Samsung Gear Sport Review

Never miss leg day again.

I don't really know how or why I'm back on a smartwatch kick considering I've hardly worn the fairly solid Gear S over the past two years but after seeing the thing collecting dust on my nightstand for all that time, I kind of struck me. That curved screen beast just isn't the most comfortable long term use watch thanks to it's enormous size, nor was it particularly good for the gym which was it's primary use for me. On a whim, I decided to order it's replacement: the Gear Sport, a smaller, yet more robust and fitness driven alternative to the fashion accessory-like Gear S3. After over a week of wearing it, here's what I think.

The Sport looks far more conventional than the S and loses some weight in the process.

As a stablemate to the Gear S3, the Gear Sport is designed to do things the Gear S3 cannot while sacrificing some Samsung smartwatch staples to make these things happen. Coming off the curved Gear S, the size of the Sport was a very welcome change. It looks just like a conventional watch which has been the norm since Samsung went to round displays with the Gear S2. The comfort difference was almost immediately noticeable as well. While it's not featherweight, it's far lighter on the wrist and the skinnier profile of the strap doesn't suffocate my wrist and make it sweat up a storm after just wearing it for a short time.

This is also helped by the fact that the Gear Sport retains the ability to swap straps out for whatever you can find online. Most of these newer Samsung watches are now capable of taking most standard sized watch straps and the Sport is no exception as it can take most 20mm sized straps. Having straps specifically fitted for the watch are a little more convenient though, thanks to a little sliding nub on the locking pins that allows you to quickly pop out a strap without a tool.

Tizen has improved and it's fairly easy to get around on the Sport.

Like the Gear S, the Sport runs on Tizen and unless you're well acquainted with Samsung's other round faced watches, Tizen on the Gear Sport feels vastly different from the rather smartphone-like interface on the Gear S. That being said, once you get used to it, navigation the interface is pretty dang fast and straightforward, also the rotating bezel is super satisfying to use.

As if this was even necessary. Cheating on exams perhaps?

The Gear Sport does nearly everything it's predecessor does as far as basic functionality and potential capability. Texting on the Gear Sport is improved upon and you can just write letters on the screen to compose a text and there's also some rather handy built in features like a PowerPoint clicker or a music player separate from it's paired device. You can even still browse the internet for some reason, which on the smaller screen is probably best saved for masochists. Other things though like S Voice still kind of suck and feel more like carry overs from the previous watch.

Where the Gear Sport is really geared towards though is getting you into shape with a Health app that's far more advanced than the Gear S. The Sport can auto-detect workouts and automatically record heart rates, relaying all the data back to your main device. You can even add friends to Samsung Health and get overly-competitive. Using the Gear Sport for fitness feels far more like a Fitbit and effectively solved my other big complaint about the Gear S.

I'm literally just standing, holding a camera, and doing sprints all at once.

There is still some weirdness regarding tracking though as the optical HR sensor can occasionally put out some pretty spotty readings where I can somehow be pulling 90+ BPM while I'm sitting at my desk. Regardless, the added comfort and overall enhanced tracking features give me a whole lot more incentive to wear the Gear Sport for extended durations as I no longer need to manually start tracking anything other than steps.

Battery life I found to be around two and-a-half days of charge. This is an area where not much improvement was made and I usually find myself juicing up the watch whenever I'm at home and don't need to wear it. On the bright side, the stupid snap on charging cradle is finally dead. Instead, you now get a little magnetized wireless charger that you can easily just toss the watch onto when it needs a little juice. While I still would have liked Samsung to have added a regular USB port of some kind, the Gear Sport's biggest party trick pretty much renders this to be impossible.

Get soaked.

