Amazfit Active 2 review: The $100 smartwatch I almost love -- here's why I merely like it - chof 360 news

With apologies — wait, no... with admonishment — to Apple, Google and Samsung, a feature-packed smartwatch doesn't have to cost $500, $400 or even $250. The Amazfit Active 2 puts the proof on your wrist, offering fitness tracking, health monitoring, an AI assistant, solid battery life and a gorgeous design, all for just $100. And the "premium" model is only $30 more.

Reality check: Like many of the Amazfit watches I've tested over the years, this one is really solid in some areas and limited or frustrating in others. The good news is, its strengths are sufficient that I can easily recommend it, and the price tag mollifies most of the other stuff. In other words, a low cost makes it easier to forgive a few quirks. Here's my Amazfit Active 2 review.

Rick Broida/chof360

Screen: 1.32" AMOLED | Estimated battery life: 10 days typical use | Health monitors: Blood oxygen, heart rate, sleep | Water resistance: 50 meters

VERDICT: Although it tries to do a little too much, often at the expense of simplicity, the Active 2 is an amazing value — and a beauty to boot.

Pros Starts under $100 Attractive design, beautiful AMOLED display Packed with useful features Onboard AI is useful, especially for adjusting watch settings Solid sleep-tracking and heart-rate monitoring Great selection of free watchfaces available

Cons No printed operating instructions, anemic online manual Some features can be confusing iPhone users can't reply to texts Very slow firmware updates, map downloads Struggles with exercise detection

$100 at Amazon

Amazfit Active 2: It's a looker

The Active 2 is stunning, with a bright, colorful 1.32-inch AMOLED touchscreen embedded in a stainless-steel casing. The aforementioned Premium version nets you sapphire glass atop that display; Amazfit says it's all but impossible to scratch. That might be worth the extra $30, especially if you engage in a lot of rugged outdoor activity. For most users, however, the standard tempered glass is probably sufficient.

The watch has two wide buttons on the right edge. The top one takes you to the apps page; the bottom, to workouts. Weirdly, you can modify what happens when you long-press the top button or the overall function of the bottom button, but that's it. (Why not allow changes to short- and long-presses for both?)

Amazfit supplies either a black or red silicone wristband, but the aforementioned Premium version nets you a leather band as well. The latter looks nice enough from a distance but a little flimsy up close. You'll likely want to stick with silicone for exercise and water-based activities. (Speaking of which, the Active 2 can survive at depths of up to 50 meters, according to Amazfit.)

Amazfit Active 2: Setup takes time

I tested the Active 2 with my iPhone 13. The experience is virtually identical if you're an Android user, with one key exception: The iPhone doesn't support text-message replies from the watch. You can merely view them. (To be fair, that's true of nearly all non-Apple smartwatches.)

Charging it requires a small magnetic dock that, annoyingly, has weak magnets and works in only one orientation: If you don't place the Active 2 the right way, you'll have to turn it 180 degrees. And Amazfit supplies only the dock itself; no AC adapter, no USB-C cord. I get that we're trying to reduce the world's cord-clutter, but if you don't have a spare lying around (and a port into which to plug it), you won't be able to charge the Active 2 out of the box.

Few smartwatches come with decent instructions, which is unfortunate because a lot of them are fairly complicated — and the Active 2 is no exception. What appears to be a substantial, if narrow, printed setup guide has exactly two pages of actual instruction: one a series of cryptic icons, the other a list of pairing instructions with print so tiny it should be illegal. The few additional pages are legalese, followed by the same in multiple languages. (That's why the booklet is so thick.) There's a detailed user guide available online, but it's nearly all text — not great for a device that's entirely visual in operation.

The majority of the setup lifting is left to the Active 2's companion app, which is confusingly called Zepp. There's nothing too complicated here, but before I could start using the watch, I had to wait on a firmware update — which took 45 minutes to install. And the app had to stay running in the foreground on my phone (i.e. I couldn't use it for anything else), which was inconvenient. There was also a curious discrepancy between the two: the app would say "35 minutes remaining"; the watch, "Please wait for 5 minutes."

I had a similar experience later while downloading a map to the watch; it took over 20 minutes and displayed some contradictory messaging. Why are file transfers so slow? Because they're happening over Bluetooth; if the Active 2 supported Wi-Fi, they'd be significantly faster. Thankfully, they're mostly a once-in-a-while activity.

