Huami is a popular California-based smart wearable brand which is often confused as a Xiaomi sub-brand. Xiaomi’s founder Lei Jun and his company altogether hold a 40% stake in Huami but the brand is not controlled by Xiaomi. Huami holds 16-percent of the global market share of the smart wearable segment and is also involved in the development of Xiaomi’s Mi Bands. (Huami Amazfit GTR Review हिंदी में पढ़िए)
Huami entered the Indian market a year ago and since then has steadily been expanding its product line in the country. A couple of months back a new GTR smartwatch was added to the lineup and here we will be discussing the 42mm GTR variant that we have been testing daily for the last month. Based on our usage, this is our Huami Amazfit GTR review.
Page Contents:
- Huami Amazfit GTR Review: Design and Build
- Huami Amazfit GTR Review: Display and Buttons
- Huami Amazfit GTR Review: Hardware
- Huami Amazfit GTR Review: Smart Watch Interface and Features
- Huami Amazfit GTR Review: Battery
- Huami Amazfit GTR Review: Verdict with Pros and Cons
Huami Amazfit GTR Review: Design and built
The Amazfit GTR watch isn’t very different than most other conventional circular watches. The dial is surrounded by an outer ceramic bezel and there are two clickable crown buttons that perform different functions. The rest of the body is made of premium grade metal. There is Gorilla Glass 3 protection which proved tough-enough to withstand our rough day-to-day usage with aplomb.
The pre-attached straps are made of rubber-ish material which looks really ordinary. The good thing is that these straps are easily replaceable. The GTR is constructed with metal, ceramic and glass and it feels really solid and light (26grams without straps). We had no issue while wearing it through the days.
The plastic casing at the bottom makes room for a PPG heart rate sensor flanked by two pogo pins. The rear panel is sealed with the help of four easily accessible screws. There’s no IP rating available for the watch but Huami claims that is can hold well in challenging conditions for short duration.
The GTR can allegedly withstand 5 ATM pressure in up to 50 meters deep waters for 10 minutes. The swim tracking feature is also available on the watch but Huami clearly mentions that any water-damage will not be covered under warranty.
So overall, the Watch looks a little subdued in comparison to some of the other options available in the market but it’s solidly built and functional design makes up for those shortcomings.
READ: Asus Zenbook 14 UM431 Review
Huami Amazfit GTR Review: Display and Buttons
The Amazfit GTR boasts of a 1.39-inch AMOLED display which has a 454×454 resolution, or a pixel density of 326 PPI. The display is crisp, produces deep blacks and vibrant colors. The display is also bright and thanks to the built-in ambient light sensor, brightness adjusts automatically and quite reliably. During our time with the watch, we didn’t feel any need for manual intervention. Time, step count and all other info are easily legible. The display has an anti-fingerprint coating which certainly works well.
The display is always on and goes in a minimal standby mode automatically. It wakes up to the selected watch face as soon as you lift your wrist or press the upper button. Navigation is largely touch-based.
Huami Amazfit GTR Review: Hardware
Huami has revealed selective hardware details of the watch. Details of the onboard chipset are unknown but the company claims that it’s an advance chip optimized for low power consumption. The 42mm model that we have with us has a 195mAh battery inside. The watch supports BT5.0 BLE and standalone GPS + GLONASS. RAM and storage details are also unknown.
Apart from PPG aka optical heart rate sensor and ambient light sensor, there is a 6-axis accelerometer, 3-axis geomagnetic sensor, a barometer to assist GPS with heights, and a Capacitive Proximity sensor to efficiently wake up the SoC when you need it.
READ: Realme X2 Pro Review
Huami Amazfit GTR Review: Smart Watch Interface and Features
The watch interface is easy to understand. One doesn’t have to go too deep in menus to find many options. All the options are very well laid out. Swiping down from the top reveals quick settings, swiping left or right takes you to heart rate sensor and steps count. Swiping up from the bottom edge brings up the main menu. While all this is great, you can’t reply to notifications or pick calls through the watch.
There’s only one watch face available on the watch by default but can download new ones from the Amazfit app where Huami continues to add new watch faces. Once you zero down on a watch face, the app downloads it on the phone then transfers it to watch via Bluetooth. This process does take 3-4 minutes. There’s no option for adding custom watch faces or edit existing ones. There’s a weather widget and music player and both fetch data from the phone as the watch doesn’t have any storage for adding music.
Fitness enthusiasts will find the Amazfit GTR useful. There are 12 exercise modes including walking, running, cycling, swimming and a lot more. Built-in GPS is really effective while tracking outdoor activities. Indoors, at times, it faces difficulty locking the GPS signals. The step counter isn’t hyper-aggressive like some popular smart bands and is fairly accurate. The heart rate monitor seems accurate, but we can’t tell for sure.
The GTR watch also tracks sleep and splits into different zones of light and deep sleep. Apart from that, it doesn’t gather any advanced data on sleep. The Amazfit app also allows you to compete with your friends.
READ: Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Review
Huami Amazfit GTR Review: Battery
Huami claims a 12 battery life for the 42MM variant in a scenario where you keep ‘Heart rate always-on, sleep monitoring, 150 pushed notifications with screen light-up, lift the wrist to see the screen 30 times, run or exercise 3 times a week for 30 minutes with GPS on, and 5 minutes for other operations’. Huami claims if you turn off the Bluetooth, Heart rate tracker and a few other features it will last for 34 days.
Yes, GTR does manage to live up to these claims. It was able to last for a week on a single charge. As for recharge, it takes about an hour and 15 minutes to fully charge the 42mm Amazfit GTR.
READ: MevoFit Thrust E500 Review
Huami Amazfit GTR Review: Verdict
The wearable segment has grown at a very rapid pace this year. In a sea of wearable options, the Amazfit GTR offers great value for money.
It delivers a good mix of fitness tracking features and has excellent battery life. The lack of a complete OS certainly makes it more of a health tracker than a complete smartwatch. This is the only pain-point for anyone who expects their watch to be feature-rich and assisted by a dynamic app ecosystem.
Having said that, he Amazfit GTR fairs very well for those who are focused on health aspects. Aesthetically too, it gels well with most casual and formal attires which also an essential aspect as watches are a style statement.
Pros
- Good build
- Sharp and vivid display
- Tracker works well
- Good vibration motor
- Excellent battery life
Cons
- Limited button feature
- Lacks app ecosystem
