Amazfit T-Rex Review: Fit for Outdoors


The Indian wearable market continues to ascend strongly registering an amazing growth in terms of shipment of wearables. Thanks to realme, Xiaomi, and other companies. Huami’s Amazfit is yet another company that made waves in the Indian markets recently with some brilliant offering to address the middle to the high-end market.

According to the latest IDC report, Huami’s self-owned brand Amazfit has captured 23% in the Indian market in the first quarter of 2020. With a year-on-year growth of 80.2%, Huami surpassed the overall growth rate of the adult watch market.

Initially introduced at CES earlier this year, Amazfit launched its rugged Amazfit T-Rex in the Indian market at Rs. 9,999 recently. As per the company claims, T-Rex has passed 12 regulations of the military-standard (MIL-STD-810G) quality test and can withstand extreme heat and cold, is resistant against corrosion, moisture resistance, and has a durable body.

Available in Rock Black, Camo Green, Khaki, and Army green colors, T-Rex also available on Amazon India and other offline stores like Croma, Reliance Digital & Poorvika Mobiles. Before jumping into the review, here’s the full specification.

Amazfit T-Rex specifications

  • 1.3-inch (360 x 360 pixels) AMOLED display with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection
  • Compatible with Android 5.0 devices or later, iOS 10.0 or later
  • Optical heart rate monitor (PPG)
  • Sensors: 3-Axis Acceleration Sensor, Geomagnetic Sensor, Ambient Light Sensor
  • Dust and Water Resistant up to 50 meters (5ATM),
  • Bluetooth 5.0 LE, GPS+GLONASS
  • MIL-STD 810G Compliance
  • 14 Sports modes
  • Dimensions: 47.7 X 47.7 X 13.5mm; Weight: 58g
  • 390mAh battery with up to 20 days of battery life with normal use, 66 days in basic watch mode, 20 hours with continuous GPS use

We used T-Rex for a month and a half tracking various activities, testing battery life under various conditions, and a bit of drop test as well. Read on to know more about how well it fared during our usage.

Build and Design — Nailed it

At first impression, the G-Shock inspiration looks evident! Amazfit T-Rex features rugged look with gigantic old-school round dial. At just 58 grams, the device is light for its sturdy look & design. Looks are deceptive, you know!

The T-Rex lives up to its rugged nature with its polycarbonate build and super stretchable soft silicone strap. The strap collects lots of dust and it’s not easily replaceable either like other Amazfit watches. But it’s super comfortable. The display features a convex design with adequate rubberised protection around it. Remember, this watch is designed to take hits and survive in difficult conditions.

Unlike metal watches, this plastic shell is going to show less sign of scuffs that happens over time. The marking/text on the watch is deeply etched into the plastic and not going anywhere soon. You can also see four screws on the front — two at the top and bottom.

Notably, it has passed 12 military-grade certifications. It is so rugged that it can withstand up to 70°C (Heat), -40°C (max 1.5 hours), 240 hours humidity resistance, and 96 hours salt spray resistance, claims the company. However, the company also makes it clear that some of these conditions can still damage the T-Rex and are not recommended.

In harsh environments, you cannot just rely on touch. To help you out with that, T-Rex houses four buttons, two on each side. The functionality of the buttons — select, back, scroll up and down on the interface. The buttons are round, big, and easy to find. It is textured for grip and offers great feedback. Turning back, we have a heart rate sensor, and charging pins placed perpendicularly to each other.

Setup and Display — No complaints

Download the Amazfit app from PlayStore/AppStore to pair the T-Rex. Creating an account and inputting individuals data including gender, birth date, height, weight, activity goal, target calories, and target sleep is necessary. Add the T-Rex device and scan the QR code to pair up the watch.

Moving on, the Amazfit T-Rex sports a 1.3-inch (360 x 360 pixels) AMOLED display with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection. The display is vivid, punchy and is bright enough and remains completely fine outdoors even under direct sunlight conditions. Furthermore, we can adjust the screen-on duration from 6 seconds to 14 seconds max, has Always-on display as well. The auto-brightness is responsive and works well under various conditions.

