Amazfit launched the GTR 4 New, the company’s latest smartwatch in the GTR series, two years after the launch of the original GTR 4. It has a 1.45-inch AMOLED screen, has built-in microphone and speaker for voice calling capabilities, comes with GPS support and runs Zepp OS 3.0. I have been using the latest smartwatch from Amazfit for about a week now, and here is the review.
Box Contents
- Amazfit GTR 4 New in Galaxy Black colour
- Charging dock
- User manual
Design and Build
The Amazfit GTR 4 New has a circular design that is similar to most watches and the original GTR 4, but the front design is different . It measures 46.5×46.5×11.2mm and weighs 49 grams with the strap. The smartwatch has IP68 water resistance. There is Acceleration sensor, Gyroscope sensor, Geomagnetic sensor, Barometric altimeter, Ambient light sensor, Temperature sensor, 24h Heart Rate Monitor and SpO2 Sensor. It uses Bluetooth 5.0 to connect to Android and iOS devices and also has Wi-Fi 2.4GHz support.
Coming to the strap, it has a lightweight 22mm interchangeable strap that is made of skin-friendly material, and the quality of the strap is good. The color of the watch and the design looks generic. You can opt for the Brown Leather version that has a strap with a vegan leather finish.
There is a function button on the right side that lets you wake up the watch, go back, quick launch something and also pause workouts. The secondary button lets you open workout by default, but you can customize it. You can also see the microphone between the buttons. On the other side, there is a speaker grill. The watch has a matte finish for the frame and has aluminum alloy build, which is good and doesn’t attract fingerprints.
On the back, there are heart rate and SpO2 sensors that have glowing green and red LED lights when you are using it to measure heart rate and blood oxygen. It has 5 ATM or 50 metres of water resistance, compared to most Bluetooth calling smartwatches that only come with IP68 ratings for water resistance.
Display and features
Coming to the display, the Amazfit GTR 4 New has a 1.43-inch (466×466 pixels) 326 PPI AMOLED touch screen with 2.5D scratch resistant glass. You can set it to turn on when you lift your hand, and the screen turns off in a few seconds to save power.
The display is good and is bright outdoors. You can adjust the brightness by swiping from the top or from Settings→Display →Adjust Brightness. You can increase in the form of a slide. The screen time out is available from 5 till 20 seconds, and there is auto brightness adjustment since it has an ambient light sensor. For indoors, even low brightness is good, but auto brightness option takes care of everything.
When you swipe from the top, you can see quick settings. This has flashlight, DND, Theater mode, keep screen awake, Calendar, volume, battery, Brightness adjustment, find my phone, lock screen and settings.
Pressing the function button, shows PAI, heart rate, blood oxygen, one-tap measuring, workout, workout history, workout status, stress, activity, sleep, Phone, Weather, Music, Alarm, Calendar, Settings, Sun and Moon, Compass, Barometer, Cycle tracking, Breathe, Thermometer Stopwatch, Countdown, Find my phone, World Clock, To Do, Voice memos, Pomodoro timer and Camera remote.
Swiping to the left shows Alexa access, Weather, PAI, Alarm, Sleep, Heart rate, Activity, Blood oxygen, and recent notifications. Swiping to the right shows activity data, heart rate, weather, PAI and music controls. There is also an easy notification shade when you swipe from the bottom on the home screen. You can read the notifications and dismiss, but can’t reply.
Bluetooth Calling and Music
The smartwatch has a built-in calling feature, since it has a microphone and a speaker. It shows call log, and there is even a dial pad, in addition to contacts option which you can add from the app.
Calling experience is good indoors, and the microphone is able to pick up the voice well, but the speaker output is not loud enough even indoors, so it is hardly audible outdoors.
The smartwatch also has 2.3GB built-in storage for offline music, which can be transferred from the Zepp app. It can store up to 270-470 MP3 songs, according to the company. You can also manage a playlist, and also connect Bluetooth headset to the watch directly and play music. However, there is no access to Spotify or YouTube Music directly from the watch.
Software
The Amazfit GTR 4 New runs ZepOS 3 that the company says works in tandem with the advanced sensors and algorithms in the smartwatch for 24/7 health monitoring. The UI is intuitive, friendly and easy-to-navigate, and doesn’t have any lags. This brings mini apps, including games, customizable interface and built-in Amazon Alexa and an offline voice assistant.
