Amazfit GTR 4 review: the king of budget smartwatches

It’s true that you simply normally get what you pay for. But occasionally, you come throughout a tool that provides far more bang on your buck. The $199 Amazfit GTR 4 will not be going to compete with the Apple Watch Series 8 or the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 on options. It’s not as trendy as the Pixel Watch. But it affords a number of options you’d anticipate to see on costlier watches, comparable to multiband GPS, a vibrant OLED show, and turn-by-turn route navigation. After spending a while with the GTR 4, I wholeheartedly suggest this over the new Fitbit Versa 4 or Sense 2.

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The GTR 4 most likely gained’t win any design awards, however it appears fairly good for a budget watch (particularly when in comparison with earlier iterations). The 1.4-inch always-on OLED show is housed in a 46mm aluminum case. It appears wonderful, if a bit nondescript. But the fluoroelastomer strap on my evaluation unit feels chintzy. Although it’s the identical kind of materials as Apple’s Sport Band, it doesn’t seem like it. After about two weeks of put on, one of the keepers is already exhibiting some harm. Thankfully, you should use any normal 22mm strap with the GTR 4 to raise the look.

But even when I have been to swap straps, it clearly has a masculine vibe. I can’t suppose of too many straps that will make it extra female, and in my case, I’d have to go away it at house for a proper occasion. (Unless I used to be rocking a cool swimsuit. Note to self: get a cool swimsuit.) I’ve a smaller body, and a co-worker commented that the GTR 4 was “so freaking big” on my wrist. That mentioned, it’s pretty gentle at 34g and never too thick at 10.6mm, and I didn’t discover it too uncomfortable for twenty-four/7 put on. It snagged on my leather-based jacket, however so do all however the smallest smartwatches. It’s additionally rated for 5ATM of water resistance, that means you’ll be able to hop into the pool with it. I wore it in the bathe and whereas doing dishes with zero points.

While I wasn’t too impressed with the watch’s general look, the OLED display screen is one other matter. Watchfaces and animations are crisp, colours are vibrant, and notifications are simple to learn. The GTR 4’s show has 326 pixels per inch, which is on par with the 41mm Apple Watch Series 8 and barely higher than the 40mm Galaxy Watch 5. Plus, the bezels are minimal. Any approach you slice it, it outclasses the shows on the Fitbit Versa 4 and Sense 2, that are each costlier.

The GTR 4 doesn’t skimp on sensors. You get the typical movement sensors — accelerometer and gyroscope — in addition to a geomagnetic sensor, barometric altimeter, and ambient gentle sensor. On prime of that, it has a brand new steady coronary heart fee sensor that additionally measures blood oxygen ranges. For connectivity, it helps 2.4GHz Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0, and Bluetooth Low Energy. You’ve additionally obtained a speaker and microphone for calls and interacting with digital assistants. Basically, this checks all the containers for a contemporary smartwatch. It’s lacking superior well being sensors, like EKG and physique temperature, however these are area of interest metrics that aren’t even utilized nicely by smartwatches that do have them. 

What’s spectacular, nevertheless, is the truth the GTR 4 contains multiband GPS — and at this worth level. Multiband GPS isn’t that widespread but, and we’ve solely began seeing it on health watches in the previous yr or so. In a nutshell, it makes use of each L1 and L5 satellite tv for pc frequencies, translating to extra correct GPS in difficult environments like cities or forests. But you’re extra more likely to see it on higher-end GPS watches from manufacturers like Coros and Garmin. It’s not even in the Apple Watch Series 8; it’s a characteristic Apple reserved for the Ultra. I can’t suppose of one other smartwatch on this worth vary that has multiband GPS. The closest is the Garmin Forerunner 255 collection, and that begins at $349.99.

Cheaper smartwatches typically have higher battery life than costlier ones. Usually, that’s as a result of they use dim, low-resolution screens, which draw much less energy. That’s not the case with the GTR 4, and but Amazfit claims seven days of battery life with heavy utilization (i.e., multiband GPS, at all times on show, and so forth.). Normal utilization will get you round 14 days. For endurance athletes, enabling multiband GPS will get you an estimated 25 hours of steady use, whereas common GPS will get you 44 hours. TL;DR — you’ll get far more juice than flagship smartwatches.

