Is Amazfit brand good width

Review: Amazfit Balance

Of all the fitness trackers that Ive tested, none has made a bigger leap in hardware development than Amazfit. The first iterations that I tried in 2018 were plasticky and horrible. Every year, the wearable has gotten steadily, well, more wearable. A coworker recently asked if my tester Balance was a Samsung Galaxy Watch6 (7/10, WIRED Recommends). Thats high praise!

The Balance is Amazfits general purpose fitness tracker, aimed at promoting wellness of body and mind. It looks well, it looks like a Galaxy Watch6, with a slightly different top button, and ideally it would work in the same way by tracking your sleep, heart rate, and activities, as well as taking your calls. It also comes with a bevy of optional AI-powered tools to help you sleep, meditate, and exercise. Right now, though, its just still too buggy, which is especially obvious with a seamlessly functioning tester Garmin on my opposite wrist.

Red Flag

As with most fitness trackers, I check the company's privacy policy to see how it will use such intimate information. It's usually easy to find, and it usually looks similar to Google'sno data used for ads, et cetera. The Balance's privacy policy is unusually hard to find. According to Amazfit's website, the privacy policy explicitly does not apply to Amazfit trackers, nor does Zepp Health's policy. There's no privacy policy in the product manual, either. I asked Amazfit for a link to the privacy policy that applies to this tracker and got no response.

Even if everything is aboveboard, the company has made it very difficult to find out what's happening to your data. If that matters to you, you should probably stop reading here.

With that said, the Balance is a very light, good-looking, and low-profile fitness tracker. Despite having such a big case46 mm across, 10.6 mm deepit didnt feel large or obtrusive on my 150-mm wrist. The bezel is sleek gray aluminum, and it has two buttons on the left hand side to control it, as well as a tempered glass AMOLED touchscreen.

The screen is clear, bright, and responsivemaybe a little too responsive. It started and stopped workouts accidentally whenever I fidgeted with my jacket cuffs in Oregons cold, gray weather. The battery life theoretically lasts 14 days, but with a few tracked activities per day (walking my dog, running, indoor workouts), I did have to charge it once in the past two weeks. It charged relatively quickly, thoughit went from 15 to 65 percent capacity in the 45 minutes that I was waiting for a plane at the airport.

It has a water resistance rating of 5 ATM, which means that you can use it while swimming (if not while taking a shower, weirdly). (By way of contrast, my favorite Garmin Instinct 2 is rated to 10 ATM, and I have used it snorkeling and surfing without issue.)

Like most higher-end fitness trackers these days, it comes with a bevy of sensors and tools. These include onboard GPS with dual-band positioning that helps the tracker filter out environmental noise; an acceleration sensor, gyroscope, ambient light sensor, temperature sensor, and a couple of biometric sensors for measuring your heart rate and blood oxygen and so forth. It also has a microphone and an incredibly loud speaker, and my favorite, most comfortable nylon strap.

Add It Up

Amazfit is owned by Zepp, formerly known as Huami, and the app that the Balance uses is Zepp Health. Zepp Health used to be almost unusably annoying, but the apps homepage has been cleaned up quite a bit. Zepp Health now features a Readiness score, which is similar to that of Fitbits Daily Readiness or Garmins Body Battery, but you can still check the companys previous general purpose metric, which was PAI. The company developed its PAI score using the research of Ulrik Wislff, a professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. It uses your age, sex, resting heart rate, and past seven days of heart rate data to calculate just how much activity you should be getting.

Should you buy an Amazfit watch?

Should you buy an Amazfit watch? The short answer is, yes, many of Amazfits smartwatches and fitness trackers are capable alternatives to better-known wearable brands. But not all Amazfit watches are built the same, plus the models range in price, so youll want to do some research before buying.

Toms Guide has tested a number of Amazfit devices, from the $79 Amazfit Bip to the $229 Amazfit GTR 3 Pro. Weve even reviewed the Amazfit Band 5, a $39 fitness tracker with Amazon Alexa built-in.

Amazfit makes some of the best smartwatches and best fitness trackers, though the companys devices usually sit lower on our rankings. Thats because compared to, say, the Apple Watch 7, Amazfit lacks a dedicated app store and the option to send messages from your wrist.

Instead, Amazfit watches prioritize health-tracking and a long battery life. The Amazfit T-Rex has an epic 20-day battery life, for example. Heres everything else to consider when you buy an Amazfit watch.

Amazfit watches: Models and prices

Amazfit offers several product lines catering to different user needs and budgets. The flagship line is the GTS/GTR series, available in a S squircle-shaped watch that looks like the best Apple Watch models and a more traditional R round-faced watch. These models usually launch alongside the latest Amazfit features. Amazfit even offers a Pro version of the latest GTR series with a larger display and functional speakers.

