Amazfit T-Rex Pro Review Summary
Expert Rating: 4/5
Design and Build
Display and UI
Performance
Pros
- Military-graded Rugged build
- 10ATM water resistance
- Big and bright touch display
- Responsive and Elegant UI
- Vibrant haptics
- Built-in GPS
- Decent battery life
- Fair accuracy
Cons
- Buttons aren’t very clicky
- Limited 3rd party app support
Health is wealth — This statement holds water more than ever in the current climate. And as the stay-at-home life is very much on the treadmill, most of us are consciously spending time and money on our wellbeing. We are buying various kinds of wares and wearables to keep an eye on our health and fitness. A smartwatch is a fine example of this. In fact, an IDC report published last November shows that watches clocked the biggest quarter results ever since their entry in India. Not only that, the market is apparently seeing a migration from fitness bands to full-fledged smartwatches. So, if you are also shopping for a new smartwatch, and have a decent leeway with your budget, the Amazfit T-Rex Pro is worth considering.
The T-Rex Pro is priced at ₹12,999 and is an upgrade to last year’s standard variant. The new Pro model features include 10ATM (up from 5ATM) water resistance, MIL-STD-810G certification for sturdiness, built-in GPS connectivity, improved heart rate sensor, blood oxygen (SpO2) tracking, an altimeter, and over 100 (up from 15) sports modes. After all, it’s made for outdoor activity and adventure enthusiasts. Now while all that sounds impressive, we will see how well they work and more importantly, whether it’s worth investing in the T-Rex Pro in the new normal life.
So let’s just dig in. This is the Smartprix review of the Amazfit T-Rex Pro.
Amazfit T-Rex Pro Unboxing
- Watch
- Charging base
- Product Manual
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Contents
Amazfit T-Rex Pro Specs and Price in India
Screen: 1.3″ AMOLED, 360 X 360 pixels, Always-on Display, Tempered glass + anti-fingerprint coating
Body: Polycarbonate Chassis with Silicone rubber strap
Dimensions and Weight: Watch – 47.7 X 47.7 X 13.5mm and 59.4g (with strap); Strap: 122mmx 78mmx 22mm
Water resistance: 10ATM
Sensors: BioTracker 2 PPG bio-tracking optical sensor, 3-axis acceleration sensor, 3-axis gyroscope sensor, Geomagnetic sensor, Ambient light sensor, Barometric altimeter
Processor: RTOS
Battery: 390 mAh with Magnetic 2-pins Pogo Pin
Misc: Bluetooth 5.0 BLE, GPS+GLONASS, GPS+BeiDou, GPS+Galileo, support for Android 5.0 or iOS 10.0 and above
Amazfit T-Rex Pro Design and Build
T-Rex Pro resembles the G-Shocks and other popular outdoor watches. It has got that rugged and shock-proof appearance. Well, not just in looks, but it is all those things with a weight of 59.4g (w/strap) and is tested and qualified to endure temperatures from 70℃ heat to -40℃ cold, 240 Hrs of humidity, 96 Hrs of Salt spray, shock resistance and extreme conditions of this sort. So yea, it’s a monster of a thing, but sits rather amiably on my wrist.
On the face, T-Rex Pro has got a round dial with protruding bezels. This wall, besides providing protection to the display, also has red-colored nautical marks and nametags for the four side buttons. The clickiness of the buttons could’ve been better. Anyhow they work and here are their functions –
- Clicking the Up button (on the left) brings the quick settings menu, and can be used for upward navigation
- Clicking the Down button (on the left) shows the activities feed along with some tracker starters.
- Pressing the Select button (on the right) as the name suggests, lets you select the highlighted item on the screen. Further, you can hit it to quickly start one of your preferred trackers or features. For example, I had set the SpO2 monitor. So, you can configure this depending on your need.
- Pressing the Back button lets you move back from any screen, and eventually to the home. And whence you are on the main screen, clicking it brings a list of all the available trackers, apps, and options.
Now you can do many of these navigations and app selections using just touch. But the presence of buttons ensures you don’t have to interact with the screen that often. And also in cases where your hands are gloved, a button should be more convenient to use. You can configure the role of buttons and much more using the Tools & Amazfit (paid though) app on Play Store.
I like the whole ruff and tuff feel of the T-Rex Pro brought in by the raised elements on the rim and sides, the build of the silicone strap, up to 10ATM water resistance, and the MIL-STD-810G certification for durability. The latter denotes its capability of enduring extreme weather and terrain conditions. So, overall I give it a thumbs up for the design part.
With that let’s move on to the next part.
Amazfit T-Rex Pro Display and UI
Within the fortress of polycarbonate resides a 1.3-inch AMOLED display with 360 X 360-pixel resolution. There is tempered glass and an anti-fingerprint coating on top to fend off smear and chances of tear. Not that it’s prone to smudges, but there are fewer and don’t hinder the visibility. Anyways, the panel gets plenty bright (there’s auto-mode too), with good legibility in and out of doors. The colors and animations are visually pleasing too. Also, I didn’t have a problem while scrolling and sliding through its various screens.
