It was a few months when I tested the Amazfit GTS4 and I was amazed by the smart watch which is no doubt targeting those who are hardcore into working out but also want style and improved usage versus to some of the big brand health-related smartwatches at a fraction of the cost.
And now, I have been excited to testing out the Amazfit GTR 4 Smart Watch. And all I can say is “WOW!”.
For under $170, this watch has been more than what I expected and much better than my big brand smartwatch that I have been using for workouts.
The Amazfit GTR 4 uses industry-leading dual-band circularly-polarized GPS antenna technology and it’s a watch that is built on the Zepp OS 2.0 and has Alexa built-in. So, in essence, you do need to have the Zepp App loaded in order for it to sync with other workout apps. But it’s all good because the OS allows one to install mini-apps and more. For me, this is important that I am an avid user of STRAVA. So, I’m glad that I can sync from Zepp to it.
The customizable/downloadable watch faces to give your watch a more workout oriented look or a faux mechanical watch look or whatever design is pretty good and doesn’t take as much space as my other watch, where I could only keep so many designs that I have to keep deleting in order for my watch sync to work right.
Because the watch is a much larger 1.43 AMOLED display and has anti-fingerprint coating, the watch is not the squarish small version like the AmazFit GTS4, this is a much larger watch that features a circular shape and thus the store for it features much different faces. And so far the designs available are so awesome and love the creativity for some trying to create sports watch designs and also luxury watch designs.
I will say, if they found a way for one to customize their own watch by allowing people to add their own photos, this would be awesome!
In addition, for those getting it for the workout, there are 150+ sports modes and smart recognition of 8 Sports. Literally, for various workouts, I can find it on this watch and that is a plus (compared to my other more expensive watch, which I have to group certain workouts to another mode). You can also create interval training templates for 10 sports, directly on the watch. Templates can be divided into stages, which can be looped up to 30 times.
In addition, the watch features the new BioTracker 4.0 PPG biometric sensor, which allows for 24-hour monitoring of heart-rate, blood-oxygen saturation and stress levels. As well as detecting breathing rate, and can quickly measure four important health metrics in one easy tap.
While the watch is water-resistant of 5ATM (50 meters), I wouldn’t wear this watch while swimming or surfing.
And yes, the watch will let you know when to get up and do some movement, so workers who sit a lot will like this function.
I also get a PAI Health Assessment System score which processes data about your heart rate and other health information with an algorithm. Which is a nice addition.
If there is something that this watch does not have, but my other watch does have is an altimeter. But it’s OK, but I’m sure it would be a function that others would like in the next version of the watch.
And for golfers, there is no way to download courses of maps or distances. But it would be nice if they added that function in the next version.
The other thing that I wished this had was to find out how much storage is available. I know with my big brand sports smartwatch, I constantly run out of space and when I sync, I tend to get the out of space error. But with this, I haven’t had that problem yet, but it would be nice to know, because I download a lot of watch faces. And the fact you can transfer MP3 music via Bluetooth to your watch, while this is great. Again, without knowing the storage limits, makes it a bit difficult and I feel this is important for software developers to have for this watch.
While I am not sure what type of battery is used, it has a 14-day battery life and I have tested this and it’s definitely 14 days. Possibly more because I have used this for a month and I haven’t need to recharge that much. I think only once. I am impressed.
As for Alexa, yes you must have your phone around for the watch to connect. But you can ask Alexa with the most basic questions and get the weather. And while Alexa is great for online mode, there is an offline mode with voice commands and after a workout, it will read your after work out stats and more.
You can also make and answer calls directly from the watch, download and store music on the watch and pair bluetooth headphones or speakers to play music.
For those wondering about languages, this watch offers a long list of languages offered, English, French, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese and more.
Like other smart activity watches, charging cable is proprietary but magnetic and easy to charge, unlike my other more expensive sports watch which the connection is not that great.
Now one thing that people may wonder if the watch strap can be replaced, yes it can easily be replaced.
I will say though, the Amazfit GTR 4 Smart Watch is fantastic. I thought the Amazfit GTS4 Mini Smart Watch was cool, but this one exceeds it in every way. At first, I thought maybe this was your basic sports watch, but part of the reason why I wanted to try it because I read it works with Strava and that was a plus!
The watch was more than I expected and I stop using my big brand sports watch. It has more activities that I can use during my work out, it is a lot easier to charge, no problems with sync (or worries of application taking up space in the watch) and easy to connect to the satellite, it’s more colorful and crisp.
It’s no doubt a fantastic smart sportswatch that at the price it’s offered, bests some of the big brand sports watches capabilities that are twice as expensive and seeing the watch face support and the potential for major updates is quite appealing.
The Amazfit GTR 4 Mini Smart Watch is highly recommended!
