Gadgetory

the desk the keyboard the chair if you're a technology blogger in 2014 or really any kind of white-collar worker odds are these are the tools which dominate your workday so when a company like Samsung decides to focus on Fitness with its new flagship smartphone it can be tough to fully evaluate those features while well trapped behind a desk so while we've already given you a quick look at Samsung's s health suite in our galaxy s5 review we're taking you much closer with this video I'm Michael Fisher with PocketNow and I spent a day with the Galaxy s5 and the gear fit becoming the person that s-health wants me to be sort of I kick off the day bright and early only about a half hour later than I planned and thanks mainly to the arrival of the FedEx man who delivers a shiny new samsung gear fit to my door while the fit is charging and getting to know the galaxy s5 a shower and locate my only pair of shoes not made by Sperry Top Sider and then like any good fitness fanatic I go to a fast food coffee shop for my breakfast I input the sandwiches brand name into s health and I'm surprised to see it's actually in the database then I spend a minute telling s Health's judgmental life coach exactly what my life is like appropriately there's actually an option in here for reassess lifestyle which you could argue that I should be doing given that most of my scores fall in the failing range except for sleeping I'm really good at sleeping when I'm done getting shamed by the life coach I make sure the gear fit is ready to measure my heartbeat and step count so I can work off these 600 calories of coffee and sandwich heading out on the town for my first bit of exercise I think why don't I kick things off right with a run but without a cameraman I'm carrying a lot of equipment so a brisk walk will have to suffice and brisk it is 44 degrees and overcast because it's the beauty of New England okay yeah wine a lot but not all of that is belly akin for belly ache in sick while the previous generation Galaxy s4 has an environment mode built into its s health app that uses the phone's ambient temperature and humidity sensors to tell you whether you should be working out outside or inside Samsung stripped those sensors from the s5 fortunately there are still about 80,000 ways of looking at the weather and anyway the walk wasn't all bad I was even able to pick up some artisinal water from a small locally owned business I decided to cap my walk at 2.5 miles just to see how I'm doing and I come away disappointed by what the gear fit reports I worked up quite a sweat on my walk and I kept a steady pace for most of an hour but according to my fit I've only burned off about half my breakfast the news is more agreeable on the phone which tells me I've burned many more calories and while that sounds like nicer news I don't know who to trust now this confusion doesn't last terribly long you do get to know as health after a while but using the software with the gear fit can be a bit disjointed for all the similar iconography between them it's not entirely clear when they're working together and if not why they're not either way it seems I need a more laborious exercise regimen on the train I set a course for an adventure more befitting my nautical roots and fortunately it's a mile walk from the train station allowing me to get the blood flowing again the start/stop button on the fit comes in handy for this it's very much a session oriented exercise device welcome to Newton Massachusetts the only place near Boston you can get a kayak when the air temperature is 45 degrees and the water temperature isn't much higher but I'm not just here because of my pathological obsession with novelty I'm here because both the Galaxy s5 and gear fit are rated for immersion in water and it makes sense to test them in an environment that Fitness mavens would probably want to use them at and I'm happy to report they perform beautifully on a two-mile expedition despite this kayak being a particularly wet one and its pilot being almost completely inept adventure unfortunately almost no unconventional exercises are included in the s health database which heavily favors walking hiking biking and of course running there doesn't seem to be a way of logging the 450 calories you burn while you kayak for two miles which is a little disappointing this is where third-party apps like lose it enjoy a bit of an edge over Samsung's offering I run into another letdown when logging my lunch the Galaxy s5s battery is taking a pretty hefty beating from the pedometer and the Bluetooth link to the fit yes I'm listening to music and taking pictures too but these are things you could reasonably expect someone to do on a workout by the time I get back on the train I'm at 5% and I'm forced to plug into a power pack seven hours after taking the phone up charge now listen that's not bad at all most workouts don't last that long of course but it's definitely something to keep in mind if you plan on a longer expedition remember there is a hiking mode available here by the time I get close to home it's 42 degrees and dropping and I have no desire whatsoever to be outside seeing as my gym membership lapsed years ago the only solution is to drink beer and then sleep but unsound as this choice may be s health can help here too I use it to log my two over five beers and then I activate sleep mode on my wrist the gear fit is small and light enough not to bother me while I'm sleeping and s health keeps a log of just how well I slept based on movement it recorded over the course of the night okay obviously I'm not the ideal candidate for this a real fitness person could tell you more about how viable s health and the gear fit are as exercise companions which is why editor-in-chief Anton D Nagy will be taking a look at this combo soon but millions of galaxy s5 buyers are a lot like me people who don't get off on working out but who like to be active and do things nevertheless and enjoy anything that helps them track that and s health does a pretty good job of that I don't know of any other smartphone manufacturer shipping anything like s health as a standard option out of the box to say nothing of offering a phone that's basically impervious to sweat and splashes along with a waterproof accessory that not only reads your heart rate and tracks your steps but also shows you notifications and lets you control music as you workout sure there are frustrations here and there and specific third-party apps will doubtless be a better fit for some but Samsung was wise to pursue the nish of the fitness fan with the Galaxy S five and gear fit if I were someone shopping for a smartphone and actively trying to get in better shape s health compatible devices and these two products in particular would definitely be on my short list one more Samsung coverage check out Anton's unboxing at our 24 hour impressions on the gear fit subscribe to pocket now here on YouTube and social media and stay tuned for more Galaxy S five coverage in the days ahead thanks for watching I sort of like this roguish no glasses look what do you guys think they're fake anyway horrible day to do this this fighting no fighting hey hey you get along catch your size