how to check remote git repo for updates without pull/fetch

Hello. I have not very hard question, but I don't know how to better do it - could you tell me, please, does exist some way to check remote git repository for updates without downloading any essential files? I suppose, that such command should just type something like: "already updated", if current working tree identical to remote repo, and something like "there is some updates in remote repo", if remote repo has some new commits and/or branches. Thanks.