2024-11-27 22:00:00
I love testing smartwatches, they motivate me to go out and exercise, there are new technologies emerging and whenever something new appears, I become even more interested. In Amazfit Balance it was the new version of ZEPP with the READY system, I’ll explain better how it works. And after many exercises to test the new functions, I came to the conclusion that this one will replace the TREX 2 as my activity watch. But beyond that, what can this watch with its own system, which works on Android and iOS, offer you?
Amazfit Balance Review
Design, construction and bracelet
The Amazfit balance is a beautiful watch, one of those round models for those who enjoy watches, with a less technological appeal, great for those who prefer a classic style, especially for everyday use. The material used in it is aluminum in the structure, glass on the face and plastic on the bottom, reinforced by fiber. We can say that it is good quality material.
The strap on the version I received is fabric, there is a version with a rubber strap, it is harder to find. I confess that I don’t really like fabric bracelets, when they get wet, they take longer to dry and you’re left there with a wet wrist, the perfect place for bacteria to proliferate. Now, I can’t deny that it’s totally comfortable and the strap fit is perfect.
Bodies
The 1.5″ screen is AMOLED with 480×480 resolution, with 1500 nits of maximum brightness. Vibrant colors, good sharpness, touch sensitivity that works perfectly. Whether in the shade or on the sunniest day there is, you’ll be able to see the information on the screen, whether doing nothing or physical activity.
Even with its 46mm size and large display, the Balance doesn’t feel bulky or uncomfortable, which makes interaction much easier. Text, messages and apps are displayed clearly, and the device’s size makes navigation intuitive.
The digital crown button, in addition to being aesthetic, is functional: it allows you to scroll through application options with haptic feedback, increasing practicality.
Connectivity
The Balance has GPS, you can do outdoor activities as it has this connectivity. It also has WiFi, which helps a lot when updating the firmware and synchronizing data. Also, what I liked using it was Alexa. Turning on the house lights from the outside without having to take your cell phone out of your pocket is a nice convenience, however, it disconnects frequently, which after a few days ended up ruining the experience.
Amazfit on its website shows that it has NFC connectivity for payments through Zepp Pay, however Brazil is not one of the accepted countries.
Activity and health monitoring
Activity tracking is an interesting thing, a lot of brands go out of their way to say, we have 150 different exercises, but in reality most of them are simply monitoring your heart rate and time. It’s difficult to find a watch that monitors football using GPS, the Amazfit has this capability. So if you want to know how many kilometers you run during a football match, Balance can do that.
Physical strength exercises
Balance can monitor up to 25 different strength exercises. I’ll leave them listed on the screen, you can pause and see them all there. I tested a few of them to see if it detects push-ups, sit-ups, and jumping jacks. According to Amazfit, it is for you to activate the strength exercise and be able to do all these types that it will describe on the screen at the end. And look, he monitored it really well. Even though I did 20 push-ups, he counted 18, but he counted the sit-ups and also jumping jacks. I liked.
Interval training
There is also an option for interval training, for running, cycling, among others. You can choose distance or training time, alternating with rest time. You can also configure heating and cooling.
Body composition
One of the items that caught my attention about this watch was the ability to capture body composition data. Using two fingers positioned on the physical buttons, the watch emits signals through the buttons and captures them again on the lower sensors. With this, the smartwatch can calculate metrics such as BMI, muscle mass, body water levels, basal metabolism, bone mass, skeletal muscle, body fat and protein levels. It’s an impressive amount of data, based on the height, weight, and gender information you enter.
However, this data was very different than the numbers that the Huawei digital scale, which I have used for years, shows, I took the measurement on the same day and time. I confess that now I have doubts about the scale and also about the data on this watch. Just do a medical check to be sure, so I ask you not to take these items too seriously.
Readiness
Zepp now has a number called Readiness, which classifies how ready you are to spend the day, how was your sleep, and how your physical and mental recovery is. There are a series of indexes there that may not matter to most people, but when you start to follow them, you see that they make sense.
However, that’s the thing: when you start following a lot of numbers, you end up becoming a bit of a hostage to them. So maybe it’s better not to worry about it so much.
Above all, as you can see, in terms of physical activities and health, we have a lot of things, in addition to everything I showed, there is a trainer who uses AI and its data to set up weekly training sessions and many other things. For me, Zepp is one of the most complete activity systems, oh, it also syncs with Strava.
Battery
Anyone who knows me knows that I am an active practitioner of outdoor physical activities. I play football, run on the street, cycle, all using the device’s GPS. In this format, where I use it at least 3x a week with at least 1 hour of activity using the GPS, I can say that it can maintain 7 days of battery life in these conditions. The battery capacity is 475mAh.
I had no problems in this regard, in fact, Amazfit watches have the longest battery life. The brand claims that it is possible to use it for 47 hours with the GPS in automatic mode and up to 26 hours in high precision mode. So, if you’re thinking about doing an ultramarathon, you might as well do it.
To charge, there is a USB cable with a magnetic adapter, which can be inserted into a smartphone charger, it takes around 1h10min to complete from 0 to 100%.
Extras
Offline Songs
There is the possibility of listening to music offline, just do like Neanderthals, download music to your cell phone and transfer it to your watch via Bluetooth or WiFi, but who in 2024 downloads music? It’s high time for Amazfit to create an integration with Spotify, Youtube Music or other services.
AI and third-party connectivity
Regarding the integrated virtual assistant, Zepp Flow, which uses Zepp OS 4.0 AI, the experience is also limited. It promises to allow the use of the watch without physical interaction, simply using voice commands to open applications or start training. However, to activate it, you need to press the digital crown, and the process to access the functions is time-consuming.
In practice, it’s faster to manually navigate through applications, thanks to Zepp OS’s agile interface. Furthermore, talking to the watch in public places, especially noisy ones, is not practical. Zepp Flow is an assistant similar to Google Assistant, which in practice no one uses, let’s be honest, besides this AI is far from being revolutionary, in fact it is present on the watch so that the sales page can say that it has AI.
As for Zepp OS itself, Amazfit has done a good job developing its custom software. With a library of more than 150 apps and games, it positions itself as an alternative to Wear OS. Still, these apps are not as popular as those on Google’s system and there is less support for third parties. While it is possible to link services like Strava, Amazon Alexa and Adidas Running, apps like Spotify, WhatsApp and Google Maps are not available.
Price
And the price? The price I found for sale here in Brazil is R$1,500. I know that for this price there are several other watches that are as good or even better than it. But, I am not the one who dictates the prices, I can only judge the value based on what the watch presents, and in my opinion, I do not believe that more than R$1,200 is a fair value. Therefore, buy it when it reaches this value.
Lowest price today:
-
R$ 1.299,00
Amazfit Balance With ZEPP FLOW Smart Watch 46mm A2287 with Bluetooth Calling, 14-Day Battery Life, 150+ Sports Modes, for Android ISO (Black)See offer
-
R$ 1.567,50
Smartwatch Amazfit BalanceSee offer
I say this because the GTR4, which is practically identical, is being sold for less than R$1200, by Amazfit itself on the Amazon website, so I believe this value is the fairest.
1732791308
#great #exercise #watch
Does the Amazfit Balance smartwatch support NFC payments through Zepp Pay?
The provided text does not mention whether the Amazfit Balance smartwatch has NFC connectivity for payments through Zepp Pay for use in Brazil.
