The Samsung Galaxy Gear fit has its identity lost between an activity tracker and a smartwatch

At a time when most wearable gadgets are gearing up to incorporate Android Wear, Samsung has decided to pack its activity-tracker-and-smartwatch combo, the Galaxy Gear Fit, with its own interface and operating system. The Gear Fit costs less than the new Galaxy Gear 2, and has a rectangular but curved display, encased in a body that fits over the contours of your wrist.

The display and clock faces can be selected from about 19 different styles, and the icons can be rearranged from the paired Galaxy smartphone (we used the S5 for this) but that’s as far as customisation inside the gadget can go. As far as the wrist bands are concerned, you can get different coloured straps additionally if you want.

While the pedometer and distance tracker is very accurate (we compared this with a third party fitness app, Strava, on a Nexus 5), we found the optical heart-rate sensor to be a bit inconsistent. You can set personal goals, such as 10,000 steps a day, to track and achieve as well.

The display is crisp, clean and gorgeous, but the fact that it’s still a rectangular screen means you’ll feel uncomfortable after a while after extensive scrolling through your notifications. The Gear Manager on the Galaxy device can be used to choose what all notifications you want to be displayed on the screen, from your entire list of apps.

The Gear Fit has a battery life of nearly 4 days on one charge, and that’s quite decent for a smartwatch. The only problem we have with the device is that rectangular screen, though brilliantly lit, makes you keep scrolling. The whole point of taking a quick glance at a smartwatch screen to read your notifications is lost.

₹15,900

Love – Accurate readings; light and durable

Hate – Rectangular screen that makes you scroll a lot

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