I was in Madrid to attend the launch of two new Amazfit smartwatches, a brand that is part of Zepp Health, a Chinese holding company founded in 2015 that has sold over 200 million devices in ten years. At the Green Patio in the Spanish capital, the most eagerly awaited novelty was the Active 2, heir to the cheapest smartwatch, but this time integrating advanced features normally reserved for more expensive models.
Amazfit’s philosophy is to offer suitable tools for fitness, sport and health monitoring. More than a smartwatch, however, this is a sports watch, combining excellent features at a low price. Two significant aspects are to capture the interest of a wide target audience.
Strengths: weight, autonomy and monitoring
Compact and light, without a strap, it weighs 29.5 (Standard version) and 31.7 grams (Premium version); it has a 1.32-inch AMOLED display with a brightness of 2000 nits, which allows for good viewing even in sunlight. On the stainless steel case, there are two side buttons to manage the device.
A central element of Active 2 is the BioTracker 6.0 PPG optical sensor, which allows you to monitor a long list of vital parameters, such as heart rate variability, stress level, body temperature, sleep quality and breathing, as well as physical and mental fatigue. An important feature is the 270 mAh battery, which allows the smartwatch to be worn on the wrist for up to 10 days, halved in case of intensive use.
A professional sports watch
Sport is always at the centre of Amazfit’s development, and the Active 2 is no exception, as it supports more than 160 sports activities, including running, swimming, and padel tennis, which allows forehand and backhand shots to be counted. There are also two modes for Hyrox, a rapidly expanding indoor fitness discipline that combines five miles of running and eight functional training stations. With Active 2, there is Hyrox Race Mode and Hyrox Physical Fitness Test, which allow you to record all your races and evaluate your level of preparation through specific exercises.
To highlight the quality of its devices, Amazfit has expanded its range of testimonials with prominent names in women’s sports. Together with Gabby Thomas, US sprinter and gold medallist in the women’s 200 metres at the Paris 2024 Olympics, the new face of the brand is Jasmine Paolini, the world’s number 4 Italian tennis player, fresh from reaching the finals of Wimbledon and Roland Garros last year in singles and winning Olympic gold in doubles with Sara Errani.
Absent because she was on the court in the Doha and Dubai tournaments, Paolini explained the reasons why she chose to partner with Amazfit in a recorded video message. ‘I have seen first-hand how monitoring my performance and analysing data during training are essential to compete at the highest level, and with Amazfit devices I can monitor my recovery and compete wherever I am‘. Paolini and Thomas will use smartwatches and other Amazfit devices to monitor their training, recovery and nutrition via the Zepp app.
Zepp’s quality
Active 2 is the first smartwatch to integrate Zepp OS 4.5, which adds useful mini apps to provide more details on battery life, uphill speed and fat burning during training. Other useful features include the ability to consult maps offline for free and the ability to recognise 25 muscle exercises, a significant addition for those who do strength training.
In this sense, there is also Zepp Coach AI, a virtual assistant that suggests personalised training plans, although the user can also upload their own programmes. Zepp also allows you to synchronise data with other fitness and health platforms, such as Strava, Apple Health and Google Fit. Active 2 can also be combined with other useful tools for those who practice sports on a regular basis, such as heart rate monitors, power meters and odometers.
Great prices
In Europe, the Standard version of the Active 2 is available for 99 euros, and the Premium version for 129 euros, which also includes sapphire glass, an additional sports strap and Zepp Pay for contactless payments. Considering the features and the constantly expanding ecosystem it offers, there is no other sports watch on the market today that is so complete and affordable. A great achievement by Amazfit. During the event in Madrid, among other things, the company unveiled the new haze grey colour for the Amazfit T-Rex 3, which uses ChatGPT AI, and the new Amazfit Bip 6, a featherweight model dedicated to lifestyle, featuring a 1.97-inch display, water resistance up to 5 ATM and a battery with a two-week life. It will be available in the coming weeks in Black, Charcoal, Stone and Red, but the price has not yet been announced.
