Samsung Gear Fit2 Pro
PRICE £209 ON SALE Now
Cards on the table: I love the Samsung Gear Fit2. I love it so much I bought my own after Samsung broke my heart by asking me to hand back the model I reviewed earlier this year. I’m wearing it as I write this.
Why do I love it so much? It doesn’t put a step wrong: its screen is large and bright, it’s comfortable to wear even for long periods, it offers just the right amount of motivation, and it has GPS built-in. If you have a Samsung phone, and want to track your fitness, you should buy it. Those are the precise words I’ve bored my friends with these past six months.
How do you improve on (close to) perfection? Well, it’s darned difficult, which is why the Gear Fit2 Pro looks so similar to the Gear Fit2. Compare the two side by side, as I did at IFA 2017, and you literally won’t see a difference unless you happen to flip them over. The studded strap has been replaced by a buckle, which does solve one minor flaw, but that’s hardly worth upgrading for.
So why would you consider upgrading? Two reasons. The first is that, like the Gear Sport, the Gear Fit2 Pro is now water resistant to 5 ATM 1 standards. That not only means that you can wear it in the shower, but that Samsung actively wants you to wear it in the swimming pool – and Speedo On, a dedicated swim-training app, is built into the device as standard. This will keep count of all kinds of metrics, from tracking lap times to offering stroke tutelage.
Like the Gear Fit2 before it, the Pro version includes 4GB storage for songs, meaning you can run, cycle or go to the gym without your phone and still have your favourite tunes with you for the trip. This time, though, it’s a lot more useful: thanks to an agreement with Spotify, Samsung will let you use some of the space for offline Spotify playlists.
That may sound familiar. Spotify was technically featured on the Gear Fit2, but was hobbled for two reasons: first, it was only in the US; second, it still needed your phone to work, so felt like a glorified remote control. This time, it should be a big draw, although I’m hoping Samsung brings it to the Gear Fit2 through a software update. But with so little changed, there’s every chance it won’t.
The Gear Fit2 Pro is a baby step forwards – unless you’re a swimming fanatic, in which case it’s a whopping great front crawl. But when your first stab at a product was so good, there’s really no need to reinvent the wheel. ALAN MARTIN KEY SPECS 1.5in curved AMOLED screen, 216 x 432 resolution Gorilla Glass 3 ● ● dual-core 1GHz processor 512MB RAM ● ● 4GB storage 200mAh battery 802.11n ● ● Wi-Fi Bluetooth GPS Tizen OS 25 x 11.6 ● ● ● ● x 45mm (WDH) 50g without band ● READ MORE pcpro.link/278fit2