Samsung’s range of wearable devices have improved quite a bit over the years. While the company’s smartwatches are usually the ones making headlines, the Galaxy Fit 2019 is a pretty good wearable too – especially for those who want a more affordable fitness band.

In a vacuum, the Galaxy Fit is an attractive wearable made for those with an active lifestyle. But when compared to other fitness bands in the market, the Fit simply doesn’t offer the same value for money. And value for money is a very important point for most consumers.

What It Is

As far as fitness bands go, the Galaxy Fit has an eye-catching, minimalist design. The 0.95-inch 240 x 120 AMOLED display further accentuates the wearable’s sleek aesthetic, and it is also rated for 5 ATM; it can be submerged up to 50m for 10 minutes without any issue.

For notifications, the Galaxy Fit relies exclusively on vibration, and it’s strong enough to catch my attention. Besides that, it also has a 120mAh battery, which can supposedly provide up to a week’s worth of usage. The weight of the Fit is worth pointing out too: weighing only 23g, you wouldn’t really feel it on your wrist. I certainly didn’t.

The Good Stuff

As with most Samsung products, the Galaxy Fit has a fantastic, vibrant display, and that is easily one of the most impressive aspects of the wearable. It’s an AMOLED screen, so you’re getting deep, true blacks, and punchy colours. There’s no denying just how good the display looks here.

If you’re big on fitness, you will love the amount of workouts the Galaxy Fit can track. Either it’s running, cycling, swimming, or even badminton, this wearable can track it all. Once you start a workout, the Fit will constantly track your heart rate and the amount of calories you’ve burnt.

Another thing worth pointing out is the Galaxy Fit’s automatic workout detection. While it doesn’t trigger when I am doing weight training, it does manage to track a light jogging session. I was also surprised that it can accurately measure how long I’ve been jogging.

Of course, if you want the most accurate result, it’s best to select a specific workout manually for the Fit to track.

Battery life is also really good on the Galaxy Fit. Samsung estimates that the Fit can provide up to a week’s worth of usage, and I was getting close to that level of battery life. I didn’t need to charge it at all for a whole week, though I do take it off once I am home at night.

It’s worth pointing out that I’m not the most active individual; I only workout on a couple of days a week. Chances are, if you’re more active than I am, you will get shorter battery life.

The Bad Stuff

While the Galaxy Fit works great as a fitness tracker, its other features leave much to be desired, especially the notification system. Whenever I receive a new notification, the Fit will only show me the latest message. If I want to look at the previous messages, I would have to whip out my phone.

One of the best reasons to invest in a wearable is to get notifications pushed to your wrist, so to only be able to read the latest notification doesn’t cut it. In addition to that, I set the Galaxy Fit to switch on the display whenever I get a new notification, but it only seems to work half the time.

Granted, the Galaxy Fit is geared towards fitness, but it still would’ve been nice for it to have a more robust notification system. That would’ve made it an even more complete wearable.

You may have noticed by now that most of my complaints with the Galaxy Fit concerns the notification system, but this next one isn’t so much a complain as it is…well, wishful thinking. When you get a message, you can only respond with a set of pre-written replies; there’s no option to write your own message.

But, as I’ve mentioned, this is wishful thinking. Realistically, there’s no way to easily compose my own message with the Galaxy Fit’s small display anyway. But it is possible to add my own pre-written message to respond to texts, and I think this is a nice compromise.

Beyond its notification system, I’m not a fan of the Galaxy Fit’s strap design either. Once I’ve adjusted the strap to my desired size, I would have to push in the excess length under the strap. It’s not the easiest strap to put on, and it’s made even harder when I’m in a rush.

On the flip side, it does secure the Galaxy Fit to my wrist very well. In my book, that’s a plus point.

Oh, and one more small thing: I wish there was more watchface options. Unlike the Galaxy Watch Active, the Fit only comes with pre-loaded watchfaces with no way to add more. Then again, the Active is a different category of wearable altogether, not to mention the fact that it also sits in a higher price bracket.

Is It Worth It?

Well, it’s a tough question to answer. If you like how the Galaxy Fit looks, and you absolutely want the fitness band’s ability to track a wide range of workouts, it will serve you very well. But you would have to pay quite a sum of money for it.

Retailing at RM369, this fitness band is considerably more costly than its competition. More specifically, the new Xiaomi Mi Band 4, which can be purchased for as low as RM149 now. That’s more than half of the Galaxy Fit’s asking price.

That, in turn, makes the Samsung Galaxy Fit look less appealing. It’s still a very good fitness band, of course, but it doesn’t offer particularly good value for money. Nonetheless, if you need a wearable that complements your active lifestyle, the Galaxy Fit is a good fit.

Excuse the pun, but I had to.