Samsung Gear Sport Smartwatch

After days of researching smartwatches, I landed on this one and it had everything I wanted in a smartwatch except an Android OS. I was very nervous about trying Tizen but after owning this watch for a few days, I'm in absolute love. A few of the things I really researched were: Apps. They are limited but there are apps for almost anything you need. Not everything but close. I have yet to use the GPS apps (yes apps -plural- because there's more than just one GPS app unlike what most of the reviews I read caused me to believe) but I will be trying that app out in the next week. Faces. There are so many watch faces that I'm not sure where to begin. I've used Mario, Zelda, and Goldeneye (I love my video games). Any watch face I've searched for, I've also found. Some may cost $0.99 and up but there are a ton of free ones to choose from. I haven't paid for any faces yet. I'm very happy with the free ones available. Watch Bands. I wanted the Android OS so bad that I almost bought the Moto 360 Sport. This would have been an incredible mistake. You can't change the band on the Motorola but you can on the Samsung. I've already got a new watch band on the way. Battery Life. I've had this watch for 3 days. I received it, synced it, played around with it, then I fully charged it (I received it with 67% battery life). I just had to charge it for my first time. It lasted me maybe an hour short of 3 days with average use. I'm thoroughly happy with this considering I was used to the Fitbit Blaze which didn't last more than 1 day. The difference is that the Fitbit's heart rate sensor stays on all the time. The Samsung Gear Sport has 3 settings for this. Off, frequent, and always on. I left mine on frequent so it checked my heart rate every 10 minutes instead of constantly. Water resistance. I'm not a sporty individual. I work in the medical field though so I wash my hands a lot. I also give the occasional shower to help my patients. So this was important. It's lasted through at least 4 showers in 3 days and my continuous hand washing. So far, no issues whatsoever. Steps. I love seeing how many steps I can get in a shift. A lot of my friends like to see who can get the most. This makes the day fly by so the step accuracy is nice. After using this a few days, I noticed my step count dropped a bit compared to the Fitbit. Then I learned why. I can shake my Fitbit and get steps (almost like an old school pedometer) but the Gear Sport isn't fooled. It knows when you're getting steps verses painted a wall or just shaking your watch. I LOVE that it knows the difference. A few bonuses I've noticed: it tracks my sleep and how well I rest at night. My fitbit did this and it was a feature that wasn't easy to give up so having this on my new Gear Sport too was a huge bonus. I also love that I can keep up with my water/coffee intake straight from my watch instead of having to use my phone. Healthcare management doesn't care for Nurses pulling their phones out at the desk or the hallways. I can also reply to texts and emails straight from my watch. The handwriting thing is pretty nice but it needs a bit of work to be perfect (it's constantly changing my words into all caps). Although you can't make a call from the watch, you can accept and ignore calls straight from your wrist, as well as, send the caller a quick text saying that you're at work or busy, etc. There's so much more that I haven't discovered on this watch yet and I can definitely tell this is my first real smartwatch but I've already had a ton of compliments on it. And just for the record, the bezel makes navigating the Gear Sport so easy! So yes, I give this watch 5 stars. But I also know that things can change so my review may change but as of right now, I'm in love! Update: 2 years later and the watch is still going strong. I'm a Nurse so this watch has seen it all including deep hand washing, PPE sweat, etc and no problems at all. Just today, I realized it was time for an upgrade. All-in-all, I'm still incredibly pleased with this watch. I've put it through everything and it's still going.