Welcome tech enthusiasts. Today we have the new Amazfit smartwatch review of the 2024 Amazfit Active smartwatch, a simple, lightweight, and best cheap smartwatch. This smartwatch has some nice and useful features and optimized software support. It can be an attractive and desirable smartwatch for you due to various smartwatch quality features and good OS. It’s low price and compact usability will sway you towards it, but some aspects may bother you a bit. Anyway, let’s take a closer look at the whole smartwatch and see how this year’s new smartwatch can make it to our list of favorites.
Starting with the attractive structure:
It is a lightweight smartwatch weighing just 24 grams with the strap. When wearing it you will feel so light on your wrist. Most feature-packed smartwatches feel bulky, which makes you reluctant to wear them all day. But this is not happening with this watch. You can even wear it while sleeping and not feel bothered at all. The smartwatch is available in three colors Lavender Purple, Midnight Black, and Petal Pink. In terms of weight, Lavender Purple is slightly heavier than the other two, which is only 27 grams. The reason for this is that its body uses stainless steel along with plastic, while the other two use aluminum alloy and plastic. Perhaps this is done to give a little premium touch to Lavender Purple.
And this excess weight will not cause much discomfort. The color Petal Pink and lavender Purple gives a slightly feminine touch so women will love these two colors more. Though every color looks beautiful. In terms of dimensions, it is 42.36×35.9×10.75mm. When you first pick up the smartwatch, you’ll feel like you’re picking up an Apple Watch Series 7. Because their designs look very similar. Turning the watch to the right we see a single button and on the left side are the speaker and microphone. At the back, we can see the most important part: its optical heart rate sensor. Through this, we can get the update on Heart rate, Blood-oxygen saturation, and Stress level. We will discuss this sensing later, let’s finish the design part first.
Well then let’s come to its strap. The strap is a full industry standard 20mm stylish band that is very easy to remove and attach. Where they have used an Interpolation buckle lock and for the Lavender Purple we can see a Classic pin buckle. These straps are very comfortable and soft. We can buy them from Amazon or AmazFit’s official store where different types and colors are available. Anyway, there is more discussion about the display in the display section. The overall build quality is solid.
What about the battery?
In the discussion of the Amazfit smartwatch review, we will say at the beginning that this smartwatch can deliver an outstanding battery backup. Because it has a 300mAh battery which takes about 2 hours to charge with the charger in the box. We are all very familiar with its charger as Amazfit provides a similar type of magnetic charger for various of their devices. And if this charger is damaged or lost for any reason, then you can buy it from Amazfit or Amazon, which is also very affordable.
Well, let’s talk about battery life. We do not believe in numbers but rather in results obtained from daily usage. From the perspective of the official website we have found that if we use this watch normally only to check the time and do some basic stuff, it can provide a continuous backup of about 10 to 12 days. And if we do not use the always-on display mode and keep the battery saver mode on then we can get backup for about 25 to 30 days. Incredible, right?
But we believe in real-life testing so we should also see from the use, observation, and opinion of countless reviewers and users. It is true that if buying a smartwatch but don’t use all its great features then there is no point in buying this device. So in that case, if we use it heavily, i.e. health monitoring, tracking, always on display, playing music, GPS on, and other features, it is capable of providing backup for about 13 to 15 hours on a single charge, a little more or less.
This amount of backup isn’t that bad at all.
That Gorgeous Squircle Display:
Amazfit has done a great job with the display of this watch and made it very attractive. It is a 1.75″ AMOLED touchscreen display. Its resolution is 390×450 pixels where the PPI is 341. Due to this the text and other contents can be seen as very crisp and sharp. And because it is a square-shaped 2.5D curved display, the display looks quite bigger compared to circular-shaped watches. As a result, monitoring and tracking updates, notifications, and other content are very convenient and nice to see. But nothing is said about the type of protection given to the display glass. However, it is said that anti-fingerprint coating has been used, which is a good sign, but our advice will be to use a screen protector for better protection.
In terms of brightness, it will make you think a little. The company has not said anything about how many nits of brightness capability it has. You may have trouble viewing the display in very bright conditions under the sunlight. It does not have an auto-brightness sensor, so the brightness will not automatically adjust based on the situation, you have to tweak it manually. However, the available brightness is In terms of viewing the screen outside, it is not that bad, but rather good. In the case of Always-on display, the option of using the preferred watch face is given where you can use any of your choices. But beware it will drain your battery.
The overall display is soothing and attractive, undoubtedly.
Time to talk about the features:
Well, it has added some good features to qualify as a user-friendly smartwatch. These will display our health and fitness-related basic information in front of us and provide several extra benefits due to connecting it to our smartphone through Bluetooth. Let’s explain them through the Amazfit smartwatch review:
External Connectivity Support:
In terms of controlling this watch, we get two benefits through Bluetooth connectivity. First of all, think that you are busy with any outdoor activity and in that situation, you are playing music on your smartphone which you are listening to on your earphones. Then you can use your watch to change the music to the phone via Bluetooth. You will find the overview on the watch of the music playing on the phone and from there you can pause/play or change it. It will work with your phone’s built-in music player as well as third-party media players like Spotify or Amazon Music etc.
And secondly, you can play the music stored on your watch. If you are using a Bluetooth earphone, connect it to the smartwatch and the music will start playing on the earphone and you can change the music within the watch as needed. But in this case, it is better to say that we are only getting 250 MB of internal storage in this watch. So you can store very little music in it. As of 2024, having so little storage is inconsistent. At least 2GB of storage would be a better option. However, we should take advantage of whatever we have.
