Best Amazfit smartwatch

If you're looking for a good smartwatch that won't set you back a lot of money and works equally well with any smartphone, Amazfit has a wide selection of budget-friendly options. Most importantly, despite the affordable pricing, Amazfit smartwatches offer premium features and pretty reliable tracking. Plus, you get sleek designs, some even rugged enough to be taken on adventures.

Within the extensive line, the Amazfit Balance 2 is our top pick as the best Amazfit smartwatch. Why? It employs a polished design and combines this with accurate fitness tracking, meeting everything requirement. If you want something even more affordable, the Active 2 is also worth considering, while those who need ultra-rugged options can look to the T-Rex 3 Pro.

If you want a fitness watch for casual tracking or keep on top of workouts, runs, or hikes and other adventures, need something slim and sleek or tough and rugged, and have money to spend or you're on a tight budget, Amazfit has a model to meet your needs among the best Amazfit watches.

Namerah Saud Fatmi

Namerah enjoys geeking out over accessories, gadgets, and all sorts of smart knickknacks. After writing about consumer tech for nearly a decade, she has become an expert in the Android accessories space. If it connects to or fits on an Android phone, she's got it covered! She spends her free time guzzling coffee, writing some more, casual gaming, and cuddling with her furry best friends.

At a glance

Best overall

The Amazfit Balance 2 continues the company's expansion beyond the GTS and GTR lines, delivering a premium experience with a rugged and stylish design. It builds on the original Balance with new features, including HYROX training, scuba support, and a brighter sapphire-glass display. Battery life remains a highlight, easily lasting up to two weeks with everyday use. While it's heavier than past models, this watch still looks sharp enough to wear all day.

The Amazfit Balance 2 pushes even closer to Wear OS territory, offering features like Bluetooth calling through its built-in speaker and microphone. It also supports smart replies with a full QWERTY keyboard, making it easier to respond on the go. You'll find a solid mix of built-in apps, including NFC for payments via Zepp Pay. The large 1.5-inch AMOLED display is bright enough for outdoor use, and the upgraded sapphire glass and aluminum frame give the watch a premium, durable feel.

The Balance 2 isn't without its drawbacks. Zepp OS lacks the flexibility, app ecosystem, and optional LTE support of Wear OS watches. This is true of all Amazfit watches, but that's easier to accept in a $100-or-less model; the Balance 2 is meant to compete more with affordable fitness watches like the Garmin Vivoactive 6, rather than true smartwatches.

Best value

The Amazfit Bip 6 is a solid choice for those seeking a fitness-focused smartwatch with more advanced features. It maintains the familiar rectangular design that many users love, but upgrades the experience with a larger, sharper 1.97-inch AMOLED display. The lightweight aluminum frame strikes a good balance between style and durability, and at 27.9 grams without the strap, it's comfortable enough for all-day wear. You can choose from a range of colors, including black, charcoal, stone, and red.

The 14-day battery life is comparable to some of the more expensive Amazfit watches on this list, which is impressive. When you compare that to competitors that last for a day or two, this is a great accomplishment. The Amazfit Bip 6 offers over 140 sports modes, including popular options like outdoor running, strength training, and cycling. You'll also find more specialized activities, such as HYROX racing, yoga, and high-intensity interval training, providing fitness enthusiasts with a wide range of options.

Of course, any watch this cheap has to have some compromises. The Bip 6 relies on your phone's GPS for location and elevation tracking, doesn't have a mic & speaker for calling like most of our other picks, and isn't as traditionally stylish or rugged as the other options. But at this price, you can accept those cutbacks.

Best under $100

The Amazfit Active 2 is a great choice for care as much about fashion as they do function. It features a modern design and a bright 1.32-inch AMOLED display that's easy to navigate.

While some other Amazfit smartwatches offer better battery life, the Active 2 claims up to 10 days of battery life with typical use and five days with heavy use, which is still far better than many other brands. It boasts a 5ATM water resistance rating and excellent fitness tracking, including over 150 sports modes. Some other features include heart rate monitoring, sleep tracking, blood oxygen monitoring, and more.

Simply put, if you want a fitness smartwatch that doesn't compromise on style, the Amazfit Active 2 is a strong contender. Like other recent Amazfit models with Zepp Flow, the Active 2 allows you to reply to Android messages using speech-to-text without needing the on-screen keyboard. The built-in speaker and microphone also enable you to make and receive Bluetooth calls directly from your wrist.

Keep in mind that Amazfit sells a "Premium" version for $30 more with a leather strap, sapphire glass, and a steel bezel instead of aluminum. Further, the Amazfit Active 3 Premium is another to consider. Geared towards entry-level runners who are just getting into structured training, it has features like six-satellite positioning and offline maps that will appeal specifically to budding runners.

Most recently, Amazfit introduced the Amazfit Active Max. While we haven't yet gotten our hands on one for testing, it boasts some pretty impressive specs, including up to 25 days rated battery life, BioCharge readiness insights, 4GB on-board storage for music, podcasts, and downloadable maps, including ski resorts, 170+ sports modes, and more. It looks pretty sleek, too, so it's one to consider as well.

Best rugged

Amazfit wants to challenge Garmin by making serious, Pro-level fitness watches, and the Amazfit T-Rex 3 Pro fits that description perfectly. It takes the same core software and training tools as the Balance 2, but with military-grade durability: the grade 5 titanium case and buttons can withstand hard falls and water pressure, including dives down to 45m depths. The sapphire glass protects the display from damage.