That party trick of course is the 5 ATM depth rating which means the watch is resistant to static pressure up to 50 meters deep for up to ten minutes. Point in case, while this isn't going to outdo a dedicated dive watch and shouldn't be used for such, but it will be able to handle low velocity, relatively shallow stuff like swimming without a hitch and will even track your swims with the Health app just like any other workout. The "Water Lock" feature can also disable touch input so water doesn't accidentally trip the display At the moment though, it's far too cold out for me to jump into my pool and test this to it's full extent, but I have showered with the Gear Sport and it handles it just fine

The problem is that Samsung axed a number of features from the watch to seemingly make this happen. The watch no longer features a speaker meaning you cannot make phone calls with it or purchase an option with LTE. It also lacks the Gear S3's MST pay technology which allows you to use Samsung Pay at nearly any card reader without NFC capability. The battery is also a bit smaller than the S3 which depending on how heavily the watch is used, might have a negative impact. It also doesn't fare well for the Sport that the new Galaxy Watch features everything above except MST. Likewise the Gear Sport is still less expensive, so at least that's something.

Granted, for some users like myself this probably won't be a deal breaker. I used the Gear S exclusively on Bluetooth the entire time I've owned it despite it featuring 3G connectivity and I admittedly hate using speakerphone, feeling a bit like a jackass when I talk into my wrist like some weird Dick Tracy impersonator. It is kind of unfortunate though that this watch is basically a step backwards as far as being an independent device from a smartphone, something that I praised the Gear S for getting really close to doing. That may put some people off and for that, the Gear S3 and Galaxy Watch are probably better options.

In a way the Gear Sport feels more like a niche device. It has some vast improvements from it's predecessors and the upgrades to the device's durability and fitness tracking can make it a big sell over the S3 for some. However it loses a fair number of core features that might drive some people looking for a fully featured wrist computer away. Samsung considers it as such, and it really does feel like an aside to their main series of watches and apart from pricing, it really has zero advantages over the newest Galaxy Watch. On the other hand, for users like myself who don't find themselves too concerned with the lack of some of those features, the Gear Sport can feel pretty close to right. Less is more perhaps? I'm honestly not so sure.

Summary

• More conventional looking and much more comfy than the Gear S.
• Tizen's watch interface is easy to get around and the rotating bezel rocks.
• Relatively decent app support but nothing to write home about.
• More capable workout tracking, albeit slightly iffy at times.
• 5 ATM water resistance is great, but with a few costs.
• Battery life is manageable, but not as good as the S3.
• No speaker, so no phone calls or LTE connectivity.
• Honestly feels like a step backwards for those who care.

Is It Better Than?

Gear S3- Depends, the Gear S3 serves as more of a less robust but better capable analog to the Sport. It has features that the Sport doesn't and vice versa. The S3 supports MST pay, LTE and phone calls, plus the battery life is almost double that of the Sport. However the S3 is more expensive, especially with LTE and it lacks the same amount of water protection as the Sport. Based on those facts, the S3 might check off all the right boxes for some.

Apple Watch Series 3- No, at least not in the case of iPhone users. The Apple Watch is entirely useless to people like myself who roll with Android but if you're neck deep in Apple's ecosystem, it's pretty hard to consider any other wearable maybe outside of a Fitbit over the Series 3. It sports similar levels of water resistance to the Gear Sport without sacrificing big features like call handling or LTE, all in a pretty slim package. I think Tizen on the latest round faced Samsung watches is more intuitive to use but watchOS has far better app support. Case in point there isn't really much of point to getting a Sport over the Series 3 if you have an iPhone.

Galaxy Watch- No, this is the new bad boy around town and it means business. Essentially you can take best of the Sport and the S3, water resistance, LTE and whatnot and cram them together into this "super watch" that pretty much aims to do everything possible. Well, almost everything. For whatever reason Samsung decided to dump MST pay on the Galaxy Watch too and unlike the Sport it really leaves you wondering why. Oh and Bixby. I know it's gonna get better but it hasn't been great. It's far more fully featured than the Sport and more competitive to the Apple Watch but as new as it is, the price still a tough pill to swallow. The older models can get the job done for less, depending your needs.