samsung owners, given the tight integration with Samsung’s own apps and decent notification handling from third-party apps. Samsung hopes to build and ecosystem around the Gear 2 and its Tizen software, which could add much-needed utility in the future.

Right now, it would be a good value-add bundled with the purchase of a new Galaxy S5 or other Samsung smartphone. But I can’t recommend spending £250 on it standalone.

The Gear Fit is a more interesting proposition, however. It can do most of what the Gear 2 can do, handling notifications, pulling watch duties, monitor your health and fitness, with the added benefit of sleep tracking (if you can stomach wearing it to bed. It is also slimmer and could sit alongside a traditional watch.

In many ways the Gear Fit is more appealing, especially considering it'll likely cost in the region of £60-80 less than the Gear 2, but is still in its infancy. I also found that its activity tracking and pedometer functions were noticeably less accurate as a dedicated fitness tracker like the Misfit Shine, but that can probably be improved by better software.

Overall, the Gear 2 is a step in the right direction for smartwatches, but is still difficult to justify buying unless you do not have a watch and have £250 burning a hole in your pocket. The Gear Fit, however, is definitely worth looking at if you are after a fitness tracker and would like smartwatch functionality wrapped in – as long as you have a supported Samsung smartphone, because neither the Gear 2 or Gear Fit is compatible with any other manufacturers’ smartphones.

Pros: Lighter, slimmer, clear screens, heart rate monitors, three-day battery, waterproof

Cons: Expensive, limited use cases, another device to charge, no third-party apps

Other smartwatch reviews

• Sony Smartwatch 2

• Pebble smartwatch