There is an option to enable Always on Display (must be activated). You can choose the Screen Off Styles too. I chose a digital watch-face. Speaking of which, there is a boatload of watch faces to try. If what you get on board isn’t enough, check out Amazfitwatchfaces.com or AmazFaces app for more. A lot more, really.
Raising your wrist will turn on the screen. sometimes with a few seconds delay. Swiping down presents the control center, swiping up brings the activity and tracker widgets, swiping right gives you a glance of synced phone notifications, and swiping left shows all apps and settings. So there are multiple ways to access a single thing. Appreciated!
Next, we have the other half of this touch and tap experience, i.e., the software. Let’s get into it and the rest of the experience.
Amazfit T-Rex Pro Performance
Amazfit T-Rex Pro runs on proprietary software powered by RTOS (Real-time OS) which means you don’t get the fancy app library like Google Play Store on a WearOS. On the other hand, such custom FreeRTOS renditions are known to require fewer resources while delivering better processing speeds and power efficiency. In my usage, there was never a time when I felt any sort of lag or jitter. As for battery life, the thing is rated for 18 days’ worth of runtime in “typical usage”. Now, if you turn on all the features like Always-on Display, constant heart rate tracking, GPS on, workout detection, and screen brightness set to full, this would fall to a week’s use or even less. Still, it’s plenty more than what the Apples and Googles can claim. Plus, the T-Rex gets back on its feet within an hour and a half of top-up.
Coming to health and fitness, the T-Rex Pro packs a truckload of features. Spec-wise, it is armed with BioTracker 2 PPG bio-tracking optical sensor, 3-axis acceleration sensor, 3-axis gyroscope sensor, Geomagnetic sensor, Ambient light sensor, and a Barometric altimeter. So, you get the real-time all-day active heart rate, assisted sleep monitoring, all-day stress monitoring, and 100+ sports modes. The list is too long you see. There’s something for everyone.
As for my testing, I used it while doing some indoor exercises, not that I would go out while it’s a frickin’ pandemic and all. Incidentally, just a day or two after I got this, the lockdown in Delhi resumed. Still, on my way to and back from the vaccination center, I kept tabs on the walking distance, steps, calories burnt, and GPS precision. For comparison, I had a cheaper fitness band strapped on the other hand. And the results from Amazfit were more in step with the actual meters. Moreover, it presents a variety of metrics like heart rate (incl. zones), altitude, cadence, stride, aerobic training effect. Again these don’t mean anything for my use case. But, when things are normal and you venture out, these would be meaningful.
Now, these workout records are synced over to Zepp, which is Amazfit’s own mobile app. The app is a neat control center for every Amazfit product, I suppose. The data is displayed in a discernible manner. This application is available on both premier platforms. The pairing process is pretty easy and you will do it as you go. You also get Google Fit and Strava interoperability. Good!
The phone notifications, music control, stopwatch, alarm, timer, compass, barometer, and weather are useful too.
Verdict: Should you buy Amazfit T-Rex Pro?
Editor’s rating
In these not-so-outdoorsy times, T-Rex Pro feels too powerful to be caged. It’s a beast of a smartwatch. There are no two ways about it. And that’s the main reason to go for it. It is built to withstand most weather, wear, and tear. The display and controls, both software and hardware make it easily maneuverable. The battery life is par for the course too. In its runtime, you get to track heart rate, blood oxygen, lots of sports and activities. And I feel the accuracy of the accompanying stats is also alright.
There’s hardly anything wrong here. However, even with all the stats, it shares, if you want more smarts, say something with the fancy voice assistant, or a flock of 3rd party apps to function or fiddle with, you could try something with Wear, Tizen, or WatchOS. But, those would mostly cost more too. So, for the price at which it comes, and for an outdoor watch, that’s rugged, the Amazfit T-Rex Pro is a great buy.
Reasons to buy
- Military-graded Rugged build
- 10ATM water resistance
- Big and bright touch display
- Responsive and Elegant UI
- Vibrant haptics
- Built-in GPS
- Decent battery life
- Fair accuracy
Reasons to not buy
- Buttons aren’t very clicky
- Limited 3rd party app support
Amazfit T-Rex Pro FAQ
Q. Does Amazfit T-Rex Pro have GPS?
A. Yes, Amazfit T-Rex Pro does support built-in GPS.
Q. Does Amazfit T-Rex Pro have an Always-on Display?
A. Yes, Amazfit T-Rex Pro doesn’t have an Always-on display.
Q. Does Amazfit T-Rex Pro come with a screen protection?
A. Yes, Amazfit T-Rex Pro comes with tempered glass and anti-fingerprint coating.
Q. Is Amazfit T-Rex Pro waterproof?
A. Yes, Amazfit T-Rex Pro features 10ATM water resistance.
Q. Can you take calls on Amazfit T-Rex Pro?
A. No, you cannot make and receive calls over Bluetooth on the Amazfit T-Rex Pro. But, you get a notification of the phone call and accept/reject it. Once accepted, you have to talk over the phone itself. You cannot answer calls on the T-Rex Pro.
Q. Can you replace the straps of Amazfit T-Rex Pro?
A. No, you cannot quickly release the current strap of Amazfit T-Rex Pro.
Q. Does Amazfit T-Rex Pro have oximeter?
A. Yes, Amazfit T-Rex Pro has SpO2 meter inside.