Gadgetory

hey Lauren good for The Verge here and today we're taking a look at the new Samsung gear fit 2 this is the first update to the activity trackers from the original one was launched in 2014 and there are some new features with this one so let's take a look so the first thing you're going to notice about the Samsung gear fit 2 is that it's bigger than the first one this is a 1.5 inch Super AMOLED display and Samsung said it was designed that way so that you don't have to sort of twist your wrists around to see information if you're looking at it like this you get a full display of info it's also a lot softer than the original band that one was it's kind of stiff and inflexible on the underside here you have optical heart rate sensors so it'll take your heart rate intermittently throughout the day and also show your active heart rate when you are active it is a touch sensitive display but you can't touch it to wake it you have to use the physical buttons and a side here to wake it and then you can swipe through swipe to the left and you get more specific information and you can add more to it apparently for now one of the things that you can add to it is a Spotify app it's really the only third-party app that will run on this and that's for music control from your phone so one of the things that Samsung has added to the Samsung gear fit 2 is the ability for it to automatically recognize when you've started exercising because you basically don't have to go into any menu and hit start to start an exercise or stop it you can just start running and cycling and it's also great for sleep trapping because it means you don't have to toggle into some type of sleep mode and remember to do that before you go to bed another pretty notable addition to the Samsung gear fit 2 is that it does have GPS onboard so runners will greatly appreciate that Samsung says you should get about 3 to 4 days of battery life with this and up to 5 in standby mode which means it's just tracking steps nothing else Samsung says it's also as waterproof as its newer Samsung Galaxy phones so in terms of compatibility what will the band work with well it will work with Android phones that are running Android 4.4 later unfortunately though it won't work with iOS devices so if you're an iPhone user you're out of luck it also won't sync the data to any type of desktop application but you can use it as a standalone device if you don't have an Android phone you'll just have to look at all the information on the fitness fans itself in terms of availability Samsung says this will ship sometime early this summer it will cost $179 now that is a little bit more expensive than some lightweight activity trackers that you could get not as expensive as a SmartWatch though so kind of depends on what you're looking for be sure to stay tuned to the verge comm for our full review of this eventually and also don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel I'm Lauren good