This workout-focused smartwatch makes my Pixel Watch feel like a toy

I'm a pretty late bloomer when it comes to working out regularly. I sailed through my teens, 20s, and half of my 30s without giving much thought to my long-term health or wondering if a gym life would be the right fit for me. However, something changed around 35, and I've been using smartwatches, such as the Google Pixel Watch 3 and OnePlus Watch 3, to track my heart rate and ensure that I'm not overexerting myself.

But I'm learning that there's so much more to workout tracking than just heart rate monitoring, and it took the Amazfit Balance 2 to get me to this point. I've been using it for a couple of weeks and have since gone on several hikes, multiple paddleboarding sessions, and plenty of WODs at HEW Fitness, my favorite local CrossFit-style gym.

And while I've even taken several watches and smart rings on Spartan races, a lot of the data I'm given has to be combed through and manually compared in a way that I don't usually take the time to do. That's all changing for me with the Amazfit Zepp app.

Effortless tracking

Shy of having a robot humanoid alongside me to log everything I do — I'd rather not have that for robot apocalypse reasons, if nothing else — I can't see workout and health tracking getting any easier than what Amazfit has crafted here.

Let's start with food logging. I'm horrible at logging my food. Even the slightest bit of friction to the experience will make me stop. I've tried all the popular apps over the years and have given up on all of them. Doubtless, something better has come along since the advent of modern AI tools like ChatGPT and Gemini, but Zepp builds it in for me, and I don't have to juggle multiple apps or services.

Right on the main screen, I can log food in one of two ways: take a picture or use a voice/text prompt. Just before I wrote this, I went upstairs and grabbed some tuna and crackers for an afternoon snack. I took a picture of the box of crackers and another of the tuna pouch. Bam, afternoon snack logged.

Before that, though, I was really craving some Oreos. I forgot to take a picture of it because I left my phone in my office downstairs, but I know I only took a single serving of Oreos because I'm at least good about looking at the label and grabbing what I should. So I told Zepp I ate "one serving of Oreos." Two seconds later, my poor nutritional choice was logged for AI to judge me with.

Yep, I could definitely get used to logging food this way. Even taking a quick voice journal of the stuff I ate throughout the day and dropping it into the text prompt section of the app will log everything I ate, from that errant piece of Dominos pizza my friend offered me while we were playing games, to the smoothie I ate with one banana, a cup of almond milk, a tablespoon of peanut butter, and a scoop of protein powder after I left the gym.

Better yet, the app provides you with insights based on what you've logged, including how much you've exercised, how well you slept, and more. This morning, it suggested that I try adding fruits or vegetables to my breakfast to make it more balanced. After realizing I had forgotten to log my orange juice, that insight alert disappeared.

Best of all, you don't need a paid subscription or a specific phone to make this all work. This is a dream come true for me, and I can't believe how well it works!

How about the workouts?

While I love the accuracy and comfort of both the Pixel Watch 3 and OnePlus Watch 3, I've never used a watch that understands what I'm doing quite like the Amazfit Balance 2. This week, two of our WODs (Workout Of the Day) at the gym included barbell exercises. I know from wearing Samsung Galaxy Watches that some watches are better at tracking workouts like this than others, but the Amazfit Balance 2 was on a totally different level.

I selected "strength training" before beginning the workout, then selected my weight and the number of reps I planned to do. Each round, I clicked the lower button on the watch, adjusted the weight and number of reps, then hit go.

After I was done, I sat down to look at the data the watch generated and couldn't believe my eyes. It got all the expected stats — average heart rate, calories burned, etc. — but then I scrolled down and saw the muscle groups I worked. "How could it possibly know this?" I wondered. The best Garmin watches also offer this feature, but they are often slightly more expensive than Amazfit's watches, and I find the app to be somewhat convoluted.

Scrolling one more "page" down revealed the answer. During each rep, the Amazfit Balance 2 uses its sophisticated sensors to identify exactly what you're doing during those logged reps. But this isn't just some generic list of activities; this is a list of thousands of things, all sorted by different muscle groups.

OK, so it picked up my deadlifts correctly on Tuesday, but how about Friday's back squats? Surely these activities are similar enough to trick it? Nope. Right in the app after my workout today, "Barbell squats" stared me in the face. It's been a long time since I've felt like technology was magic — my job makes me a little jaded, what can I say — but man, does this feel like magic.

If that wasn't enough, it also gives me insights for consistency, stability, continuity, rhythm, and speed decay, all with personalized descriptions that actually make sense. Otherwise, I'm not sure I'd be able to interpret this data in a meaningful way.

The rest of the watch is just as fantastic as this experience, too. So far, it's lasted me nearly a week on a single charge, and there's nothing here that feels like it's a lesser experience when compared to the best Wear OS watches.

Zepp has an app store that offers a wide range of content, from utilities like calculators to games like Sudoku, yoga courses, and more. I'm not someone who uses extra apps on smartwatches very often, but everything I felt like I needed to use was either already included on the watch or found in the Zepp app store.

And, much to my surprise, responding to messages on the watch was as easy as could be. At first, I was confused because you have to swipe on a notification to get actions for it — this seems more like an iOS paradigm than an Android one — but once I figured this out, things were swell.

I've been super impressed with smartwatches lately. The Amazfit Balance 2 feels like another upgrade on my previous favorite, the OnePlus Watch 3, and I think you'll love it, too!