Early last month Samsung introduced two new mid-range smartphones in the form of the Galaxy A55 and A35. Alongside the two new phones, Samsung also brought the Galaxy Fit3 to South Africa as its latest fitness-focused wearable.

As we were on hand for the launch of the new A series phones, we were also seeded a Galaxy Fit3, and have been trying out for the past couple of weeks.

Sitting between a fully fledged smartwatch and smart band, we tried to see whether it can offer the best of both or is simply stuck in the middle.

Here’s what we learned.

Design advantages

We noted this when reviewing the Huawei Watch Fit 3 recently, but the slimmer profile of these kinds of wearables do have their advantages. This especially if you’re not quite keen on the larger, and sometimes clunkier, design of chronograph-style round smartwatches.

If your only concern is capturing all of your fitness metrics and having a decently sized touchscreen (1.6″ AMOLED in this case), then this type of form factor has plenty of appeal.

The Fit3 is also impossibly light at 18.5g, so you never feel like you’re lugging around some heavy wearable.

As for the overall aesthetic, there is not much to write about here, as the Fit series has not veered much from its rectangular body in recent iterations.

In many respects, in fact, the Galaxy Fit3 series is the kind of device that is great for consumers interested in wearables, but not the larger price tags of fully fledged smartwatches, as well as those who simply want all the bases covered in terms of the necessary health metrics and workout tracking.

One thing we will note, however and this is trend across all wearable manufacturers, is that there is no longer an additional strap included in the box. If you have larger wrists this can be quite irksome, as in our experience, the Fit3 was secured at the second to last notch on the strap in order to fit comfortably.

A longer strap would have been appreciated, but Samsung is not the only company guilty of being reluctant to include one.

A chore to set up

While the longer strap issue is one we can stomach, the set up for this device is not.

Quite frankly is the most frustrating set up process we have encountered to date on a wearable. Our daily driver, which is an iPhone 15 Pro, is not supported by Samsung’s Galaxy Wearable app for this model of device. This is understandable as Apple does not do so for Android with its Apple Watch, but the likes of Huawei is happy to support all ecosystems.

If a device like this, which is intended to democratise wearable technology and on-hand fitness, is closed off in terms of the ecosystems it supports, that feels like a missed opportunity in our books.

Now the easy retort to this is that you need to do your homework before purchase a Galaxy Fit3. Fair enough, and luckily as reviewers of smartphones we usually have a smorgasbord of options on hand.

To this end we tried setting up the Fit3 while using the TECNO Spark 20 we recently reviewed and sadly, no luck. After downloading the app, trying to remember a long forgotten Samsung account profile, and installing two additional plugins that wanted unfettered restrictions, the device simply would not pair.

If a consumer, as is often the case, only has one Android device available to them, it may be a dice roll in terms of whether it will work with the Fit3.

Thankfully the second device we tried was the HONOR 200 Lite 5G (keep an eye out for a review soon) and there was a lengthy process once again, but we eventually we able to pair and get going.

This issue is not limited to Samsung, however, as more and more brands are looking to shy away from interoperability when the opposite should really be the case.

All the metrics

Okay, rant done. Let’s shift to performance, and there the Fit3 does nicely.

The UI is neat and fairly easy to navigate, there are a bunch of workout modes supported, and crucially all the health metrics are captured accurately. This includes the heart rate monitoring and step tracking, however the former feature takes several swipes to access and a few button presses before it can serve up a reading.

Our issues with the heart rate monitoring aside, the Fit3 does everything you need a fitness-focused wearable to do. The UI even has one of the better goal features we have encountered, which shares an alert at the beginning of the day to outline what milestones you need to reach, but thankfully does not pester you throughout the day to meet them.

For those that want to do things at their own pace then, this is a welcome addition.

As is the battery life. The team at Samsung has done some good work to squeeze as much battery life out of the 208mAh battery onboard. The company says up to 13 days of typical use and in our experience that appears to be spot on. Over the two weeks that we have been actively reviewing it, a charge has not been needed ever since we began at 100 percent.

Final verdict

For R1 295 the Galaxy Fit3 is really well priced, especially when you consider all the health metrics it can track, the accuracy of said tracking and the general simplicity of the device itself. As an initial entry into the world of wearables, it is well worth recommending.

Our only real criticism is the setup process, which left us frustrated. If we did not have backup phones on hand, it would have been an infuriating experience, and not all consumers are fortunate enough to have backup options on-hand.

While the hardware itself is solid, the ecosystem in which it exists still needs some work. As such, you better be a Samsung diehard fan with similarly branded devices if you want a smooth experience here.

FINAL SCORE: 7.5 OUT OF 10.