#TechFriday Review: Samsung Gear Sport

Buying handbags and shoes is the female equivalent of males buying knives and watches.

For the latter, though, there is a new player in the smart watch or health/fitness watch playing field - the Samsung Gear Sport.

It comes with an array of functionalities that have introduced this Dual Core (1.0GHz) processor Tizen OS 3.0-driven timepiece as a giant in this technologically charged field.

It’s stainless steel design comes with a 1.2 360x360 full colour display made in gorilla glass, meaning less scratches or cracked screens.

And it’s much more than just splash proof, meaning one can take a shower or even swim and your Gear Sport will monitor your heart rate continuously with remarkable accuracy, compared to a popular chest strap monitor (like my Tom Tom).

Unlike some training instructors who get into the gym zone and just go for it, the Gear Sport sends you personalised messages to congratulate you on your pre-set workouts and encourages or challenges you to work harder.

It also has a selection of pre-programmed routines for activities like running, cycling, swimming or walking. Or for a different type of activity, one can choose other selections and your movement can be mapped on Google Maps.

With impressive accuracy, it maps distance and duration and its tracking function includes strokes, calories, and laps among others.

The Samsung Gear Sport is a smart watch on steroids. Picture: Timothy Bernard

It also registers your progress both in action and intake of what you ate for the day, and then records it on your device and manages your wellness daily.

Some of this information can be streamed to your smart TV and viewed during your home fitness routines.

The Gear Sport will remind you to move regularly, with its inactivity alerts and automatically detect when you’re working out.

At the end of the day or week, the device can give you the action report in the form of graphs that are synchronised with your phone or other devices via wi-fi.

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I can listen to music via Bluetooth during my workouts, as 4GBs of space is available on the device.

I can also view pictures from my last adventure or even a presentation.

With a simple wireless connection to your laptop, you can use the Gear Sport to control scrolling, skipping or volume. Backing up your data couldn’t be easier and can be stored in the Samsung cloud.

And even more exciting is that this device is ready to bring us closer to a wallet-less society with Samsung Pay. It can also control other devices such as VR, and through Samsung connect control some of the home appliances through the twist of the bezel, which is designed to protect the screen too.

Overall, this watch should not really be compared to the Gear 3, because it’s smaller and offers its special features and design.

I love the downloads for sport, as it gives me

many watches at a fraction of the cost.