Maybe we should have expected Samsung not to think two Gear announcements was enough. It just showed us the Samsung Gear Fit at Mobile World Congress.
This, unlike its brothers, is not a smartwatch. It's more of a glorified fitness tracker. A 1.8-inch curved Super Amoled touchscreen wraps around the face of the wristband, which seals around the arm like a watch.
Underneath the screen is a heart rate monitor, which can log your ticker's pace at the touch of a button or automatically every 90 seconds during a workout. This data, alongside steps taken, calories burned and distance travelled, is stored and accessed on the Gear Fit itself -- no pairing required to another device.
However, pairing is advised, and is in fact essential for certain other features such as monitoring and cancelling incoming calls, reading texts or previewing email as it arrives. It can also be used to quickly change audio tracks if you're listening to music from a paired Samsung device.
But here's a really fun bit: if it detects you haven't moved much at a given time of day, it'll nag you to go for a walk or work out.
We've been on the fence when it comes to Samsung's other Gear devices, as they have a tendency to be bulky and too much of a jack of all trades, master of none. The Gear Fit, conversely, is cute, functional, lightweight and discrete, and potentially quite useful as a result. The screen is bright and responsive to touches and swipes, rounding off the deal.
Unlike the other Gears, the Fit seems like a really convenient companion device to a Samsung phone for more people. We're looking forward to giving it the full review treatment ahead of its UK launch later this year, alongside the Galaxy S5.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
