Samsung new fitness watch: Affordable for everyone

Watches that measure walking, running, sleep quality, heart rate, instantly visible messages from friends getting cheaper & cheaper.

GADGETS, TECHNOLOGY & FITNESS

Samsung new fitness watch: Affordable for everyone

17/08/2016
Komsan John Jandamit

Fitness bands or fitness tracking devices have been around for years now.

Most people have heard of them.

They are worn around the wrist and record data such as how far you walk and how many hours of sleep you get.

Nowadays, fitness trackers are getting cheap so many more people might consider buying one.

SAMSUNG FITNESS WATCH

Samsung's new fitness watch, the , an Android smartwatch made for fitness enthusiasts. 

The light and easy-to- strap -on Android smartwatch looks nice and has the best-looking screen among any smartwatch on the market to date.

The watch buzzes you for every little notification you get on your phone.

The watch still lacks the kind of statistics and tracking that a complete fitness freak might want.

For people who exercise casually or moderately, the watch gives you pretty much everything you need.

TRACKS HEART RATE, STEPS TAKEN, DISTANCE TRAVELED, QUALITY OF SLEEP

The Samsung Gear Fit is aimed at fitness tracking and the watch can track:

1. Heart rate. The watch provides heart zone information, which is a range of heart rates that you should stay within for best exercise results and will keep you from dying from over-exercising.

The heart zone info is not shown in real time which might be good for casual exercisers but not for serious cyclists who want to see their heart rate while they ride.

2. Steps take while walking and running. 

The watch will actually remind you to move around a bit and get some exercise.

The watch shakes and gives you a notification to move now.

This might be good for reminding people who work at a desk to get up, stretch and walk around a bit every hour or so, to improve their long-term health.

3. Distance that you travel during the day (via GPS) both walking and in cars, buses, trains, etc.

4. How well one sleeps or quality of sleep.

The watch provides you with: total time slept, sleep efficiency based on whether you are restless or calm during sleep and you can also see a plot of how this changes over time.

5. Sit-ups are listed as one of the exercises that the watch can track but it is a little difficult to figure out how to do this.

EASY TO USE & GOOD-LOOKING

You certainly wouldn't be shy to wear this watch in public.

You can even swap to more colourful watch straps if you want, but they are sold separately, in pink, blue and black colours.

The watch can be easily strapped on and does not come undone accidentally .

WATER-RESISTANT

IP68 water resistant capability means you can dunk this in 1.5m-deep water and it will survive as long as it's less than 30 minutes.

In real life, this means that you can wear it in the rain and to wash dishes without worrying that it will explode.

BIG SCREEN EASILY SEEN IN BRIGHT SUNLIGHT

The screen on this is large and has distinct colours.

The screen is very bright and can be read easily in bright sunlight (when you push the brightness up, of course).

The screen is very responsive to swipes and touches and is as good as any smartphone screen for navigation and notification readings.

Too bad notifications are not shown in full for many apps, but this is more to do with Android wear OS than the actual watch itself.

At least, you can see email titles, read Line or Skype messages (and do some basic replies), choose music tracks and those kind of things.

THREE DAY BATTERY LIFE

Three days is this watch's typical battery life cycle.

That is, when the watch is used as a notification plus casual exercise tracking device, which is very acceptable.

However, a friend who used the watch to track his intense 4-hour cycling road trip, said that the battery drained from 100% to 52% after the session.

The watch has 4GB of internal storage space which can be used for music files, but I think most people will keep their music files on their phones.

So this is simply a nice feature just in case you forget to bring your phone with you.

ANY ANDROID PHONE WILL WORK WITH WATCH

If paired to a smartphone (it doesn't have to be a Samsung phone, Asus and Oppo phones will also work), it means that it relies a lot on the phone you've paired it with.

Even time on the watch may freeze if you leave your phone behind.

On Samsung phones, all the information the watch tracks is synchronised to the S Health app.

The watch can run solely on its own without pairing to a phone, but you'll be losing quite a number of exercise stats and notification features.

This device costs 6,500 baht and can be cheap compared to other branded smartwatches, which can be a great starter point for anyone who wants a well-rounded fitness tracker/smartwatch.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/tech/gadgets/1063764/quite-the-looker

สามารถฝึกอ่านออกเสียงและดูคำแปลได้ที่ : http://www.bangkokpost.com/learning/learning-from-news/1064069/samsung-new-fitness-watch-affordable-for-everyone