I love Samsung watches and all the different features you can add to them. I have so many different exercises added; elliptical, rowing machine, squats, planks, steps all on the same watch face so it is easy to switch between them during my workouts. Plus all the other exercises on either the app or different watch screens. I love that I can track everything in my Samsung Health app and I have all my info right there. I only use the free main watch face choices, but there are still a ton to choose from! I also really like the sleep tracking. It not only does the time frame, but the quality both overall and in detail. What I don't like is that the watches don't seem to be made well, they usually break before my warranty is up. And although I can send it in for free repair...1) it's just going to break again 2) that is days without my watch. This is my 2nd Gear Sport (after giving up on the Gear Fit2 and Gear Fit2 Pro). I also noticed that when I get a new Gear Sport it doesn't automatically connect to the Health app. But in the long run, I love the features so I keep getting the watches. And the Gear Sport does last longer than the Gear Fit. And the battery will go 2 to 3 days instead of just one like on the Gear Fit.

I've only had the watch for a few days. I've successfully configured it and used it for two workouts. I thought I'd share some of my observations. Before that, let me qualify my review. I paid full price for my watch and I am under no obligation to write a review. This is just an attempt to share my thoughts for others looking for opinions.

I have a Samsung S8+ and was looking for a smartwatch that would seemlessly integrate with the phone for email, messages and fitness tracking. I normally use my Polar H7 chest strap with iCardio 4 to track my workouts.

I found that the configuration was fairly straight forward. I watched a number of Youtube unboxing, configuration and review videos before purchasing my watch. Consequently, I knew what to expect and what to do when the box showed up at my house. I would highly recommend you do the same as the documentation is lacking... they know that most people won't read it.

I turned off GPS and location services. I am not a jogger/runner/walker... I do not need anything tracking my movement through the gym. I turned the heart rate monitor to monitor continuously. My display is set to "7". Going from fully charged at 6:30am to put back on the charging cradle at 11pm with 58% left on the battery. I get LOTS of emails and quite a few text messages on my phone... all of which were forwarded to my watch; including pictures sent to me by my 7yo granddaughter. So, no problem with battery life for me... 5 stars.

I didn't buy the watch for its fitness tracking only. I wanted it for the convenience of getting notifications and email without having to pull out my phone. Not only am I able to see my email and messages, I am able to respond to them as well using S-voice. Since I'm not reviewing S-voice, I won't tell you how much I wish that Bixby worked on this watch. My wife has an Apple iWatch and quite frankly, when comparing Siri with S-voice, I feel like the poor cousin. However, it meets my requirements for both email and messages... 5 stars.

I am trying to work with the text entry interface. I am trying to write my message into the screen and the interface recognizes all the U.S. letters and numbers I type. Unfortunately, I have not been able to get it to do anything except upper case letters. I'll have to research the cause of this and figure out how to make it enter upper and lower case letters. As you can imagine, IT'S RUDE TO ALWAYS TYPE IN CAPS!... So, this feature is not as intuitive as I was led to believe. So, although it recognizes all the letters and numbers, there are some complications... 3 stars.

As a fitness tracker, it utilizes a proprietary bluetooth interface and therefore, doesn't integrate with iCardio... a BIG issue for me. If I want to continue to utilize iCardio, I still need to wear my Polar H7 chest strap. Since this is not my primary use for the watch, it is an inconvenience rather than a non-starter. It integrates with S-health, which I find to be somewhat archaic in its design... not impressed with its user interface. For me personally, I will continue to utilize my chest strap for my workouts... 1 star

There has been some discussion as to the accuracy of the Gear Sport heart rate monitor. Having used both the Gear Sport/S-Healt and Polar H7/iCardo, I can give you some numbers. I did a HIIT workout:

Gear Sport: 499 Calories, 112 Avg BPM, 143 Max BPM
Polar H7: 749 Calories, 117 Avg BPM, 156 Max BPM

I have a theory about the differences and I will share it. I believe the Gear Sport measures heart rates every second. At the same time, it calculates the calorie burn and accumulates accordingly. I believe the Polar H7 measures heart rates more frequently and therefore, gets a more accurate measurement of calorie burn... as well as peak heart rates. To the average person, a one second interval between readings should be accurate enough (assuming the Polar H7 is the gold standard of heart rate monitors). I am a computer software developer myself and most people wouldn't realize that computers measure things in microseconds... that is 6 digits to the right of the decimial (.000001). As you can imagine, a lot of things happen in the real world and on a computer within a second. When averaging heart rates and calorie burn between intervals, more data points allow for more accuracy.

