Other Technology | November 18, 2023
Amazfit is releasing some smartwatches that are gaining traction in the market. In September, they globally launched the Amazfit Balance, and today in Madrid, they showcased the virtues of their new smartwatch, the Amazfit Active. It is the successor to the GTS 4 Mini, and its significant innovation is the ability to make and receive calls.
Starting today, the Amazfit Active is available in Midnight Black and Petal Pink for 129.90 euros and in Lavender Purple for 149.90 euros on the brand’s online store. Three key aspects help understand this new watch from the Chinese brand: ultralight and ultra-thin, 14 days of autonomy, and its 1.75-inch HD AMOLED screen.
These are its main strengths as it ventures into the market where various brands compete strongly with high-capacity watches, design, and connections to phones for almost real-time health monitoring. In this case, Amazfit has made a name for itself over the years, competing against one of the leading brands for smartwatches: Garmin.
The Amazfit Active’s proposal is quite interesting thanks to these three mentioned aspects. With a weight of 24 grams without a strap and a height of 10.75 mm, it becomes a watch that, on my arm, appears small. In other words, it deviates from those larger smartwatches that might even seem to ‘float’ on the wrist due to their thickness.
The AMOLED screen helps customize watch faces, and the default one is the epitome of the brand’s craftsmanship. The time is displayed in a typographic font in red, reminiscent of those used in 1980s Casio watches. It’s interesting because it shows the battery percentage between lines that mark the time of day.
This detail is essential, offering five default watch faces. However, more can be downloaded from the ZEPP app. It’s worth mentioning that the preloaded ones are elegant and precise in the information they provide. The choice between them depends on personal preference, but in this case, Amazfit has always been known for designing watch faces with excellent finishes.
Apart from its lightweight and small size, screen, or autonomy, there are other aspects. Unlike the GTS 4 Mini, its predecessor, the new Amazfit Active allows Bluetooth calls. Another interesting feature is the presence of Amazon’s Alexa assistant. In fact, the single physical button is configured so that a long press can invoke Alexa. However, the phone must be connected via Bluetooth for this to work.
The Amazfit Active offers 127 sports modes (detects 7 sports automatically), 5 ATM water resistance, precise GPS, and the ability to transfer data to third-party apps like Strava, Komoot, Relive, Adidas Runtastic, Google Fit, and Apple Health. It provides detailed training reports, load or overload analysis, and recovery time thanks to the Peak Beats algorithm.
Although it lacks an Electrocardiogram (ECG), the Amazfit Active has sensors to measure heart rate, stress, blood oxygen, and sleep tracking. It provides a significant extra to help improve sleep, although it can only be used through the Amazfit subscription (15 free days are offered when purchasing this watch).
This is where the Zepp Aura subscription comes into play, using artificial intelligence based on the data collected by the watch to provide recommendations. It even offers a ChatGPT-type chatbot for more extensive explanations with details. There is currently an offer for the annual Zepp Aura subscription for 29.99 euros or the monthly subscription for 9.99 euros without a discount.
It also includes relaxation tools or receiving daily and weekly information more comprehensive than what the user sees each morning to show their physical and mental condition. Various data analyses, such as stress, sleep, breathing quality during sleep hours, temperature, heart rate, and daily activity, are quickly summarized through different cards.
Regarding specifications, the Amazfit Active does not have NFC, so it cannot be used for mobile payments—a feature highlighted by the Amazfit Balance presented in September. It also does not offer the ability to download maps to the phone as it lacks internal memory, although it does allow sharing health data with third-party apps.
There are more interesting details about this watch. If it has already been mentioned that it weighs very little and is quite small, the screen-to-body ratio is 73%. In other words, even though it could be a smaller watch than usual for smartwatches, it has not omitted using a screen with thin bezels.
The autonomy is 14 days of typical use, 30 days with battery-saving mode activated, and 10 days of intensive use; the capacity is 300 mAh. If GPS is actively used, the autonomy remains at 16 hours. Regarding GPS, it uses five satellite positioning systems, and its circularly polarized antenna offers exceptional accuracy.
Other details include its Bluetooth 5.2, tempered glass panel with an anti-fingerprint coating, made of aluminum alloy plus plastic (stainless steel for the Lavender Purple model), and 250 MB of music storage.
It is a smartwatch aimed at all audiences but more specifically at women, especially considering its ultralightweight and small size. Finding watches that weigh so little and do not look oversized on certain wrists is not so easy, so in this case, it is recommended to go to a mall to try it on, as it looks great when worn.
Considering its specifications and the brand’s experience, it is one of the best purchases that can be made in this price range. If you want to maximize the experience, the subscription is there to have an AI that responds like ChatGPT, provides all kinds of recommendations, and can even help improve sleep.
It also has some features that allow controlling the phone to keep it stored and avoid its use, at least only for essential functions like calls or notifications. It’s also essential to highlight the ZEPP app, which offers all kinds of graphs, results, and allows customization of some aspects of this watch.
In conclusion, a recommended purchase with the Amazfit Active available for 129.90 euros on the Amazfit online store. You might miss the ECG or mobile payments, but at this price, it has everything you might need. If not, you can also customize the experience to only receive notifications and leave health measurement aside, or vice versa.