Amazfit Active 2: Easy to use in some ways, complicated in others

Usability often starts with visibility, and many inexpensive smartwatches struggle outdoors, especially under bright sun. I was pleased to discover I could see the Active 2's screen just fine — though I did need to crank the brightness. (AI assistant Zepp Flow, discussed below, came in handy here, because rather than trying to navigate menus on a dim screen, I could simply say, "Set brightness to maximum.")

The watch is pretty easy to operate once you learn the basics. Swipe left/right for shortcut cards, down for settings, up for notifications. Press the top button for apps, the bottom one for workouts.

I strongly disliked the default app view, however; mimicking the Apple Watch, it's a huge circular corral of icons (34!) that I found largely indecipherable. Thankfully, you can switch to a list view with text labels, but you'll need to visit the phone app if you want to put them in any kind of a useful order. (You can also remove unwanted ones.)

One option I couldn't find was a way to change the font size for notifications. It's readable, but some users might prefer larger or smaller text.

The Zepp app has improved considerably in its latest iteration, and I'm glad; I always found it clunky and confusing. It's more streamlined and attractive, with much easier access to watch functions and settings (which are numerous).

Unfortunately, I still encountered a few bugs. When I visited the app's FAQ page for Zepp Flow, there was no back button, no way out except to close and restart the app. When I reorganized the shortcut cards (which appear when you swipe left or right from the watch face), the changes didn't sync to the watch. I even rebooted both the app and watch; no luck.

Amazfit Active 2: Its top features

There's very little this watch can't do, from displaying notifications from your phone to letting you actually take calls, Dick Tracy-style (as long as your phone is within Bluetooth range, so around 30 feet). It tracks your steps, sleep, stress, heart rate, blood-oxygen level, menstrual cycles and more. It can find your phone (again, when within Bluetooth range) and display your choice of hundreds of stylish watch faces.

I like the always-on mode (which is enabled by default), a feature that's often available only in pricier watches. Instead of turning off the display entirely when there's no activity, the Active 2 dims most of the watch face, leaving just the time illuminated. Take note, however, that as with all smartwatches, using this does have an impact on battery life.

And then there's AI. Long-pressing the watch's top button invokes Zepp Flow, an AI-powered assistant not unlike Siri or Google Assistant. She can not only answer questions, but also control or activate watch features: screen brightness, sleep mode, find my phone, check heart rate and so on.

Just be prepared for occasional hiccups. There were a few times during my testing when she wouldn't start, instead returning an error message. Some questions she answered just fine; others, like when the Oscars would be on, stumped her. I asked her to start tracking a pickleball game; she offered ping-pong or tennis instead. I said no and was informed she couldn't track pickleball — even though the sport is indeed one of the 160+ you can access manually (see below).

But Zepp Flow can actually learn, which is kind of cool. When I asked for the outdoor temperature, she gave it in Celsius (even though the Zepp app is set for Fahrenheit). I repeated the request and specified that I wanted the numbers in Fahrenheit. She complied, and I followed up with, "Always give me temperatures that way." She said okay, and, sure enough, the next time, she did.

Even if she's not quite as robust as other AI helpers, Zepp Flow can be nice to have on hand (er, wrist). I like the feature.

Amazfit Active 2: A good exercise companion?

True to its name, the Active 2 aims to capture any and all activity: It has over 160 sport modes, though some of them are pretty laughable: darts, foosball, even board games (no, I'm not making that up). Leveraging built-in GPS, it can show your position and provide turn-by-turn directions on a live map (provided you've downloaded it first), a decidedly helpful feature for hikers, bikers, skiers and runners.

My activity testing included treadmills, outdoor walks, bodyweight exercises and a trip to the gym. Unfortunately, the results weren't always consistent.

For example, Amazfit says the watch can automatically detect 25 different exercises. But in the Zepp app's Workout Detection settings, there are only eight exercises listed, and only one is active by default: walking.

I learned that the 25 number refers to strength-training exercises: squats, bench presses, jumping jacks and so on. I started with a simple set of bodyweight squats; the Active 2 recorded them as "triceps pushdowns."

Then I used it while performing the 7-Minute Workout, but it recorded only one long "set" and wasn't able to differentiate between the exercises. It turns out you have to manually pause the app in between sets, and actually end the activity and start a new one between exercises. This wasn't documented anywhere; I discovered it in " target="_blank" class="link"> a YouTube video specific to another Amazfit watch, the T-Rex 3.

At the gym, I ran through my typical "chest day" routine, which included chest presses, pectoral flys, pulldowns, rows, etc. Most of the time, the Active 2 correctly captured the number of reps I did of each (though it would occasionally log 9 when I know I counted 10). However, when I reviewed the collected data in the Zepp app after the workout, it correctly identified only about half the exercises.