In any case, I don't really care about calorie counting... I am more interested in getting a workout completed in the correct heart rate zones. I consider the heart rate monitor to be important and calories burned to be of monumental inconsequence. I've measured my heart rate on three different pieces of hardware at the same time; the Polar H7, Precor Elliptical and my blood pressure cuff. All were within a couple of BPMs. Consequently, I consider the Gear Sport to be close enough to keep me in my heart rate zones and therefore, it gets 4 stars. I would give it 5 stars for this feature if it were a bit closer (less than 5 difference).

To summarize, the apps I needed (Messages, Email) work fine. The fact that I can control my Spotify is a plus. As a fitness tracker, the hardware keeps me in my zones however, the software (S-health) is truly lacking. I'm hoping that Samsung is able to get more developers working apps for their Gear products.

Suggestions to Samsung would be:
1.) Provide customized workout types on the watch. Kettlebells, Weights, HIIT, Core... etc. Seriously, who does crunches as a workout???
2.) Provide the ability to measure recovery after the workout is complete... measure and track heart rate for a two minute recovery window.

Overall: 4 stars... limited number of available apps.

Strengths:
Health and fitness tracking
Quick change band/selection of bands
Rotating bezel selection
Customizable in just about every way
Magnetic charging

Weaknesses:
Battery life - this one comes with a caveat, the battery life is very good for the size and power of this watch, I always wear a watch and hate that I have to take this thing off every third night to charge it. It would be great if Samsung could design an easily replaceable battery so you could have a second battery on the charger.

I almost don't need my phone. This watch is not fully functional without the phone (calls, internet, etc.), but pretty close. I've downloaded playlists to the watch and gone for a run without my phone, which is the whole point. I do wish it had the Pandora app as I've been using Pandora for years, but Spotify has been fine thus far. It accurately tracks distance, pacing (Only tested in open areas, not downtown NYC) and heart rate. The quick release band design is so simple I don't know how we didn't have this 100 years ago, but it is awesome. I can switch bands in under 30 seconds, so I can go from my rubberized band for working out to a metal band for work in the same amount of time I would have used in changing watches. And when I get home I can swap again to a leather band to go out to dinner with my wife.

I was skeptical about the sleep tracker as I was always showing the same sleep pattern after the first 10 days, but then I got the flu and noticed a massive shift in my sleep pattern via the watch, it looked like I felt. While I wouldn't bet the house on it being perfectly accurate, it definitely defines your sleep trends and allows you to adjust as necessary.

I have yet to use it swimming, but I am headed to the beach in the spring and am looking forward to trying it out in the ocean. And I swim when from spring through fall (live in AZ) and this was the only watch in the price range that was actually submersible.

I like the messaging capability and ability to see who is calling without digging out my phone. This is especially useful when you're in a meeting and need to know if you need to take the call or if it can go to voicemail. Just set the watch and phone to vibrate and glance at the watch.

The PowerPoint controller works fantastic. I was expecting to be able to move slides forwards/backwards, but the watch lets me move the pointer as well so you can follow hyperlinks or point out specifics.

The bezel selector is awesome, much better than trying to select icons with your finger on a small watch face. Solid yet fluid movement. It makes the menus easy to access and simple to navigate.

Size: I have smaller wrists (7 inches around) and was worried the watch would look too big and get in the way. Not an issue at all. I sleep with the watch on with no problems. Just turn the wake-up gesture off. It is very comparable to my Citizen EcoDrive in size.

I highly recommend this watch unless you want to be able to use it fully without your phone nearby, then you need to upgrade. For anyone who's fine with a watch that does everything but make phone calls and access the internet without a phone/Wi-Fi nearby, this is the watch for you. And let's be honest, how often are you not in range of Wi-Fi/cell phone anyways?

I've never really been a watch guy. Any sort of jewelry would always irritate me and I'd have to get rid of it after a week. But one day I decided to try out a smart watch, which I thought would be convenient for me when working, since I am not able to have my phone at hand since I'm always on my feet.

Picking a watch was hard, I've always hated wearing watches. But, as a Samsung Galaxy S8+ owner I decided to settle with Samsung watches which would easily integrate with my phone. I also liked the fact that Samsung Gear watches looked more like regular circular watches as opposed to the hideous clunky looking Apple Watches which look like a giant brick on your arm.

I was looking for the SMALLEST watch possible, which would cause the least amount of irritation and maximum comfort as I wanted to try to excersize with it too. So I settled on the Gear Sport.

