Amazfit GTR 4 review: A mixed bag

At a glance

Expert’s Rating

Pros

Decent battery life
Comfortable fit
Bright and big display

Cons

Inconsistent exercise tracking
Zepp app needs improvement
No support for third-party apps

Our Verdict

The Amazfit GTR 4 is durable – both in its build and battery life. However, the fitness tracking has mixed results, and the OS doesn’t match up to what is offered on rivals.

Best Prices Today: Amazfit GTR 4

$199.99

At IFA 2022, Amazfit unveiled its fourth generation of the GTR and GTS smartwatches – fitness trackers with long-battery lives at a more affordable price point than some of those from leading brands.

The GTR 4 is the watch I’ve spent time with, which comes with a circular face and longer claimed battery life than its sister, the GTS 4. I’ve been testing out its workout tracking capabilities, as well as the sleep-tracking functions, heart rate monitoring and more.

Design & Build

The Amazfit GTR 4 has a classic circular watch design, unlike the GTS 4 which is more inspired by the Apple Watch.

The version I tested comes with a black silicone strap, but Amazfit also offers a brown, vegan leather option and a grey fabric variant with red accents. Generally, the designs for the GTR line are more business-like than the GTS, which offers more colour variety.

The 22mm strap is comfortable to wear, but it can pick up sweat marks after vigorous exercise, and I had to wipe it down a few times. This has quick release, so you can swap it out for a custom one. There are two buttons on the side of the watch – one for the main menu, and another with quick access to workouts.

The 1.43in AMOLED display is excellent on the GTR 4 – it doesn’t encounter much glare under the sunlight and doesn’t pick up fingerprints. It’s bright enough to view clearly in a lot of conditions, even underwater. You can enable it to have an always-on display, though this affects battery life, and a raise to wake function ensure the screen turns on fully when you raise the watch on your wrist to look at it.

Hannah Cowton / Foundry

The body is made up of aluminium alloy. Overall, the watch is slightly on the chunkier side and isn’t the lightest at a weight of 34g. However, the bigger size makes it more of a statement piece – so it depends on what style of watch you’re looking for.

A benefit of the more utilitarian design is that it feels durable, and it also comes with a 5 ATM water resistant rating.

There is a built-in speaker and microphone on the GTR 4 that means that you can take calls on it, and even play music you’ve loaded onto it via a computer. The watch assistant also speaks aloud your workout stats after you have finished an exercise – though this can be turned off.

The GTR 4 comes with a biometric sensor, an acceleration sensor, GPS, a gyroscope sensor, a geomagnetic sensor, a barometric altimeter and an ambient light sensor to measure all the activities it promises.

Software & Features

Most people will buy this watch for its fitness tracking features, but it also has some key staples of what you might be looking for in an everyday smartwatch.

These include integration with your phone’s notifications (you can toggle which apps you want in the Zepp app), a calendar, voice memos, alarms, weather and then more obscure things like a pomodoro timer.

Hannah Cowton / Foundry

The biggest downside of opting for a cheaper smartwatch from the likes of Amazfit is the lack of Google support. That means that you cannot get third-party apps such as Spotify. There isn’t Bluetooth headphone support either, so if you want to listen to music during your workout, you will still need your phone to hand.

There is integration for Alexa, which can be accessed by long-pressing the power button. You will need the watch to be connected to your phone and an internet connection for this to work. Alternatively, you can enable the offline voice assistant for basic functions such as starting a workout.

The watch includes a step counter and a log of how many times you stand up throughout the day. I found the latter to be rather inaccurate – I stood up more than the watch counted during my time testing.

Health & Fitness Tracking

The Amazfit GTR 4 has support for over 150 different workouts. This includes the basics like running, cycling, swimming and yoga, plus some niche ones like rock climbing, sailing and even chess (though I’m not sure how many people are counting calories during board games).

I found tracking for things such as walking and open water swimming to be largely accurate. The app was able to provide breakdowns of my various heartrate zones, a map of the route I took, the distance and more granular things such as my dominant stroke in swimming.

