The thing about smartwatches and fitness trackers is that not only can they be expensive but often they are very fragile, one only needs to take a look at any Apple Watch that isn’t a premium sapphire model to see several scratches and scuffs that ruin the overall aesthetic of the device. Sure, they give the watch character but for the price you pay, it should be able to survive anything that life throws at it. The Amazfit T-Rex wants to solve this problem with a watch that is one tough mother!
One look at the T-Rex (the name we love by the way) and it is obvious that this was created for a whole other segment of the smart fitness watch market with its military-grade certifications, GPS and optical heart rate sensors paired with a crisp 1.3 inch AMOLED display coated in Gorilla Glass 3. Four physical buttons flank the poly-carbonate build with a nice fat bezel protecting the screen.
Truthfully, it gives us flashbacks to the Casio G-Shock days and that is a good thing. It is also surprisingly lightweight and has a very comfortable rubber strap that is adequately long enough and soft on the wrist, with the icing on this beefy cake being the 5ATM rating, meaning it’s water-resistant to a depth of up to 164 feet and can even withstand temperatures of up to 158 degrees Fahrenheit (70 degrees Celsius).
Setting up the device could not have been any easier, you simply download the Amazfit app, add the device, let it update and away you go. Navigating the watches’ interface was also quite the joy with the ability to set multiple watch faces, access fitness and heart rate widgets and a quick settings menu plus the usual array of selections including Activities, Alarm, Compass, Countdown, Event Reminder, Find My Phone, Heart Rate, Music, Status, Timer, Weather, and Workout.
Speaking of workouts, the T-Rex is quite the versatile fitness watch with its ability to track 14 different sports including climb, elliptical, fitness, hike, indoor cycle, open water, outdoor cycle, pool swim, run, ski, trail run, treadmill, triathlon, and walk. The swim function is a welcome addition and in our testing was quite accurate in gauging our laps. This is quite the different experience we have had with their competitors, some of whom don’t even offer this option. GPS, too, was very accurate and on par with our Apple Watch Series 4 in terms of accuracy, it locks on fast and tracks you the whole way without fail. Speaking of which, now is a great time to mention battery, Amazfit promises 20-day battery life with GPS turned off which is like 17 days longer than that other fruity offering and even with a daily GPS tracked workout session and always-on heart rate, it still blew their competitor’s out of the water, it is quite remarkable.
Another area the company has surprised us is how far they have come with their mobile app, it is clean, sleek, and very easy to hop around and check your data. It provides a nice layout of your heart rate metrics, calories burned, steps, and even V02 max data. You also get accurate maps of your tracked routes including attitude changes, pace, and even goal notifications when you hit a daily fitness goal. You can also enable smartphone app alerts and call notifications which worked well with both iOS and Android alike. Last but certainly, is sleep tracking, providing users with a “sleep score” of just how well users slept to recover that night offering suggestions on how to better improve your rest time.
To sum up, not only is this a tough smartwatch but it is also a powerful fitness tool from a company that keeps going from stride to stride in this industry, innovating every time along the way. The Amazfit T-Rex is our recommendation for the best mid-range smart fitness watch for the first half of 2020.
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