Galaxy Gear Fit

Browsing through the recent Apple iWatch speculation mockups, I feel like I have already seen one in real life: the Samsung Galaxy Gear Fit, which was described by my friend, a loyal long term Apple fan, as "more Apple than Samsung". I bought the Fit last week in Hongkong and have been enjoying it since then. It is almost perfect with two drawbacks. One silly and difficult to fix and the other one significant, but - I hope - one that will be fixed soon.

The first thing that makes the Fit less then perfect is the charging concept. With a smart watch - It is obvious - you have not one, but two personal devices to charge during the night. Well, actually the Fit does not need to be charged every night. It lasts easily three days. But it still means it has to be recharged on the go from time to time. And you need a second charger to do this. How silly! The Fit requires a small cradle to connect a charger - which I can live with. But if it was me designing the watch, I'd make a Y-cable a part of the package. While Samsung expects you wake in the middle of the night to switch the micro-USB charger from the phone to the watch. Or carry two chargers. -1, Samsung!

The second flaw has been less obvious but is almost disqualifying. It is the Gear Fit Manager application required on a phone to connect to the watch. The app itself is nothing special. But it drains the phone's battery like crazy. I am certain this is a bug in the app, that will be fixed. After all neither Pebble, nor Jawbone - both had their manager apps - did not have any noticeable battery impact. While the Fit is almost unusable today. With the Fit Manager off, my Galaxy Note 3 drains less than 50% during the day. With on, the Note behaves like an iPhone - does not last through the day. How did this pass the QA, I just can't imagine...

Otherwise the Gear Fit is the greatest smart watch under the sun!