Hannah Cowton / Foundry

Arguably the biggest upgrade with this device compared to others in the GT line is that it has specific modes for activities involving weightlifting. Amazfit claims that the watch can automatically recognise strength-based exercises – such as bicep curls with a dumbbell.

For me, the watch struggled to identify the correct move that I was doing, and occasionally had trouble counting the reps. You can manually add in the move that you’re performing in the Zepp app, but you cannot add your own custom one if it doesn’t already exist.

Hannah Cowton / Foundry

I also had some issues with the pool tracking with this device – it had trouble counting my laps, and as such the distance I swam was completely inaccurate, and my average lap time was nearly double my actual pace.

I contacted Amazfit for clarity on why this feature is not working as intended, and the product team state that they are currently working on a fix which they estimate will roll out at some point in October. But at the time of writing, it does not work properly.

Sleep tracking on the device seemed largely accurate – it recognised when I had awoken in the middle of the night and then fell back asleep, and the wake-up time tracked with what time was on my phone. Heart rate monitoring and SpO2 (blood oxygen) levels also seemed correct and in line with what I recorded on another wearable.

You can use the ‘one-tap measuring’ button to read your heart rate, blood oxygen levels, stress and breaths per minute all in one go – this can take up to 45 seconds.

The watch has auto-detection for eight other workouts: treadmill running, outdoor running, elliptical training, outdoor cycling, indoor walking, rowing machine, pool swimming and outdoor walking.

You can adjust the sensitivity of this feature to high, standard or low. Having it on the highest setting is a bit too much for my liking – I would stick with the standard option.

All the data logged on the GTR 4 is available to view on the Zepp app, which is available on iOS and Android. This includes detailed breakdowns of your workouts, your step count, your sleep score and any health measurements readings you have taken.

Hannah Cowton / Foundry

The layout of the data is quite clear, but there aren’t any links to accredited health pages like what you will find on rivals such as Withings. There are lots of customisation options, both for the watch’s tracking abilities and notifications, and for the overall design of the watch – with numerous free faces available for download.

There are inconsistences with grammar and spelling in the app. For example, when you log a specific move in the strength-based exercise section, some words are capitalised and some are not. Amazfit needs to ensure that its copy is cleaner and more user-friendly.

Battery Life

Amazfit’s GT products always excel when it comes to battery life, and the GTR 4 is no exception. I used the GTR 4 for just under a week before it went flat, and that was starting from 65% using multiple workout modes, having continuous heartrate monitoring on, tracking my sleep and more.

The company claims that this tracker can last up to 14 days with typical usage, and up to seven days if being used heavily. This can be extended all the way up to 50 days if you just use it as a clock. If you are running low on battery, you can enable the power saving modes, and this should buy you a lot more time.

Amazfit GTR 4 heart monitor rear of the watch

Hannah Cowton / Foundry

Amazfit includes a magnetic charger in the box, which juices it from flat to full in around 1 hour and 45 minutes. This is quicker than some of the older models I’ve tested, and impressive considering the lengthy battery life.

Price & Availability

The Amazfit GTR 4 goes on sale on 23 September 2022 in the UK, and it is out now in the US. The watch is priced at $199.99/£199.99 and is available both from and in the US, and in the UK.

Whilst this is cheaper than what you will find for leading smartwatches from the likes of Apple, there are some flaws with this product. The tracking software doesn’t feel wholly accurate, and the lack of Google integration will be a deterrent for some.

For a similar price, we would recommend the Galaxy Watch 4, which has come down in price since it first launched. You can find further options in our list of the best smartwatches.

Hannah Cowton / Foundry

Verdict

Amazfit watches usually offer a lot for the price, and whilst the GTR 4 has some new features compared to the last generation, it has some hiccups in its tracking abilities. The lack of third-party app support also makes other options much more appealing.

The watch does have good battery life, and it is comfortable to wear day-to-day. However, there are more competitive wearables out there with better accuracy.