The Samsung Galaxy Fit is a mighty fine deal at $69.
Sarah Tew/CNET
There’s a case to be made for choosing a fitness tracker over a smartwatch with fitness-tracking features. First and foremost: price. In fact, for a limited time, and while supplies last, Best Buy has one of the best fitness-tracker deals I can recall: The Samsung Galaxy Fit for $49.99. It’s available in black or white. Regular price for both: $100.
The Galaxy Fit offers a surprisingly robust set of features compared with “budget” fitness trackers of the past. For one thing, it includes heart-rate monitoring — and can even notify you if it detects an irregular heartbeat. It also automatically detects activity and starts logging it. It even detects the type of activity: walking, running, cycling and so on.
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I’ll pause here to note that my Apple Watch Series 3 can do likewise — but it’s crummy at it. (Maybe newer models are better?) It often takes 5-10 minutes before I get the “it looks like you’re doing such-and-such” notification, and if I forget to manually end the activity when I’m done, the results get totally skewed.
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I can’t say firsthand whether the Galaxy Fit does a better job, but CNET’s Scott Stein can. In his comparison of the Galaxy Fit to the Fitbit Inspire HR, he noted the following: “I also like Samsung fitness devices’ automatic tracking of walks and workouts, and how the stats instantly appear onscreen. On a brisk walk, I’m suddenly in workout tracking mode without doing anything.”
Speaking of the Inspire HR, it’s quite similar to the Galaxy Fit, but with one key difference: the latter has a color AMOLED screen.
That screen is on the small side, of course, which can make notifications and other text difficult to read while exercising. Battery life is rated at up to five days, though expect less if you set the Fit to do frequent heart-rate monitoring.
I think the benefits here far outweigh a few small negatives. For $50 you’re getting a capable fitness tracker that, among other things, will remind you to get off your duff. Cheaper than bypass surgery, people!
Your thoughts?
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Originally published earlier this year. Removed previous bonus deal due to erroneous product information.
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