GTR 4 review by Amazfit

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Amazfit GTR 4

There are plenty of fitness and smartwatch features packed into the Amazfit GTR 4, which is more than competitive at this price. Despite not being the slickest in software, Amazfit has a very solid, affordable smartwatch if it can settle on a design approach, keep improving on-watch smarts, and integrate some big apps.

Overview

It joins the GTS 4 Mini, GTS 4 and GTS 4 – the square version of the GTR 4 – in Amazfit’s Fashion range.

In addition to changing up its design, Amazfit incorporated smart features from T-Rex 2 and GTR 3 Pro into its GTR 4. In addition, it includes a built-in music player and a dual-band GPS tracking mode, with a promise to last more than days between charges rather than days.

Fitbit and Huawei currently offer Android- and iOS-friendly smartwatches, so can the GTR 4 match or surpass their products?

Creating screens and designs

In contrast to the sleeker, more minimalist appearance of the GTR 3, the Amazfit GTR 4 wears an aesthetic inspired by classic watches.

This smartwatch boasts a 46mm aluminum case, a 22mm quick-release strap, and two physical buttons. Although it appears to be sleek and svelte, its features aren’t necessarily new. But those buttons aren’t particularly attractive either. On the twisting crown, there is a red dot that seems to be a nod to Apple Watches. Certainly, the GTR 4 is a well-made smartwatch, but is it an all-time design classic? Not really.

I like that Amazfit has made something that feels slender and well-weighted all day and all night. It is 10.6mm thin, and at 34g, it is about the same weight as a 41mm aluminium Series 8.

This device also gets a very good display because Amazon Fit uses some very good displays in its smartwatches, such as the GTR range. With a new anti-glare bezel and a larger 1.43-inch AMOLED touchscreen, you will get better visibility.

In spite of the fact that the colours feel a bit oversaturated, this touchscreen display is bright and responsive to touch. On the whole, this watch has good visibility both indoors and outdoors. You have the option of keeping the screen always on if you wish.

Among the three strap options available with the GTR 4, there are leather, nylon, and fluoroelastomer ones. The one I reviewed features vintage brown leather and a silver case, the most formal option. It has an interior that is exercise-friendly, so it can be worn when you workout.

Performance and features

The Amazfit ZeppOS operating system is kept in-house, just like its previous GTR watches. By incorporating elements such as a dedicated app store, it has attempted to make it a full-fledged smartwatch operating system. The user interface is certainly not on par with Apple’s watchOS, but there are plenty of things to like and things to dislike.

It’s not common for Amazfit to reveal the processing power of its smartwatches, but ZeppOS is designed to make interactions smooth, and you certainly get that with this one. It’s an easy smartwatch OS and UI to use, and there were no signs of lag.

In addition to the watch, Zepp provides a smartphone app that can be used on Android and iPhones. I mostly used it on an iPhone 14. It was easy to set up and synchronize data between the watch and my iPhone 14.

You can access the main activity and fitness feeds on the app and tweak watch settings on a separate screen. You’ll need to spend some time here getting to know what’s on from the box and what needs to be configured after the watch is paired. There are quite a few settings in this area.

Apple Health, Strava, Relive, and Adidas Running, among others, are supported here, as well as some third-party apps on the health and fitness front.

It’s easy to set up the watch, and you can use the microphone to ask questions and set alarms, with the speaker relaying your response. Alexa is one of two smart assistants available on Amazon. When dealing with queries, the most reliable way is to keep things simple, such as asking for the weather, rather than asking about England’s first World Cup match, where it may answer with something from Wikipedia.

The Amazfit watch’s offline assistant gives users the option to get the most out of their workout even when the device isn’t connected to the Internet. The offline assistant allows users to open different menus and start workouts using voice commands and is quite responsive as well.

With Amazonfit, you can also access weather forecasts, set alarms, access music playback controls, and choose from over 200 watch faces to choose from. As well as Bluetooth calls, it has a built-in music player, but it does not support any sort of music streaming service. You can now also add membership cards for shops you want to use to get your points or that big discount.

Although ZeppOS comes with an app store, those apps are still native, not the high-profile third-party ones found on the GTR 3 and GTR 3 Pro. My favorites were the spine exercise and seven-minute workout apps, along with a no-frills app for what-to-drink as well as a popular sports event app. App installation and download was quick, but Amazfit could make it feel more mature by getting some big names on board. There’s no Google Play Store yet, so there’s more in common with Huawei AppGallery.

Tracking your health and fitness

Its performance in most areas reveals that the Amazfit GTR 4 can do a lot as a fitness watch.

Runners, cyclists, swimmers (indoors and outdoors), and ellipticals and rowing machines, are available as sports modes. The core tracking modes offer rich metric data; if you want to track kickboxing sessions or Zumba classes, you can do it too – you just won’t get the same level of detail as with them. Running, indoor rowing, pool swimming, and cycling are among the eight activities automatically recognized by the app.

