What do you do as a company when a market is dominated by a single brand? Well, as the saying goes – if you can’t beat them, join them. This is exactly what the folks at Amazfit did, they made a smartwatch that not only resembles an Apple Watch but in a lot of ways bests it for a fraction of the price. The Amazfit GTS, is the almost perfect budget smartwatch for most people.
Launched in 2014, Amazfit, set out to make the world more connected through smart wearable technology and data-driven innovations. They made a name for themselves with their Pace, Bip and Stratos wearables that were well received by the fitness community as an affordable alternative to the Fitbit’s and Garmin’s of the world.
The GTS is quite the looker with a beautiful and vibrant squared circle AMOLED Gorilla glass display that meets 100% of the NTSC color spectrum and features ultra-high color saturation to make the display super-lifelike. There is also a transparent 2.5D glass lens that seamlessly molds into the aircraft-grade aluminum alloy body and is paired with a super comfortable silicone strap and a lithium ion battery that can provide a welcomingly reassuring 14 days of daily usage.
The watch also has 5ATM water resistance which makes this perfect for all types of fitness activities even swimming. In fact, the Amazfit GTS supports 12 mainstream exercise modes including cycling and skiing to name a few, and can accurately track these sports activities thanks to the in-built array of powerful sensors including their own proprietary BioTracker™ PPG biological tracking optical sensor, which can perform constant 24-hour high-precision heart-rate monitoring and even the RealBeats AI-based biological data engine, which is an advanced AI-based automatic identification function for arrhythmia (including atrial fibrillation), to enable you to further learn about your heart’s health, and warn you of potential heart risks.
Lastly, you also get the usual 6 axis accelerometer but also air pressure and ambient light sensors paired with flawless Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity and the ability to customise watch faces with five display content modules (widgets) including weather, heart rate, reminders, alarm clock and more.
After wearing the watch this past few months, we are starting to see a trend in this industry: what used to be called the “budget” category of fitness devices is quickly becoming the mid-range and going toe to toe with the big boys at the top with what they can offer. To put it simply, the GTS is no better or worse than an Apple Watch and works just as well, if not better (especially when it comes to battery life). We no longer see the need to spend $500 on a smartwatch when something like the Amazfit GTS works just as well for under $200. So, how important is a brand name attachment when it comes to tracking your fitness data? That’s for you to decide.
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