Samsung has introduced a refresh to its fitness tracker line, two years after the original Gear Fit launched. The Gear Fit 2 was announced Thursday at Samsung’s 837 event space in New York City, alongside the Icon X ear buds. The devices are intended to work as a fitness collection with Samsung’s flagship smartphones.
The launch confirmed several weeks of rumors about the Samsung Gear Fit 2. Like Samsung’s premium Gear S2 smartwatch, the Gear Fit 2 runs the manufacturer’s Tizen software. The look and feel of the Gear Fit 2 user interface is very similar to the Gear Fit 2, only catered to the tracker’s 216 x 432 resolution display.
As is expected from current fitness trackers, the Gear Fit 2 is able to track basic activities, such as steps walked, miles run, calories burned and heart rate. With the addition of built-in GPS, not found on the original Gear Fit, the tracker is able to differentiate between activities and track according to the type of exercise or sport the users is doing.
Standard specs include a 1.5-inch display, a dual-core 1GHz Exynos 3250 chip, 512MB of RAM, 4GB of internal storage and a 200mAh battery. The Gear Fit 2 promises three to four days of battery life and a 90-minute charge from dead to full. Samsung has also implemented water resistance, not only allowing users to submerge the wearable in water, but also to ensure it would be damaged by sweat.
Like the Gear S2, the Gear Fit 2 is compatible with devices running Android 4.4 or higher. However, there was no mention of iOS compatibility at Thursday’s event, as was rumored for the tracker. Users can wear use the Gear Fit 2 as a standalone device; however, with Android paring, and particularly Samsung paring, users can upload their fitness progress onto the S-Health application.
However, if users prefer to not use the app, the can load decent amount of music to the tracker’s onboard storage, connect to headphones or speakers through Bluetooth and play music independent of a smartphone.
The Samsung Gear Fit 2 is available for preorder as of Friday; it will sell for $179, and will go on sale June 10. The tracker will be available in black, blue and pink color options.