As a result of the introduction of features from its T-Rex 2 watch, Amazfit has made the GTR 4 more suitable for outdoor workouts. The dual-band mode boosts tracking accuracy in problematic satellite signal areas, like cities with tall buildings and in the midst of lots of large trees.

My tests on the GTR 4 did not show that its dual-band GPS performance was comparable to the T-Rex 2. It isn’t the only watchmaker to add GPS, but I’ve had mixed results. In comparison to the Coros Apex 2, distance tracking was a little off, whereas metrics like pacing found me moving faster than average.

As a result of the T-Rex 2, Amazfit is also capable of importing routes, using breadcrumb navigation, so you can find your way around. The route files can be imported and watched within the app. In addition to the basic navigation support, you’ll get a simple line instead of a map. The navigation system might not be the finest, but it worked well enough to help me get where I needed to go and home.

It is also possible to build strength training plans using the GTR 4 with support for automatic rep counting. In order to increase the intensity, you may create interval training plans using 10 sports modes.

In general, I found heart rate data to be pretty unreliable, so it’s not suited to provide dependable effort insights from the onboard heart rate monitor. When it was properly in position, it matched up nicely against a chest strap for steady-paced workouts. When it wasn’t, I experienced a lack of stability with the leather strap at times.

This software update from Amazfit now lets you pair external heart rate monitors, so that’s a bonus. In that case, you can use Amazfit’s PeakBeats training insights, which are designed to assist you in better evaluating your current fitness level by analyzing your training load and VO2 Max. If you want to make the most of these insights, grab a chest strap, because they depend on the sensors that drive those metrics.

With its accuracy in monitoring sleep and steps, the GTR 4 is also an excellent fitness tracker. Some new features have been added, such as the morning updates that are based on Garmin’s morning reports, which highlight upcoming events and provide you with details about your sleep and weather forecast. I found my sleep and step data to be comparably accurate to that of the Oura Ring 3. However, my daily heart rate was a little higher than I expected, again possibly tied to the not-so-perfect fit of my strap.

However, it is more of a fitness watch, since it can also track stress levels, blood oxygen levels, and heart rate PAIs (personal activity intelligence). Despite not being quite as sleek as Huawei’s Watch GT 3, Fitbit’s Versa smartwatch is a better fitness watch. As with Fitbit, the GTR 4 lacks the user-friendly approach to fitness, health, and wellbeing.

Duration of the battery

In general, Amazon’s previous GTR smartwatches have done a great job extending their battery life on a daily basis, but it is important to remember that the screen brightness, the level and accuracy of wellness and health monitoring, and always-on mode all affect battery life.

On the typical and heavy usage fronts, the numbers seem to be down from the GTR 3. The GTR 4 can be used for up to 14 days in typical usage, down from 21 days on the GTR 3, while it can be used for up to seven days in heavy usage.

I think Amazfit is pretty generous with its battery claims, and I’ve found that the GTR 4 has lasted for about seven to ten days. This means you get a solid week of usage, which is still better than many more expensive smartwatches.

There are also battery-saver and clock modes included within Amafit, so it does offer a little bit more functionality, but at a cost.

Now that you can choose between different GPS accuracy levels, which impacts battery life, you have the option of choosing that dual-GPS mode. Amazfit claims 24 hours of battery life with the highest GPS accuracy, while 52 hours with the power-saving GPS mode. In my tests, the results were somewhat below these claims. Even in the highest GPS battery mode, I was getting close to 20 hours, but it’s still a good performance compared to many similar smartwatches for the same price.

It takes about 2 hours to charge the GTR 4, which is connected to the cradle via an integrated charging cable.

Does it seem like a good buy?

It’s a great option for anyone looking for a sporty smartwatch that doesn’t look sporty—Amazfit’s GTR 4 comes with GPS and heart rate monitoring, giving it solid credentials as an outdoor and high-intensity workout tracker.

While the GTR 3 is sleeker, more minimalist, and has some nice materials, it feels like a backward step from the best-looking smartwatch.

Lastly, I wish to say

GTR 4 is clearly positioned as a more competitive alternative to Fitbit Versa 4 and Huawei Watch GT 3. It has solid fitness and sports tracking features, a smartwatch feature that is improving and plenty of battery life. There is one thing it doesn’t quite match up to those other watches: the software on and off the watch isn’t quite as polished and mature, and the design has not yet taken hold.

Even though there are a lot of features, it is just as important to deliver them all in an intuitive manner as it is to have a lot of them, and the GTR 4 may be a little overwhelmed by all of them. As a whole, this is a good experience that proves Amazfit is advancing its watches.