Samsung to launch fitness tracker post Gear fit

After announcing the Gear Fit, Samsung is expected to soon announce another fitness tracker, which reportedly will be the successor to Samsung's original S Band.

• Samsung fitness tracker

After announcing the Gear Fit, Samsung is expected to soon announce another fitness tracker, which reportedly will be the successor to Samsung's original S Band.

According to SamMobile, which claims to have received a few slides from the sales guide for the Galaxy S5 that show the new S Band, its design is similar to that of the Gear Fit. Unlike the Gear Fit, the new S band will not have a display; it instead will act only as a sensor. It is believed to be a cheaper alternative to the Gear Fit.

All info and tracking details will be visible on the paired smartphone on the Activity Tracker app and the new S Health app that debuts on the Galaxy S5.

Apart from tracking things like steps taken and calories burned, the S Band will also have a sleep monitoring feature – it remains to be seen if it will only monitor simple things like the duration of sleep or how many times the user was restless or woke up, or go further by breaking down sleep time into deep and light stages.

As wearables are popular now, Samsung would want to release as many as possible. While it already has a fitness tracker in the form of the Gear Fit, the price for that is expected to be rather high and so, it seems that Samsung is working to bring a cheaper alternative in the form of a new S Band fitness tracker.

The S Band will also offer simple functions like notifying users of any calls or messages they might have received on their phones. An in-built alarm will make the tracker vibrate and flash an LED if it loses its Bluetooth connection with the paired smartphone.

Like the Gear Fit, the new S Band will have interchangeable straps (with white, yellow, orange and grey colour options).

The design is simple and minimal as Samsung puts it, and looks better than the company’s original vaporware S Band. It should be compatible with both new and existing Samsung devices, though it will require an update to version 3.0 of S Health. 

Details like release date and pricing are yet to be announced by Samsung.