Samsung ’s committedness to fitness wearables has been moderately haphazard . The companionship put a storage area on physical fitness band back in 2022 , and expanded to thesmart ringformat last year . But as the cost ofGalaxy Watcheshas preserve climbing , making them inaccessible to a large clod of health - witting people , the troupe is again returning to its affordable roots .
The latest from Samsung is the Galaxy Fit 3 , a fitness band that looks more like a sleek smartwatch . It ’s beautiful , feature article - load up , and heavy on via media that you would otherwise expect from a smartwatch — all for just $ 60 a tonic .
It serves its own set of usable highs and incomprehensible lows . If you are someone who is averse to the mind of spend hundreds of dollars on a wearable , but are enticed by the idea of an affordable fitness tracker that does n’t look like a kid ’s toy , take on to discover whether the Galaxy Fit 3 deserve a position on your bucket list .
Fantastic build, gorgeous display
The Galaxy Fit 3 is a beautiful piece of wearable ironware . It is lightweight , but build well . The Al case have it a premium on - wrist tone , but other elements of the gimmick do n’t feel cheap , either . The grip mechanism is somewhat secure , and the silicone band also feels high quality .
It is thin than an average smartwatch , but with the proper analogue watch boldness , it actually looks a destiny more understated — and in a dependable means — compare to bulky smartwatches with their loud picket faces and unwieldy on - script mien .
You almost do n’t palpate it on your wrist , which is a major profits . I have a gruelling meter attempt to snub the bulk on my carpus every time I am wear off a regular smartwatch from Samsung or Apple .
The Samsung fitness band not only front better , but its lightweight profile makes it far easy to log Z’s with . The body-build is 5ATM and IP68 - rated , which means it is junk - tight and can live on immersion in water at a deepness of up to 1.5 meter for a maximal duration of 30 min .
Samsung offers the Galaxy Fit 3 in three gloss , while the bands are useable in a all-encompassing range of shades , but no other real alternative asunder from indulgent - feel rubber . A few third - party stigma , however , sell compatible stripe in different styles and even substantial choices , include leather , via Amazon and other eastward - DoC sites .
The AMOLED exhibit is a central high spot of the Galaxy Fit 3 . Even though the bezels are not proportionate , that display is surprisingly sharp and quite bright . You will never finger the need to crank up it beyond the 70 % point even under broad daytime .
In case you ’re interested in the specifications , the panel measures four centimeters diagonally , offers a resolution of 256 x 402 pixels , and can create 16 million colouring . Plus , there ’s also a light detector that does an satisfactory job of robotlike smartness adjustment based on ambient lighting .
There ’s an always - on show feature available , and you may also pull off the screen - on time Book of Numbers . For added flexibleness , you may activate the tap - to - awaken feature of speech , and there ’s also an option to turn on the projection screen as shortly as you raise your wrist . All these feature do work flawlessly .
Running the show on the software side is the open - source RTOS platform with a Samsung skin on top , while the modest internals are rounded off by 16 MB of RAM and 256 MB of onboard store . Yes , you translate that right .
That also explains why the Galaxy Fit 3 keeps send you to the connected smartphone for even the most basic customization and control tasks . But to Samsung ’s credit , all trace interactions sense fluid , and I ’ve barely ever run into any stutters or lags on the affordable fitness band .
There is a middling various variety of sentry present available in the companion app , and you could make your custom faces , too . You ca n’t , however , download any third - political party watch faces . alas , the connectivity situation is also pretty barebones here .
There ’s no cellular version on whirl , and neither is there GPS or NFC functionality . verbalize about the detector smokestack , the Galaxy Fit 3 comes equipped with an accelerometer , barometer , gyroscope , and an optical substance rate sensor .
Here ’s the worst part . This is an Android - only fitness band , which have in mind it simply wo n’t work with an iPhone . And on top of that , some of the feature , such as removed camera shutter and snore detection , are exclusive to Samsung ’s Galaxy smartphones .
Limited software, but expansive features
The Galaxy Fit 3 can best be describe as a glorified fitness tracker , one that has a big - than - ordinary screen , but modified software versatility . It is n’t the full Wear O experience , which means there are no apps to install . Whatever little you get is via the Samsung Wear app , which also ties into the Samsung Health app .
The exploiter interface is reasonably neat , and there is barely any scholarship curve here past the initial setup . There ’s a individual home button on the side , which can be customized to a dual - crush motion , as well . For the rest , you essentially rely on swipe gestures .
A vertical down swipe from the top edge draw the control middle , a swipe from the left or right sharpness reach the notifications sphere and the straightaway admittance activity tiles . A swipe - up gesture from the bottom border opens the home menu .
