After having released its Galaxy Note 8 to the masses, Samsung is now pushing its smart fitness wearables to the market as well. They were first announced at the IFA this year and will now officially make their way to buyers starting Friday. The devices to be launched are the Gear Fit2 Pro, the Gear Sport and the new IconX wireless earbuds.
Gear Fit2 Pro
The new Gear Fit2 Pro is priced at 229,000 won or $202 and will be available at very limited quantities with only 1,000 units being headed to the market with a wider roll-out expected to hit in the coming weeks. The release will first arrive at Samsung’s home market in South Korea and is marketed as the best fitness tracker to assist users throughout the day. The device comes with up to 5 ATM water resistance (50 metres) and also has the Speedo app on-board for monitoring the users’ swimming. The device also features GPS tracking. If that wasn’t enough, Samsung has partnered with Under Armour to provide a customized experienced for apps like Endomondo, MyFitnessPal and MapMyRun.
The wearable sports 4GB of internal storage and also has offline Spotify playlist support. The Fit2 Pro now has a buckle for a more secure grip on the user’s hand. The 1.5-inch AMOLED display is rich and vibrant in colour too. The device will be open for sale from now, and will also ship in September.
Gear Sport
The Gear Sport is meant to be like the Gear S3, but more portable and perfect for fitness enthusiasts, owing to its smaller build. It comes with a 1.2-inch circular AMOLED display. The frame is smaller now, since Samsung has removed the MST technology required for making payments via Samsung Pay and instead uses NFC for the function. Just like the Gear S3, the new Gear Sport also has a functional bezel that can be used to navigate through the smartwatch’s interface by twisting it. Users will be able to switch right to see app widgets and then left to see notifications.
Even the tactile sensation has been improved by Samsung for a more satisfying twist. The Gear Sport is resistant to water up to 50 metres and also comes with Speedo On app that allows users to measure laps, time, stroke type and much more. It also comes packed with 4GB of internal storage and Spotify support even for offline playing. The 300mAh battery is claimed to last up to four days on a single charge. There is also the capability of being able to continuously monitor heart rate. Unfortunately, the pricing for the new Gear Sport watch hasn’t been announced yet and neither has availability, but those looking for a solid fitness-oriented smartwatch will want to wait for this to make its appearance in the market.
Gear IconX
Replacing the previous generation of IconX buds from Samsung, the new version will be lighter and more ergonomic, and will feature Bixby off the bat. Users will simply need to tap and hold on the side of the earbud to activate Bixby for functions like sending messages and reminders. Samsung has reportedly made the battery-life better by taking out the heart-rate monitor, now adding up to six hours of music streaming.
Like the new wearables, the IconX also features 4GB of RAM for music storage and users will also be able to add their own playlists thanks to the Gear manager. In keeping the device fitness oriented, it also comes with Running Coach, which tracks basic fitness metrics, calories burned, step count as well as distance travelled. The charging cradle that the earbuds come with also offer an hour of usage with just 10 minutes of charging through Quick Charge. Much like its predecessor, the new IconX will be cost $200 and will be available starting October.
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