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Huami has been manufacturing wearables since 2014. However, it only started gaining limelight in 2016 when it was introduced to the world as a Xiaomi’s sub-brand. But that’s not true about Huami. While the manufacturer has its association with the Chinese manufacturer Xiaomi, it’s a separate entity with multiple investors — one of which is Xiaomi.
Huami’s greatest success is the big success of the Mi Band and Mi Fit app, taking Xiaomi to the top of the wearables market.
The company also makes products apart from Xiaomi and Mi brands. Huami has its own wearable lineup, one of which is Amazfit having quite amazing devices and a reasonable price. Huami has a global market share of over 17% through its Amazfit lineup.
One of the most recent smartwatch from Huami Amazfit is Amazfit GTS. Amazfit GTS has become the most liked smartwatch globally and the top performer in terms of sales volume in various countries. This smartwatch is our focus for review in this post.
Amazfit GTS Specifications
Have a brief look at the specs first.
| Sensors | 3-axis magnetic field sensor, 6-axis accelerometer, Ambient light sensor, barometer, optical heart-rate monitor |
| Connectivity | GNSS, GPS, GLONASS |
| Other components | Bluetooth 5.0 / BLE |
| Display | 1.65-inch AMOLED 348×442 (340 PPI) Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection |
| Battery | 220 mAh (14 days with normal use) |
| Other | Up to 50 metres water resistance |
Video Review
Amazfit GTS Design
Amazfit GTS has quite a resemblance to Apple Watch and many people will mistook it as Apple Watch. So if you are looking for a low cost Apple Watch lookalike, or simply a sporty looking fitness watch, you won’t be complaining.
Amazfit GTS has a rectangular design that is definitely a clone of Apple Watch. It is made up of aircraft grade aluminium alloy that makes it so lightweight, only 25 g without straps.This makes it lightest smartwatch in the market and even lighter from Apple Watch that is 31 g. You will not feel it while wearing it even for long times.
The watch is only 9.4 mm thick and the 1.65-inch, 442 x 348 display sits pretty within the metal body. That makes it thinner than Apple watch that is 11 mm.
Amazfit GTS has soft silicone straps as opposed to Amazfit GTR that has leather straps. That gives it a cheap look as compared to Amazfit GTR but makes it comfortable to wear for long time. Moreover leather straps of Amazfit GTR cracks easily. The straps can be easily removed, so you can swap in higher quality and different material bands for the 20 mm band size.
There’s crown button on one side of the Amazfit GTS. Its placement is a little different from Apple Watch and it does not rotate. It doubles as power button. It can be used to return to the home screen or wake the watch when the display is off.
On the back of the watch, their is optical heart rate sensor and 2-pins POGO Pin.
Amazfit GTS Display
It’s a rectangle-faced design with a 1.65-inch AMOLED display, with a pretty impressive 341 ppi and a 348 x 442 resolution. It’s a great display and up there with the brightest. Not quite as good as the Apple Watch or Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2, but ahead of most of the Wear OS smartwatches you’ll find.
The density is better than Amazfit GTR i.e. 326 ppi. Even when you look closely you will not see individual pixels. It is bright enough to be visible under sunlight. It also comes with an ambient light sensor, allowing the watch to control brightness automatically and react quickly to ambient lighting conditions. There is no apparent shifting in colors from an angle.
Screen can be turned on with the flick of wrist or when you raise the wrist to see the time. Otherwise, you can always press the button. For me, flicking the wrist worked 90% of the time. You can also turn off the ‘lift wrist to view info’ setting altogether from the app during your sleep hours. While the display is sharp and vibrant, I couldn’t come across a single watch face that utilizes its full potential and makes it truly stand out; something like the stock analog watch face on the GTR that complemented it to perfection. The pre-loaded watch faces here can be customized to display a variety of information of your choice from step count, calories burned, heart rate, battery and more.
The display is also protected with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 that will protect this beautiful AMOLED display form wear and tear marks. This is not found in cheap watches otherwise.
Always On Display (AOD)
The Amazfit GTS also has an always-on-display functionality, that displays basic information like time, date and step count in either an analog or digital style. You can only choose from two preset faces (or turn AOD off), no further customization is possible here. Always on display also has the massive drawback of draining battery life.
Watch Faces
There are a plenty of watch faces you can download through the Amazfit app. They are 60+ and you can also download third party watch faces. You can also customize three watch faces background to whatever image you like. But only one watch face can be downloaded to watch at a time, other two are default watch faces and can’t be deleted. But the two default watch faces are modular and you can change the widgets. That’s a nice and great feature.
