HIGHLIGHTS

• Amazfit T-Rex 2’s USP is its rugged design.
  

• The smartwatch offers long-lasting battery life on a single charge.

• The Amazfit smartwatch also offers a bunch of health and fitness tracking features.

The demand for smart fitness trackers has been on the rise in India. A recent Counterpoint Research report revealed that smartwatches continued to remain the fastest-growing category in Q1 of 2022 with over 3.7 million units shipping in India. Local players like Noise and Boat have a major chunk of the market share, but other companies are not far behind in eating some of the pie. Amazfit is one such company which has launched several smartwatches in the budget and premium categories. The company recently launched the Amazfit T-Rex 2 in India.

With its price set at Rs 15,999, the T-Rex 2 certainly is fairly premium. Yes, it is not as costly as the likes of the Galaxy Watch 4 or the Apple Watch Series 7. But for a price-sensitive market like India, the T-Rex 2 needs to offer a lot of features to justify its price tag. After using the Amazfit T-Rex 2 for about 10 days, here is what I have to say about the new smartwatch in India.

Amazfit T-Rex 2 review

The Amazfit T-Rex 2’s USP is its rugged design, coupled with long-lasting battery life and a bunch of health and fitness tracking features. The watch has a circular dial made out of polymer alloy, which Amazfit claims can offer military-grade toughness. Not going to lie, the Amazfit T-Rex 2 does give a lot of G-Shock vibes in terms of the design, which does look premium. I have the Amber Black colour variant with me. There is also the Black and Gold option along with a Wild Green, which, according to me, looks the best among the three.

The thick case around the 1.39-inch display ensures that the watch can deal with some accidental bumps here and there. During my review period, the watch did not get a single scratch even after a few accidental knocks. The screen is AMOLED and also supports Always-On Display (AoD). I tried keeping it on for a couple of days but the battery dropped quite quickly. More on the battery life in the latter part of this Amazfit T-Rex 2 review.

Since the battery drained quickly with AoD, I switched it off and preferred using the watch with the raise-to-wake feature, which takes a second or so for the watch to detect the gesture and wake the screen.

You can navigate through the menu by swiping or pressing one of the four buttons around the screen. Swipe down from the top to get access to the control centre. Swiping up will open the shortcuts to see the weather widget, workout stats, etc. Swipe left for the app list, whereas swiping right will show you all the notifications.

I kind of like the T-Rex 2’s screen. There is no need to squint your eyes while reading text on the watch, even in outdoor light. It comes with an auto-brightness feature, which quickly adapts and adjusts according to the ambient light. It is more than bright enough to check notifications or workout stats on the go. No, you cannot answer calls or reply to your WhatsApp or Instagram messages on this one.

The T-Rex 2 also comes with multiple watch faces which you can choose from. The watch also lets you pick among the number of watch faces and styles in the Zepp app, which is available for download on both Android devices and the iPhone. The same application can be used to track your workout stats.

While we are at it, Amazfit T-Rex 2 has over 150 workout modes. I did not have the time and patience to check all of these, but I can confirm that the watch can track fitness data for the most popular forms of indoor and outdoor workouts, like running, cycling, swimming, walking, etc.

The step tracker is amazing and almost close to accurate. I did wear the T-Rex 2 and the Apple Watch Series 7 on either wrist to check the accuracy. As I counted about 150 steps during my evening walk, the Amazfit T-Rex 2 too detected 159 steps, whereas the Apple Watch Series 7 counted 144. Things got better for the T-Rex 2 while I was driving. The Amazfit smartwatch did not add as many steps, whereas the Apple Watch Series 7 added about 400 steps during my 6 km drive.

The heart rate monitor isn’t as accurate compared to a dedicated machine that you can buy for home use. The T-Rex 2 showed the heart rate to be slightly higher than a standalone heart rate monitoring device. When it comes to the matter of heart rate, I would not rely blindly on any smartwatch for that matter and rather get checked professionally. But the feature does give you a fairly good idea for routine checks.

Another great feature of the Amazfit T-Rex 2 is its great battery life. During my 10-day usage, the watch’s battery drained from 87 per cent to 31 per cent. This includes a couple of days when I kept the AoD feature enabled. In case it wasn’t clear, I did not bother charging the watch even once.

Not everything is as great though

The T-Rex 2 has a few downsides though. For starters, you cannot install any third-party apps as there is no dedicated App Store support. You can only control the music playback on your phone. Also, the watch lets you answer or decline incoming calls only.

While the watch quickly lets you know when there’s an incoming call or some other notification, it fails to detect when the user has already checked the message on the phone. You will have to manually delete all the notifications on your watch.

Also, while the touch screen is quite responsive, it is too sensitive to water. The watch will detect touch when water droplets fall on the screen. This happens mainly when the AoD feature is on, which makes it another reason to disable it while saving battery life.

Verdict

The Amazfit T-Rex 2 is a good buy for those who want a rugged-looking watch. It is more of a fitness watch first, with some smart features that complement the experience. The battery life is excellent and if you are someone who is on an outdoor adventure more often, you can consider buying the Amazfit T-Rex 2.

The watch is also weather-proof, even in extreme conditions, according to the company. I could not test the claim here in Mumbai, where it is about 30 degrees. Of course, water-logging and floods are a common sight but I am sure the watch can handle that, considering the watch is built to survive even at -40 degrees.

I still wish the watch came with support for adding music and pairing your wireless earbuds via Bluetooth so that you could use them to listen to music even if the phone’s battery died. There is no LTE version of the watch either, which means you will have to rely on your phone to make calls.

As long as you can ignore these downsides, the Amazfit T-Rex 2 can be considered a good fitness watch with some smart features.

Via: India Today