We've tested the T-Rex 3 Pro and found that it has "superb heart rate accuracy" for activities like Spartan races or CrossFit, staying firm on your wrist despite its bulk. And it has a full suite of training tools like downloadable maps, training load, daily BioCharge recovery score, and a flashlight, undercutting the pricier Garmin Instinct 3.

You could always pick the T-Rex 3, with its "military-grade" stainless steel body and 10 ATM water resistance for over $100 less. But the lack of sapphire glass and dive-proofing, combined with the significantly heavier weight, makes it a little harder to recommend.

This isn't the only model Amazfit has in the ultra-rugged line. Michael Hicks was not a fan of the T-Rex Ultra that launched a few years ago, however, finding it too heavy and missing essential apps. But recently, Amazfit launched the T-Rex Ultra 2 for extreme adventurers. While we haven't tested it yet, it's purportedly a massive upgrade over the original model with the addition of features like a more durable body, brighter screen, enhanced GPS, improved battery life, and even a built-in flashlight. So, it might be one to consider as well if you prefer a bigger, bulkier, more rugged-looking design and need something for serious outdoor adventures.

Best for runners

The Cheetah Pro is well worth considering for serious runners as the Amazfit watch that best suits your needs. It uses dual-band GPS, but with a special "MaxTrack" antenna that picks up more signals at once than other Amazfit watches. In practice, it does quite well, on par with other dual-band running smartwatches on the market.

This is one of the older picks on our list, and we'd like to see a newer Cheetah with the latest OS and BioActive sensors. But one upside is that the price has fallen significantly, giving you "Pro" perks like a titanium bezel, mic/ speaker, downloadable maps, and an altimeter for the same price as a Forerunner 165 or Coros Pace 3 with more budget cutbacks.

Choose the Cheetah Pro over the Balance series if you're a frugal. But serious runners will benefit from front and center training load data and running recommendations. And as noted, budding runners can consider the Amazfit Active 3 instead.

Best starter option

The Amazfit Balance used to be our best overall pick, delivering an excellent all-around experience. Now the Balance 2 has replaced it with several major upgrades, but the Balance 1 remains available — and often on sale for half the price of the Balance 2! So it's worth recommending if you want to try your first Amazfit watch but don't want to spend too much money on one.

Battery life is one standout feature, as the Balance easily lasted for two weeks on average during our testing — though the Balance 2 lasts a week longer. It's also lightweight and stylish, a great combination that makes you want to wear it constantly. And you get perks like Bluetooth calling, message responses with the QWERTY keyboard, contactless payments (Europe only), and Alexa voice commands.

It has the same downsides as the Balance 2 in terms of being somewhat limited for apps and smarts, but that's easier to accept at this price. The 1,500-nit display is still excellent for outdoor visibility, and the Balance 1 is slightly lighter, making it more comfortable day-to-day.

• Back to the top ^

How to choose

Amazfit sells a fitness watch for just about everybody. You have the Bip series for budget-hunters, the T-Rex series for outdoor types who put their watches through tough treatment, the Cheetah and Active watches for runners, and the Balance lineup for a more generalized training experience with extra health and AI smarts.

Generally speaking, Amazfit watches are all packed with value, with hundreds of sports modes, the same Zepp app experience, and similar BioActive health sensor data. So which you choose will come down to specific features and if you want to pay extra for longer battery life, extra ruggedness, niche sport modes, or brighter displays.

The $80 Amazfit Bip 6 gives you the core experience, but it's limited. Upgrading to the $100 Active 2 nets you GPS and an altimeter, better sensors, and (with the "Premium" version) sapphire glass.

From there, paying extra for the Balance 1 or Cheetah Pro nets you better GPS accuracy, a rotating crown for easier navigation, extra music storage, contactless payments (on the Balance), and more battery life. And if you jump from there to the Balance 2 or T-Rex series, you get doubled water resistance, military-grade protection, better maps and smarts, and other premium training perks.

Only you can decide how many of these higher-end perks you really need. Amazfit makes them more affordable than other fitness watches, but you shouldn't upsell yourself if you can make do with a cheaper model!

How we test

Testing smartwatches at Android Central involves much more than strapping them to our arms and taking a few pictures. Android Central Senior Editor Michael Hicks runs a weekly column called Sunday Runday, where he discusses how smartwatches and exercise can help improve your life and promote health. Other smartwatch reviewers on the team, like Managing Editor Derrek Lee and Senior Editor Nicholas Sutrich, take numerous watches to the gym and competitions, putting them to the test exactly as you might.

In addition to comparing various watches during workouts, we wear each one to bed to evaluate sleep tracking and take them on long walks to test step accuracy. These everyday routines help us judge comfort, durability, and battery life over time. Therefore, when we recommend a smartwatch, it's because we've thoroughly tested it in real-world conditions and have the data to back it up.

Then there's the watch's operating system itself. Like Amazfit's smartwatches, many watches use proprietary operating systems that are compatible with Android and iOS devices. However, that can sometimes mean they aren't as full-featured as the OS made by Apple or Google. We take these things into account and ensure that you understand what might be missing from the experience on these watches, because, often, they excel in areas where watches from Google or Apple fall short.

Of course, all this affects how long a smartwatch's battery lasts. More features can sometimes mean worse battery life, but watches from brands like Amazfit or Garmin aim to help you stay healthier without requiring daily battery charging. We wear our watches for weeks or months to ensure accurate data and testing, so you can expect our battery life estimates to be exact.