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The Gear Fit was only compatible with Samsung phones, but the Gear Fit 2 supports almost all modern smartphones. Upon launch the Samsung Gear Fit 2 was only compatible with Android devices, but now you can use it with your iPhone too.
If you're sporting an iPhone running iOS 9 or above you'll be able to use the Gear Fit 2. That's every iPhone from the iPhone 5 onward.
You'll also be able to use the Gear Fit 2 with any Android device running 4.4 KitKat software and features 1.5GB of RAM.
As mentioned earlier, Samsung's Gear and S Health apps are necessary downloads if you want to get the most out of the Gear Fit 2.
The Gear app is used to sync, adjust settings and update the firmware of the Gear Fit 2. Aside from the required first boot to setup, it's likely that many will never find a reason to open this app again.
That is, unless you want to take advantage of the 4GB of onboard storage. The Gear app's most useful feature is offloading music onto the device, which you can listen to by connecting a pair of wireless headphones to. If you're someone who doesn't want to bring your phone along, or connect it in the first place at all, this feature is handy.
In addition to putting music files onto the Gear Fit 2, it also offers native Spotify integration. Compared to the basic music player, which is totally serviceable for my needs, the Spotify app can play playlists right from the wearable.
Next up, S Health. This is a fairly standard metrics tracking app that pulls in data from the Gear Fit 2 and builds trends to help guide you along your health-focused path. It most likely doesn't support your favorite third-party app, but at least it's compatible with Google Fit.
Aside from tracking, S Health also has challenges that you can trigger to compete with friends. It's nothing that hasn't been done before, but any little bit of extra functionality you can squeeze out of this purchase, the better.
Battery life
Battery life is, without a doubt, one of the biggest factors to consider when purchasing a fitness tracker. Products like the Withings Go and the Pebble Time have essentially aced the topic, providing eight months and 10 days, respectively.
But products like the Gear Fit 2 and other, more intensive wearables can't put up such numbers. By comparison, Samsung's latest, with its GPS functionality and slick Super AMOLED display, you'll be lucky to squeeze 3-4 days of life from its 200mAh battery.
In my personal experience, at half-brightness and tethered to a Samsung Galaxy S7, I just barely achieved the three day mark. In that time, tons of the notifications came through the connected wearable, so that might have been the bottleneck on the battery. Or it could have been because the barometer was overworking itself after being soaked in a shower day after day.
If you don't anticipate using the GPS or connecting it to a smartphone, you will, of course, see a longer life with the Gear Fit 2. But for those who want to use it as it is intended, make sure the charging dock is never too far out of reach.
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