Amazfit GTS 3 review

Full Review for Amazift Gts 3 Smartwatch

You'd be excused if you hadn't heard of Amazfit, but unlike the plethora of low-cost smartwatches available on Amazon and elsewhere, Amazfit is equivalent to Fitbit.

The pricing should tell you everything you need to know, but if you're not in the market for an Apple Watch (due to cost or because you have an Android phone), Amazfit's offerings should be on your radar.

The GTS 3 is similar to Fitbit's Versa line in that you get what you pay for. Although Amazfit claims to have a robust ecosystem, you won't be able to install your favorite apps as you can with Google Wear OS.

There are a few additional crucial things that you might notice are missing. The GTS 3 is unable to perform contactless payments or make phone calls. It can't store music or stream it to Bluetooth headphones, so you'll have to take your phone with you for music, even if it can track your run using its built-in GPS.

Design And Features 

At first impression, they resemble Apple Watches, just as prior Amazfit GTS devices. Some of the watch faces available bear more than a passing resemblance to the Apple Watch, so the GTS 3 is a good option if you want to seem like you have an Apple Watch without spending a lot of money.

The aluminum case, like its predecessors, is remarkably small, lightweight, and robust.

Replace the cheap-feeling silicone strap, which, like all silicone straps, collects sweat, moisture, and dirt and can irritate some skin types. On that front, I didn't experience any issues, but the tail end of the strap hangs out and gets stuck on clothing and other objects. That alone is sufficient enough to replace it with a 20mm aftermarket strap.

The 1.75in OLED screen appears huge, sharp, and bright when measured diagonally. The cover glass is very durable, too: it's classified as 'tempered glass' in the specs rather than Gorilla Glass like the GTS 2, but it only picked up a handful of very light scratches during testing.

Because the screen has a maximum brightness of 1000nits, it can be read outside even when it's light. Brightness is automatically adjusted and done effectively; I never had the need to use the slider in Settings to change it.

The GTS 3 has only one button, unlike the extremely similar - but circular - GTR 3. This works as expected, turning on the screen when you first push it, then bringing up the menu, and then returning to the home screen from the menu. You can also go back by swiping right.

The button also functions as a rotating crown, allowing you to cycle through menus, messages, and modify complexities on various watch faces by turning it. When you spin it (a setting you may turn off), it vibrates, making it feel incredibly tactile.

The vibration has no nuance, unlike the haptics on the Apple Watch. It's quite powerful, and if you utilize the alarm function, it will shake you awake in the morning.

There is no other option for the alarm: there is no speaker, so beeping will have to suffice.

A pair of metallic connections for the patented magnetic charging cable, as well as a set of optical sensors that can detect heart rate, SpO2, and other parameters, are located on the back.

It's worth mentioning that both the always-on screen and the lift-to-wake functions can be turned on at the same time. It may seem insignificant, but it means you can have two watch faces: one for indicating the time quickly and another for displaying more information when you lift your arm.

You may also set it to turn on when you receive a notification. Later on, I'll go over those.

Software

One of the disadvantages, as we've mentioned in prior Amazfit reviews, is the usage of proprietary software. In that you're stuck with the apps and functionalities that come with Zepp OS, it's similar to the software that comes with Huawei's Watch GT 2. Although it technically supports third-party apps, there aren't many of them. In the App Store, you'll find a list of 'apps' that you'd expect to be regular features.

There are a few potentially useful features, such as 'Brush teeth' and 'Pregnancy Assistant,' but nothing compares to Spotify. Third-party app developers could make their apps available, but none of the big names have yet to do so.

Heart rate, blood oxygen, workouts, workout history, workout status, stress, activity, sleep, weather, music, alarm, calendar, settings, and more can all be found on the main menu. You can rearrange these in the Zepp app, delete those you don't want, and add others that aren't there by default.

Stopwatches, countdown timers, barometers, female cycle monitoring, compass, to-do lists, camera remotes, and other devices are among them.

Swiping down from the top of the screen displays shortcuts for do not disturb, theater mode, find phone (which rings your phone to help you find it), flashlight, brightness, battery saver, and other features.

Swipe right from the watch face to access a menu of shortcut cards that provide information from some of those features at a glance. Alexa is at the top of the list, but if you don't want to use Alexa, you can summon her by pressing and holding the button (a shortcut you can customize to perform other things).

