Samsung Gear Fit features overview

The Samsung Galaxy S5 wasn’t the only thing that Samsung announced at MWC 2014. As well as a new smartwatch, Samsung also announced the Gear Fit – a hybrid smartwatch and fitness band.

The Gear Fit is controlled by the Gear Fit Manager app which can be installed on a range of 17 Samsung Galaxy devices, including the Galaxy S5. The manager app allows you to change different aspects of the Gear Fit including the clock, the background image and how notifications are handled.

First up is the type of clock you want displayed on your Gear Fit. There are a number of clocks to choose from including a pedometer clock, a weather clock, a style clock (with the time told in words) and several different types of digital clock.

The background can also be altered to display just a solid color or a wallpaper. Since the Gear Fit has a curved 1.84-inch,  432 x 128 display, the wallpaper needs to be cropped to fit the screen. The manager app provides all the cropping functionality and once you have selected the portion of the image you want displayed it will be transferred to the fitness band.

In terms of notifications there are several different options including how the data is sent from the Gear Fit to your smartphone, how the Gear Fit handles notifications from your smartphone and which type of notification should be sent from the phone to the wristband. Want missed call alerts but no notifications about new email message? No problem, it is all configurable from with the Gear Fit Manager app.

On the actual Gear Fit itself you can view you current notifications, control the music playing your smartphone, and send a message to the phone to tell it to make its whereabouts known. Of course there are also fitness related functions including a pedometer, an exercise tracker, and a heart rate monitor.

Overall the Gear Fit and the Gear Fit Manager app work well together and the Gear Fit has just enough extra features to make it worth wearing all the time, not just when you are exercising.