I’m not an ultra-marathoner or triathlete, so I can’t vouch for the GPS battery estimates. That mentioned, I obtained about 10 days on a single cost. Half that point, I had the always-on show turned off, and I at all times had multiband GPS enabled. While testing, I logged about 2.5 hours of GPS exercise. There are smartwatches and health bands that last more, however 10 days with reasonable use and an OLED show is nice. Less nice is the charging time. It took me about two hours to go from zero to 100%. That’s not the worst, however it stands proud, as an rising quantity of wearables now assist quick charging. I wasn’t fond of the proprietary charger, however once more, that is an industry-wide subject for smartwatches.

The GTR 4 has a ton of options. Depending on what you’re searching for, it would even have too many options. If I have been to go in-depth about every, this part of the evaluation might simply prime 2,000 phrases. Ain’t no one obtained time for that — particularly since Amazfit is very happy to listing all of them out on its product web page. It’s exhaustive.

Instead, I’ll provide you with the rundown. As far as sensible options go, you get primary push notifications — mirroring your cellphone’s notifications — plus timers, alarms, and stopwatches. Quick textual content replies work on Android, however not iOS (Then once more, that is true for any smartwatch that isn’t the Apple Watch.) You can ring your cellphone from the watch — helpful if, like me, you misplace your cellphone a zillion occasions a day. It affords reminders of every type, together with transfer and occasion reminders. You can take calls from the GTR 4 if you happen to’re in Bluetooth vary of your cellphone. The GTR 4 is appropriate with Alexa for sensible house management and primary queries. Alexa isn’t the greatest smartwatch assistant, particularly if you wish to dictate texts, however it’ll do the fundamentals alright. It additionally has an offline assistant to manage your watch by way of voice instructions, comparable to beginning a exercise or launching a well being characteristic while you don’t have web entry. 

That’s simply the smartwatch-y facet. The GTR 4 is jam-packed with well being and health options too. You get in-depth sleep metrics and the capability to set sleep schedules. There’s interval monitoring, steady coronary heart fee monitoring, blood oxygen monitoring, and stress monitoring, and Amazfit says the GTR 4 will introduce fall detection in an over-the-air replace. The GTR 4 additionally alerts you when it detects abnormally excessive or low coronary heart fee, low SpO2 ranges, and excessive stress ranges.

Overall, most of these options work simply wonderful. That mentioned, listed here are a number of quirks I bumped into:

• The GTR 4 doesn’t have NFC, so it could actually’t do contactless funds. You can supposedly add membership playing cards (i.e., your Starbucks QR code) and pay that approach, however I ran out of endurance attempting to set this up as a result of the course of is cumbersome, particularly when my cellphone app is proper there. It’s a good suggestion in concept however not in execution.
• The GTR 4 helps onboard music storage, however once more, I had a hell of a time attempting to load my music. You’ve obtained to do it by means of the companion app (extra on that beneath), however most individuals would reasonably have offline playlists from apps like Spotify or Apple Music. No cube. Eventually, I gave up and opted to make use of it as a media controller for my cellphone. 
• The GTR 4 is ready to metric models by default. You can swap to imperial and Fahrenheit, which I did, however my climate watchface by no means obtained the message. I used to be wonderful as a result of I discovered metric whereas residing overseas, however it’s annoying.

It’s not all dangerous. The GTR 4 makes use of the Zepp companion app. (Amazfit’s mother or father firm, Huami, additionally owns Zepp, which additionally makes smartwatches. Its companion app is best than the one Amazfit used to make use of.) The Zepp app will not be as flashy as the Fitbit app, Apple’s Fitness app, or Samsung Health, however I like that. Your information is straightforward to learn, the interface is clear, and enhancing primary settings is pretty painless. I completely desire it to overly convoluted apps like Garmin Connect or clunky ones like Polar Flow or the Coros app. 

The GTR 4 additionally has a local digicam distant and Pomodoro timer apps. You virtually by no means see a local digicam distant on a budget watch! Sure it’s a smidge laggy, however all of them are. The essential factor is that it really works. I’m a devotee of the Pomodoro Technique who paradoxically hates the sound of a kitchen timer. Having a Pomodoro timer that vibrates on my wrist was a nice shock. Of all the GTR 4’s options, I’ll miss the Pomodoro timer the most.