• Amazfit GTS 2: $179
• Amazfit GTR 2: $179
• Amazfit GTS 2 Mini: $99
• Amazfit GTR 2e: $139
• Amazfit GTS 3: $179
• Amazfit GTR 3: $179
• Amazfit GTR 3 Pro: $229

Amazfits Bip line is behind many of the best cheap smartwatches, making the models soft on your wallet and a good choice for a first-time wearable. Though the Bip isnt as full-featured as the GTS/GTR series, it functions as a basic fitness tracker with long-lasting battery life. There are a couple of variations, but all cost under $100.

• Amazfit Bip U: $59
• Amazfit Bip U Pro: $69
• Amazfit Bip S: $69
• Amazfit Bip S Lite: $49

Amazfit offers some of the best GPS watches and and best running watches, too. The T-Rex line is a limited selection of ultra-rugged watches designed for any kind of adventure. If youve taken up outdoor sports, or simply need something durable, youll get the most use of the T-Rex.

• Amazfit T-Rex: $139
• Amazfit T-Rex Pro: $179

Lastly, Amazfit makes one of the best cheap fitness trackers. The Amazfit Band 5 is a traditional-looking activity band with a bright, color display and 15-day battery life.

Amazfit watches: Zepp Health fitness tracking

The saturated fitness- and health-tracking hardware market is dominated by the best Fitbit devices and best Garmin watches, as well as Apple and Samsungs flagship smartwatches. Zepp, Amazfits companion app and wellness platform, manages to keep up.

With more than 150 workout types, Amazfit watches are prepared for practically any kind of exercise. They support presets ranging from traditional cardio machines and pool swimming to esports and stretching. Regular walking, running, indoor cycling and yoga come as presets on all Amazfit devices.

Zepp Health offers some unique incentives compared to other health-tracking platforms. The service uses a Personal Activity Intelligence (PAI) score, which might remind you of the Activity Zone Minutes tool found on the Fitbit Sense and Fitbit Charge 5. The goal is to earn and maintain at least 100 PAI points over a 7-day period, which isnt difficult as long as you workout regularly.

Beyond physical activity metrics, Amazfit watches offer SpO2, sleep, stress, menstrual cycle and even temperature tracking on the GTR 3 series. With most models, you can take on-demand readings whenever you want to see whats going on with your body.

Note that youll need your smartphones Zepp Health app to review most of your metrics, though. The app stores data on everything from your stride length and calories burned to your training loads and weight. You can manually input your body measurements if youre looking to track fitness goals as well. Apple and Samsung watches show more wellness data directly on your wrist.

Amazfit watches: Smartwatch features

Amazfits general smartwatch features (a.k.a non-fitness tracking features) are a mixed bag. Several models offer Alexa on-board, letting you whisper Alexa commands into your wrist like James Bond. It grants you access to many of the best Alexa skills, such as getting a weather report or changing the settings of any of the best Alexa compatible devices. Youll definitely want to know how to use Alexa with an Amazfit watch.

Weve had mixed experiences with mirrored notifications. In general, you can decide which phone notifications you want pushed to your wrist, plus whether you want to preview their contents. You cant reply to messages, but as one of the best smartwatches for Android and iOS, the GTS/GTR series lets you answer calls, no matter your connected smartphone. Still, the Apple Watch is better catered for iPhone users, while the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 and all the best Samsung watches are better for Samsung phone users.

Similarly, Amazfit watches dont have the app stores found in the watchOS and Wear OS software. Youre limited to Zepp-brand apps for productivity or music-listening.

Amazfit watches: Battery life

Amazfit watches win big on battery life. If you rarely want to think about charging your smartwatch, then you should buy an Amazfit watch. The Amazfit Bip Lite is the best Amazfit watch for battery life overall, offering up to 45 days of continuous use. The Amazfit T-Rex Pro lasts up to 18 days, or 45 hours with active GPS use. The Amazfit Band 5 gets 15 days, while the Amazfit GTS/GTR 3 series gets 14 days.

Only certain Garmin watches designed for multi-day GPS can last as long an Amazfit watch. Fitbit devices max out at one week, while Apple and Samsung last no more than two days.

Should you buy an Amazfit watch?

If you prioritize battery life and your budget, Amazfit watches are worthwhile purchases. Amazfit keeps up with the top wearable brands better than almost all other inexpensive smartwatches and fitness bands, specifically in health features.

That said, if you care more about general smartwatch features and don't mind frequent charging, there are better options than Amazfit watches. Be sure to check out our smartwatch buying guide to find the right device for you.

Amazfit Active Review

Verdict

The Amazfit Active is a smartwatch thats jam-packed with features. Some work well, others not so. If you can hone in on the Actives standout qualities, then youll have a good experience from an affordable smartwatch that can deliver a lot.

