Is Amazfit worth buying

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 GTR 4 review: the king of budget smartwatches

Its true that you usually get what you pay for. But every so often, you come across a device that offers way more bang for your buck. The $199 Amazfit GTR 4 is not going to compete with the Apple Watch Series 8 or the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 on features. Its not as stylish as the Pixel Watch. But it offers several features youd expect to see on more expensive watches, such as multiband GPS, a vibrant OLED display, and turn-by-turn route navigation. After spending some time with the GTR 4, I wholeheartedly recommend this over the new Fitbit Versa 4 or Sense 2.

The Good

• Comprehensive feature set for the price
• Two digital assistants
• Multiband GPS
• Turn-by-turn navigation
• Nice OLED display
• Long battery life

The Bad

• Default strap feels chintzy
• No NFC for contactless payments
• Switching from metric to imperial sometimes doesnt stick

Its not a looker, but the display is neat

The GTR 4 probably wont win any design awards, but it looks pretty good for a budget watch (especially when compared to previous iterations). The 1.4-inch always-on OLED display is housed in a 46mm aluminum case. It looks fine, if a bit nondescript. But the fluoroelastomer strap on my review unit feels chintzy. Although its the same type of material as Apples Sport Band, it doesnt look like it. After about two weeks of wear, one of the keepers is already showing some damage. Thankfully, you can use any standard 22mm strap with the GTR 4 to elevate the look.

But even if I were to swap straps, it clearly has a masculine vibe. I cant think of too many straps that would make it more feminine, and in my case, Id have to leave it at home for a formal event. (Unless I was rocking a cool suit. Note to self: get a cool suit.) I have a smaller frame, and a co-worker commented that the GTR 4 was so freaking big on my wrist. That said, its fairly light at 34g and not too thick at 10.6mm, and I didnt find it too uncomfortable for 24/7 wear. It snagged on my leather jacket, but so do all but the smallest smartwatches. Its also rated for 5ATM of water resistance, meaning you can hop into the pool with it. I wore it in the shower and while doing dishes with zero issues.

While I wasnt too impressed with the watchs overall look, the OLED screen is another matter. Watchfaces and animations are crisp, colors are vibrant, and notifications are easy to read. The GTR 4s display has 326 pixels per inch, which is on par with the 41mm Apple Watch Series 8 and slightly better than the 40mm Galaxy Watch 5. Plus, the bezels are minimal. Any way you slice it, it outclasses the displays on the Fitbit Versa 4 and Sense 2, which are both more expensive.

Sensors and battery life galore

The GTR 4 doesnt skimp on sensors. You get the typical motion sensors accelerometer and gyroscope as well as a geomagnetic sensor, barometric altimeter, and ambient light sensor. On top of that, it has a new continuous heart rate sensor that also measures blood oxygen levels. For connectivity, it supports 2.4GHz Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0, and Bluetooth Low Energy. Youve also got a speaker and microphone for calls and interacting with digital assistants. Basically, this checks all the boxes for a modern smartwatch. Its missing advanced health sensors, like EKG and body temperature, but those are niche metrics that arent even utilized well by smartwatches that do have them.

Whats impressive, however, is the fact the GTR 4 includes multiband GPS and at this price point. Multiband GPS isnt that common yet, and weve only started seeing it on fitness watches in the past year or so. In a nutshell, it utilizes both L1 and L5 satellite frequencies, translating to more accurate GPS in challenging environments like cities or forests. But youre more likely to see it on higher-end GPS watches from brands like Coros and Garmin. Its not even in the Apple Watch Series 8; its a feature Apple reserved for the Ultra. I cant think of another smartwatch in this price range that has multiband GPS. The closest is the Garmin Forerunner 255 series, and that starts at $349.99.

Cheaper smartwatches often have better battery life than more expensive ones. Usually, thats because they use dim, low-resolution screens, which draw less power. Thats not the case with the GTR 4, and yet Amazfit claims seven days of battery life with heavy usage (i.e., multiband GPS, always on display, etc.). Normal usage gets you around 14 days. For endurance athletes, enabling multiband GPS gets you an estimated 25 hours of continuous use, while regular GPS gets you 44 hours. TL;DR youll get way more juice than flagship smartwatches.

