Review: Samsung Gear Fit and Gear 2 IconX

- The market sportwearables increases significantly. Many manufacturers now has its own fitness band. Samsung is trying to distinguish themselves with the Gear Fit 2 and the new Gear IconX, wireless earbuds that also during exercise measure your heart rate.

design

Samsung brings the Gear Fit 2 in two sizes (small and large) and in the colors gray, blue and pink. Everyone can thus find something to his liking. Personally, I particularly like the pink very pretty, but the plastic appearance detracts from the whole look of the fitness band. It is not as if you're going casual dressed, but it does not fit nicely in a business outfit. Furthermore, the comfort of the Gear Fit 2 is large. The battery is in normal use, three to four days, and the gadget up to 30 minutes underwater at 1.5m depth.

Use

The great advantage of the Gear Fit 2 is that it has a built-in GPS and 1.5 GB storage for music. This allows you to just leave your phone at home when you go sports. The fitness band automatically detects when you're walking or running, but you can also start a workout through the screen of the gadget. Besides the well-known sports like cycling, yoga can also be selected. Through the S Health app you can see all the results.

see through the screen you go what your heart rate, how many steps you've put, how many stairs climbed and calories burned. Furthermore, you can easy way to enter how much water and coffee you drank. You also get notifications of incoming calls, emails and whatsappjes. Through the Gear app, you can decide what notifications you receive.\n  \n  \n   advertisement

disadvantage

Although the Gear Fit 2 for both Android and iOS should work, the latter currently is not supported. it is not possible for example to put Spotify playlists on the fitness band so you can listen to offline.

Price and similar products

The Gear Fit 2 costs € 199. The Fitbit Charge 2 is € 160 cheaper, but has no built-in GPS. However, it is more fashionable with a wide range of colors and patterns. The Garmin Vivo Mart HR + also costs € 199 and has GPS, but certainly deserves no beauty prize.

Conclusion

The shortcomings to reach the fitness band are not yet full potential. However, anyone who has an Android device and enough MP3s will be minimal. Do you have an iPhone? Then you better looking for another fitness tracker.

When Apple announced in September that no headphone jack would sit in the iPhone 7, the company gave to its wireless AirPods would be a good option to listen music. But apparently, many people forget that Samsung already been Gear IconX earphones introduced for Android phones. Let's see what they can exact.

design

In design terms, the IconX cups not very surprising. They seem, in fact, just how thick earplugs where the wire is cut off. They're all right, thanks to the rubber triangle at the top. This allows you to clamp them properly in your ear, so you do not have the idea that they will fall quickly. This triangles may like the rubber cap that is placed in your ear, be replaced by a larger or smaller one. At the IconX be provided different sizes.

Another striking feature of the design is the built-in pulse sensor. This is immediately clear that these caps too- or rather, especially- are suitable for use during exercise. It is also clear from the fact that the earbuds built-in storage memory, so you can put music on it yourself and your phone while exercising can be left at home.

Use

The first use of the caps is quite simple: they simply put in your ears, open the Gear app on an Android phone and you can make contact. This app can also be used among other things to put music on the caps and to adjust the basic settings. Unfortunately, this firmware can not be updated. Before the earplugs should be placed in its case, and this again should be hung with a USB cable to a PC or Mac. A bit of a hassle!

Daily use is also, however, kept nice and simple. As soon as the IconX sit, they are enabled. Convenient is that the buds themselves have a touch-sensitive pad. By tapping on here you can pause the music or do play again. Tapping twice ensures skipping a track, while your finger up or down to move the volume up or down screws respectively.

The sound that produce the caps, is fine to mention. For the price (€ 229), there are, of course, to find better-sounding earbuds, but which do not contain all the features which contain the IconX. But music is very full, though the bass a little on the thin side. Personally, I think that's fine, but it's good to know before buying.

disadvantage

The biggest problem with the Gear IconX is the battery life. If he has to stream music from a phone, the battery will clear with only a half hour. When playing from the internal memory, battery life can be doubled, but you can not, for example, so use Spotify or any other music service.

Ninety minutes is fine for a game of sports, but for people who travel a lot and their expensive earbuds also like to use it on the train or plane, they are absolutely not appropriate. So you keep charging. Which incidentally is done by making the caps in its case. This is also a battery, with which they can be fully charged again. So you have this box with you, you can extend the battery life up to six hours. In comparison, so long will Apple AirPods on a single charge almost along.

Price and similar products

The Gear IconX cost € 229. Apple AirPods (available late October) are comparable and cost € 179. They have fewer features but better battery life. The AirPods are of course primarily intended for use with an iPhone, but also work on Android devices via bluetooth.

Conclusion

'Almost Good' is the best description of the Gear IconX. The earbuds sound good, it is nice that there is as much as possible with the caps, but battery life is really disastrous. Ninety minutes is too short, especially for the travelers among us, and especially for the asking price. Only if you really just want to use for sports, that is sufficient. But hopefully Samsung is trying it again soon, because IconX really almost be called good. v