Apart from ‘lift your wrist’ option, you can wake up/turn off the display by pressing the ‘Back button’. In terms of watch faces, none are available to my taste, so I settled with one of them which shows calories burned, steps & kilometer covered, weather info, time, and battery indicator.

You can swipe down to access the quick setting menu, access fitness, and heart rate widgets. Under the quick setting menu, you can access, torch, battery saver, DND, brightness, and screen lock.

Swiping left lets you access the Settings menu, Activities, Alarm, Compass, Countdown, Event Reminder, Find My Phone, Heart Rate, Music, Status, Timer, Weather, and Workout. Swiping right lets you access notifications. Just like the Realme Watch, we can control Music from the watch itself. Overall, the pairing was smooth and the display was neat — no complaints.

Amazfit app — Neat! 

The Amazfit app’s home page displays a lot of information including the steps count, calories burnt, heart rate, PAI, and sleep score. On the top left, there is an ‘+’ option to select the devices to pair and a clover-like symbol that shows exercise data, status data, and body measurement details in-depth.

Under the ‘Enjoy’ tab, there is are options including Alarm-clock, Event reminder, Find device, Target-settings, Dial-setting (watch faces), option to manage incoming calls, App alerts, manage vibration and much more.

And then, the ‘Profile’ consists of options to enable Idle alerts, app alerts, goal notifications, and much more. With the app, you can control almost every aspect of the watch right from changing the watch faces, to enable or disable continuous heart rate monitoring, to start an exercise.

The Amazfit works well with both Android (OnePlus 8 Pro, Nord) and iOS (iPhone XR and 11) smartphones. Lastly, the smartwatch does a decent job mirroring notifications from the phone.

Performance — Minor flaws

Coming to the performance, T-Rex has 13 sports modes — Outdoor running, walking, outdoor cycling, pool swimming, open water swimming, treadmill, indoor cycling, elliptical trainer, exercise, climbing, trail running, skiing and outdoor trekking.

To select the workout, swipe left ⇾ Go to workout ⇾scroll and choose the workout and select ‘GO’. If your workout involves GPS, you might have to wait for less than 15 seconds (approx 8 to 10 seconds in my case), which is quick compared to GTR.

As per the company claims, the watch uses a high-end Sony GPS chip and a built-in highly precise dual-satellite positioning system. They have also optimised the watch body materials and internal layout, and even highly optimised signal reception as well.

We found the GPS accurate during our outdoor activities including cycling and running. But, the GPS gets disconnected the minute we enter into a subway or a tunnel. Don’t worry, the watch quickly latches on to the GPS within a couple of seconds once we come out of it.

In aspects like heart rate monitoring, sleep tracking, and steps counting, the results were kind of accurate. In terms of sleep tracking, it tracks light & deep sleep, as well as how much time you spent awake during the night. It also provides overall Sleep Score from 1 to 100 and Sleep Quality Analysis. Both the watch and app offers a wealth of data and detailed workout statistics.

However, we encountered false step counting especially during the bike ride and sleep (I don’t have any sleepwalking disease, I swear). Another limitation we feel is the lack of third-party support since the device uses Huami’s custom software. If you want third-party apps, you’ll have to look elsewhere.

Battery life — Solid 20 days! 

The Amazfit T-Rex is powered by a 390mAh battery and it is certainly great as per the company claims. Mine was mostly regular with 40 to 45 minutes cycling with the GPS enabled. Till now, I charged the battery 4 times since I got the watch. It lasts somewhere around 18 to 20 days for me easily. Talking about charging, it takes around a solid two hours to charge from 0 to 100%.

Conclusion

Overall, Amazfit T-Rex is a great option under Rs. 10,000 if you are looking out for rugged smart wearable with great battery life, sturdy build with accurate activity tracking. However, it is not a full-fledged smartwatch, meaning you cannot install any third-party apps as such or reply to the notification directly from the wrist. On the other hand, it does basic fitness tracking amazingly well for its price.

Pros

  • Build quality
  • Battery
  • Display
  • Value for money

Cons

  • No third-party support
  • False step counting