Pros

• Strong quality AMOLED screen
• Good mix of smartwatch features
• Added Readiness mode

Cons

• Some features locked behind subscription
• GPS and heart rate tracking accuracy not exceptional
• AI-powered features not super slick

• 1.75-inch AMOLED touchscreen displayAMOLED technology results in a vibrant, colourful screen on the watch.
• Up to two weeks battery lifeAmazfit claims the watch can last up to a fortnight on a single charge.
• Built-in Alexa Amazons voice assisstant is baked into the watch, alowing you to ask questions, get translations and more.

Introduction

The Amazfit Active is a smartwatch that Amazfit tags in its lifestyle category, so its about offering a mix of smartwatch, health, fitness and sports features in a sleek, unisex design.

Its also packing in software smarts that wants to tell you when youre ready to tackle a busy day and will also drill deeper into your sleep and fitness data using AI.

Priced at 149.90/$149.90, this mid-range smartwatch firmly sits up against the likes of the fellow square options like the Fitbit Versa 4 and Garmins Venu Sq series.

Amazfit have made some really solid smartwatches and some slightly more forgettable ones, so should the Active be added to the list of good ones? Here are my thoughts.

Design and screen

• Available in three colours
• Weighs 24-27g
• Waterproof up to 50 metres

The Amazfit Active is a pretty dinky-looking square smartwatch with a 42mm sized case, so its not quite as small as watches like the Garmin Venu Sq 2 or the smallest Apple Watch Series 9 model available.

Its got an aluminium case, so youre getting something thats light but also doesnt feel cheap, and that comes matched up with a silicone strap. Opt for the lavender purple version, which is one of the three colours available, and that gives you a titanium case and vegan leather combination instead.

Theres just one physical button, with a 1.75-inch, 390 x 450 resolution AMOLED screen acting as your main means of interacting with the Active. Its a bright, colourful screen thats nicely responsive to taps and swipes and does give you the option to keep the screen on 24/7.

Around the back of the watch lies Amazfits BioTracker PPG optical sensor that can deliver heart rate, heart rate variability measurements for stress monitoring, and track blood oxygen levels.

Amazfit sticks to the same charging cable it uses with pretty much most of its smartwatches thats magnetically secured to the pins around the sensor. If you want to go swimming with the Active, you can be active with it in the water up to 50 metres depth thanks to the 5ATM-rated design.

While its not a hugely original design, the Active at least doesnt feel budget and has been comfortable to wear throughout the day and night.

Software and smartwatch features

• Runs on Zepp OS
• Amazon Alexa included
• Offers music player and Bluetooth calls

The Amazfit Active is compatible with Android smartphones and iPhones and Ive been using it with the latter. Youll need the Zepp companion phone app to set things up and to get you up and running.

The experience of using this smartwatch with either platform will give you largely the same features, although there are a couple of small differences. With an iPhone, youll be able to use the watch screen as a camera remote though only for taking pictures. Paired to an Android phone, youll get the extra ability to send quick replies to notifications. Outside of those, youre getting a pretty impressive array of smartwatch features here.

Along with staples like notifications, music controls, checking the weather and picking from a good collection of watch faces, you also have access to Amazon Alexa, room to store up to 250MB of music, handle calls over Bluetooth and upload membership cards. You dont, however, get contactless payments. And while you do have access to the Zepp App Store, this is mostly made up of native apps and apps to improve support for third-party apps like Spotify on your phone.

The smartwatch experience on the whole is fine. Notification support, music controls and Amazon Alexa work without major issues. The watch interface isnt hugely sophisticated and the companion app is a bit on the busy side. There are a surprising amount of features and support here given the price, and it shows that Amazfits ecosystem is improving.

Fitness tracking

• AI-powered Zepp Coach and Zepp Aura features
• Works with Strava, Komoot, Apple Health and Google Fit
• Import routes and basic navigation support

The Amazfit Active is a smartwatch that is fully packed with health and fitness features. Getting to know them all and working out what actually works well can be a tall order.

This is a smartwatch that wants to play sports watch, fitness tracker as well as be your sleep and fitness coach, and that approach can feel overwhelming. It does some of those things better than other things.

From an activity tracking point of view, it will track your step counts, score you with Zepp Healths PAI heart rate-based health scores, measure heart rate, stress and blood oxygen levels.

Daily step counts were at times 1500-2000 steps off two other fitness trackers I was wearing at the same time. For tracking heart rate continuously, resting heart rate data felt nicely in line with the other two devices, though average heart rate was typically higher on the Active by around 10 bpm. While stress graphs were similar to Garmins, the stress scores typically never matched up.

