Samsung Galaxy Fit 3 is (almost) here: Everything you need to know

While Samsung has made many great smartwatches in recent history, it’s been three years since Samsung launched a dedicated fitness tracker. Recently, a flurry of rumors suggested this was about to change, and now it’s official. The Samsung Galaxy Fit 3 is here and here’s everything we know about it.

Samsung Galaxy Fit 3 release date, price, and availability

• Samsung Galaxy Fit — February 20, 2019
• Samsung  Galaxy Fit 2 — September 3, 2020

The Samsung Galaxy Fit 3 officially launched on February 23, though only in select markets. It’s not officially available in the US yet, though you can get the international model online if you don’t mind potentially losing out on warranty benefits.

As for the price, it retails for $59~.

Here’s what we know about the Fit 3 specs and features now that the tracker is official:

Design and colors

The Samsung Galaxy Fit 3 is an attractive fitness tracker with a sizable 1.6-inch 256 x 402 AMOLED, an improvement over the Fit 2’s 1.1-inch 126 x 294 AMOLED display. It also weighs 18.5g without the straps, or 36.8g if they are attached. That makes the Fit 3 a bit heavier than its predecessor at 11.3g without the straps, and 21g with them.

As you’d expect, the Fit 3 is designed to handle the elements with a 5ATM/IP68 rating that should be able to not only handle inclement weather but is also perfect for tracking your swims.

The straps get a major upgrade for the Fit 3, ditching the old wrap-around style of bands with quick-release straps that are easy to detach and swap out. Lastly, it comes in three case colors: black, rose gold, and silver.

Let’s start with some of the confirmed sensors. You can expect an accelerometer, gyroscope, and a heart rate sensor. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like the Galaxy Fit 3 will offer more premium features like built-in GPS and oxygen sensors.

The Galaxy Fit 3 has a 208mAh battery that can last up to 13 days. It’s worth noting the Fit 2 claimed to offer up to 21 days of life with 15 typical, so current rumors indicate the Fit 3 is a slight step down here. As a consolation, it can at least be charged extremely quickly going from zero to 65% in just 30 minutes.

The battery hit might be unfortunate, but it’s important to understand the Fit 2 was much less powerful, which might have helped with battery life but also led to occasional performance issues. The Samsung Galaxy Fit 3 is not only guaranteed to have a much faster processor, but it also has much more RAM at 16MB versus just 2MB on the original. The storage has also jumped from 32MB to 256 MB. As you’d expect, a lot of the communications standards have also improved, such as the move from Bluetooth 5.1 to 5.3.

The Galaxy Fit 3 runs custom OS, which is a similar story to its predecessor. We might not know much about the new OS and software underneath yet, but we can tell you it isn’t expected to support third-party apps and will offer a pretty minimalist experience sticking to relatively basic apps like Calendar, Weather World Clock, and Samsung Health. There’s also over 100 watch faces to pick from this time. Of course, you can also expect a host of new health and fitness software features, including the ability to track over a hundred types of workouts ranging from walking or running to biking and swimming.

Other health and safety features include a new 5-click shortcut to send an SOS message or display medical information for first responders, sleep tracking, snore detection, and fall detection with SOS notification alerts. That’s not all, as rumors also suggest it will feature over a hundred watch faces, a Find My Phone feature, and basic smartphone notifications for messaging and calls. There’s even supposedly a camera control function.

The Galaxy Fit 3 isn’t widely available yet but should you wait for it? If you absolutely want a Samsung device, yes. After all, we can’t recommend the aging Fit 2 anymore, and the wait could be as little as a month or two. Of course that’s just a guess on our part.

For those who want a fitness band but don’t mind venturing outside Samsung, you can either go with a Fitbit tracker like the Inspire 3 ($99.95 at Amazon) or Charge 6 ($159.95 at Amazon), or you can save money and go with a budget tracker like the Xiaomi Mi Band 8 ($37.82 at AliExpress) or HUAWEI Band 8 ($75.8 at Amazon). Or you could just wait!

Generally, with these types of rumor roundups and wishlists for future products, I always say it’s not worth the wait, but the Samsung Galaxy Fit 3 is a rare exception.The Samsung Galaxy Fit 3 looks to be the sweet spot between expensive trackers and budget offerings. At least until we know more, I would say the only reason to get a fitness tracking device now is if you are fine with getting a more full-featured smartwatch instead.