Amazfit launched the Amazfit Active 2 Square, the company’s latest smartwatch in the Active series, earlier this month, soon after the round model. It has a 1.75-inch AMOLED screen, compact design, has built-in microphone and speaker for voice calling capabilities, comes with GPS support, has upgraded Heart Rate and Sleep Algorithms with accuracy to the level of the Amazfit T-Rex 3 and runs Zepp OS 5.0 with Zepp Flow AI voice control. I have been using the latest smartwatch from Amazfit for about a week now, and here is the review.
Box Contents
- Amazfit Active 2 Square in Black colour with matching strap
- Extra silicone strap in Red colour
- Charging dock
- User manual
Amazfit has switched to a compact charging dock which lets you connect any external USB Type-C cable, which is a good move.
Design and Build
The Amazfit Active 2 Square as the name suggests has a square design. It measures 43.32×36.9.9mm, making it compact, and weighs just 31.4 grams with the strap. There is Acceleration sensor, Gyroscope sensor, Geomagnetic sensor, Barometric altimeter, Accelerometer sensor, 3-axis motion sensor, Barometer, Ambient light, Temperature sensor, 24h Heart Rate Monitor and SpO2 Sensor. It uses Bluetooth 5.2 LE to connect to Android and iOS devices.
Coming to the strap, it has a lightweight 20mm interchangeable strap with a vegan leather finish. In addition, there is a sports strap in the box that is made of skin-friendly material, and the quality of both the straps are good. The case of the watch has a glossy aluminum finish, so it is prone to fingerprints, but I did not see any scratches during my use.
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.
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 Active 2 Square New has a 1.75-inch (390×450 pixels) 341 PPI AMOLED touch screen with up to 2000 nits peak brightness, so the sunlight legibility is good even in bright outdoors. . 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. The display has Sapphire glass protection. Since the display is glossy, it is prone to fingerprints.
When you swipe from the top, you can see quick settings. This has battery, DND, Sleep mode, Theater mode, Calendar, volume adjustment, keep screen awake, Brightness adjustment, settings, flashlight, Bluetooth, lock, find my phone, alarm, eject water, headphone pairing, night display, and AOD.
Pressing the function button, shows Readiness, heart rate, blood oxygen, one-tap measuring, workout, weather, zepp coach, workout history, workout status, Map, Activity, PAI, stress, sleep, Phone, Membership card, Music, Alarm, Calendar, Settings, Sun and Moon, Compass, Barometer, Cycle tracking, Thermometer, Stopwatch, Timer, Find my phone, To Do, Voice memos, Pomodoro timer, Heart Rate push, HRV, Meditation, World Clock and Zepp Flow.
Swiping to the left shows Music Controls, Weather, Readiness, Alarm, Sleep, Heart rate, Activity, Zeep Flow, Recent calls, Weather, PAI and more. 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
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.
Software
The Amazfit Active 2 Square runs ZepOS 5 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. It has improved heart rate and sleep algorithms, AI-powered Zepp Coach, Zepp Flow, and a wider selection of downloadable apps and games.
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 Active 2 Square 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 400+ different types of free 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.
Zepp Flow is an AI-driven feature offering Natural-Language User Interface (LUI) powered by OpenAI. This allows users to interact with their smartwatch using natural language, eliminating the need for specific commands or keywords.
With Zepp Flow, you can perform various tasks like scheduling events, replying to notifications, checking the weather, and engaging in free chat, all through voice commands.
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, power, power-to-weight ratio, altitude, gradient distribution, and stride You can also see VO2 Max, recovery period, heart rate zones and post-workout heart rate 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. Since it has a 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 160+ workout modes, like indoor and outdoor walking, running and cycling, as well as more freeform workouts including strength training, and HYROX race.
There is also Zepp Coach that offers comprehensive training programs for half and full marathons, with features like Confidence Index and Plan Completion Rate for better progress management.
You can also download maps for offline turn-by-turn directions. For hands-free guidance, directions can be read aloud through the built-in speaker or connected Bluetooth headphones.
Sleep Tracking
Sleep tracking shows light and deep sleep, awake time, as well as REM sleep. It shows respiratory rate, and also shows hypopnea, a sleep-related breathing disorder. Overall, the sleep data is good, and insightful.
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 Active 2 Square has a 260mAh battery, and the company promises up to 10 days of battery life with normal use, 5 days with heavy use and 19 days in battery saver mode. During my use with 24h heart rate tracking, GPS use of about 35 minutes every day and calls rarely 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 Active 2 Square is yet another feature-packed smartwatch from Amazfit. It has a compact design, a bright AMOLED screen, several sports modes with a lot of data including Power for activities such as running that most smartwatches don’t offer. The GPS lock is quick, Bluetooth calling is a good addition, and it offers a long battery life even with everything enabled.
I like the compact look for my hand, but it might be too small if you have large hands. The glossy case is fine, but the glossy display is prone to fingerprint with everyday use.
Alternatives
If round display is fine, and you don’t need a sapphire glass protection, there is Amazfit Active 2 round option, and the BIP 6 is even cheaper. 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.
Pricing and availability
The Amazfit Active 2 Square is priced at Rs. 13,999 and is available from Amazon.in and Amazfit India online store as well as offline stores.
Pros
- Bright AMOLED display, Sapphire glass protection
- 5ATM water resistance
- 5 satellite positioning for accurate outdoor activity tracking
- ZeppOS 5 with several features
- Offline Maps for navigation
- Good battery life
Cons
- Glossy display is prone to fingerprints
- Might be small for some