FOR
- Higher than average autonomy
- Great build quality
- Great display
- Spotify music offline
AGAINST
- Few additional apps to install
- No phone calls
- Voice interaction needs work
- Slow charging
The Gear Sport (Check on Amazon.com) resumes where Samsung left off with the Gear S2 (Check on Amazon.com).
Package
Inside we find the charging base, a power adapter and a USB-micro USB cable for charging.
Build quality
The Gear Sport is entirely made of metal, similar to the Gear S3. But, as we said before, in terms of size it is more similar to the Gear S2 and although the design is more geared towards a male audience, it is still a nice watch for almost anybody. The serrated upper ring rotates in both directions and gives excellent feedback. On each side, we have one physical key. The rubber strap is very comfortable. Like all rubber bands, it will get dirty over time but it is very easy to wash. You can also replace it with any 20mm strap in circulation. The smartwatch is also water-resistant up to 5 atmospheres (165ft deep).
Hardware
The Gear Sport doesn’t bring with it any special hardware novelties. We have a dual core processor of 1GHz, 768MB of RAM and 4GB of internal memory. It has a heart rate sensor and a microphone for dictation, but no speaker, so you won’t be able to use it for phone calls anymore. There is also Wi-Fi and GPS. Lastly but not least it has an altimeter and a barometer.
Display
The Gear Sport sports a 1.2 inch circular AMOLED display. The screen is very bright and has excellent colors, always vivid and clearly visible. The screen has an always-on mode so you don’t have to rotate your wrist to wake it up.
Software
It runs the Tizen operating system, like all the latest wearable products from the Korean company. This allowed Samsung to shape the interface at will. The setup is quite simple and it is also possible to pair it with an iOS device, although it works best with Android.
As a fitness tracker, it gives you the ability to track a wide range of physical activities, even without your smartphone. It can display data about your rhythm, duration, heart rate, speed, distance, and calories. You will also be able to control the music, whether from the smartphone or the integrated memory. It also has support for Spotify, even offline (if you have a Premium account). Just remember that you have to download your playlists on your watch beforehand. This Gear Sport [just like the Gear Fit2 Pro (Check on Amazon.com)] has swimming support thanks to the partnership with Speedo.
Compared to Android Wear, Tizen has only one real problem: there are very few apps available to further expand its functionalities.
Autonomy
The battery guarantees an autonomy of about 3 days with sleep tracking turned on. With the always-on display battery life drops to about 2 days. Obviously, GPS tracking further decreases this number.
It takes about 2 and a half hours to recharge the device.
Price
The Gear Sport has a price of (Check on Amazon.com), absolutely in line with the price of competing devices.
Final verdict
The Samsung Gear Sport is a quality smartwatch: it has a beautiful display, an above-average autonomy, an excellent user interface and good tracking of physical activity. It is especially recommended for Android users.