I could manually edit them, sure, but between that and having to do all the manual starting and stopping between sets and exercises, it became more work than I was willing to do.

Meanwhile, when I hopped on my home treadmill for 20 minutes of brisk walking, the watch never detected it. I realized later that while "walking" was toggled on in the auto-detection settings, "indoor walk" was not. (The former undoubtedly relies on GPS to help indicate forward movement; indoors, there is none.) Unfortunately, toggling other exercise-detectors (outdoor running, pool swimming, elliptical, etc.) will "greatly reduce battery life," according to Amazfit.

When I enabled indoor-walk detection for future treadmill sessions, the watch did start capturing the movement — but not in a consistent (or accurate) way. The first time, it activated after I'd been walking for five minutes, but showed only four minutes of activity. The second time, it didn't kick in for a full 10 minutes, but again showed I'd logged only four minutes on the machine. Later, on the pickleball court, it confused my warmup with an indoor walk.

The watch performed better outdoors, accurately detecting and logging my outdoor walks. And it does capture a lot of metrics for those who like to quantify their exercises. (It was interesting to see my heart-rate variations during 90 minutes of pickleball, for example.)

I haven't even scratched the surface of all the Active's health helpers and reporting, which feel a little eclectic. For example, there's the Readiness score, which calculates various sleep metrics to help determine how, er, ready you are for the day's activities. But there's also Aura, a subscription service ($77 per year) for even more sleep data, plus analysis, guided breathing exercises and so on.

There's Zepp Coach to help you create personalized training plans; something called PAI, which monitors heart-rate changes and assigns you points; and a HYROX race mode for people who know what that is (I don't, but it occupies the first two slots when you access the workout page).

Finally, there's Wild.AI (not to be confused with Zepp Flow AI), an app that offers diet and workout recommendations based on hormonal and menstrual cycles.

I felt like I'd need to take a class to better understand all these things. You don't have to bother with the ones you don't want, of course, but I came away with a feeling of feature overkill — at the expense of a simpler, more straightforward fitness experience. Anyone who struggles with tech is likely to feel similarly overwhelmed by the Active 2's overabundance of health tools.

Amazfit Active 2: It sees you when you're sleeping...

I have mixed feelings about using a smartwatch to capture sleep data, in part because I feel there's not a lot of use to having that data ("Oh, I didn't sleep well last night? No kidding...") and in part because it's uncomfortable (to me, at least) to sleep with something strapped to my wrist.

That said, based on a few nights of anecdotal testing, I think the Active 2 works about as well as my Apple Watch Series 9 (but with much better battery life, meaning fewer worries about it dying during the night). After each night I was able to see a detailed breakdown of the various sleep stages, my heart rate along the way and so on.

Now, if you're someone looking to diagnose some real issues, perhaps to share with your doctor, all this data might be helpful — and you might benefit from the aforementioned Aura subscription, which, among other things, promises to "assess your risk of 4 major sleep disorders."

Amazfit Active 2: How's the battery life?

Battery life is difficult to measure because so many things can impact it: screen brightness, always-on mode, GPS usage, exercise-detection and so on. Obviously I put the watch through its paces during my tests, meaning using these and other features extensively. But I can't conclusively say, "If you do x, your battery life will be y."

Instead, I'll say that depending on how you use the watch, you might get close to 10 days before needing the charging dock and you might get only a few. Sometimes it might fall in between. (Example: If you look at the lefthand screenshot, above, you'll note that the watch shows a 72% charge remaining after being fully charged just the day before.)

As an Apple Watch user, I'm already accustomed to dropping it on the charger every night, same as I do with my phone; it doesn't bother me. But I also don't use it to track sleep, obviously.

The key takeaway here is that the Active 2 should last you at least a few days longer than much more expensive models from Apple and Samsung. And you have at least some control over how many days that will be.

Amazfit Active 2: Should you buy it?

For all its quirks and limitations, let's remember the Amazfit Active 2 is $99. Maybe its reach exceeds its grasp, especially when it comes to things like detecting and logging exercises. But it's a gorgeous watch with a superb screen, and it can handle the basics quite well.

Indeed, for my money, the greatest value in wearing a smartwatch — beyond knowing the time, of course — is getting notifications from my phone without having to pull out my phone. Beyond that, I like tracking my step count, setting reminders, finding my misplaced phone and checking the weather. The Active 2 works very well for all that and more.

The only thing that really gives me pause is not being able to respond to text messages, something I use my Apple Watch for pretty regularly. But if you're an Android user? Not a problem.