Samsung Galaxy Fit3 review: fitness bracelet with a large display

Samsung produces not only top-of-the-line smartwatches on Wear OS, but also affordable options, such as the Samsung Galaxy Fit3 fitness bracelet, which is reviewed by gg today. This is a lightweight and easy-to-use fitness bracelet that has all the basic functions you need for exercising and tracking basic health indicators. It has a bright AMOLED display and a metal frame case that is IP68 protected and resistant to water pressure up to 5 ATM. The Samsung Galaxy Fit3 has a very simple, fast and user-friendly interface and can operate for up to 5 days on a single charge at maximum load. Of course, we're dealing with an affordable model, so contactless payment, a built-in GPS module, or the ability to download music are out of the question.

It has interesting competitors in this price category. The slightly more expensive Xiaomi Smart Band 8 Pro has a larger display with a higher resolution, a larger battery, and built-in GPS for recording routes. The cheaper Mi Smart Band 7 NFC is, of course, less functional and has a less convenient narrow display. But it is equipped with NFC and supports contactless payment.

5 reasons to buy Samsung Galaxy Fit3:

• More than a hundred training programmes
• Large AMOLED display with Always on
• Simple and easy to use
• Lightweight body with an aluminium frame and IP68 protection
• You are allergic to Xiaomi

2 reasons not to buy Samsung Galaxy Fit3:

• You want to use more apps
• You need support for contactless payment

1. What's in the Samsung Galaxy Fit3 box?
2. What does the Samsung Galaxy Fit3 look like?
3. What about the screen, hardware and controls of the Samsung Galaxy Fit3?
4. How user-friendly is the interface and what features does Samsung Galaxy Fit3 have?
5. How long does the Samsung Galaxy Fit3 last on a single battery charge?
6. In dry balance

What is in the box of the Samsung Galaxy Fit3?

Samsung Galaxy Fit3 comes in a small white box with a picture of the fitness bracelet itself and the main features. The package contains nothing unusual: the Samsung Galaxy Fit3 itself, a fairly short Type-C cable for charging, and documentation.

What does Samsung Galaxy Fit3 look like?

Samsung Galaxy Fit3 is very compact and lightweight. The body is rather thin and rectangular with rounded corners. The protective glass of the display also has a streamlined shape. The frame is made of sandblasted aluminium. This is especially pleasing given the price of the fitness tracker. Given its compactness, it will look quite organic on a woman's delicate hand. After prolonged use of a more massive smartwatch, Samsung Galaxy Fit3 is almost invisible on the wrist. Available in black, silver and gold with different colours of straps.

Almost all of the interaction with the Samsung Galaxy Fit3 is done primarily via the 1.6-inch touchscreen display. This is not much, but it is quite enough for such a device, given the user-friendly interface with large elements. The bezel around the display is quite wide. But thanks to the use of an AMOLED matrix, it seems that it occupies the entire front panel of the fitness tracker.

The only physical control is a large button on the right side. It is responsible for returning to the home screen and can also launch the selected function by double-clicking. By default, it takes you to the training menu, but you can set it to do something else. And five taps will send an SOS message to emergency contacts. There is a small hole next to the button. But it's not a microphone, as you might think, and you won't be able to answer calls with Samsung Galaxy Fit3. This is a barometer hole.

The back of Samsung Galaxy Fit3 is made of matte black plastic. In the middle is an optical heart rate sensor. There are two contacts for charging, and on the sides there are buttons for quick release of the strap.

The strap has its own non-standard system of fasteners that hold it firmly in place. On the plus side, the fastening is really very secure and it's impossible to pull the strap out. On the downside, the range is limited to Samsung models and there are only two of them so far: orange and dark green made of the same silicone.

The bundled strap itself is made of soft, comfortable silicone. The clasp is standard, with a hole to hide the end. The range of strap sizes is large, it will fit almost any hand, if not any.

Samsung Galaxy Fit3 weighs only 18.5 g, so even during active sports, it does not weigh you down at all. It has IP68 protection and can withstand water pressure of 5 ATM. You can safely take a shower and swim in a pool or freshwater.

What about the screen, hardware platform, and controls of the Samsung Galaxy Fit3?

Samsung Galaxy Fit3 is equipped with a 1.6-inch rectangular AMOLED screen with a resolution of 402 x 256 pixels, with a pixel density of almost 298 PPI. There is support for Always on Display. The screen has excellent picture responsiveness and rich colours. The brightness margin is sufficient for comfortable use in the sun. There is a light sensor for automatic brightness adjustment.

