Amazfit Active 2: first impressions
The best way to describe the Amazfit Active 2 is to take the Chinese brand's description to heart: it's a smartwatch for fashion-conscious, health-focused people. This is a budget-friendly GPS watch, sure, but don't let that fool you. It is absolutely brimming with features and looks great on the wrist.
The 44mm case works for small wrists and with a stainless steel bezel and brilliant AMOLED display that's easy to read in bright sunlight, on night runs and rainy days, it looks like a high-quality watch. It's controlled by two buttons: one to access activities and another that accesses other functions from weather forecast to timers, alarms and voice notes. To back out of any menu, just swipe left to right and if you swipe down on the home screen, you can quickly access functions like Do Not Disturb and adjust the screen brightness. It can all be controlled by voice and a responsive touchscreen.
The silicone band tucks the extra piece of strap away next to your skin, which means you always have to fasten it one notch looser than you normally would, but it also means the watch sits nice and tidily against your wrist.
This watch boasts 164 different sports modes, and if like us, your adventures tend to take place outside on the trails, it has free offline maps with GPS turn-by-turn directions. This is breadcrumb navigation, not topo maps, but we've found the GPS to be accurate when paired side by side with other watches. If you want to get it in the water, it's a great lap swimming companion and thoughtfully ejects water from the speaker when you're finished.
• List price: $99.99 / £99.99
• Case sizes: 44mm
• Display: 2,000 nits AMOLED
• Weight (with silicone strap): 1.4oz / 40g
• Battery life: Up to 10 days
• Water rating: 5ATM
• Materials: Stainless steel bezel, polymer middle frame, sapphire glass (premium version), 2.5D tempered glass (standard)
• Best use: Trail running, Hiking, Swimming, Cycling, Gym
BioTracker technology tracks your heart rate and sleep patterns, and when compared to other watches, we found the average heart rate to be a little higher, while the max heart rate was always the same. Full training advice and health metrics come from wearing the watch round the clock, and if you're doing that make sure you turn on Sleep Mode to keep your watch from disturbing you.
This watch pairs with the Zepp App, which has tons of AI features for training and health. A friendly morning report tells you what the weather is going to be and suggests activities throughout the day. You can chat with an AI coach to set up a running plan, upload photos of your meals to gauge their nutritional value, get prompts to stand up and stretch, and kudos when you hit your targets. The Zepp Aura sleep coach offers customized sleep and relaxation music and provides sleep health reports and suggestions.
You can make and receive calls, texts and other notifications, and it's a really good rival to smartwatches like the Apple Watch Ultra, only considerably cheaper and with far better battery life – we've charged it three times in three weeks. Is it perfect? No, but it's a zippy little smartwatch that goes above and beyond for the price and we think it's a strong contender for best cheap GPS watch of the year.
Amazfit Active 2: in the field
I've put about 40 miles in on the trail wearing this watch over the past three weeks, including night runs and one 13-mile hike across four Munros. I've also worn it for multiple yoga sessions and a pool swim.
I've been wearing it on my right wrist and either the Coros Pace Pro or Coros Pace 3 on my left wrist to see how it compares in terms of accuracy and metrics.
Here’s how it performed:
Design
The first thing I noticed when I received this watch is how great it looks. I just didn't expect that from the price tag, and of all the sports watches I've tested, this is the first that actually just looks like a watch and doesn't scream "I work out!".
The stainless steel bezel makes it look classy, the silicone strap is super comfortable, especially because I can tuck the tail of the strap away against my wrist, and the default 12-hour clock face just looks classy (but if you don't know how to read a 12-hour clock, you can switch it to digital).
The setup and interface is a little different to what I'm used to, but it's also really intuitive to figure out. There's a button to press to access the different sport modes, and you can swipe to go back, and another button that takes you into all the other features, like alarms and voice notes.
Features
This watch honestly has so many features that it's hard to know where to start. For training and activities, there's all the tracking you'd expect: steps, pace, cadence, calories, GPS tracking, blood oxygen and heart rate zones. There's a virtual pacer and a cadence assistant and I can download a GPX map from AllTrails (on my desktop) and send it to myself to follow a predetermined route. I love that it's voice activated, so I can just press a button and say "start trail running" and I'm ready to go.
I dutifully wore it 24 hours a day for the first few days so I could experience the whole package in terms of training readiness and it's actually comfortable enough to sleep with. Unfortunately, I hadn't realized that there's a Sleep Mode function so it would light up whenever I moved which was disturbing my sleep, but now I know better. Anyway, the sleep tracking seemed comparable to what I get from my Coros Pace 3 and I'd get insights asking if I'd had caffeine or alcohol before bed when my heart rate was elevated or suggesting I get to bed earlier if I'd had a late night.
The Zepp app itself gives an overview of my readiness on the home screen with all the core metrics like recovery and exertion load (these fields are all empty if you don't wear the watch to sleep). I can track my nutrition by uploading photos of my meals here too. There's a workout tab where I can navigate to my activity history and see metrics like VO2 max and then there's the Zepp Aura tab which seems to be a place to find breathing exercises and relaxing sounds. I haven't dug into that too much, but I do love that there's a meditation timer and I use that every morning.
