Huami Amazfit Cor Review: All Weather Fitness Band

Xiaomi sub-brand Huami entered Indian wearable market back in the fag end of July 2018. The brand started its journey in India with Amazfit Stratos and Amazfit Bip and now steps into the more affordable wearable segment with its first fitness band, Amazfit Cor.

Priced at Rs 3,999 the Amazfit aims to compliment Xiaomi’s presence in the affordable wearable tech market. But how much better or worse is it compared to regular Mi Bands from Xiaomi? Let’s find out in our Amazefit Cor review:

Huami Amazfit Cor Review: Design and Build Quality

Xiaomi’s designers have kept things simple and have taken a minimalistic approach while coming up with the Cor design. It is rectangular and primarily made of a 316L marine-grade stainless steel frame. Glossy and polished curved sides make it more appealing to the eyes. On top, the band includes a 1.23 inch IPS color screen inlaid with 2.5D Arc glass. And it weighs just 32 grams.

While the sides are clean, the bottom plate includes a heart rate sensor and two magnetic charging pins. The band has convex shape which ensures it sits well on the wrist. As for the straps, the Amazfit Cor has a pair of soft anti-tear silicone straps. If in case you get bored of the look, you can swap these easily with different color straps. The Cor looks stylish and has been built to last.

I occasionally bumped it to my work desk and a couple of times to the wall but it didn’t get any dents or scratches. After more than a week of usage, there are no scuff marks.

Also, it can withstand 5 ATM pressure and can survive up  50 m / 164 ft deep in water, which means you can take it swimming or need not worry if you forget to take it off before a shower

Huami Amazfit Cor: Display

The Amazfit Cor has a 1.23-inch color IPS LCD display with 160×80 pixels resolution. If you are upgrading from a conventional monochromatic OLED screen on budget fitness band, in that case, you will find it appealing. Apart from colors, you get great viewing angles. The display’s touch responsiveness is not bad either.

Another good thing about the Cor display is that it has an anti-fingerprint coating which is why it doesn’t require constant wiping.

That said, my concern is the legibility in sunlight. Especially when the Sun is at its brightest, it becomes little difficult to read contents of the display. The display resolution also left us wanting for more.

Huami Amazfit Cor: Setup and Mi-Fit App

Setting up the Amazfit Cor doesn’t take much of your time and its a fairly simple process. All you have to is just download the Mi-Fit app from Playstore or iOS store. Once the app is installed, fire it up and sign in to your Mi account. Now select ‘add a band’ option and follow the instructions to pair Cor to your phone.

Each time you open the MiFit app, the band will connect your phone automatically and will sync all the data with the app which takes about 30 seconds. Once you are all set, you can see all the information on the app in a more presentable manner.

Huami Amazfit Cor: Performance and UI

Huami for the hardware part has packed Amazfit Cor with 3-axis accelerometer for activity, sports and sleep tracking and an Optical heart rate sensor (PPG). At its heart, it also features a power efficient chipset and Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity.

The user interface is simple but it took us a while to understand how to navigate it. You can swipe left, right, up, down or just tap on options to select them. There are a number of watch faces pre-installed within the band and you can you can download more from the app.

As for performance, it basically monitors all your physical activities like steps taken and distance you covered all through the day. It also keeps a track of your heart rate and monitors your sleep. The Amazfit results were more or less in line with our reading on the Mi Band 2 and Lenovo HX03 Cardio (review) fitness bands. The margin of difference in result varied from 5-6 percent. Even on our manual step count test, it manages to come out with flying colors.

There’s one thing missing about the Cor and it is lack of multitasking. For instance, if you have set a timer, you won’t be able to check notifications and time.

Apart from fitness features, the Cor can provide you information related to calls, messages, app notifications, weather forecast, alarms, stopwatch and of course option to ‘find your phone’.

Huami Amazfit Cor Review: Battery Life

If there’s one thing that outright impressed us about the Amazfit Cor it has to be its battery life. The company claims to 10 to 12 days of battery life and it truly delivers on that promise. While I started it using at 100 percent battery almost a week later, I still had 55 percent fuel left in the tank.

Huami Amazfit Cor Review Verdict:

The Amazfit is a fitness tracker which has some additional tricks up its sleeves. The presence of IPS screen certainly ensures it looks sophisticated in hand.

The Cor is likely to appeal to budget fitness band buyers who are looking for a band that offers accurate trackings with a hint of smartwatch like touchscreen display on top. The presence of heart rate tracking and water and dust resistance should further make it appealing to budget buyers.