The Health splashboard is where you access your daily bodily function , sleep , workout , and launch measure for meat rate tracking , blood oxygen saturation , and even stress degree . The latter is an closed book , because it somehow always show me in a high - tenseness situation , even when I am having a good clock time chilling or meter reading comic .
This Health page also acts as a day-after-day daybook , where you lumber details such as intellectual nourishment and piss , or tail the cycles . you could delete the items seem in the dashboard , but it can only be done in the comrade app . This is a recurring theme for a salmagundi of other job , where you want to unload an on-going activity to the connected smartphone .
There ’s no keyboard or a system - wide search tool on offer here . Neither is there any voice dictation facility uncommitted . you may handle calls , but ca n’t resolve due to the lack of an onboard mic or verbaliser . Moreover , for subject matter notification , you’re able to piece from a pre - loaded reaction template , but ca n’t craft your own response .
For some reason , Samsung put a calculator app on the Galaxy Fit 3 , but did n’t give it access to the Contacts on the attached phone . It would have been convenient if the Watch earmark users to at least localise a call via the plug into phone or station SMS text .
I have grow quite fond of the Find My Phone lineament on the Samsung physical fitness stripe . Enabling it plays a garish audio clue on the paired phone , alongside shaking and on - silver screen visual qui vive . I often misplace my gadgets , and for my unmindful ways , this feature is nothing short of a godsend .
The Galaxy Fit 3 offers accompaniment for over 100 workout body process , and automatic recognition for a goodish few , such as swim , rowing , and elliptical . The latter readiness must , however , be enabled manually from within the associate app .
There ’s also an emergency SOS feature that can be activated by adjure the dwelling button five times in quick successiveness . Doing so initiates an emergency call from the connected sound , and also shares your location and an SOS subject matter with the specify emergency contact .
Tied to it is a customizable drop detection system , which uses the onboard sensor to tax if users have had one such upshot . For such scenarios , users will be actuate to dial the parking brake services and also choose to show their medical details on the screen .
For the latter , user must save details such as their name , aesculapian conditions , blood types , allergy , medication , wellness notes , and address , among others , into the mobile app firsthand . You need to follow a similar on - speech sound routine for setting up app apprisal doings or create custom sentinel faces .
On-point health and wellness tracking
There is both good and regretful news here . The Galaxy Fit 3 is jolly exact , in a slightly ambitious way . Compared to the chest - strapped Polar H9 , the sum rate bodily function readings were always on the higher side , with a mean difference of about 0.5 to 2 percent .
Across a workout lasting for around 15 proceedings , where the bosom pace sport was or so in the 85 - 185 bpm stove , the Galaxy Fit was systematically off the mark . When averaged , the mean deviation was low , but it often file random stiletto heel worth 5 - 20 bpm despite no plain increase in the workout vividness .
stir over to more canonical workouts , like a brisk morning walk , the Galaxy Fit 3 performed well . When compared against a Xiaomi fittingness lot , the aloofness disparity between the trackers was 1.64 vs 1.62 naut mi and 1,897 gradation vs 1,790 pace .
When liken against an Apple Watch Series 8 , the Galaxy Watch Fit 3 fared well . However , I noticed that it periodically counted ghost step , turn an existent 2.4 - mile streak ( measured via GPS ) into a 2.8 - mile journey .
Once again , the bigger deviation arises when measuring the core pace action in the higher volume phase angle . Where Apple ’s smartwatch measured the average heart rate at 120 bpm , the Galaxy Fit 3 put it at 116 bpm . On the Samsung wearable ’s screen , you could also take a peep at other metrics such as swiftness , small calorie burnout , and HR zones .
If run is your sole workout format , and you are n’t inconvenience oneself too much about second aspects such as stride distance or priming coat contact duration , the Galaxy Fit 3 should serve just o.k. . But if you ’re expect for more insights , like energy set or recovery advancement , you must expend more on a full - mature smartwatch .
Samsung claims the Galaxy Fit 3 can automatically recognize workouts , but once again , it ’s not a to the full authentic situation . On a few occasions , it simply did n’t recognise me walking and only started register the step after I had walked for nearly half a mile .
It ’s worth maneuver out that this watch lacks GPS , which means you miss out on perquisite like route provision or navigation . For that , you need to carry a headphone with the companion app installed . Once again , I was not too get at by it , since I ladder the same path every Clarence Shepard Day Jr. , and I am more interested with kernel pace data point and calorie burn figure .
you’re able to port all the wellness data pull in by Samsung wearable to Android ’s coordinated Health Connect chopine . Morever , the information can also be sync with third - party health platform such as Strava .
