Last year we saw the GTR 3 and GTR 3 Pro, both excellent alternatives to some of our best smartwatch picks. While the Amazfit watches come with the standard suite of smartwatch features, they are ultimately fitness-focused wearables with an amazing amount of customization and health/wellness tracking metrics.
Hardware
Luxury looks for $200Brilliant AMOLED displayMicrophone and speaker
I’ve been testing a lot of watches lately, including a couple of luxury Google Wear OS watches, so I figured a watch that was priced less than $200 wouldn’t be that compelling. When I opened the package, I was very impressed by the elegant design features of the GTR 4, including a narrow matte finish bezel with subtle black lines for the minutes around a smooth glass display. The brushed aluminum casing looks awesome with symmetric bumps on each side and two easily accessible buttons on the right.
The stunning AMOLED touchscreen impresses with vivid colors and very high resolution that provides a classy look and detail for various watch faces. There are two buttons on the right side of the watch to help you navigate around the interface. The top-bottom has ridges along the edges and this button serves as a scroll wheel to help you quickly fly up and down lists of items in the watch software. A long press of the upper button and a standard press of the lower button can be customized for your preferences. I have the top button set to launch Alexa and the bottom button for workouts.
The back of the watch has a glossy black plastic back with two connection points for the magnetically attachable charging cable. The GTR 4 launches with the latest BioTracker 4.0 PPG sensor that has six lights to measure your key vitals; blood oxygen, heart rate, stress, and more.
Also: Best smartwatch for Android users
The standard 22mm silicone band is very comfortable and appears to be well constructed too. Quick-release pins let you easily swap out bands.
Navigating on the Amazfit GT4
Swipe down for quick controlsSwipe right and left for quick app accessUse the buttons for customized access
Using the Amazfit GTR 4 is as intuitive and highly customizable. To turn on the display, you simply raise your wrist or press one of the side buttons, revealing one of the hundreds of watch faces that the Zepp app has to offer. You can even upload your own photos to use on your watch face or select an animated watch face for some added pizazz. Some are classic faces while others are heavy on the presentation of the health data collected by the watch. There are some customization options for various complications too.
Swiping down from the top reveals the nine quick toggles in the control center – with more as you swipe across. You can customize which of the available items appear on the display and reorder them as you desire in the smartphone app.
A swipe up from the bottom displays your notifications. When a notification comes in, action items will appear below it, like replying to a text message.
One new feature with the GTR 4’s software is setting the default app/widget on your first left swipe, similar to the user interface elements we have seen on Garmin watches.
Also: Amazfit GTR 2 and GTS 2 hands-on review: Affordable, fashionable, and comprehensive health watches
For workouts, you can press the lower right button to launch the Workout utility and then scroll to find your preferred fitness routine. More than 150 sports modes are available in Zepp OS, including board games, combat workouts, driving, and much more. To make things manageable on the watch, you can add, remove, and reorder your most used workout modes for quick access.
Smartphone software
Spend time exploring the exhaustive appCustomize your data cardsConfirm GPS settings
To experience everything there is to offer with the GTR 4, connect your phone and download and install the Zepp app to your phone. The Zepp app is a very comprehensive application that supports connecting and managing all of your Amazfit products. It is used for various earbuds, like the PowerBuds I reviewed, as well as other Amazfit wearables, scales, and treadmills.
Three main pages of information are presented within the Zepp app: The home page, Health, and Profile. There is an amazing amount of information, watch settings, and more in this application and I recommend you spend a few hours going through it all and setting it up for your specific needs.
The application launches with a home page that can feature up to 17 data cards, These include PAI, sleep, stress and blood oxygen, bodyweight analysis, ECG, and body temperature. Some of this data is not collected by the GTR 4, but can be collected elsewhere and entered manually so that you can track all of your health data in a central location.
The Health page shows several cards, including walking, running, cycling, target settings, and friends. You can also tap these various exercises and then use your phone and the Zepp app to track your activity.
There are also some built-in health tips and summary reports, including charts, for the exercise and health data that are interesting and helpful to understanding your health and wellness. You can use some of the tips for motivation to improve your health and it is a comprehensive application.
One of the new features on the Amazfit GTR 4 that is compelling for such an affordable wearable is the support for dual-band frequencies and five GNSS systems. In the smartphone app there is a GPS settings page where you can choose from four options; accuracy (uses both bands and all satellites), balanced (single band and two GNSS satellite systems), power saving (single band and one GNSS system, and custom where you can specify exactly how you want your position tracked. Others tend to automatically select these options so it’s interesting to see Amazfit provide such fine control here.
Bottom line…for now
I’ve only been using the Amazfit GTR 4 for about a week and had a business trip so I still need to take it out for running, walking, cycling, and more health and fitness testing. Initial indications are that sleep tracking is fairly accurate, the battery decreases about 10% per day, and Alexa works well. Replies to notifications seem to rely on default messages and those have failed so I need to explore this area of the watch to figure out how useful notifications will be in daily usage. There are a lot of watch faces available, but I’m a fan of some of the lovely default ones. The hardware of the watch is fantastic and I love the size and comfort of it. That big high-resolution display is very visible and easily readable too.
Alternatives to consider
Apple and Samsung dominate the smartwatch world with wearables that last two to three days. There are other options to the Amazfit GTR 4 that last for a week or more so check these out.
