Samsung at an event today in New York city, along with the Gear IconX wireless earbuds announced the highly rumored successor to its Gear Fit fitness tracker with the name- Gear Fit 2 (SM-R360) for a price of $179 and will be available for pre-order from June 3rd. Unlike the initial Gear Fit which ran a Real Time Operating System (RTOS), the new Gear Fit 2 gets an upgrade in the software too which now features the Tizen OS. Back in 2014 when the Gear Fit was launched, it was considered a niche market. Fast forward to 2016 and we are flooded with multiple brands giving their go into this segment with their respective wearable fitness trackers.
The two year gap has helped Samsung to fine tune the design flaws of the original Gear Fit which has resulted in a slightly wider but shorter display housing on its successor. Samsung have managed to squeeze in a 1.5 inch super AMOLED display with a 216x432p resolution translating to 322ppi density on the fitness tracker and have paired it with a 200mah battery which should be just enough to do away without charging for 4 to 5 days. Underneath the hood is a 1GHz dual Core Exynos 3250 SOC (also found on the Gear S2) coupled with 512 MB of RAM and 4GB internal memory.
The Gear Fit 2 houses in a plethora of sensors which include Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Heart Rate, Barometer and even GPS! This enables the Gear Fit 2 to track your foot steps, sleep, GPS tracking and even has options to track specific workout regimes like cycling, sit-ups, etc.
Although the Gear Fit 2 can work as a standalone device, it can still be paired up with an Android device via Bluetooth (4.2 LE) and emulate a few features of its elder cousin; the Gear S2 smartwatch like receiving notifications, texts, calls and respond to them all from the tiny display itself. The Gear Fit 2 also has WiFi connectivity to probably stream music or download third party apps to the fitness tracker.
Samsung Gear Fit2 Specifications:
| Display | 1.5”, Curved Super AMOLED 216 x 432 |
| Chipset | Dual Core (1 GHz) |
| Memory | 512 MB (RAM) / 4 GB Storage |
| Connectivity | Bluetooth® v 4.2 |
| Sensor | Accelerometer, Gyro, HRM, Built-in GPS, Barometer |
| Dimension | 24.5 (W) x 51.2 (D) mm |
| Weight | Small: 28g Large: 30g |
| Battery | 200mAh |
| Compatibility | Android 4.4/ RAM 1.5 GB |
| Audio | Audio formats: MP3, WMA, WAV, AAC, M4A, AMR, AWB, OGG, OGA, 3GA |
| OS | TIZEN |
| Additional Features | |
|---|---|
| Notifications (SNS, call, email, applications, schedule) | |
| Black, blue and pink | |
| Small (Size of the wrist: 125 ~ 170mm) Large (Size of the wrist: 155 ~ 210mm) |
|
| IP68 certified (up to 30 minutes in up to 1.5m of water) | |
| Standalone music player |
The Gear Fit 2 comes in two size variants – L and S with only the size of the straps being the differentiator and also has pink, blue and black color options. With the wearable fitness market already heated up and dominated by the likes of Fitbit, Garmin, Xiaomi, etc (Xiaomi launched the Mi Band 2 earlier today with an OLED display and a heartrate sensor for just $23) the Gear Fit 2 is sure going to struggle to attract users unless Samsung comes up with a really good marketing campaign.
Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWgtnvqFZ1M&feature=youtu.be
