Samsung Galaxy Fit2 Review — nailing the basics
Samsung Galaxy Fit2
It gets most of the basics right, but better value can be found elsewhere.
What's Good
- Decent fitness tracking features
- Good battery life
- Fuss-free design
What's Not
- Possibly the worst charging clip I have seen
- Lengthy setup process
- Tiny screen
- Not great bang for buck
Fitness bands are a dime a dozen nowadays. And most of them do decently at the basics — step counting, sleep tracking while providing good battery life. Now at this point, most of you are probably thinking about the cheap and ubiquitous Xiaomi Mi Band series. And I don’t blame you, I used a few of them myself. But if you want something that works with AIA Vitality, well, the Samsung Galaxy Fit2 might be one of your best choices.
Without going too deep into it, AIA Vitality basically tracks your fitness in terms of step count, heart rate when working out and even sleep, to give you points. The gist of it is that the healthier your lifestyle, the less you will need to claim your insurance, which is great for business. They only support selected brands like Samsung, Fitbit, Garmin, HUAWEI, Polar and Strava. Now, you are going to need to give me a much better reason to install HUAWEI Mobile Services on my POCO F2 Pro, so yeah, Samsung it is. Without further ado, let’s see what’s good, and what’s not with the Samsung Galaxy Fit2.
What’s Good?
Decent fitness tracking features
This isn’t the most feature-packed fitness band, but it does have all that you need. The essentials are all here: step counting, heart rate monitoring and sleep tracking. There are also several workout modes as well as a stress measurement, but I am not really into that life. Doing 7,500 steps a day is more physical exertion than I am used to already. These features are mainly accessible only via the Galaxy Fit2, with the Samsung Health app being a dashboard of sorts rather than giving you direct access to them. The only things that you can bring up from the app are the workouts, which is necessary because route tracking is only available in the app, as the Galaxy Fit2 does not sport GPS functionality.
In terms of the accuracy of what can be tracked, I can definitely vouch for the sleep tracking. I also like that the Samsung Health will prompt you to confirm your sleep data to improve their tracking. The heart rate sensor also appears to be right in line with my other fitness wearable, a Mi Watch, but that’s not saying much. My daily step count also seems to be quite normal, so I would say that everything is probably working as it should with the Galaxy Fit2, no surprises here.
Good battery life
With the brightness set to about half, I could get about 10 days of battery life out of the Galaxy Fit2. Having used many a fitness tracker previously, this is nothing new, but those who are coming from smartwatches might find the week plus of battery life refreshing. Samsung claims up to 21 days of battery life, but that includes some caveats like not using the heart rate tracker at all and not using the sleep tracking feature. My usage includes everything the Galaxy Fit2 is capable of, including push notifications, so I guess that’s why the battery life is much less than claimed. Still, a full week is nothing to scoff at.
Fuss-free design
Similar to many fitness bands, Samsung does give you the option to easily swap the band if you want to. The Galaxy Fit2 is a little pill shaped module that slips into the strap snugly. The default strap is nice, with me having absolutely zero issues with it accidentally unlatching itself, unlike what I have encountered with multiple Xiaomi Bands. The simple design also ensures that you can find third-party straps if you want it to blend in with your OOTD, or if you just want a different kind of strap. Plenty of options on Shopee, last I checked.
What’s Not?
Possibly the worst charging clip I have seen
The best solution would be a magnetic clip, with a USB-C input. The next best would be a clip with a fixed cord that goes out the side. But no, Samsung went with one that has the cable coming out the bottom of the clip. While it probably works fine with the stock band, since it can’t lay flat, but third-party ones that allow it to lay flat will make the charging clip feel really, really dumb. Luckily with the week-long battery life, this is weekly issue, instead of what you would have to deal with if this was a full-fledged smartwatch.
Lengthy setup process
For some reason Samsung decided to require you to download three separate components. Firstly, the Samsung Health app, which is what syncs to AIA Vitality. Then to customize anything like the watch face or settings of the Galaxy Fit2, you need the Galaxy Wearable app. Which somehow requires a separate plugin, aptly named the Galaxy Fit2 plugin. I mean, I have plenty of storage on my phone, but it does annoying having to go through so many app installs just to get a fitness band working. On the bright side, the split between Galaxy Wearable and Samsung Health means that the band features and health data are separated, for neater user interfaces for both apps, instead of having a singular, cluttered app that tries to do everything.
Tiny screen
We have to give it some leeway here. The Samsung Galaxy Fit2 was actually launched back in 2020, before being relaunched for some reason earlier this year. So it does share the same 1.1″ screen size as the Xiaomi Band 5, that was launched in 2020. The screen size is fine for regular fitness tracking, but as you can see in the photo above, doesn’t really lend itself well to notifications. I also found the touch sensitivity of the screen to be a bit of a hit or miss, but that probably has less to do with the screen, and more to do with the outdated hardware under the hood.
Samsung Galaxy Fit2 — should you buy this?
If you are an AIA Vitality user like me, sure. It’s a pretty decent little fitness band that proffers plenty of features and a long battery life. If you are after the most features you can get in a fitness band, this isn’t quite it. Xiaomi, HUAWEI and HONOR have already included SpO2 in even their most compact fitness bands, but the Samsung Galaxy Fit2 still lacks it. It’s not the most useful of features, but it can be helpful especially if you are going through a serious bout of human malware. In any case, it’s just me being nitpicky. If you want all that and more, you can also take a look at Samsung’s more premium Galaxy Watch series as well.
At its MSRP of RM179, it comes in at a slight premium versus the latest installation of the Mi Band family, the Mi Band 7, that features GPS, SpO2 and a larger, always-on display. If you are willing to live with HUAWEI Mobile Services on your smartphone, then you can also check out the HUAWEI Band 7 that’s slightly more expensive, but comes with a humongous display and a more watch-like design. Overall, it’s not the best bang for your buck out there, but it’s OK. Just understand that you are paying the same price for 2020 tech, in 2022. I guess the great UX of the apps is worth paying for, but I hope Samsung comes back swinging with the Galaxy Fit3. Samsung Pay please?
