Amazfit refreshes its huge lineup of reasonably priced smartwatches and health trackers frequently. There are so many releases occurring on a regular basis that it is arduous to maintain up with all of them generally.
The Amazfit Balance is a reasonably new entrant to the model’s portfolio that “takes the baton” from the favored GTR and GTS collection. It appears to be similar to the Amazfit GTR Mini, which I additionally reviewed, nevertheless it clearly prices extra and has much more to supply. Next to the perfect Android smartwatches, the Balance is tremendous budget-friendly.
If you had been to evaluate this wearable solely based mostly on the design, you’ll be deceived for it’s far lighter than it seems to be. Yet someway, Amazfit packed an infinite battery into this light-weight smartwatch. The Amazfit Balance brings loads to the desk, however can it compete with a Wear OS smartwatch? Let’s discover out.
Price and availability
The Amazfit Balance was launched in September 2023 and retails for $199.99 typically. It is broadly out there to buy from numerous retailers reminiscent of Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart.
You can purchase the Amazfit Balance in Midnight Black with a darkish case and a black silicon band or in Sunset Grey with a light-weight grey case and an adjustable, multicolored woven band.
All the professionals
The Amazfit Balance intends to succeed two of the model’s most profitable smartwatch collection, the GTR and GTS fashions. No marvel the Balance combines all the perfect parts of the 2 lineups, delivering a sturdy but light-weight design at an amicable worth.
Despite its big 1.5-inch AMOLED display, the Amazfit Balance nonetheless manages to weigh a mere 35g. This, mixed with the woven band, make the Amazfit smartwatch extraordinarily snug for each day put on. It’s straightforward to overlook that you’ve a smartwatch in your wrist.
As you’d count on, the Amazfit Balance has over 150 sports activities modes, SpO2 monitoring, coronary heart fee monitoring, sleep monitoring, menstrual monitoring, and a wide selection of different well being and health monitoring metrics and sensors. It’s fairly sturdy too, touting 5 ATM water resistance.
What will certainly blow your thoughts, because it did mine, is the insane battery life. This factor can go on for 2 weeks simply with a single cost, even with reasonable to heavy use. And should you’re a light-weight person, this could simply go as much as 20 days in my expertise.
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Amazfit tried its utmost to bolster the Amazfit Balance with a wholesome number of apps and options. There are many extra third-party apps out there by way of the Zepp app on smartphones. At lengthy final, Amazfit additionally added the flexibility to answer messages on the Balance smartwatch. Users can kind out a response utilizing the wearable’s QWERTY keyboard, choose one of many preset responses, and even use AI’s assist to answer to messages.
The Amazfit Balance has a microphone and speaker onboard, so you do not have to depend on your cellphone. Local storage and Bluetooth allow you to retailer music on the watch and stream it to your earbuds or headphones instantly from the watch itself.
Speaking of AI, Amazfit adopted within the footsteps of Samsung, Google, and Apple by incorporating AI-based options into the Amazfit Balance. You can use Alexa in your watch or change the assistant to Zepp Flow, which is powered by GPT-4o. Other AI-based options of the watch embody Zepp Coach and Zepp Aura. AI is baked into the core of the Balance, amassing and compiling your well being and health information to intelligently make suggestions.
Some options require you to replace the Amazfit Balance. Although it runs Zepp OS 3.5 out of the field, you’ll be able to improve it to the most recent Zepp OS 4 instantly to get all the most recent options.
Unignorable cons
While the Amazfit Balance is chock stuffed with health monitoring choices, not all of them work completely. The pedometer doesn’t rely steps precisely, logging incorrect numbers randomly at occasions.
And whereas I’m grateful for the newly included means to answer messages or notifications on the watch, the characteristic will get caught loads. I confronted this subject with Slack and Gmail the place the Amazfit Balance refused to let me reply. Hopefully, future patches will smoothen out such glitches.
The watch has different caveats as nicely. Sure, NFC funds can be found, however solely via the Zepp Pay app. There’s no choice to put in Google Wallet, Samsung Pay, or Apple Pay. No matter how safe Amazfit guarantees Zepp Pay to be, not everybody will belief such a lesser-known app with their monetary particulars. In all honesty, I didn’t enter my particulars into it both. Not to say, not each area’s banks and playing cards will help the app both.
Lastly, Amazfit ought to severely think about including an LTE variant of the watch. If it has contactless funds, the Amazfit Balance can be utilized by itself with out counting on a smartphone. It’s splendid for non-intrusive exercises the place you do not wish to carry your cellphone alongside, so an LTE smartwatch can sub as a alternative for funds, navigation, and emergency calls. You cannot use the Amazfit Balance for any of that except it is related to a cellphone that has an web connection.
Competition
Although the Amazfit Balance is already very low-cost, you may get an much more succesful smartwatch for a similar retail worth. I’m speaking concerning the Samsung Galaxy Watch FE, a Wear OS smartwatch that comes with Wear OS 4 put in out of the field.
Even although the Galaxy Watch FE is principally a revamped model of the Galaxy Watch 4, it has entry to a whole bunch of apps due to Wear OS 4. Equipped with a extra highly effective processor and flagship-level sensors, the Samsung smartwatch beats the Amazfit Balance certainly.
The one area the place Amazfit stands an opportunity is the battery life, which is unbeatable with regards to the Amazfit Balance. Your Galaxy Watch FE will not go on for greater than a day and a half or two days at max.
Should you purchase it?
You can buy it if…
- You prioritize battery life above all else
- You’re on a sub-$200 price range
- You need a great deal of health modes
- You favor lighter watches
- You want a brilliant and enormous show
You should not purchase it if…
- You’re anticipating unfettered third-party app help like Wear OS
- You wish to use different apps for NFC funds
- You want an LTE smartwatch
- You’re a severe athlete
My closing verdict is that this: the Amazfit Balance has an superior battery life rivalled by no different. If you are a light-weight or common smartwatch person with primary wants, you will be content material with this wearable. It expenses quick and feels snug, plus you’ll be able to continuously rating a pleasant low cost to knock 15% to twenty% off the worth tag.
However, should you’re in search of a Wear OS smartwatch with entry to a whole bunch and a whole bunch of apps, the Amazfit Balance in all probability will not reduce it for you. It does not have Spotify or WhatsApp, NFC funds are restricted to a single app, and the software program is considerably buggy. There’s no LTE mannequin both.
This is not a smartwatch for severe customers. If you might have used the Amazfit GTS or GTR collection, you are the suitable audience for this watch. Just await sale earlier than shopping for the Amazfit Balance for $200, although, as a result of that’ll enhance its worth prospect considerably.
It’s all about steadiness
The Amazfit Balance is the last word battery champion amongst wearables. This smartwatch can go on and on for weeks on a single cost. Another massive benefit of this deceptively giant watch is its lightweightedness. You additionally get a great deal of well being and health monitoring options in addition to NFC for contactless funds and Alexa built-in.
