Assessment:

Amazfit GTR 3 Pro

The world of wrist wearables continues to grow by leaps and bounds. This week three new proposals from the Chinese company Amazfit were added to this market: the GTR 3 Pro, the GTR 3 and the GTS 3.

For a few days, and even in the beta version as it has not yet been presented, we have tested the Amazfit GTR 3 Pro at 20Bits, a very interesting alternative among the cheapest smart watches - it is priced at 199.99 euros.

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It could be said that there are two aspects of the smartwatch world: renowned brands -Apple, Samsung or Huawei- or sports brands -Garmin- that generally offer high-end devices, with higher quality materials and cutting-edge technology; and the entry-level brands, such as Xiaomi, realme or Amazfit, that design products for those who do not want to spend a salary, but without losing attention to the quality of the functionalities.

The new GTR 3 Pro is included in this last block and the truth is that after trying it I can say that the experience is very balanced and pleasantly surprising, and it even feels a little more premium than it costs.

Technical specifications

Design: it has a presence, but you do not notice that you are wearing it

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As I said a few lines above, this smartwatch with the last name 'pro' really feels premium. In other words, we do not have the feeling that it is a low cost device. Nor should it be that way, because without having the highest quality materials on the market, the brand has not skimped on its finishes either: the case is made of aluminum alloy and the strap can be chosen between brown leather and black fluoroelastomer -a resistant material of synthetic type.

The watch gives a sense of resistance due to these materials, but without being too forceful or heavy a device. In fact, it weighs only 32 grams without the strap and 43 grams with the leather strap, which I have tried. As I say, it is very light and you do not notice that you are wearing it.

To finish with the durability section, the glass has an anti-fingerprint coating and during the time that I have tried it it has seemed quite resistant to scratches, although it is true that I have not dedicated myself to 'mistreatment'. What I am not so clear about is how the strap will behave, because I am afraid that being leather it can be damaged more easily. Although at the moment no signs have appeared and it remains as the first day.

Another thing that stands out from its aesthetics is its two physical buttons on the right side and that -this time yes- Amazfit has made the upper one rotate and rotate with sense: the GTR 3 Pro incorporates a navigation crown, something that had been claimed to the mark in previous models -they included the rotation in the roulette, but it did not serve to do anything-.

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Both buttons can be customized with shortcuts, although by default if you tap the top one takes you to the menu and the bottom one takes you to the workout. Options that seem to me to make sense like this and therefore I have not changed. With the long touch of the upper button I have programmed access to voice control with Alexa, although other possibilities can be chosen -such as heart rate measurement, blood oxygen, see the weather, go to music, consult the calendar or do breathing exercises, among many others.

And, although now we will talk about the screen, one last point to comment on in the aesthetic section is its spheres. It has more than 150 spheres, as well as dynamic effects and animations, it also has the possibility of putting personal photos. Users will even be able to design their own watch faces and applets with the soon-to-be-available app development kit, according to the brand. I personally quite like the feel of the dynamic spheres.

balanced display

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The Amazfit GTR 3 Pro has a 1.45-inch AMOLED UltraHD screen with a resolution of 480 x 480 pixels, with a screen-to-body ratio of 70.6%. Improved quality and visibility by far.

In general, it is a screen with balanced brightness - it is automatic and looks good both indoors and outdoors -, good sharpness and fast response. In fact, in the latter I have noticed a good jump with respect to the previous generation. The navigation crown is also a great improvement when it comes to moving through the different applications.

I do have some downside to comment on: although the Amazfit finally includes a navigation crown, it does not allow you to select menu items by simply pressing the physical button. Maybe if you are on the couch watching TV hitting the touch screen to choose the functionality you want to use is easy, but surely if you are exercising, with a sweaty hand, it becomes more difficult to accurately touch the target function. In the field of usability, this seems improvable.

The best thing without a doubt is its battery

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Something that Amazfit is characterized by is its autonomy, and in this case it has even improved its previous proposals. After trying it for days and doing different tests I have reached the figures that the brand ensures without messing up my hair.

The GTR 3 Pro mounts a 450 mAh battery, which with a single charge provides, depending on the brand, up to 12 days of autonomy of typical use, 30 days in saving mode and 6 days of intensive use. In my experience, which mixes typical use with intensive use - I have activated many functions, I have called on the phone, monitored the night's sleep and used the GPS to test it - it has been about 10 days without having to charge. Of course: I don't use the always-on screen function because I don't like it, it bothers me a bit to have it activated all the time.

Charging, by the way, takes about two hours and is done through the typical charging base with magnets.

Technology behind that responds

The watch has a new Zepp operating system that introduces several improvements over the previous one. In the first place we see a much more dynamic interface that maintains its natural and intuitive character and in the second place we have an easy interaction.

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In general, improving the system results in other improvements, such as a screen that responds better to touch movements or a battery that lasts longer.

The watch works with Android and iOS devices, and connects to popular health platforms such as Apple Health or Google Fit to sync health data, and Strava, Relive, Runkeeper and TrainingPeaks to sync and share all data collected by the device. .

The health parameters measured by the device are heart rate measurement, SpO2, sleep monitoring, breathing rate monitoring, stress level monitoring, and menstrual cycle tracking. It also introduces a novelty: it has the ability to check four health metrics in a single touch thanks to the built-in 6PD (photodiode) BioTrackerTM PPG 3.0, which measures heart rate, blood oxygen, stress level and respiratory rate in just 45 seconds. The device monitors heart rate throughout the day, even swimming - they are waterproof to 5 ATM - and have abnormally high or low heart rate alerts.

They also monitor light, deep and REM sleep phases, as well as waking hours during the night, daytime naps of more than 20 minutes and even the quality of breathing during sleep.

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For users, they also include advanced monitoring of the menstrual cycle: they record the dates of the menstrual period and its duration. In addition, it provides data on the fertile periods in women.

It includes voice control via Alexa, allowing you to set alarms, ask questions and use the voice assistant offline to activate a sport mode or health function, or even access Home Connect to control smart home devices. In this sense, it has an ecosystem of more than 10 mini-applications.

It also has highly accurate GPS location thanks to its five-satellite system, Bluetooth remote control of the camera and daily management tools: to manage the day with message notifications, sedentary and drinking water reminders, calendar, events and to-do lists or weather forecasts.

Whether activating activity tracking through one of over 150 built-in sport modes, or monitoring stress levels, the GTR 3 Pro enables 24/7 health monitoring.

And music lovers will enjoy the 2.3 GB of internal memory it has, capable of storing up to 470 songs.

Finally, one of the jewels in the crown is that the GTR 3 Pro can receive and make phone calls when connected to a smartphone via Bluetooth, for a hands-free conversation.

Resume

20BIT SCORE: 8.5/10

I liked the latest Amazfit flagship a lot and I notice a big difference with its predecessors, especially because it introduces some of the basic deficiencies that they had, such as a microphone and speaker to make calls, internal memory, more applications -such as a calendar, for example- and improvements in health measurements.

I believe that the GTR 3 Pro is going to position itself as a good team player in the smartwatch market and that it can be quite successful because it combines the two things that users are looking for: advanced functions that respond well at a reasonable cost - the price of departure are 199.99 euros-.

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