When I got this watch, I was really impressed with it. I really liked the look! It's clean gun metal black look makes it sleak and rarely do people realize that it's a smart watch, which I like a lot.

It's been 9 months now, and something that I thought would be a fad for me, an attempt at trying something new that was long forgotten, and no, I am still ACTUALLY using this watch to this day. It's a part of me like my pair of glasses.

It's small, sleak, and I really appreciate the software behind the watch and how it's very good to use with Samsung health app, which helps me keep track of how much I excersize and eat, etc. I love it!

I also like how the watch band can be replaced with a nice metal band of my choosing and boom, now I have a fancy watch for when I'm going to a fancy event. It's really perfect for me.

My only thing is I wish the paint was a little better on the wheel. Since I do use it every day, I hit it around a lot by natural occurance. I got a tempered glass protector (necessary), but I see microscopic little chips on my bezel. It's hardly noticable though.

Seriously, this watch is amazing and worth getting if you're new to watches and want to try it out. A major bonus if you have an Android or Samsung phone.

I recently switched from an iPhone to a Galaxy S9 and I've been so incredibly happy with it, I expected the best from this watch. I was gifted a Garmin Vivoactive 3 for Mother's Day, but I decided to return it and try out this Gear Sport. Given the "Sport" name, you would think that it would function as a decent activity tracker. However, after 2 days, I'm returning it.
First of all, it only checks your heart rate every 10 minutes when your not working out unless you choose always (but that kills the battery). The watch does not use this heart rate information to calculate your calorie burn while you are working OR during daily activity. Instead, your calorie burn is calculated based on your BMR. So if I don't workout at all, it is my BMR plus however many calories they estimate I might burn by the number of steps that I take. If I do workout, they calculate the calorie burn of the workout based on the activity, my age, and weight. So if you get on the elliptical and workout for 30 minutes, you will have the same calorie burn as if you tell it you are on the elliptical but instead go sit on the couch.
Now, one solution that I found was the Under Armour App. Yes, it does include the heart rate data when it calculates your calorie expenditure. It also has more choices for activities and it syncs with Samsung Health. However, the watch lost ALL CREDIBILITY when I tried this test:
Today, I chose the option for "Basic Workout," just like I did yesterday during my 1 hour long circuit workout. During my workout yesterday, I was breathing heavy and drenched in sweat. It said I burned 430 calories. Today, I used the same option, but I didn't workout. I got in my car and drove for exactly 1 hour. During the drive, I often glanced down at the watch to check my heart rate. EVERY TIME it was 150-170. Apparently it estimates heart rate too. Now, I was in no hurry, just listening to music. No road rage. Just relaxed and driving. It said I burned 430 calories. So even with the Under Armor app, who knows if the heart rate data is anywhere close??? Returned to Amazon.
Apple Watch, Fitbit, Polar, and Garmin all added heart rate monitors to increase the accuracy of the calorie burn. They include the heart rate data in their calculations. I have used trackers from all of these brands, and while they use different calculations, they have all been reasonable.

EDIT: After returning this watch, I found it at the bulls-eye store on sale for 229, making it about $40 cheaper than the Garmin Vivoactive 3. I decided to give it another chance. This time, I wore my Polar H7 chest strap at the same time as the Gear Sport for a workout. I used the Under Armour app on the watch. Surprisingly, the heart rate was spot on; it was a pure cardio workout. During strength training, the heart rate didn't always keep up, but that was the same experience I had with the Vivoactive 3. When the workout involves a lot of arm movement, like push-ups, bench press, etc, the optical monitors don't do a great job. With both watches, I found that the screen takes a second to refresh. So when I initially looked at the watch, the hr was wrong, but within a second it caught up. Neither watch is great for a Hiit workout. I can pair a chest strap directly with the Garmin Vivoactive 3 OR I can use the Under Armour App on my phone with my chest strap, which syncs with S-Health.
While I wish that this watch used HR in calorie burn calculations, the truth it that I don't use those calorie estimates for anything anyway. The Gear Sport has more features, an amazing display, and a higher quality feel than the Vivoactive 3. I like that the watch casing is all stainless steel, so any 20 mm band would look great with it. The Vivoactive 3 was lighter weight and had a longer battery life, but it was severely lacking in features at that price. (With the new hands-free laws, I'm loving the Here We Go app!) Given that the heart rate monitors were so similar in terms of accuracy, I'm going to stick with the Gear Sport.