Computer Shopper - UK (2020-03)

THESAMSUNGGALAXYFiteisacheap and

cheerfulfitness tracker that walks in the shadow

of its more expensive sibling, the Galaxy Fit. At a

glance, it’s hard to tell thetwo apart, butthe Fite

tightens its belt by taking the fundamentaldesign

of its stablemateand binning afew keyfeatures.

GPSisthe bigone,but at leastthere’s

everything herefor basic tracking. It has atiny

0.74in, 128x64 monochrome PMOLEDdisplay,

and an equally small70mAh battery to power a

heart-rate sensor and an accelerometer.

SEETHE LIGHT

Happily,itdoesn’t lookascheap as it is.The Fit e

is sleek, durable and lightweight, andthough the

clasp is slightly fiddly, thestrapiscomfortable and

secure. It’s amasterclass in simplistic design and,

at amere 15g, it’s easy to forgetyou’re wearing it.

Youcan wake the Galaxy Fit e’stinydisplaywith

aturn of thewrist, or by double-tapping on the

bottom of the watch face.It’s easy to wake by

accident;the display often burstintolifeaswe

rolled over in bed, much to ourretinas’ chagrin.

As somethingofasilver lining,these

accidental night-time activationsproved that

on full beam, the Fite’s display is exceptionally

bright forits size.Onlyindirect sunlight is it

even remotelydifficulttoread.

However, even with adimmed screen, battery

lifeisn’t particularly impressive.The mostwegot

out of it wasseven days,and that was withlow

brightnessand the heart-ratesensor disabled;

withbothon, it wasfourdays. Thatwouldbefine

forafitness smartwatch, but foralittle bandlike

this, we expect more: the Honor Band 5(Shopper

384), forexample, chugsalong forupto14days

withasimilarly small 100mAh battery.

This is no touchdisplay, so you’ll have to give

it awhack to cycle through themenu. Tapping

the watch face takesyou through yourdailystep

count,calories burned andtime slept, as wellas

yourcurrent heart rateand the weather,ifyou

have those functionsenabled. As withthe

homescreen, you canadjust the order of these

menuitems (or addorremovethem entirely)in

the app.You’ll alsoreceivemessage andemail

alerts, both onscreenand viaabriefvibration.

To setupthe Fit e, you’ll needtoinstall the

Galaxy Wear app.From there,you can adjust the

settings mentioned above,aswell as setalarms

and checkthe remaining battery (somethingyou

can’t do from thetracker itself,weirdly).

If you want the fullfitnesstracking experience,

however,you’ll also need to install the Samsung

Health mobile app,which allows youtotrack

activities viaGPS,aswellasrecord your food

and drinkintake,calories burnedand weight.

SAMSUNG GalaxyFite

★★★★★

£31•From http://www.amazon.co.uk

FITNESSBAND

SamsungHealthletsyouexportworkouts to

mostmajorfitnessorsocialmedia apps, including

Strava–somethingthat’s notpossiblewiththe

Xiaomi orHonor equivalents.If you goin for the

social aspect of fitness apps, Samsung’s Together

platform alsoletsyou add friends, compete with

them in head-to-head challenges andtake part in

community events, such as reachingatotalstep

count over the course of amonth.

There’s even asection with meditation

programs, sleep-aiding soundtracks andanews

feed that pulls through relevant articles from

the health and wellbeing sector. It’s a

comprehensive,easy-to-navigatefitness app,and

it’s complemented nicely by the Galaxy Fite.

Whenconnected to your phone,the Fit e

supplementsworkoutslogged viathe app with

heart-ratedata. Without aconnection, however,

it only tracks steps taken, calories burned and

distance travelled. Should you leaveitonatnight,

it will also log the quality of your sleep.

SNOOZEHOUND

While the breadth of theGalaxyFit e’stracking

capabilities is afraction of that of,say,the Garmin

Vivoactive 4onpage 43, whatisincluded works

well. Step counting andheart-ratemonitoring are

bothreasonably accurate, andsleep tracking is a

particularhighlight forthe money. It accurately

picks up moments of restlessness and doesn’t

require any user input to begin recording,

although youcan also log your sleep manually if

you forgettowear the band at night.

Of course,this is nothing that theHonor Band

5can’t do,but that’s alsoabrilliant-valuefitness

trackerfor beginners;there’s nothing wrongwith

merely matching greatness insteadofexceeding

it. Throwinanexcellentapp in SamsungHealth,

and theGalaxy Fit eisafinechoice.

WillGeorgiadis

VERDICT

Unobtrusive and easily usable,the Galaxy Fit e

is great value formoney

PEDOMETERYes•HEART-RATEMONITORYes•DISPLAY

SIZE0.74in•RESOLUTION128x64•OS SUPPORTAndroid,

iOS•BATTERYLIFEOneweek•WARRANTYOneyearRTB•

DETAILSwww.samsung.com•PART CODESM-R375NZKAPHE

SPECIFICATIONS

MARCH2020|COMPUTER SHOPPER|ISSUE385