IFA 2017: Samsung Gear Sport, Fit2 Pro offer swim tracking and offline Spotify
Samsung has introduced three new wearable devices at IFA in Berlin, including a fitness-focused version of its Gear smartwatch, an update to last year's fitness band and a new set of wireless in-ear headphones.
The Gear Sport watch and Fit2 Pro band both have built in GPS for accurate fitness tracking, with improved heart-rate monitoring over last year's designs. Samsung has also added water resistance to both models, and the ability to track swimming activities automatically. Swim-tracking is something very few wearables outside of Apple's Series 2 watch can do, and Samsung's partnered with Speedo to make sure no one misses the swimming capabilities of its new devices.
But the bigger announcement was Samsung's partnership with the number one music streaming service in the world, Spotify. Spotify users will be able to download their favourite music offline to the Gear Sport or the Fit2 Pro, and run without their phone. This is the first time Spotify playlists are available offline on a wearable, quite the coup for Samsung's Tizen-based platform. Gear S3 owners will also receive a software update allowing Spotify offline for their devices, too.
The Gear Sport is just a smidge smaller than the Gear Frontier and Classic models, with that same familiar round watch face, and rotating bezel for navigating the interface. It's a simpler, smaller design than the Gear S3 variants, which were far too big for many wrists.
Samsung's bezel is still a great, satisfying input method on a smartwatch, but Samsung's Tizen is missing many of the apps available for Google Wear or Apple Watch.
The Fit2 line is Samsung's Fitbit competitor, with a little more smarts than you'd normally find in a fitness device; things like messages, notifications and calendar appointments. The Fit2 could also make for a good entry level smartwatch, as the crisp OLED display makes reading messages far nicer than on similar high-end fitness devices, like the Fitbit Charge 2.
Capturing the data of these devices is the Samsung Health app, available for Android and iOS, which offers graphs and stats that's a lot more detailed than the information from an Apple Watch, and looks a little more professional than the cutetsy Fitbit design. Even if your friends are using Fitbits, with Samsung's built in support for My Fitness Pal, Map My Run, and Endomondo, you should be able to challenge them on more platforms now.
Finally there's the updated Gear IconX. The new buds have better battery life, with up to five hours streaming from a phone, and seven hours when using music stored on the headphones. The included charging case doubles the battery. Keeping with the fitness theme, the IconX includes a running coach to help motivate you. The coach comes at no extra charge, there's no subscription pricing here.
The Fit2 Pro will launch on September 15 in Australia at a recommended price of $329. The Gear Sport and new Icon X will follow on November 1, for $549 and $299 respectively.
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