Amazfit Balance review: The little AI smartwatch that wants to rule them all
Note: This review was first published on 24 December 2024.
I’ve been a technology journalist for the better part of my life now, and somehow, never had the opportunity to experience an Amazfit device before. The Amazfit Balance would therefore be my virgin review. Now, Amazfit wearables are made by parent brand Zepp Health, previously known as Huami. The brand claims to be the world’s largest wearable device company (based on their own website’s About page), and has close ties to Xiaomi, being their “exclusive provider of wearable technology”. Xiaomi is also listed as one of the investors in the brand.
The TL;DR version:
There’s nothing balanced about this watch. I’d call it extremely ambitious to a fault. Thankfully, there are more hits than misses.
Note: You can buy the Amazfit Balance on Amazfit’s webstore, Lazada, Shopee, and Amazon.
I bring this up because even though I have never used an Amazfit device before, I can see parallels in features, such as the PAI (Physiological Activity indicator) score used to measure fitness and activity in both brands. I can also readily believe that Xiaomi borrows from Zepp and not the other way around because both Zepp OS (which runs on this watch) and the Zepp app are so much more comprehensive and feature-packed than Xiaomi’s rather barebones Mi Fitness app, even on the Mi Watch 2 Pro, which is a full-fledged Wear OS smartwatch.
The Amazfit Balance is more in line with the likes of Fitbit (not Google Pixel), Garmin and Huawei devices. Which is a great time for a brief segue that the wearables market is now split into three distinct groups: Apple Watch that is exclusive to iOS, Wear OS devices that are exclusive to Android, and the independents who try to play nice with both. The Balance is one of those, but it’s so much more than an independent activity tracker.
The Beta Test Experience
The first thing I want to say is that it has been one of the harder reviews I’ve had to do in a while. It’s possible that it’s because I’m not familiar with Amazfit’s interface, but at times, it does feel like I’m beta-testing a product for the brand. In the past two months using the Balance, the Zepp app has gotten a complete UI revamp, and Zepp OS has so many features, segments, and sub-menus that it has been a chore to navigate trying to figure out where data is coming from, or how I could interact with it.
Having lots of features is great, right? Yes, but at the same time, it also feels like Zepp is trying to one-up every single competitor by trying to emulate all their unique features and cramming them into the Balance. For example, the Balance has a bioelectric body composition sensor like Samsung, Morning Updates (like Samsung’s Daily Briefing on older Tizen OS Galaxy Watches pre-Wear OS), Readiness Score like Fitbit, a fully customisable workout creator like a Garmin and even a Garmin Connect IQ-like app store. It also boasts almost every new flagship feature released in 2024, such as sleep apnea detection, dual-band GPS, offline maps and routing, and health alerts – though it has no active SOS-style medical or emergency alerts.
All this, in addition to its own features, means that you have at least 2-3 different metrics that offer similar types of data. Readiness Score, PAI, and Exertion Level are all calculated to give you a basic overview of the previous day’s activities for you to plan the next day. While they aren’t technically identical, I don’t need three different numbers telling me I’m tired.
Workouts with Zepp Coach
Workout functionality is incredibly comprehensive and continues to be enhanced with multiple firmware updates since I started testing the watch. The most recent update even added very specific activities like dog walking and snow shovelling. Unlike most sports trackers that boast “100+ activities” but are just tracking your heart rate, dog walking is useful in that it records duration and route information, too. Besides having customisable workouts, a built-in personal trainer called Zepp Coach can be set up to keep track of your progress, workout loads, and rest days. It can then dynamically alter training goals based on how active (or sedentary) you’ve been.
With Zepp OS 4 (firmware v3.25.5.5), there’s even a new feature called Strength Training Action Quality Assessment, which supposedly has advanced multi-modal training analysis for indoor workouts. On the one hand, I fully welcome this feature as there is a dearth of trackers that cater to strength and conditioning workouts, but on the other, I don’t really know where this feature is located. It may very well be just part of the workout report when selecting Strength Training, but there’s no overt notice that something is “new” in the UI. This goes back to my original observation that the Balance has so many features, options, and data thrown in your face that it becomes intimidating. Moreover, I’m not even sure if all this advanced data presented is accurate because there’s nothing else to compare to.
I have no real concerns about actual tracking performance during workouts though, as the Balance seem to be able to keep up with a Galaxy Watch Ultra beat for beat, and dual-band GPS is quick and accurate.
AI maketh smartwatch?
One of the major features touted by Amazfit is AI integration, and on paper, it does seem impressive. The use of AI definitely feels intentional and purposeful compared to the Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 and Ultra series, for example. The Balance has an AI assistant based on ChatGPT 4 technology called Zepp Flow, an AI sleep assessment companion called Zepp Aura, and the aforementioned Zepp Coach.
The Zepp Flow tab in the Zepp app is quite impressive, and it seems like you can do quite a lot of things. This is probably one of the few places in the app with in-depth explanations of how to interact with the feature. It’s supposedly able to understand conversational input, too, but in practice, I found that the list of canned commands works best and is honestly not that much more intuitive than pre-AI assistants like Siri, Google Assistant or Alexa.
Zepp Aura is an enhancement to standard sleep tracking and offers more things like sleep coaching, another AI assistant specifically to ask sleep-related questions, plus sleep music/sounds and breathing exercises. The big caveat here is that Zepp Aura is a paid function with a S$14.98 per month subscription. Interestingly, it’s constantly on discount, often up to 80% off, at S$19.98 for a year (which comes to S$1.67 a month). Still, I’m unsure if there’s any value in this.
Build, battery, and final thoughts
The physical design of the Balance gives me Garmin vibes, but it is very lightweight and, for lack of a better word, plasticky. Even the strap feels thin and flimsy. I’m not sure if it’s because of the cheaper materials used, but I find myself developing the dreaded “smartwatch rash” (or sensor burn) within two days of continuously wearing the Balance. It usually takes 1-2 weeks with other smartwatches for me to develop similar symptoms. These are, of course, my personal anecdotes, and your own experience might differ.
Battery life is amazing and rivals Huawei’s famed 14-day devices. What’s more impressive is that the Balance achieves this with so many features that it easily out-classes some of the full-fledged smartwatch contenders for Best Android Smartwatch in our last Tech Awards roundup, such as the Oppo Watch X and Xiaomi Watch 2 Pro. The Balance consistently hits the 10-day mark for me, and depending on how many workouts I clock, I’ve even stretched it past 14 days on some occasions.
There’s nothing balanced about the Balance. If anything, I’d call it extremely ambitious…but to a fault. If you are looking for value, you’d be hard-pressed to find another smartwatch this feature-rich for S$352 (often discounted to below S$300 during sales periods) that works on both iOS and Android equally well. If you’re looking for a sports tracker, it’s well worth the price. The Amazfit Balance is most similar in performance in this regard to Huawei’s Watch GT series. Stay tuned for my Watch GT 5 Pro review soon.
However, many of its vaunted AI features, such as Zepp Flow and Zepp Aura subscription, are not really useful, build quality could (and should) be better, plus the Zepp app is an exercise in death by information, though I concede that the latest UI and Zepp OS 4 updates have made it much more streamlined of late. Instead of one smartwatch to rule them all, the Balance is a Jack of all trades, master of none. Perhaps the T-Rex 3 would be a better singular-focused device since it’s dedicated to beating just one competitor, Garmin. It certainly is quite popular based on reactions from its announcement during IFA 2024.
Note: You can buy the Amazfit Balance on Amazfit’s webstore, Lazada, Shopee, and Amazon.