Alexa need your phone and access to the internet, but the offline assistant, as you might expect, does not. This means you may say things like "start running workout" or "open settings." You may use a variety of

instructions, and if you take the effort to learn them, you can save some time - speech recognition is actually quite good.

Amazfit claims to support 150 different workouts, yet only a few of them can be identified automatically, such as running, cycling, and walking. For some reason, this didn't function in my testing, and I wasn't impressed to see e-sports, chess, and card games on the list of 'workouts,' though there is a'motion detecting game,' which could be handy for VR games like Beat Saber.

You may monitor information like duration, pace, distance, heart rate, and VO2max while working out. Because the GTS 3 is water-resistant, it can also be used to track swimming exercises (and monitor your heart rate while you swim). I didn't have any medical-grade devices on hand to test heart rate and SpO2, but they matched up to an Apple Watch 6, which should suffice for most people.

One-tap measurement is a useful menu item. This takes 45 seconds but gives you your heart rate, blood oxygen level, stress level, and number of breaths per minute.

You can receive notifications from applications once you've set them up in the Zepp app, but you won't be able to do anything with them, just with the Huawei Watch GT. You won't be able to reply to WhatsApp messages, and you won't be able to see any rich notifications from security cameras.

Initially, it appears that you are unable to receive notifications from any apps; nevertheless, these appear in the 'App alerts' list only when those apps have displayed notifications on your phone following the installation of the Zepp app.

During my testing, the GTS 3 had a number of flaws, including the fact that it was initially in some type of developer mode, with the current frame rate displayed over the top of the interface. The animated faces ran at a steady 60 frames per second, however this information obscured the watch face behind it.

During a workout, the watch entirely froze for a few minutes and then resumed itself. This isn't ideal.

Finally, some watch faces, such as the Apple Watch, feature complications that you may change. The options are limited to a few functions, but the greater issue was that interacting with interactive complexity was nearly impossible. Take, for example, the stopwatch. 90 percent of the time, tapping the icon would do nothing. However, it would occasionally recognize the tap and flip the icons to reveal the start and lap buttons. However, they were mainly unresponsive as well.

Swiping right to return to a previous menu caused similar issues for me: it didn't always function. That's not really acceptable at this price.

Zepp App

The Zepp app is required to operate a GTS 3. The fitness data is front and center here, and finding the watch settings can be a challenge.

There's also a lot of data, which is great if you want to examine how you slept the night before or how your heart rate has changed during the day.

You can also examine current statistics, but for SpO2 and stress levels, it's better to use the watch itself. I never received a notification indicating I was stressed, thus this measure isn't particularly useful.

The app's own PAI statistic is right at the top: an overall estimate of how active you are. It's a seven-day rolling average with a weekly aim of 100. When your heart rate rises, you get PAI points, essentially rewarding rigorous exercise.

PAI is included in a number of watch faces, making it simple to keep track of your progress. For the target buyer: the casual exercise enthusiast, it's a good system.

You may also view how many steps you took each day, how many calories you burned, how many flights you climbed, and more.

Battery Life

Amazfit promises a 12-day average runtime, but that's really the power-saving mode and the most you'll ever see. When you start using features like constant heart rate monitoring and the always-on screen, that time will increase to 4-5 days on average.

And you'll be notified every time you enable a feature that it "severely decreases battery life." When the market leaders only last a day, 4-5 days is absolutely acceptable.

On a side note, the terrible English, or more precisely, the poor translation from Chinese, can be irritating at times. If you have inactivity alerts turned on and don't move for an hour, you'll receive a notification saying "No standing for this hour." Allow yourself to unwind. "Take a stroll." And it says "Alarm closed" when you switch off the morning alarm.

Price & availability 

The Amazfit GTS 3 Smartwatch is currently available on the Aliexpress Store for a very good price So, don’t miss out on this great deal. And to view its price or buy it, you can access the offer by clicking Here.

Our Verdict

If the software on the GTS 3 was a little better, it may be a good Fitbit Versa competitor. If you have an iPhone, you might as well extend your spending a little further and acquire a Fitbit or perhaps an Apple Watch 3.