I got about 10 days on a single charge

Im not an ultra-marathoner or triathlete, so I cant vouch for the GPS battery estimates. That said, I got about 10 days on a single charge. Half that time, I had the always-on display turned off, and I always had multiband GPS enabled. While testing, I logged about 2.5 hours of GPS activity. There are smartwatches and fitness bands that last longer, but 10 days with moderate use and an OLED display is great. Less great is the charging time. It took me about two hours to go from zero to 100 percent. Thats not the worst, but it sticks out, as an increasing number of wearables now support fast charging. I wasnt fond of the proprietary charger, but again, this is an industry-wide issue for smartwatches.

Feature overload

The GTR 4 has a ton of features. Depending on what youre looking for, it might actually have too many features. If I were to go in-depth about each, this section of the review could easily top 2,000 words. Aint nobody got time for that especially since Amazfit is more than happy to list them all out on its product page. Its exhaustive.

Instead, Ill give you the rundown. As far as smart features go, you get basic push notifications mirroring your phones notifications plus timers, alarms, and stopwatches. Quick text replies work on Android, but not iOS (Then again, this is true for any smartwatch that isnt the Apple Watch.) You can ring your phone from the watch handy if, like me, you misplace your phone a zillion times a day. It offers reminders of all types, including move and event reminders. You can take calls from the GTR 4 if youre in Bluetooth range of your phone. The GTR 4 is compatible with Alexa for smart home control and basic queries. Alexa isnt the best smartwatch assistant, especially if you want to dictate texts, but itll do the basics alright. It also has an offline assistant to control your watch via voice commands, such as starting a workout or launching a health feature when you dont have internet access.

Thats just the smartwatch-y side. The GTR 4 is jam-packed with health and fitness features too. You get in-depth sleep metrics and the ability to set sleep schedules. Theres period tracking, continuous heart rate monitoring, blood oxygen tracking, and stress tracking, and Amazfit says the GTR 4 will introduce fall detection in an over-the-air update. The GTR 4 also alerts you when it detects abnormally high or low heart rate, low SpO2 levels, and high stress levels.

Overall, most of these features work just fine. That said, here are a few quirks I ran into:

• The GTR 4 doesnt have NFC, so it cant do contactless payments. You can supposedly add membership cards (i.e., your Starbucks QR code) and pay that way, but I ran out of patience trying to set this up because the process is cumbersome, especially when my phone app is right there. Its a good idea in theory but not in execution.
• The GTR 4 supports onboard music storage, but again, I had a hell of a time trying to load my music. Youve got to do it through the companion app (more on that below), but most people would rather have offline playlists from apps like Spotify or Apple Music. No dice. Eventually, I gave up and opted to use it as a media controller for my phone.
• The GTR 4 is set to metric units by default. You can switch to imperial and Fahrenheit, which I did, but my weather watchface never got the message. I was fine because I learned metric while living abroad, but its annoying.

Its not all bad. The GTR 4 uses the Zepp companion app. (Amazfits parent company, Huami, also owns Zepp, which also makes smartwatches. Its companion app is better than the one Amazfit used to use.) The Zepp app is not as flashy as the Fitbit app, Apples Fitness app, or Samsung Health, but I like that. Your info is easy to read, the interface is clean, and editing basic settings is fairly painless. I absolutely prefer it to overly convoluted apps like Garmin Connect or clunky ones like Polar Flow or the Coros app.

The GTR 4 also has a native camera remote and Pomodoro timer apps. You almost never see a native camera remote on a budget watch! Sure its a smidge laggy, but they all are. The important thing is that it works. Im a devotee of the Pomodoro Technique who ironically hates the sound of a kitchen timer. Having a Pomodoro timer that vibrates on my wrist was a pleasant surprise. Of all the GTR 4s features, Ill miss the Pomodoro timer the most.

Health tracking: as easy as PAI?

Ive never been a fan of arbitrary goal metrics. Calorie burn, as calculated by smartwatches, just isnt reliable. The 10,000-step thing doesnt have a real basis in science either it was a marketing idea from a Japanese pedometer company. But the GTR 4 uses a better holistic measure called PAI, which you may remember from Mio trackers back in the day.

PAI stands for Personal Activity Intelligence. Its an algorithm developed by Professor Ulrik Wislff, a well-known figure in exercise science with over 115,000 citations on Google Scholar. The gist is it calculates a score based on demographic data, your resting heart rate, and the last seven days of heart rate data. The goal is to maintain a score of 100 PAI per week; the max you can earn in a day is 75, so that encourages people to exercise at least twice a week.

