Samsung Gear Fit2 and IconX Hands-on, First Impressions

Samsung has just launched their newest pair of fitness wearables in the country — the Gear Fit2 and IconX. Both goes hand in hand in to be your best modern fitness companion to date, but they don’t necessarily rely on each other. Here’s our quick initial impressions of the two.

Let’s begin with the Gear Fit2. It’s the successor to the Gear Fit that was announced two years ago. In a nutshell, it’s a streamlined Galaxy Gear smartwatch designed for active consumers who go around, walk, run, and not just sit in front of their computer all day. Instead of the square or round watch face, it has a rectangular touch display.

It’s a Super AMOLED panel from Samsung with a resolution of 216×432 pixels which is quite sharp for its size at 322ppi. Apart from the touchscreen, it also has a pair of physical buttons on the side.

It’s got an Exynos 3250 dual-core processor clocked at 1GHz with 512MB of RAM. There’s also an ample 4GB of internal storage for OS, stored data, and a few files you wish to carry like your playlist. The watch runs a home-baked custom Tizen OS that looks neat and appealing. Performance-wise, it’s fluid and responsive to our touches.

The watch has a slew of sensors onboard — accelerometer, gyroscope, barometer, GPS, and a heart rate monitor. Using these built-in techs, the Gear Fit2 can track your steps, heart beat, and even your specific movements during workout without the need of a nearby smartphone. We weren’t able to fully check out the complete list, but it coaches you with multiple exercises like squats, jumping jacks, and more.

Other specifications includes Bluetooth 4.1 LE for wireless syncing with your smartphone and a 200mAh battery. The watch is IP68-certified for dust and water resistance. The straps are also easily replaceable if ever you need a new one. Speaking of, we do find the locking mechanism of the straps to be cumbersome at first.

From the wrist, let’s go up to the ears. The Samsung Gear IconX is a next-generation pair of earbuds. It’s advertised as a synonym of freedom thanks to its cordless functionality. For those who see the IconX as your ordinary Bluetooth headset, look again.

The earbuds are nearly placed in a small capsule for storage. Not only for storage, the case also acts as the charging cradle and power bank for the earbuds. Due to the size of the earbuds, its battery is not exactly long-lasting (around 1-2 hours of usage) that’s why Samsung made the case to sport a spare 315mAh cell inside. By simply placing the earbud in the case, it automatically refuels and readies itself for your next routine.

The IconX provides multiple sizes of ear tips and wingtips for a snug fit in any ear. In each earbud, there are two microphones for hands-free calling and support for ambient noise feature to let you hear your surroundings and enjoy music at the same time. Interestingly, a heart rate monitor is also built-in to keep track of your health.

There’s Bluetooth 4.1 LE for connectivity with your smartphone but if you feel like leaving your smartphone behind, no worries as the 4GB internal storage can keep a number of songs which you can play and control with the capacitive touch sensor. The tiny wearables are splash resistant with a P2i nano-coating.

During the local launch, we weren’t able to quickly test out the audio quality as no specific unit was assigned to us and passing the earbuds around is not exactly hygenic. Samsung promised to provide review units, so stay tuned!

Both of the fitness wearables from Samsung are now available through Samsung Concept Stores with a price tag of Php7,990 for the Gear Fit2 and Php8,490 for the IconX. There not exactly the cheapest around but they sure are impressive pieces of hardware for people with an active lifestyle, or perhaps an expensive motivation for some.