Amazfit Balance Smart Watch 46mm with Fitness Tracker, Body Composition & Health Analysis, Sleep Recovery, GPS, Amazon Alexa Built-In, Bluetooth Calling, Fitness Watch for Android iPhone, Black

Great Watch With A Few Ifs…
I’ve had some heart issues for a long time and this past year, they’ve gotten to the point where I need to do closer monitoring. Then, in July, I had a loop monitor implanted. While it sends a reading to my cardiologist’s office every night, I needed something that would alert me when my heart rate fell above or below the doctor’s parameters for my situation. I did a lot of research into a lot of watches. I have a Galaxy S22 Ultra so looked at the Galaxy watches and tried one, but the battery life is terrible. I needed a watch that had a battery that would last more than 12 hours with constant heart monitoring. I was already using an Amazfit GTS 4 Mini and loved it, the battery lasted almost 14 days, but it had no alert for heart rate and also was missing a couple other things I wanted/needed, so after looking at so-many-watches, I decided to try the Balance. So here’s my review.The watch is large. At least for me, but the screen is amazing! Clear, easy to read, Amoled so the color is great. I chose to use the ‘use your own photo’ watch face which is new (I think) for Amazfit and I like it. There are several others to choose from and if they stay true to form, more will be added. There are a lot of apps pre-loaded on the watch and a lot to choose from to load so that would probably appeal to many who will use this for fitness. I do not so I can’t speak to the fitness portion of the watch. I keep track of my steps/activity on the whole, but not any specific exercise. I got the watch on September 2nd, charged it, and with all of the heart associated apps turned on to run all the time (including running the heart rate monitor every 60 seconds,) I didn’t have to charge it until the 11th, and even then, I was still at 18%, but we were going on vacation, so the battery life is great. Like I mentioned, the watch is huge, at least for me. It’s 46mm, but light weight, so I don’t really notice it much. It has a relatively slim profile on the wrist so I’m not banging into things with it like I thought I would. I did change the band to a stainless steel one because any silicone bands cause a rash for me. Those are the basics. Here’s some of the pros and cons.PROS:Huge, clear, bright face that’s easy to read, even for people who need glasses.Several watch faces to choose from including one you can personalize. Big plus!Heart/Health monitoring has been pretty accurate so far as tested at the cardiologist’s officeSleep monitoring seems to be accurate, matching those times I wake during the nightWill follow DND on your phoneWill sync with Google Fit and a couple other third party health apps nowDifferent sounds per alerts so you know what alerts are coming in (can’t change them though)Syncs well with Zepp app and changes on app are immediate on watchSilicone band will fit a 5-1/2″ to 10″+ wristCONS:NO ECG. None of the watches Amazfit sells in the US has ECG. That was the first question I asked them and from their response, for the foreseeable future, they will not have a watch in the US that has that.The winder is very large and really sits high on the watch. It has the potential to catch on things and does during the night so if you use DND and wear it to bed, it will catch on the sheets at some point, wake the watch, waking you.No tap-to-wake, which my GT4 Mini had and which I miss a lot. It will still ‘lift to wake’ if you set that, otherwise, you have to push the winder.Second button on the watch is for workout information which I don’t use, but it’s very flat and seems like it would be hard to use while very active.”Rotate the crown” must mean the winder because the crown doesn’t rotate and while the winder does, it only makes the face larger and not permanentlyTakes a 22mm watch band! Don’t make the mistake of buying a 20mm which is a standard size.BEWARE! I went a whole day without getting any notifications. I reached out to Amazfit and they had no idea why I wasn’t getting any either. Low and behold, there’s an option called Cover To Mute. If that’s checked and you’re wearing a long sleeve shirt or sweater that covers the watch, you won’t receive any notifications because the face is covered. Just letting you know!That’s a flyover of the watch. On the whole, I like it. I’ve never been a big fan of the Zepp world. I’d be a lot happier if it was Android OS of course, but I understand their desire to work with either Android or Apple. They’re getting smoother with the interaction between their OS and Android though. I’m sure I’ve missed a bunch, but this will give you a good idea at least.

Works as advertised
I bought one for my self and then bought a second one for my assistant. I wear it almost every day. It works well as advertised. Among all the functions and nice features, I like the battery life most. For my last trip to Canada, I charged it one day before my flight, and when I returned 8 days later, I still had 10% left. This watch helps me stay active and fit.

I had the Amazfit GTR 3 for 3 years prior to purchasing this Amazfit Balance and never had any issues with that watch, so figured I would upgrade to this one. I have had this smart watch for 7 days and have noticed a huge upgrade in the performance of the health tracking sensors over the GTR 3. All of the health metrics are more accurate and more reliable and there are more on this watch compared to the GTR 3. I really like the addition of the body composition detection (but strongly recommend getting a mat to give a full body scan). I also like the addition of the skin temperature sensor which is absolutely spot on as it can give an indication of your general health and if you are running the risk of heat exhaustion or hypothermia, it also tracks your sleeping temperature and gives feedback of your overall sleep quality along with the standard sleep cycle tracking, oxygen levels, sleep apnea or hyponea tracking. The heart sensor is more accurate and offers continuous heart rate tracking while exercising, resting heart rate tracking, and heart rate variability while sleeping to give a better indication of overall heart health. Now this watch also includes a readiness score based on 2 metrics, physical recovery and mental recovery based on physical activity from the day before and how well you slept overnight. There are so many features on this watch that I would literally have to right a novel to explain them all. I do like the that I can answer and make phone calls directly from the watch (via Bluetooth) and the fact that there is several ways to reply to text messages (that now show recieved images). You can do a quick response, use the built-in keyboard, or use the Zepp Flow assistant to type your speech to text, and it’s very accurate at converting your speech to text. I have also found out that Amazfit is working on a blood pressure algorithm for this watch that will be brought out shortly. The GPS tracking is absolutely spot on in my tests and acquires a lock very fast. I appreciate the quality of this watch in both fit and finish with its large amoled display that has a maximum brightness of 1500 nits, easy to see even in direct sunlight (similar brightness to the Google Pixel 8 phone that I use). I honestly haven’t seen a better smartwatch for the price made by anyone else, and the fact that it runs on Android and iOS only makes it more versatile. Before I finish the battery life is exceptional, I am using roughly 6% battery per day of moderate usage with all sensors on and sleep tracking enabled, the only thing I don’t use is the always on display as my watch is normally covered by my sleeve so I am getting around 16 days before I have to recharge the watch. The only thing I would recommend anyone who gets this watch to do is put a screen protector on it because it can scratch quite easily.Great smartwatch, great software, great battery life, and really useful updates put out by Amazfit. Thanks Amazon for carrying this product.

Very responsive and beautiful watch. Battery lasts about 10 days with normal usage, some sports and some walking. Good record of my sleeping timings.

Nice looking watch and works well with an external HRM (chest strap). The built-in monitor is as useless as any of the other Xaomi/Zepp products I have tried, but paired to a chest strap this is a fantastic watch. I really wanted something that would do the PAI score — and at this point that limits you to Amazfit. The built in sensor is fine for mooching around, but on dynamic exercise reads wildly inaccurately. I found the same with the Xaoimi Mi fitness band 7, which I tried before this. Of course, YMMV as these kinds of sensors can work better with different people/skin types.I was pleased to find that they recently added offline map support, which is a nice to have. I use this for mountain hiking/running (and I always have a phone and PLB), so maps weren’t really essential, but definitely a nice to have. The screen is perfectly bright for use in sunlight.I like it, subject to the sensor capability caveats.