The Samsung Galaxy S4 aspires to be a Quantified Self fanatic’s playground. Coupled with add-on accessories such as the waterproof S-Band (Samsung’s version of the Jawbone Up), a Bluetooth scale, and HRM belt, the Galaxy S4 becomes your personal health hub. All the accessories work with Samsung’s proprietary “S Health” app.
The S Health app features:
• Walking Mate: Using the S4’s accelerometer, the phone tracks your steps.
• Food Tracker: Track the calories you ingest by inputing your meals.
• Exercise: Track calories you burn by inputing the exercise you do.
Discerning from the video above, the user experience without the accessories, places a huge burden on the user to constantly input their data which inevitably will result in input fatigue. The obvious beneficial use of the wearable accessories is that the data upload is automated simplifying the act of tracking.
It is unclear to me whether or not you can port your data from your favorite running app into S Health transforming S Health into a robust dashboard for all your fitness activities.
S Health may be intended for those curious to dip their toes into the self-tracking phenomena but unwilling to deep dive into the exorbitant cost of all the wearable devices. Samsung seems to be betting that if they can get their customers hooked on the Walking Mate app or their exercise app, they may just take the plunge on purchasing the S-band.
