Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

UPDATE: 9/29/2017- (See below- added at the bottom of the review) This is a really big improvement over the previous model. The Outside: I really liked the form factor of the original Gear Fit2. It was comfortable on the wrist and the curved screen looked good and felt form fitting. Unfortunately, It had that ridiculous push clasp like so many of these wearables came with (some still do) when the perfect answer had always been the standard watch band. The Gear Fit2 Pro has adopted the standard watch band and it'so much better. It won't catch on something and sneak off your wrist. That never happened to me but I'd heard stories from others where it had. It's also nice to not have to push in that odd clasp. That odd clasp could be lost too. Features and Functions: The Gear Fit2 was also a no-go in the shower. Frankly, what is the point of an IP rating if it's below the threshold of shower safety. There were so many conflicting messages on this too. Some claimed that exposing to a shower may not kill it but it can wreak havoc with some of the sensors. I agree with the sensor damage. My Fit2, after being left on in the shower, was unable to come close to accurately measuring "Floors". If I climbed one flight of stairs sometimes it wouldn't register and other times it would register 10 or 20 floors. Ultimately, the fact that I could not use it for swimming and the loss of floor counting accuracy is why I switched to a Garmin Vivosmart HR. The Fit2 Pro can go swimming with you. It can track your swim in several ways. It comes with a Speedo app that I tried out today. My pool is 32' long and that is about the minimum length you can set it for to measure laps (10 meters). After you set that, you can set your workout to time or distance and once it starts, it locks the screen so it will not be affected until you finish. My first test today was accurate to 10 meters and it successfully measured my laps. It is supposed to measure strokes as well but I have not tried it. I'll update this review when I've tried it. The Fit2 pro is accurate using my stairs. It claims to count a floor every 10 feet which I found to be true with one caveat. If I climbed one flight, instantly turned around and came down, it did not register. However, if I walked at least 4-5 steps at the top of the flight, it did. Every time. It also registered if I went up 2 or 3 flights the same way- also taking a few steps at the flight where I stopped. If I turned around instantly and began going back down, it would not count the last flight. I like that it does not need to be connected to the phone for Spotify but of course, it does need to be connected to WiFi but just to download music. There is enough total memory for 500 songs (give or take) It also has a lot more built-in exercises (including indoor rowing) which the Gear Fit2 did not come with natively but a later software update included it. For most of these, it only counts HBPM and duration. It does recognize when you are beginning an exercise and will begin tracking automatically. You can also set it to turn on GPS automatically when you begin a workout. It came with plenty of watch faces including two new ones. There were dozens more available in the online store if you want something different. So far the specs and features ring true to promises. I have the "auto on" for GPS and have been fiddling with it a lot and the battery life is down a third after one full day. The continuous HR reading keeps updating. I've tested the audio player with my LG Tone Platinum's and it all works- even offline listening. I think they've caught all the features and functionality along with comfort and aesthetics that I wanted. If anything unexpected happens in the next few days or weeks, I will update this review. Note: Sorry for the upside-down photos. They are right side up on my computer. If you want any other photos, let me know and I will post them. UPDATE: 9/29/2017- Still very happy with this device. If there was only one complaint, it's that I have to recharge after 2 days. I'm not going to shave points off for that because it still does everything else I want it to do and it does it well.I know there are other bands that have longer battery cycles but I'm happy with the trade-off for a great screen and all the other features this band has built in. This is with one GPS included exercise per day and me checking stats several times a day. To save battery, I turned wifi off. I just couldn't figure out a need for it. New observations: 1. At first, I was disappointed when the band registered me mowing the lawn as "biking". (auto-exercise detection) Then I realized that was actually pretty good assuming that it registered my hands in a similar position and I may have had a similar cadence. 2. I guess I have a "medium" sized wrist. My wrist measures in at about 7 1/8 inches which I first thought would put me at a large. But there are 12 holes and I was using the last 3 to 4 of them (wrist swelling a bit due to temperature). So I traded it for a small. That was a mistake. On the small band, it was just the opposite and I was at the first 3-4 holes which made it so the loop to hold the excess band kept popping off. I went back to large. The excess band is way better. 3. If you have a regular exercise, it stores on the "exercise screen" making it really easy to start an exercise with your chosen parameters. 4. So nice to be able to sweat, swim, and shower without ever having to take the band off- except to charge it. 5. So comfortable, I never notice it until I see it. 6. Stairs seem more accurate if I move up quickly. It seems to miss them sometimes if I am going up in a lazy way. 7. I am using mine with a Galaxy Note * and they work flawlessly together. Samsung blew it by claiming it was compatible with iPhone at time of launch and the reviews are taking a beating as a result but I feel my review should focus only on my experience with the way I have it set up.