Like Fitbits Active Zone Minutes, I find PAI is a way more sustainable and holistic metric for gauging whether youre getting the 150 minutes of moderate exercise recommended by the American Heart Association. Not only can you bank PAI points to fit your schedule, normal daily activities that increase your heart rate will count. Speaking from experience, that sort of flexibility is key for folks who struggle to build long-term healthy habits. I wish more wearables especially popular flagships would adopt this approach instead of emphasizing streaks.

Aside from PAI, the GTR 4 allows you to track your VO2 Max and Training Load, which helps you gauge progress and whether you should prioritize recovery. Sleep tracking was on par with my Oura Ring a sleep tracker that I use as a control device for my sleep stage charts, basic sleep metrics (i.e., resting heart rate, breathing rate, etc.), and sleep duration. These, together with PAI, give you a good snapshot of your overall activity and recovery in a relatively simple interface. The only thing I wasnt impressed by was stress tracking. Its a nebulous metric, to begin with, and Zepps implementation isnt very actionable. It mostly just confirms what you probably already know but doesnt offer meaningful ways to address it. To be fair, the vast majority of wearables drop the ball with stress tracking.

Like Garmin and Polar watches, the GTR 4 supports turn-by-turn route guidance. Importing your own routes is easy I used Komoot and Strava, but you can use any route-planning site or app that supports exporting maps to GPX files. All you do is open the file with the Zepp app and hit save. When you head out to run, hike, or cycle the route you imported, you can then enable turn-by-turn navigation. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, this plus multiband GPS are not things I expect from a $200 watch.

As for multiband GPS accuracy, it was on par with the Apple Watch Ultra with negligible differences. It didnt take too long to find a GPS signal, though it was a couple of seconds slower than the Ultra or the Garmin watches Ive tried with multiband GPS. Those few seconds are not a dealbreaker, but they make a difference in winter running.

The best bang for your buck

I come from a family that loves a good deal. At family gatherings, we often talk about deals we found in the way other families fondly reminisce about shared memories. This year at Thanksgiving, I will doubtlessly bring up this watch to my techier cousins. Its an absolute steal.

The Amazfit GTR 4 isnt perfect, and its not going to impress people the way an Apple Watch or Samsung Galaxy Watch might. That said, most of my issues with it were small things in passing that I promptly forgot. And even when those came up, I often thought to myself, But its only $200. Amazfit is also a brand that is frequently on sale, especially during big shopping holidays. I wouldnt at all be surprised if you find it for less.

Fitbit used to be the king of budget wearables, but Id argue that Amazfit snatched Fitbits throne a while ago. When I consider the GTR 4 against the $299.95 Fitbit Sense 2, the GTR 4 is the clear winner. Its got better GPS accuracy, longer battery life, a better display, tracks much of the same health metrics, and has more advanced navigational metrics overall. The Sense 2 has better stress management features and contactless payments, but its been nerfed to the point where I dont think its worth the price tag let alone the Fitbit Premium subscription.

Full disclosure: I bought the Amazfit GTS 2 for my mother-in-law a few years ago to replace her Fitbit, and she loves it. Shes by no means a gadget head and generally isnt interested in highfalutin flagships. But that watch was simple enough for her to use, with comfortably long battery life and no extra fees. Its not time for her to upgrade, but if it was? This is 100 percent the watch Id get her.

Photography by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Agree to Continue: Amazfit GTR 4

Every smart device now requires you to agree to a series of terms and conditions before you can use it contracts that no one actually reads. Its impossible for us to read and analyze every single one of these agreements. But we started counting exactly how many times you have to hit agree to use devices when we review them since these are agreements most people dont read and definitely cant negotiate.

To use the Amazfit GTR 4, you must pair it with an iPhone or Android smartphone. That includes the phones Terms of Service, privacy policy, and any other permissions you grant. Amazfit is owned by Huami and uses the Zepp app another brand under the Huami umbrella. As such, there are three mandatory agreements.

By setting up the Amazfit GTR 4, youre agreeing to:

In addition to mandatory agreements, youll also be asked to grant optional permissions such as location, Bluetooth, Motion and Fitness, Camera, Notifications, etc. If you enable any third-party integrations, be it Health Kit, Strava, or any other supported apps and APIs, youre also agreeing to those apps terms, conditions, and privacy policies.

Final Tally: Three mandatory agreements and several optional agreements.