To date, Samsung has tried and tested wearables in various form factors, including smartwatches and fitness bands, in an attempt to find the middle ground. Recently, the South Korean giant refreshed its fitness tracker lineup with the Galaxy Fit, which is expected to compete Fitbit Inspire HR, Mi Band 4, and Honor Band 5 in terms of features. As per the company claims, the Galaxy Fit is made for all types of fitness enthusiasts, from casual runners to athletes. Is the Galaxy Fit a worthy device at Rs. 8,999?
Design
In terms of design, the Galaxy Fit looks minimal and straightforward. At just 23 grams, it is incredibly light, and I didn’t feel the band during my sleep. It comes in two variants — a black case with a black silicone wristband or a silver case with a white wristband. In our case, we tried out the silver case variant. These bands are removable, which means you are not stuck with one color either.
Even though we felt comfortable wearing this all day and night, it does have an annoying strap where the silicone band slides through an opening that allows you to adjust the fit. Changing the pin some times feels like heavy duty especially when its wet. It features 5ATM water resistance and MIL-STD 810G durable so that you can wear it anytime, anywhere you like.
The Galaxy Fit comes with a 0.95-inch (120 x 240 resolution) Full-Color AMOLED display with 282 ppi. It sports a big bezel around the display as well. The screen is bright, colorful, and does a commendable job of showing workout, sleep, and heart rate information. It is responsive, and the display turns on automatically when you bring up the wrist. We can adjust the brightness by swiping down on the main watch screen.
Moving on to the placement, the left side has a power button that wakes the display and takes you back to the previous screen. A long press automatically starts the workout you assign to it.
The bottom or resting part holds the heart rate sensor. Inside, we get an accelerometer and gyroscope, but no GPS and altimeter. Notably, it cannot pick up a GPS signal from a paired phone as well.
Setting up
We used Galaxy Note 10+ and OnePlus 7 Pro with the Galaxy Fit. For pairing, you will need to install Samsung Wearable and Samsung Health apps either from the Play Store or App Store. Once the app is launched, choose the device and follow the instructions accordingly.
The Galaxy Fit runs Samsung’s Real-Time OS and has a simple and intuitive UX and user-friendly smart experience. Once paired, users can receive alerts and messages or check the widget, which includes information synced straight from your smartphone —like alarm, calendar, or weather.
Performance and battery
As a fitness tracker, it does a pretty good job when it comes to daily step counts and heart rate monitoring. It can also be used to track your sleep, water, and Caffeine consumption, weight/goal, and much more.
But when it comes to running or cycling, we found the distance reading, way off the mark. We tried comparing it with the Nike Run Club app, and every time, Samsung was somewhere 25 to 30% less. This lack of GPS makes this fitness device useless for actual performance monitoring.
You can check out stats, including steps count, calories burned, heart rate, and others by just swiping left. You can also manually select from more than 90 different activities in the Samsung Health app on your smartphone, and Galaxy Fit will automatically start to track your chosen workout.
The Galaxy Fit is powered by a 120mAh battery under the hood. In my usage, it lasts somewhere around five days. The band can be charged through Samsung’s proprietary charging dock, which needs to be plugged into a USB port.
Conclusion
The Samsung Galaxy Fit serves its purpose to the extent of keeping you informed about your daily activities and motivating you to push yourself to the next level. However, for Rs. 8,999, Galaxy Fit lacks GPS, so it is not the best for outdoor activity tracking. At a lower price, Mi Band 4, Amazfit Verge Lite are far better options. It is available from Flipkart, Samsung India eStore and offline stores.