Samsung Galaxy Watch vs. Gear Fit2 Pro: Which is better for you?

Galaxy Watch

The Galaxy Watch is a great all-around smartwatch that can offer you lots of information, let you manage notifications from your phone, and pull double duty as a fitness tracker. It's larger and heavier than a dedicated fitness band, though, and over twice the price of the Gear Fit2 Pro as well.

Gear Fit2 Pro

The Gear Fit2 Pro is a really good fitness band, whether you just want to keep track of your daily activity or use it for tracking and training with distinct workouts. Samsung integrated a few nice-to-have smartwatch-like features, but make no mistake, this is just a fitness band and not a smartwatch replacement.

Samsung draws a clear line between its smartwatches and its fitness trackers in terms of size, capabilities, and of course price. The Galaxy Watch and Gear Fit2 Pro share a lot of features — but are very different devices. There are a handful of clear differentiators that help you choose which is right for your needs.

Do you only need fitness tracking or more?

Samsung focuses strongly on activity and fitness tracking with its wearables, whether you get a proper smartwatch or just a fitness tracker. The Galaxy Watch and Gear Fit2 Pro have the same capabilities in these departments — they can track your steps, heart rate, and food intake, but also track full workouts, runs, bike rides, hikes, and more using GPS. The Galaxy Watch has a little more screen to see information related to the workout, but the tracking is the same — and both import to Samsung Health and connect with other popular fitness apps.

The only difference when it comes to fitness is the comfort of wearing a full-on smartwatch versus a dedicated fitness band. The Galaxy Watch, at least in its 42mm size, is a pretty compact device — but it's big enough that it could be cumbersome for some types of workouts like weight lifting or swimming. That size consideration carries over to your ability to wear it daily as well — are you okay wearing a full-sized watch every day to make sure you get your steps counted? Or would you prefer to have a smaller fitness band on your wrist that isn't encumbering your movement? The Gear Fit2 Pro is light and easy to wear all day, and even opens up the possibility of wearing a mechanical watch on your other wrist without looking too odd.

But for its size, the Galaxy Watch offers a ton of extra capabilities that the Gear Fit2 Pro just can't match. Being a full smartwatch, you have a large circular display to view all of your information throughout the day. That includes reading and responding to messages, but also checking in on weather, calendar, heart rate, fitness goals, sleep information and more from a variety of customizable widgets. You can even install third-party apps if you need some specific functionality.

Between the larger screen and rotating bezel, the Galaxy Watch just makes every interaction simpler. You can see more information on each screen, and you can quickly move between screens or scroll without obscuring the screen itself. The watch faces are large and customizable with tons of glanceable information, and you generally don't have to spend as much time interacting with your wrist to complete each function. You can even get an LTE connection for the watch if you want to stream music and stay connected while away from your phone.

The Gear Fit2 Pro connects to your phone over Bluetooth and can read your notifications, but that's about it when it comes to "smartwatch" functions on this fitness band. It's nice to get a few extra features, but you should only buy the Gear Fit2 Pro expecting to use it as an activity and fitness tracker, nothing else.

Price is a major consideration

One of the primary reasons to consider the Gear Fit2 Pro is its price. Being a smaller and limited device, it's less expensive — dramatically so. For less than half the price of the smaller 42mm Galaxy Watch, you can get a Gear Fit2 Pro. For that price, you're getting all of the same fitness tracking capabilities, and also a few extra benefits like a smaller size that's more comfortable to wear on a daily basis and while working out.

If you don't care about the price, the Galaxy Watch is a clear winner overall given its extra capabilities and features. Aside from its larger size and price, there's no downside to getting the Galaxy Watch over the Gear Fit2 Pro — so if you erase price from the equation, it makes things pretty simple.

When the price isn't an issue, get a Galaxy Watch

With the Galaxy Watch, you'll get both a fitness tracker and a smartwatch. It makes sense that it's more than twice the price of the Gear Fit2 Pro. If you don't mind paying extra for those features and apps, then the Galaxy Watch is for you.

The Gear Fit2 Pro is for when fitness is your priority

For just $185, you'll get an excellent fitness tracker, along with integration with Samsung Health. It's also a lot smaller than the Galaxy Watch, making it more comfortable for many users during activities. If you don't mind missing out on apps, you might want to consider the Gear Fit2 Pro.