Sleep tracking is decent, for the most part
Sleep logging is a shade inaccurate . Over a period of seven weeks , I noticed that the readings were approximately off by 10 - 12 % for the net shut out - eye time record between the Galaxy Fit 3 and the Apple Watch Series 8 .
On a few social occasion , it draw a dummy on the REM slumber , while the Apple smartwatch recorded anywhere between 60 - 90 moment . But in general , it was n’t too off the mark . On my most recent sleep trip , the net rest time logged by the Galaxy wearable was 5 hours and 45 minutes , while Apple Watch Series 8 recorded 5 hours and 17 minutes .
The eternal sleep stage partitioning was also jolly much in blood with what the Apple Watch Series 8 offered . What I did notice , however , was that the Fit 3 ’s accuracy gradually increased over metre , though there are some functional frustrations .
For case , you involve to launch the mobile app to see details of your quietus natural process , even for the introductory parameters . gratefully , the nomadic app propose batch of meaningful insights into your nap activity .
It rates your quietus musical score graded across four levels viz . Needs Attention , Fair , Good , and Excellent . It offers a standalone crack-up of whether the sleep session proffer enough physical recovery , restfulness , and mental recuperation
The Galaxy Fit 3 also keeps an optic on the line atomic number 8 horizontal surface during sleep , and keep a log of illustration where it may have dip under the 90 % impregnation floor . There ’s also a snore detection feature of speech , which tape audio files via your phone ’s mic .
It works as advertised , but it ’s somewhat awkward to hear your raucous snoring in the sopor logs . However , I wish well that the wearable could also lumber breathing and heart rate , and put them in the daily sleep measuring journal .
These combined metrics are used for sleep apnea detection , and it would have been gracious for the Galaxy Fit 3 to measure these while at rest . Samsung already offer this feature of speech on the Galaxy Watch card , but has excluded it for the Fit series bands .
On the positive side , Samsung is not weight down substance abuser with an consuming solidification of information , some of which may not be of any meaningful value . The approach here is baffle with the fundamentals , and the Galaxy Fit 3 does a fine caper at it without go haywire at the fundamentals .
A rewarding battery life
Samsung claims a stamp battery life sentence worth 13 day on a single charge . Your mileage will depart dramatically , depending on a lot of factor . Thanks to the small 208mAh onboard battery , you may top it up in less than an hr , and get 60 % succus in scantily half an hour .
Now , about those bombardment endurance figure , which put mainstream smartwatches to ignominy . It is achievable under extremely controlled circumstances , which do n’t realistically meditate how an average person uses a smartwatch .
If you have always - on display modality enabled , have activated wrist joint - detection , work out for an hour , interact with notifications , and keep 15 - 20 minutes of on - screen activity , you may get up to five days of battery life per send seance .
With the always - on musical mode disabled , I could get a maximum of eight days . Moreover , if you enable continuous heart rate tracking — instead of manual tracking or automatonlike mensuration per ten minutes — the battery efficiency comes down .
Even if you are getting 4 - 5 Day of usage with a single charge , it ’s a fantastic jump . An modal smartwatch barely lasts over two days , and you’re able to only get more mileage when you shift to miserable - power modes or switch to the hybrid OS computer architecture on devices such as theOnePlus Watch 2 .
One of the biggest reasons that I have a love - hate kinship with smartwatches is that they burden me with yet another equipment to charge on a daily basis . Moreover , having to carry a usage charging hockey puck for each one is yet another incommodiousness .
With the Galaxy Fit 3 , the charging vexation is fractional , and I revalue this practical perquisite . For shelling top - up , Samsung offers a custom pogo pin connection with a USB - coulomb outlet on the other end , but no agitate adapter or brick in the retail software .
Verdict: An easy pick for beginners
At an asking price of just $ 60 , the Galaxy Fit 3 catch a muckle of matter right . It looks dramatically secure than a legal age of fittingness band out there , tender a full-bodied set of physical exercise features , and delivers a true biomarker and wellness trailing experience .
Yes , the lack of GPS and over - trust on a companion app are frustrating . And so is the hobbled connectivity and the inability to properly handle call or text . But it lay down up for those missteps with a fantastic shelling sprightliness , a no - gimcrackery software approaching , and a beautiful OLED screen .
If your budget ca n’t outgo the $ 100 threshold , the only other option I can advocate is theAmazfit Active 2 . But if you do n’t want to cough up that kind of cash , merely attempt to get a start with physical fitness article of clothing , or require a tracker for introductory employment only , the Galaxy Fit 3 will assist you just fine at a pleasant bargain .
Samsung Galaxy Fit 3 is up for grabs at $ 60 fromSamsung Store .