It's these AI functions that I think make the Active 2 a viable alternative to the Apple Watch. Throughout the day I get suggestions, like "why not take a run or walk today" and even advice around creating a quiet evening routine to support sleep. Sometimes these are a little misguided – for example, after a six-hour hike, I was driving home and my watch suggested I get up and take a walk after an hour in the car, but that's the nature of AI.
In general, I think it's the AI training that makes this watch stand out as a viable alternative to something like the Apple Watch. It's not a diving watch and the flashlight is really just a bright screen (which is enough to get dressed in the dark without disturbing your partner) and the maps might not be the best, but it's got more than enough features for most users.
Performance
Like any AMOLED screen, this one is easy to see in brilliant sunshine (though not so much with my SunGod Miras on), at night, in the rain, pretty much whatever I'm doing.
I've had a lot of fun playing around with the AI functions with this watch, finding the morning report and health prompts quite cheerful, and the nutrition function really interesting. I didn't really believe it would be able to ID my meals from photographs but it's pretty accurate, only mistaking my lentil dahl for a vegetable curry, and though I'm not a calorie or macro counter, it is interesting to get a snapshot of my daily nutritional spread.
However, I'm primarily looking for a watch to track my hikes and trail runs and that's mostly where I spent my time in terms of gauging the performance of the Active 2. Wearing it in conjunction with another watch, it's clear the GPS is great, buzzing at almost identical intervals along the trail.
The maps aren't really detailed enough to navigate by without a backup, but when I preloaded the same map onto this and a watch with a topo map, this one was always pointing me in the right direction.
The one area where I'm not sure this watch is totally precise is the heart rate sensor. I recently tested the Garmin Fenix 8 against the Coros Pace 3 found that the two delivered nearly identical heart rate reports (within a few beats of each other) across every activity. This left me as confident as I can be that those two watches are accurate. When I wear this watch with the Pace 3, however, I noticed that it consistently records my average heart rate as a good 15 beats per minute higher. Yesterday, I went on a pretty easy and short trail run and it said my average heart rate was 165 which seems very high.
My maximum heart is usually the same whatever other watch I'm wearing, so I can't quite figure out if it's actually inaccurate, or just using a different algorithm, but I have to think that averages are averages and 15 - 20 beats difference is enough to have someone training in the wrong heart rate zone. That said, I also think if you're being that meticulous about your training you'll be looking at either a heart rate monitor or a more expensive watch.
In general, I think it's a really responsive watch and the touchscreen couldn't work any better, but when I was out on a long 21k hike and following a map on this watch, I did notice that it got less and less responsive each time I lifted my wrist. I suspect this is because the battery was starting to run low, but in general when I lift my wrist it only takes half a second to light up.
In the pool, it's easy to see under water when I want to see how many laps I've swum and I like that when I end the workout it spits the water out of the speaker.
Finally, though I've been comparing this to the Apple Watch, it really is distinctly different in one very crucial way: the battery life is excellent. In three weeks, I've only had to charge it three times and that's with quite heavy GPS use so for more typical use I think you can easily expect 10 days out of a single charge (it comes with a tiny charging dock that works with any USB-C cable).
Value
This watch sits comfortably in the cheap GPS watch category, but you get a ton of bang for your buck. It's absolutely laden with features, has an excellent battery life and looks really nice. The only issue I see is that after three weeks, I've noticed a scratch on the screen, and I don't know how it got there, though I'm certain that I haven't done anything crazy. There seems to be the choice between a Sapphire screen and tempered glass, and though I'm not sure, I suspect I've been sent the latter to test. It's a good argument for paying more for the Sapphire which will hold up to more wear and tear.
Amazfit Active 2: the bottom line
As promised, this watch is for those who like to look good and care about their health. It's extremely affordable and impressively featured, and if the only thing keeping you from getting an Apple Watch is the poor battery life, this is the answer.
For training, it's got more than enough features for entry-level and beyond, though if you're looking for something with decent maps and pristine heart rate tracking, you'll do better with a more training-focused sportswatch.
Also consider
Though not quite as cheap as the Active 2, the Amazfit GTS 4 is still an affordable alternative to a Garmin featuring a bright AMOLED display, excellent GPS and a lot of excellent features. It's another watch we'd recommend to beginner/intermediate runners who aren't looking for anything too fancy but want reliability and great health tracking.
For
- Affordably priced
- Excellent GPS accuracy
- Bright AMOLED display
- Well crafted interface
Against
- Plain design
- Basic recovery metrics
Like the Active 2, the Apple Watch Ultra has a good focus on health tracking, superb GPS and an AMOLED display. It's got some thoughtful features for outdoor adventures including an excellent display for maps. Of course, it integrates neatly with your iPhone, iPad, MacBook and so on, and there are loads of intagration opportunities from third party sports tracking apps, but what you gain in access, you lose in battery power.
For
- Extremely fast GPS lock
- Excellent display for maps
- Huge range of third-party apps
- Robust, premium design
- Comfortable and secure band
Against
- Digital Crown may rub your wrist
- Relatively short battery life