When its bed time the Active will score your sleep out of 100, break down sleep stages and monitor metrics like heart rate and breathing quality. Ive been wearing the Active alongside the Oura Ring Gen 3 and I found that, while sleep scores never tended to match up, core stats like sleep duration and key sleep stages were similar.

That sleep data also powers a new Readiness feature, which sounds and works a lot like Garmins Training Readiness metric and Fitbits Daily Readiness Scores.

Amazfit uses sleep heart rate, heart rate variability from sleep, temperature and breathing quality to tell you if youre ready to take on the day.

Ive been comparing readiness scores against Garmins and Ouras and found scores to mostly be similar. Metrics like resting heart rate, heart rate variability powering these Readiness scores were similar too.

To bolster its sleep skills, the Active also includes Zepp Aura, an AI-powered feature where you can ask for sleep stories, get more detailed sleep reports and interact with a ChatGPT-style chatbot to get further sleep analysis. However, this comes at an additional cost of $69.99 a year.

Theres a similar feature available when you use the Active to track your exercise. Zepp Chat is another Chat GPT-style chatbot that lets you ask questions about sports, though I didnt find this element hugely useful. Its also not tied in with the Zepp Coach training plans where that extra context would be beneficial.

The core sports tracking experience is good for an affordable smartwatch. The built-in GPS and heart rate tracking performance do an okay job, though I found accuracy came up a bit short, both on distance tracking and heart rate monitoring. Average heart rate came out lower compared to a chest strap monitor, while maximum heart rate was closer in accuracy. Even on easier tempo workouts the heart rate accuracy didnt feel great.

Theres a host of other extras included here like the ability to import routes via the Zepp app and follow simple lined routes. Theres also automatic exercise recognition for seven of the 120 supported sports modes, and the app hosts additional features like run predictions, which did feel nicely in line with Garmins run time predictions.

To reiterate, theres a lot here and it often feels like Amazfit could focus on some of those features rather than throwing a lot of stuff at you that doesnt all necessarily work perfectly.

Battery life

• Up to 14 days in smartwatch mode
• Up to 10 days in heavy usage
• Up to 16 hours of GPS battery life

The Amazfit Active packs a 300mAh capacity battery thats capable of powering the watch up to 14 days in what Amazfit deems typical usage.

That drops to 10 days in heavy usage and jumps to 30 days in the more restrictive battery saver mode. When youre using the GPS for outdoor tracking, you can expect up to 16 hours of battery life.

Id say based on my time that the Active is definitely capable of lasting anywhere between a week and longer. Getting longer means disabling the more advanced health monitoring features and sacrificing the always-on display mode, which does noticeably dent the battery.

Daily battery drop-off can be anywhere from 5-10% depending on which features youre putting to use. When using the GPS, I found the battery dropped by 10% for an hours use, so that doesnt quite equate to the 16 hours promised here.

Charging the Active from 0-100% isnt super snappy and takes around two hours. Theres no fast charging mode to give you a quick top-up either.

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Should you buy it?

You want an affordable, feature-packed smartwatch

The Amazfit Active offers a good mix of smartwatch and fitness features at a price that sees it compete with other watches in this price range.

You want super accurate sports tracking

If youre looking for a smartwatch that truly delivers when youre in exercise mode, the Active falls short in a few areas.

Final Thoughts

Amazfits approach to making smartwatches is to cram them with smarts and the Active is no different. I almost wish it did a bit less and focused on nailing the core experience because theres plenty of good here. You just need to work a bit to find the good stuff.

If youre looking for a smartwatch that wont break the bank that offers a nice mix of smartwatch and health and fitness features, the Active will serve you well. Otherwise, check out our Best Smartwatch and Best Fitness Tracker guides for even more options.

How we test

We thoroughly test every smartwatch we review. We use industry-standard testing to compare features properly and we use the watch as our main device over the review period. Well always tell you what we find and we never, ever, accept money to review a product.

Worn as our main watch during the testing period

Thorough health and fitness tracking testing

FAQs

Yes, the Amazfit Active can take incoming calls, but only if the watch is close to your phone and connected to it over Bluetooth.

The Amazfit Active is waterproof up to 50 metres depth and is suitable for swimming, showering and washing your hands.

UK RRP

USA RRP

Manufacturer

Screen Size

IP rating

Waterproof

Battery

Size (Dimensions)

Weight

ASIN

Release Date

First Reviewed Date

Colours

GPS

Amazfit Active

149.90

$149.90

Amazfit

1.75 inches

Not Disclosed

5ATM

300 mAh

42.36 x 10.75 x 35.9 MM

24 G

B0CJ5196VX

2023

02/02/2024

Lavender Purple / Midnight Black / Petal Pink

Yes