Amazfit GTS Hardware and Connectivity
Huami has not revealed any information about the processor that is used in Amazfit GTS or GTR. There’s neither information of the RAM nor the storage. Since both are more of a hybrid between a smartwatch and a fitness tracker, they also lack some of the hardware features we see on proper smartwatches — there are no speakers, no mics, no NFC, no USB ports, and no network connectivity features beyond Bluetooth. Fewer features mean longer battery life and cheaper pricing, so this is a blessing in disguise.
Amazfit GTS equips a PPG (photoplethysmography) heart rate sensor, commonly referred to as an optical heart rate sensor. This PPG sensor is complemented by a 6-axis accelerometer, 3-axis geomagnetic sensor, a barometer for measuring the air pressure, and an ambient light sensor. It also comes with GPS and GLONASS for positioning.
Amazfit GTS connects to smartphone using Bluetooth 5.0. There is no other option for connecting watch to phone or to other accessories such as Bluetooth headsets. And you can’t store any music on the watch, You can, however, control music playback on your smartphone through the watch, and this music could be playing through a Bluetooth headset.
Amazfit GTS Features and Software
The UI on the Amazfit GTS is exactly the same as on Amazfit GTR. Most of navigation is done by scrolling up and down through the lists, while a swipe from the left to the right goes back to the previous screen. Pressing on the crown button takes you back to the main watch face, and pressing it again turn off the display, and yet another press of the button or tap on the display lights it up.
On the main watch face, you can swipe right and left to access step count and heart rate data respectively. Swipe down brings quick settings panel, which has toggle flashlight, DND, Brightness, and display lock options.
The watch also supports displaying notifications that from the phone. App alerts for notifications are set on the phone app, so that you can choose only apps you want to receive notifications from. Notifications can be cleared, but cannot be responded through the watch.
One advantage of Amazfit GTS over cheaper fitness trackers is the GPS within the watch.
This makes it good for tracking workouts, such as walking and running, as you can record GPS data even if you do not have your smartphone around. The GPS on the watch connects quickly and lock in when you are outside If you are indoors, you will quickly lose GPS, and getting a connection back would force you to wait for 10-15 seconds. This data is also shared with Amazfit app, where you can check all the activities. Along with GPS data, you also get more information on your workout.
The watch can also track sleep. But I don’t like wearing a watch while sleeping. The sleep data is not much accurate and it will only track when you sleep at night, daytime naps are not tracked. Sleep data can only be viewed on Amazfit app and not on watch. You can also get details of different sleep stages like light sleep, deep sleep.
PAI (Personalized Activity Intelligence) is a scientifically validated metric that provides data about how the exercise you do is contributing to your health. PAI is a bridge between activity data and how your own health is affected, whether you have done enough or not based on your personal heart rate data.
PAI uses the continuous heart rate data collected during physical activity to provide a PAI score. The total PAI score is based on a 7-day window, and the goal is to maintain a PAI score of 100 or more, which has apparently proven to provide maximum health benefits. The goal of 100 PAI is also apparently unique to every person.
Amazfit GTS Battery
Amazfit GTS has 220 mAh battery only compared to the 410 mAh on the Amazfit GTR 47mm. Still Amazfit GTS can give 14 days of battery life. With continuous heart rate measurement, exercises, notifications and vibrations, I could comfortably reach 12 days of battery life. This is without Always on display which greatly reduces battery life and in my case 50%, so I get 6 days on single charge.
Amazfit GTS takes about an hour to charge fully. It has 2 pin POGO Pins magnetic charger that is inlcuded in the box. Since the charger holds the watch in place with the help of magnets, you don’t have to struggle with the watch in any way to get it to charge. The maximum charging rate is 2.5W (5V @ 0.5A). So you should not charge it on a fast charger.
Price and Final Verdict
Huami has equipped the watch with an AMOLED panel, GPS and a long-lasting battery. I liked that the watch does not always need to be connected to a smartphone.
Overall, the Amazfit GTS is ideal for those who want a simple smartwatch with built-in fitness tracker. The watch will not look out of place next to its more expensive contemporaries. Hence, we now have no concerns about recommending the device if you are on the lookout for an affordable smartwatch.
Amazfit GTS is priced at $150 that is half of price of most other competitors like Samsung, Huawei and $250 less than Apple Watch. But Geekbuying.com is selling it for $139.99 and if you want to get more discount then you apply this promo code “GEEKGTS11” then you can get it for $127.99. This is a limited time offer and can expire at anytime. Geekbuying is a reliable shopping website so should not be worry about clones because this watch has lot of clones due to its popularity. If you are interested you can follow this link or click Buy button below.
