Amazfit T-Rex review

Competitors

The Amazfit T-Rex has a lot going for it. It is a well-crafted and balanced smart-wearable product, which manages to combine all the battery endurance benefits and iterative refinements of existing Amazfit smart wearables, with a distinctive and classic rugged look. There is a surprising vacuum of wearables in this particular rugged niche, at the moment, which can only work to its advantage. To top it all off - there is the tantalizing price point of around just $150.

Rugged smartwatches from more reputable brands are surprisingly uncommon. That is to say, you can choose from a wide selection of wearables that offer decent levels of ingress protection, even if not on the STD-MIL-810G level of the T-Rex, but not that many that have that particular rugged look.

Garmin and Casio both have notable offers that fit the bill. Not so much the literal price bill, though. The $150 asking price of the T-Rex can't buy you any wearable from these brands. Nothing even comes close.

Huami recently unveiled the Amazfit Ares - a more-affordable, square wearable, that still offers a rugged design and most of the core Amazfit hardware and features, with 14-day battery life.

If you are willing to forego the "watch-style" display and looks and settle for a more traditional sports band, there are more options to choose from. The all-popular Mi Bands come to mind. In a more recent development, you can now buy similar hardware under the Redmi brand for even better value.

The Amazfit Bip remains a favorite of ours for its clever use of a transflective display for even better battery endurance. Plus, Huawei and Honor both have their respective and very similar "Band" lines. These occasionally include a Sport variant. Plus, a "Pro" suffix of some, which usually signifies there is a dedicated GPS receiver in said wearable.

There are a few other options to consider if you are after a more traditional "watch" look, but would rather go for more battery and fewer features than a full-featured smartwatch. Again, Huami pops-up prominently, with the Amazfit GTR and GTS, we have been referencing all throughout the review.

Huawei and Honor have been trying a similar more-battery, less-features, smart wearable approach in some of their recent gadgets. These tend to last a bit less on a single charge than their Amazfit rivals and generally have a less-active third-party app and customization community. Still, they are a viable alternative and particularly good pair for Huawei and Honor phone owners form a software standpoint.

Honor MagicWatch 2 • Huawei Watch GT 2

The verdict

Huami clearly has its hand on the pulse of a large segment of the smart wearable market. While most big-brand players, like Apple and Samsung are sweating to come up with a full-featured flagship smartwatch, Huami has mostly been focusing on affordable, long-endurance wearables instead.

In terms of functionality, the T-Rex is really closer to a smart band than to a smartwatch. A smarter, more feature-rich smart band, yet still offering all of the value and battery endurance benefits. Still, it manages to visually distance itself from the plain band look and successfully recreates an iconic watch look. The end result is impressive on multiple levels.

The biggest letdown of the T-Rex overall experience is the lack of polish on a software level. The Amazfit OS, in its current state, is functional and well-refined. However, the Amazfit companion app is in desperate need of an overhaul and major UX simplification. The active third-party dev community has been putting in a lot of effort to remedy this, but that's not exactly the elegant, end-user solution the otherwise excellent T-Rex deserves.

Pros

• Iconic looks, solid build quality, 5 ATM water resistance and STD-MIL-810G certification.
• Vibrant OLED with responsive auto brightness, works well outdoors.
• Stellar GPS performance.
• Over 20 days of battery life on a single charge.

Cons

• Feels too light for its own good.
• Strap design is properietary.
• UI is not optimized for button-only navigation and yet the touchscreen doesn't work with gloves or wet fingers.
• Heart-rate monitoring and sleep tracking have room for improvement.
• The Amazfit smartphone app is unorganized and bloated. Multi-device support is not available.