Amazfit refreshes its vast lineup of affordable smartwatches and fitness trackers on a regular basis. There are so many releases happening all the time that it's hard to keep up with all of them sometimes.
The Amazfit Balance is a fairly new entrant to the brand's portfolio that "takes the baton" from the popular GTR and GTS series. It seems to be very similar to the Amazfit GTR Mini, which I also reviewed, but it clearly costs more and has a lot more to offer. Next to the very best Android smartwatches, the Balance is super budget-friendly.
If you were to judge this wearable solely based on the design, you would be deceived for it is far lighter than it looks. Yet somehow, Amazfit packed an enormous battery into this lightweight smartwatch. The Amazfit Balance brings a lot to the table, but can it compete with a Wear OS smartwatch? Let's find out.
Price and availability
The Amazfit Balance was released in September 2023 and retails for $199.99 generally. It is widely available to purchase from various retailers such as Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart.
You can buy the Amazfit Balance in Midnight Black with a dark case and a black silicon band or in Sunset Grey with a light gray case and an adjustable, multicolored woven band.
All the pros
The Amazfit Balance intends to succeed two of the brand's most successful smartwatch series, the GTR and GTS models. No wonder the Balance combines all the best elements of the two lineups, delivering a durable yet lightweight design at an amicable price.
Despite its huge 1.5-inch AMOLED screen, the Amazfit Balance still manages to weigh a mere 35g. This, combined with the woven band, make the Amazfit smartwatch extremely comfortable for daily wear. It's easy to forget that you have a smartwatch on your wrist.
As you'd expect, the Amazfit Balance has over 150 sports modes, SpO2 tracking, heart rate monitoring, sleep tracking, menstrual tracking, and a wide array of other health and fitness tracking metrics and sensors. It's quite durable too, touting 5 ATM water resistance.
What will definitely blow your mind, as it did mine, is the insane battery life. This thing can go on for two weeks easily with a single charge, even with moderate to heavy use. And if you're a light user, this can easily go up to 20 days in my experience.
Amazfit tried its utmost to bolster the Amazfit Balance with a healthy selection of apps and features. There are many more third-party apps available via the Zepp app on smartphones. At long last, Amazfit also added the ability to respond to messages on the Balance smartwatch. Users can type out a response using the wearable's QWERTY keyboard, pick one of the preset responses, or even use AI's help to reply to messages.
The Amazfit Balance has a microphone and speaker onboard, so you don't have to rely on your phone. Local storage and Bluetooth enable you to store music on the watch and stream it to your earbuds or headphones directly from the watch itself.
Speaking of AI, Amazfit followed in the footsteps of Samsung, Google, and Apple by incorporating AI-based features into the Amazfit Balance. You can use Alexa on your watch or change the assistant to Zepp Flow, which is powered by GPT-4o. Other AI-based features of the watch include Zepp Coach and Zepp Aura. AI is baked into the core of the Balance, collecting and compiling your health and fitness data to intelligently make recommendations.
Some features require you to update the Amazfit Balance. Although it runs Zepp OS 3.5 out of the box, you can upgrade it to the latest Zepp OS 4 immediately to get all the latest features.
Unignorable cons
While the Amazfit Balance is chock full of fitness tracking options, not all of them work perfectly. The pedometer does not count steps accurately, logging incorrect numbers randomly at times.
And while I am grateful for the newly incorporated ability to respond to messages or notifications on the watch, the feature gets stuck a lot. I faced this issue with Slack and Gmail where the Amazfit Balance refused to let me respond. Hopefully, future patches will smoothen out such glitches.
The watch has other caveats as well. Sure, NFC payments are available, but only through the Zepp Pay app. There's no option to install Google Wallet, Samsung Pay, or Apple Pay. No matter how secure Amazfit promises Zepp Pay to be, not everyone will trust such a lesser-known app with their financial details. In all honesty, I did not enter my details into it either. Not to mention, not every region's banks and cards will support the app either.
Lastly, Amazfit should seriously consider adding an LTE variant of the watch. If it has contactless payments, the Amazfit Balance can be used on its own without relying on a smartphone. It's ideal for non-intrusive workouts where you don't want to bring your phone along, so an LTE smartwatch can sub as a replacement for payments, navigation, and emergency calls. You can't use the Amazfit Balance for any of that unless it's connected to a phone that has an internet connection.
Competition
Although the Amazfit Balance is already very cheap, you can get an even more capable smartwatch for the same retail price. I'm talking about the Samsung Galaxy Watch FE, a Wear OS smartwatch that comes with Wear OS 4 installed out of the box.
Even though the Galaxy Watch FE is basically a revamped version of the Galaxy Watch 4, it has access to hundreds of apps thanks to Wear OS 4. Equipped with a more powerful processor and flagship-level sensors, the Samsung smartwatch beats the Amazfit Balance without a doubt.
The one arena where Amazfit stands a chance is the battery life, which is unbeatable when it comes to the Amazfit Balance. Your Galaxy Watch FE won't go on for more than a day and a half or two days at max.
Should you buy it?
You should buy it if...
- You prioritize battery life above all else
- You're on a sub-$200 budget
- You want loads of fitness modes
- You prefer lighter watches
- You need a bright and large display
You shouldn't buy it if...
- You're expecting unfettered third-party app support like Wear OS
- You want to use other apps for NFC payments
- You need an LTE smartwatch
- You're a serious athlete
My final verdict is this: the Amazfit Balance has an awesome battery life rivalled by no other. If you're a light or average smartwatch user with basic needs, you'll be content with this wearable. It charges fast and feels comfortable, plus you can frequently score a nice discount to knock 15% to 20% off the price tag.
However, if you're looking for a Wear OS smartwatch with access to hundreds and hundreds of apps, the Amazfit Balance probably won't cut it for you. It doesn't have Spotify or WhatsApp, NFC payments are restricted to a single app, and the software is somewhat buggy. There's no LTE model either.
This isn't a smartwatch for serious users. If you have used the Amazfit GTS or GTR series, you're the right target audience for this watch. Just wait for a good sale before buying the Amazfit Balance for $200, though, because that'll improve its value prospect significantly.
It's all about balance
The Amazfit Balance is the ultimate battery champion among wearables. This smartwatch can go on and on for weeks on a single charge. Another big advantage of this deceptively large watch is its lightweightedness. You also get loads of health and fitness tracking features as well as NFC for contactless payments and Alexa built-in.