It's worth remembering that Samsung Galaxy Fit3 is not a smartwatch, but a fitness bracelet with rather limited functionality and without the ability to install third-party applications. The bracelet runs on FreeRTOS, the Samsung processor is not specified, but the device has 16 MB of RAM and 256 MB of internal memory. Therefore, there is no possibility of downloading music for training. But the operating system itself is very fast and surprisingly smooth. The set of sensors includes an accelerometer, barometer, gyroscope, optical heart rate sensor and light sensor, i.e. the basic set required for a modern fitness tracker. As for wireless interfaces, there is only Bluetooth 5.3 for connecting to a smartphone. Samsung Galaxy Fit3 does not have its own GPS module, so the location is determined by the smartphone for walking routes.

It is worth noting that Samsung Galaxy Fit3 only works with Android smartphones. Perhaps with updates, iOS compatibility will appear, but so far only Android version 10+. With Samsung smartphones, the connection is as simple as possible: the smartphone automatically finds the bracelet and offers to pair it. With smartphones from other manufacturers, you need to launch the Samsung Wearable app.

How user-friendly is the Samsung Galaxy Fit3 interface and what are the features?

The FreeRTOS interface and all the interaction logic are very similar to the One UI shell for Wear OS used in Samsung smartwatches. So it's easy and convenient to control the bracelet. It's worth noting that out of the box, Samsung Galaxy Fit3 came with a rather buggy firmware and could reboot several times on its own. So you should immediately update the firmware using Galaxy Wearable. The home screen is the watchface of your choice. There are a lot of them available, both in design and functionality. Starting with classic watches with hands and ending with digital options that display heart rate, weather, number of steps, etc. But, unlike the watch faces for One UI, they cannot be customised.

Swipe from left to right to open the notification panel. You can reply to notifications with templates. Swiping left scrolls through widgets. You can add or remove them, and the set is standard: activity, sleep, heart rate, blood oxygen, quick workout, weather, controlling music playback on your smartphone, etc.

Swiping from top to bottom opens the usual curtain with quick settings. And from the bottom up, there is a menu that contains all the settings (brightness, Always on Display, gestures for activation, notifications, automatic activity tracking, heart rate measurement, etc.) and additional applications (world time, calculator, calendar, alarm clock, timer, remote control for the smartphone camera).

In terms of fitness features, Samsung Galaxy Fit3 has everything you need. The bracelet can count the number of steps, calories burned, measure heart rate, blood oxygen saturation and sleep. It tracks sleep phases, quality, and duration. And, based on the data obtained, the bracelet can give advice on how to improve sleep. There are more than 100 training programmes, so everyone will find exactly what they need. From standard running, gym, cycling and elliptical to swimming and winter activities. For some activities, you just count the time, the number of calories burned, and make a graph. And some have additional indicators. Like the number of steps, pace while running. Or the number of strokes and SWOLF for swimming. All data is automatically transferred to your smartphone in the Samsung Health app. For exercises, you can set your own goals and there is a so-called running coach. In general, Samsung Galaxy Fit3 determines basic indicators such as the number of steps and heart rate quite accurately, with minimal errors. Within a few percent. Sleep tracking also works well. Unfortunately, there is no way to check the accuracy of blood oxygen saturation measurement. The only strange glitch that happened 2 times was that for some reason the fitness bracelet recorded climbing 9 floors on foot by stairs. Although the lift was 5 floors up. There were no other complaints during use.

The Samsung Galaxy Fit3 is configured using the Galaxy Wearable app. It is common to all Samsung smart gadgets and headphones. It allows you to customise watch faces, widgets, apps, notifications and update the bracelet:

And the Samsung Health app collects all your workout, heart rate, sleep, and other metrics. There is both general information and more detailed information with graphs and time intervals. There are additional training materials with training programmes and videos. There is also the ability to compete with other users in the Together service.

How long does Samsung Galaxy Fit3 last on a single battery charge?

Samsung Galaxy Fit3 has a 208 mAh battery inside. It is claimed that the fitness tracker can operate for up to 13 days on a single charge. But, of course, this is with minimal use: without Always on Display, constant measurement of heart rate, blood oxygen, etc. In real conditions, with Always on Display, constant measurement of heart rate, blood oxygen saturation, 1.5 hours of training per day plus auto-recording of walks, jogging, the fitness tracker works up to 5 days. If you turn off Always on Display, this figure can be increased to 8 days. Which is not bad, given the dimensions of the gadget itself and the size of the screen.

To charge the Samsung Galaxy Fit3, a bundled cable with a magnetic two-pin connector is used. That is, the fitness bracelet does not support wireless charging. And, for example, it cannot be charged from a smartphone. It supports 25W charging, provided that you have a suitable power supply. It charges quickly, in half an hour the gadget replenishes 65% of the battery charge.

In dry balance. Five things you need to know about Samsung Galaxy Fit3:

• Samsung Galaxy Fit3 is a lightweight and comfortable fitness bracelet with a metal case.
• It has a basic set of necessary health tracking functions, as well as more than 100 training programmes.
• The case is IP68 waterproof and can withstand water pressure up to 5 ATM.
• It works for up to 5 days under heavy load.
• It does not support contactless payment and does not have a GPS module.

Go Deeper:

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