Text and Call Support:
Here you will see the traditional interface like a phone. We will get three options here: recent calls, top contacts and dial. Here you can see the required contact numbers as well as the dialing option through the keypad. As it is completely connected to your phone, phone calling facilities are available here. Mainly, here we are getting the benefit of using the calling service of our phone remotely with the watch. Even phone calls can be received or rejected from this watch. On receiving, you can hear the sound from the watch’s loudspeaker, the audio quality of which is roughly good to go. This facility makes it a perfect cheap smartwatch that can call and text.
Remote Camera Support:
This is a very good and fun feature. Suppose you want to take a group picture. Then you can connect the smartwatch to the phone via Bluetooth and remotely control the phone’s camera app via the watch. There we will get the capture button which we have to press to take the picture. A very interesting and helpful feature. But this feature only works with IOS, not Android OS.
Readiness Score:
This is a feature where we can see the update of an overall score of our physical and mental condition and preparation for our next task. That will depend on how much time we rested after completing our previous workout and other work sessions, how long we slept, how much time we were in light and deep sleep, etc. By justifying these facts, the watch will give us an update on when we can go to a workout or an outdoor training session, hiking, cycling, or similar activities. The watch will show us this update every morning, just like a professional personal coach.
Zepp Application Support:
It is an excellent application compatible with both IOS and Android OS. Due to this application, we are getting all the customization of our smart watch, watch face download, download of necessary applications from the app store, software, and system updates of the watch, even all health and fitness tracking results, data analysis, and other facilities. For that, we must have the app installed on our phone and synchronized with the watch.
About Navigation and GPS Accuracy:
Having a navigation facility is very important for this type of device. We would appreciate a navigation facility for a product of this price. It is not a detailed navigation system. Here basically you can see where you are located and the road map of your indicated location will show you through a single line. Through this, you can take your marathon preparation by setting the distance. Or if you go hiking, it will mark your starting point so you can easily find the starting location.
And with the Zepp app, we are getting extra facilities. It’s Very common but impressive to have such a feature at such a price. Let’s come to the GPS context which may frustrate you a bit. The reason is that it is not a multi-band GPS but a single-band GPS. Because of this, you will notice quite a bit of difference in terms of mapping compared to other devices. However, it’s not unworkable, rather it’s just right for the price.
Lifestyle Related Features:
If we want to talk about lifestyle-related features, first of all, we have to talk about its Voice Assistant. In it, we are getting the support of Amazon Alexa voice assistant. Also, Weather updates, Sedentary Reminders, Screen Lock & Password, Do Not Disturb, Morning Updates, Phone Call Notifications including receive and reject, SMS Notifications, App Notifications, and more facilities that will make the user’s experience easier and more comfortable.
Health Features:
We are getting Optical Heart rate, Blood-oxygen saturation, and Stress level monitoring sensors for our health monitoring. Through this, we can know the update on our physical condition anytime we need. And roughly accurate results are available. But it is not a good thing to get rough results about our health. We need accurate results for our health, which is a bit difficult to get from this device because this device is not medically certified.
However, most smartwatches are not medically certified. But in some cases, people may obtain the correct result. Apart from this, there are features like Sleep Quality Monitoring and Health Reminders where your sleep duration, deep and light sleep duration, how much the body has recovered, and how much rest we had, including abnormally high & low heart rate reminders, Low blood-oxygen reminder, High-stress level reminder, and many other important health-related features we are getting from this device.
Sports Features:
We’ve referred to this Amazfit Active Smartwatch as our coach several times. And in the true sense, it can give us instructions and training just like a personal coach. There is a Zepp Coach mode pre-installed in the watch. It notifies us about all updates and next steps as well as keeps a record of the activity and provides results and instructions accordingly. This feature is free for everyone. Due to this Zepp coach, we are getting Advanced Running Support, Sports Convenience, Workout Status, and some more important sports features.
120+ Sports Modes:
These modes are said to be another attraction of this smartwatch. There are about 125 to 127 different sports modes. Each of these we can access while doing the following sports activities. As a result, we can see the data of the activity update, duration, how many calories burned, how tired we are, etc on the dashboard. You can see details about the given modes from here.
Are there any drawbacks to this smartwatch?
Despite such a low price, this product is capable of providing fairly good features for those who want a basic smartwatch for daily usage. Due to its low price, it has some drawbacks that we should mention in our Amazfit smartwatch review. Such as:
- We will not get the exact GPS accuracy like the multi-band GPS devices.
- Lack of auto-brightness feature.
- Amazfit recently launched the 3rd generation of their Zepp OS and almost 2022 and 2023 devices have received this update. But despite being a smartwatch launched in 2024, it is running on the 2nd generation Zepp OS which seems a little weird to us.
Our final thoughts on this smartwatch:
The Amazfit Active Smartwatch comes at a very low price. We can see from Amazon that no other smartwatch in this price range offers as many features as this Amazfit does. This smartwatch can be a good choice for those who are looking to buy a basic smartwatch of this type. Honestly speaking, it indeed has quite a few drawbacks. It has no dual-band GPS, no smart navigation system, only 250 MB of internal storage, and is not an ideal smartwatch for sports either. However, those who are advanced-level sportsmen will move towards advanced sports smartwatches that are available in the market.
If anyone is looking for an entry-level sports watch, they can also check out the Garmin Forerunner 165, which is new to the market this year. The bottom line is that the Amazfit Active is a good choice as an entry-level smartwatch for those looking for a smartwatch that has some great health features, good looks, and is lightweight. We hope this Amazfit smartwatch review will help you understand the Amazfit Active in detail and whether this cheap smartwatch can meet your needs as an entry-level smartwatch. You can also check out the review of Amazfit GTR 4.