It uses Zepp companion app on Android and iPhone. It shows all the important details on the home tab, workouts in the health tab and the profile tab lets you fine-tune the settings. Inside the Amazfit GTR 4 New settings you can select call reminders, notifications from the preferred apps, health reminders such as 24-hour HR monitoring, stress monitoring, set watch faces and more.
The face gallery shows 150+ different types of watch faces and there are also paid ones. There are some editable watch faces, and you can also choose 5 AOD watch face options directly from the watch. There is an option to upload photos to the watch face, and if you upload 3 photos to the watch, it will switch between them each time you wake up the display.
Fitness tracking
The watch can be set to intelligently detect 8 exercise types and prompt you to engage the relevant sports mode such as Outdoor Running, Treadmill, Walking, Indoor Walking, Outdoor Cycling, Pool Swimming, Rowing Machine, and Elliptical, so you can jump into action.
This offers real-time sport data tracking, analytical report in the mobile app, sports notifications: be notified about your stages, conditions, and heart rate zones while doing sports.
For outdoor activities, you get all the details such as distance, calories burnt, average heart rate, average speed, average pace, cadence, duration, altitude, gradient distribution, and stride You can also see VO2 Max, recovery period and heart rate zones for outdoor activities such as running.
Thanks to 5 satellite GNSS that include GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, BDS and QZSS, you need not carry the phone with you for outdoor activities. Thanks to dual-band circularly-polarized GPS antenna, the lock is quick, and accurate, and it did not get cut off during my run. You can press the side button to pause a workout in the middle.
It has an option to sync your data to Google Fit, Health Connect, Strava, Komoot, Relive, adidas Running, and TrainingPeaks (Via Terra) app. There are 150+ workout modes, like indoor and outdoor walking, running and cycling, as well as more freeform workouts like strength training, yoga, and free training.
Sleep Tracking
Sleep tracking shows light and deep sleep, awake time, as well as REM sleep. It shows respiratory rate, and also shows the breathing quality, which is in beta.
There is Zepp Aura, a new rest and wellness service that offers personalized health solutions in real-time, including scientifically designed music, daily tips, and more. This is a paid service at Rs. 499 per month or Rs. 1299 per year with a 7 or 14-day trial. Even though the watch has a thermometer, it doesn’t measure your temperature during the sleep.
Heart rate, SpO2 and stress monitoring
The smartwatch uses LED lights and photo-diodes to illuminate the blood vessel for a while and monitors the heart rate via the change of green light absorbed, and it uses red light for SpO2 or blood oxygen monitoring.
You can’t say this is 100% accurate. Heart rate recordings — both resting and active, and SpO2 readings are decent compared to oximeter. It also shows stress data, but you need to enable this manually.
Battery life
The Amazfit GTR 4 New has a 445mAh battery, and the company promises up to 12 days of battery life with normal use, 8 days with heavy use and 28 days in battery saver mode. During my use with 24h heart rate tracking, GPS use of 30 minutes every day and a couple of calls over Bluetooth, it lasted for over a week.
Battery life might vary depending on frequent use of the display with increased brightness, use of heart rate monitor during workouts, calling and all the notifications turned on.
It has a magnetic charging dock that you can even plug it in a USB port of a PC or a laptop or use power bank in low-power mode. It takes about 2 hours to charge the watch fully from 0%. Charging time doesn’t matter since it lasts for over a week.
Conclusion
The Amazfit GTR 4 New is a feature-packed smartwatch with a good AMOLED screen, several sports modes, GPS, Bluetooth calling, and a long battery life. There are a lot of sensors, and even has built-in music storage.
Alternatives
If you don’t need these many sensors and built-in music storage, there is Amazfit Active at a cheaper rate. If you need Wear OS, then there is OnePlus Watch 2R in the similar range, but you will have to compromise on the battery life. There are also older Wear OS options such as Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 LTE models that are cheaper.
Pricing and availability
The Amazfit GTR 4 New was launched for Rs. 16,999, but you can now get the smartwatch at Rs. 14,999 from Amazon and Amazfit India’s official website.
Pros
- Large AMOLED display is good
- Dual-band & 5 satellite positioning for accurate outdoor activity tracking
- ZeppOS 3 with new features
- Built-in music storage
- Good battery life
Cons
- Temperature sensor doesn’t track your temperature during sleep
- Generic design