Whether you are an active individual needing a fitness companion or a tech-savvy individual who finds classic watches lacking in function, odds are the business’s gear lineup has something that just might suit you. It’s the newest member in the show, and I spent a few weeks in its business to find out whether it’s worth the $300 asking price.
The Samsung Gear Sport stocks plenty of layout DNA with the Gear S3 and the Gear S2. Said briefly, it’s a trendy piece. The black version is minimalist in nature and does not draw attention, but there is also a flashier blue version made to stand out. Constructed of glass and metal, with a plastic bottom, the watch is big enough to be comfortable to use and also to accommodate a reasonably sized battery, but lacks the chunkiness and the rugged look of this Gear S3 Frontier. And I would say it suits me well, whether I am exercising in my sporty reversible singlet or just going about my day in basketball shirts, the watch is very trendy look for anyone.
From the box, the Gear Sport includes a stretchy rubber strap that’s comfy and grippy, held with a classic and dependable metal clasp at the end. The strap is removable, and a conventional 20mm ring can fit in its place. You could wind up replacing yours sooner or later because the stock one on mine is already showing signs of wear around the edges. Water resistance is present on the Gear Sport device. The device is resistant down to 50 meters and can be worn during swimming exercises. Even salt water should not do it any harm, although rinsing it with fresh water after going for a dip in the sea is pretty much mandatory. The Samsung Gear Sport has a 1.2-inch round touchscreen display, which is bigger than the one on a 38mm Apple Watch, yet somewhat smaller than the one on a Gear S3 Frontier. It has a resolution of 360 by 360 pixels and is protected by Gorilla Glass 3 scratch-resistant glass.
Technicalities aside, the display on the Gear Sport is fairly excellent. It’s bright enough to be perfectly legible on a sunny day, but it won’t burn your retinas at night as it becomes dimmer automatically when appropriate. It’s colours are vibrant, graphics are sharp, and text is easy to read, and full-colour is always-on as a display option, permitting you to leave the screen lit constantly. Whilst testing the device, I used the Samsung Gear Sport together with a Galaxy Note 8. Pairing was straightforward and simple; as soon as I powered the smartwatch, the telephone automatically detected its presence, and a tap after the procedure was underway. The Gear Sport is also compatible with non-Samsung Android devices, as well as with newer iPhones, though as expected, you will have the smoothest experience if you are a Galaxy user.
So far as navigation and design go, the applications on the Gear Sport is not much different than what you’d find on a Gear S3 or a Gear S2. The watch wakes up automatically once you consider it, displaying the watch face of your choice. Admittedly, this gesture isn’t guaranteed to work every time, but failures are infrequent. Something that’s new is the extra support for Spotify listening and the choice to store monitors offline on the watch itself. Basically, this permits you to leave your phone behind and set a Bluetooth headset directly to the Gear Sport whenever you need to listen to music while exercising. So that is exactly what we did, and it worked like a charm, with no connection interruptions occurring during our testing. The 40 songs that I stored took up about 150MB, meaning that approximately 500 tracks could fit on the watch’s internal memory.
By default, the Gear Sport is set to monitor activity automatically, so when it finds that you have been walking intensely for a while, this will be recorded and saved as exercise. But of course, you can begin a workout manually by selecting an exercise preset: Running, biking, swimming, crunches, jumping jacks, to name a few. In these situations, the Gear Sport performs well, presenting a comprehensive log of your exercise as soon as you’re done. While the Samsung Gear Sport connects to a smartphone Via Bluetooth, in addition, this new technology also includes its own Wi-Fi radio, and if it gets outdoors of your phone’s range, it is going to try connecting to a Wi-Fi system so that you still get your notifications. Samsung Pay is also enabled on the wearable, but while it works on contactless Payment terminals, there is no support for ones with all the old-school magnetic strip technology.
There are many things to like about the Samsung Gear Sport. It is good looking, fast, responsive, and has an excellent display. It lasts between charges, and it is durable enough to withstand some seriously harsh exercises. On top of this, the addition of Spotify with offline listening support is more than welcome.