I’ve by no means been a fan of arbitrary “goal” metrics. Calorie burn, as calculated by smartwatches, simply isn’t dependable. The 10,000-step factor doesn’t have an actual foundation in science both — it was a advertising concept from a Japanese pedometer firm. But the GTR 4 makes use of a greater holistic measure known as PAI, which you’ll keep in mind from Mio trackers again in the day.

PAI stands for Personal Activity Intelligence. It’s an algorithm developed by Professor Ulrik Wisløff, a widely known determine in train science with over 115,000 citations on Google Scholar. The gist is it calculates a rating based mostly on demographic knowledge, your resting coronary heart fee, and the final seven days of coronary heart fee knowledge. The aim is to take care of a rating of 100 PAI per week; the max you’ll be able to earn in a day is 75, in order that encourages folks to train at the very least twice per week.

Like Fitbit’s Active Zone Minutes, I discover PAI is a far more sustainable and holistic metric for gauging whether or not you’re getting the 150 minutes of reasonable train beneficial by the American Heart Association. Not solely are you able to financial institution PAI factors to suit your schedule, regular day by day actions that improve your coronary heart fee will rely. Speaking from expertise, that kind of flexibility is essential for folk who wrestle to construct long-term wholesome habits. I want extra wearables — particularly widespread flagships — would undertake this method as a substitute of emphasizing streaks. 

Aside from PAI, the GTR 4 means that you can monitor your VO2 Max and Training Load, which helps you gauge progress and whether or not it’s best to prioritize restoration. Sleep monitoring was on par with my Oura Ring — a sleep tracker that I exploit as a management gadget — for my sleep stage charts, primary sleep metrics (i.e., resting coronary heart fee, respiratory fee, and so forth.), and sleep period. These, along with PAI, provide you with a great snapshot of your general exercise and restoration in a comparatively easy interface. The solely factor I wasn’t impressed by was stress monitoring. It’s a nebulous metric, to start with, and Zepp’s implementation isn’t very actionable. It principally simply confirms what you most likely already know however doesn’t supply significant methods to deal with it. To be truthful, the overwhelming majority of wearables drop the ball with stress monitoring.

Like Garmin and Polar watches, the GTR 4 helps turn-by-turn route steering. Importing your personal routes is straightforward — I used Komoot and Strava, however you should use any route-planning web site or app that helps exporting maps to GPX recordsdata. 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’ll be able to then allow turn-by-turn navigation. At the danger of sounding like a damaged report, this plus multiband GPS aren’t issues I anticipate from a $200 watch. 

As for multiband GPS accuracy, it was on par with the Apple Watch Ultra with negligible variations. It didn’t take too lengthy to discover a GPS sign, although it was a pair of seconds slower than the Ultra or the Garmin watches I’ve tried with multiband GPS. Those few seconds aren’t a dealbreaker, however they make a distinction in winter operating.

I come from a household that loves a great deal. At household gatherings, we frequently discuss offers we present in the approach different households fondly reminisce about shared reminiscences. This yr at Thanksgiving, I’ll doubtlessly deliver up this watch to my techier cousins. It’s an absolute steal. 

The Amazfit GTR 4 isn’t good, and it’s not going to impress folks the approach an Apple Watch or Samsung Galaxy Watch would possibly. That mentioned, most of my points with it have been small issues in passing that I promptly forgot. And even when these got here up, I typically thought to myself, “But it’s only $200.” Amazfit can also be a model that’s incessantly on sale, particularly throughout large procuring holidays. I wouldn’t in any respect be shocked if you happen to discover it for much less.

Fitbit was once the king of budget wearables, however I’d argue that Amazfit snatched Fitbit’s throne some time in the past. When I think about the GTR 4 towards the $299.95 Fitbit Sense 2, the GTR 4 is the clear winner. It’s obtained higher GPS accuracy, longer battery life, a greater show, tracks a lot of the identical well being metrics, and has extra superior navigational metrics general. The Sense 2 has higher stress administration options and contactless funds, however it’s been nerfed to the level the place I don’t suppose it’s price the price ticket — not to mention the Fitbit Premium subscription. 

Full disclosure: I purchased the Amazfit GTS 2 for my mother-in-law a number of years in the past to exchange her Fitbit, and she or he loves it. She’s under no circumstances a gadget head and usually isn’t serious about highfalutin flagships. But that watch was easy sufficient for her to make use of, with comfortably lengthy battery life and no further charges. It’s not time for her to improve, but when it was? This is 100% the watch I’d get her. 

Photography by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge