A couple of years ago, smartwatches were seen as a luxury item, not a necessity. With the Galaxy and Apple watches priced in the upper range, people didn’t have many choices in the lower price bracket. Now, the outset of cheaper smartwatches and fitness trackers across price segments has changed this. While there are a bunch of companies selling these devices at an affordable price, one particular company has been able to set its foot deep into the market — creating a base for itself.
Amazfit GTR Mini
Rs 10,999What Is Good?
- Bright, crisp AMOLED display
- Impressive battery life
- Built-in GPS tracking
- Good activity-tracking options
- Slim and lightweight
What Is Bad?
- Slightly expensive
- No calling function
- Cannot manually reply to messages
- Better alternatives available
Amazfit has a wide library, but its GTR series has a different following. So this time around, instead of their usual big case watch, the company has come up with a mini version of the same, the GTR Mini. While the name may have a mini in it, it’s quite far from it.
The watch sports a 1.28-inch HD AMOLED display, a 42mm case, up to 14 days of battery life claim, and more at Rs 10,999. So how does it perform in our day-to-day usage, and is it truly a smartwatch? Find out in our review.
Amazfit GTR Mini Review: Design and display
The mini smartwatch lineup was first introduced with the Amazfit GTS roster, which comes with a square dial. This time, they have introduced it on the Amazfit GTR series, showcasing a round dial. There’s nothing ground-breaking about its design approach here, but it looks quite classy and minimal. It features a slim, lightweight design with a stainless steel finish around the dial. The back sports all the sensors in a plastic finish and makes good contact with the skin.
The watch is available in Midnight Black, Misty Pink, and Ocean Blue. We have the black colour variant, which can be paired with almost every outfit. The watch weighs 24.6 grams (including the strap) with a thickness of 9.25mm. It uses a 42mm case and comes in a single variant. The mini nomenclature paired with these dimensions makes it perfect for people with smaller wrists. Wearing the watch for longer hours at a stretch did not cause any trouble, and the strap quality is also quite good. The belt uses the same locking mechanism as the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 (Review), and it stays secure even if you enter a fully packed Delhi Metro.
Even after using the watch for multiple workouts, the strap did not collect any sweat residue, which is good — however, the area around the sensor is quick to collect dust. The watch frame’s right side has a physical button with decent feedback. The smartwatch also boasts 5 ATM water resistance so that you can take it out for a swim.
A 1.28-inch AMOLED display with a pixel density of 326ppi graces the front. The bezels are quite thick but not at all inconvenient. It produces vibrant colours with good viewing angles. The watch also gets bright enough under direct sunlight, making content easily legible. We found the panel to be quite responsive when gliding through the UI pages. The Zepp app has a plethora of watch faces, while the watch can natively store a total of four. It also has an Always-On display and raise-to-wake feature, which work flawlessly.
Amazfit GTR Mini Review: Software and Performance
Almost all Amazfit smartwatches are feature-rich, and the GTR Mini is no different. Just like its flagships, there are a lot of things packed into this watch, and it will likely take you a week to get accustomed to it. To put things into context, a swipe down from the home screen reveals the control centre, which gives you access to settings such as brightness, flash, sleep mode, and more. Swiping up lets you have a look at the notifications you might have received on your phone. A left swipe can get you access to your fitness data, heart rate monitor, and a lot of other things.
Right swipe gives you access to all the necessary shortcuts like alarm, weather, and more. Pressing the button lets you access the activities tab. Speaking of which, fitness freaks will be happy to know that the GTR Mini comes with 120 sports modes preloaded. Like some of the flagship smartwatches in the market, this little guy here also sends a prompt when you’ve been walking or running for a certain period.
Although the GTR Mini is classified as a “smartwatch”, it acts more like a smart notifier. For starters, you cannot reply to messages using just the smartwatch — except for a bunch of pre-loaded presets. It’s not surprising, considering some of their flagships also lack this feature. However, we hope newer models from Amazfit will let you reply to messages.
While we are on the topic of messaging, Whatsapp notifications are annoyingly buggy on the watch. We faced multiple occasions where the ‘Checking for new messages’ prompt tested our patience on a daily basis. Notifications from other apps work well, and you also get notified about calls, but you cannot answer them using the watch. This is disappointing because smartwatches at a much lower price offer this.
The watch can be connected to your smartphone using the Zepp app. The companion app is extremely detailed and concise. It has many features that can help you set up your watch how you want it. Zepp also records your health and activity data with a proper breakdown that makes it easier for you to understand. Speaking of which, we never had any doubts about the efficacy of Amazfit watches when it comes to tracking activity data.
As mentioned before, it has a bunch of sports modes. We mostly fiddled around with the soccer mode (which should have been called football), and it worked surprisingly well. The data shows you the amount of time you’ve played, calories burned, and more. It also lets you pause for the first half and second half, which is neat. The GTR Mini has GPS with five satellite positioning systems which help with close-to-accurate markings.
The built-in GPS also means you don’t have to carry your smartphone with you every time. It tracked our football session at a turf well, almost looking like a drawing made by a toddler. Overall, the features this watch has to offer should fulfil any fitness freak’s needs.
The BioTracker sensor at the back makes good contact with the skin. This, in turn, gives you proper heart rate and SpO2 readings. You can also set it to monitor everything throughout the day but at the cost of the battery. As for sleep tracking, it recorded sleeping and waking up times consistently. The app breaks down your sleeping pattern to help you understand the cycles.
Amazfit GTR Mini Review: Battery life and charging
Amazfit smartwatches, for the longest time, have been known to excel at battery life. The GTR Mini continues on that same legacy. It packs in a 280mAh battery with a claim of 14-day runtime on normal usage.
For context, the Amazfit GTS 4 (Review) came with a 300mAh battery pack and a slightly heftier price tag. It’s interesting how they managed to fit this battery in a smaller form factor.
We rigorously tested the GTR Mini with every feature it had to offer turned on. The watch managed to last four days in our usage. If you keep features such as active heart rate monitoring and others disabled, it should easily last you around 10 days on a full charge. The battery life for such a slim and lightweight watch is quite impressive.
The GTR Mini uses a proprietary charger, something all of its watches use. Unfortunately, however, the bundled charger has a frustratingly short cable. As a result, it took the watch an hour and a half to charge from dead to full.
Amazfit GTR Mini Review: Verdict
The Amazfit GTR Mini, despite its size and name, packs a punch. The crisp and bright AMOLED display does its deed well, while the sleek and lightweight design doesn’t strain your wrists. The GTR Mini will aid fitness enthusiasts thanks to the GPS and tracking features which are pretty accurate and helpful. Battery life on the watch is not surprising considering the consistent history of Amazfit.
The Rs 10,999 price tag is slightly on the upper end, considering the exclusion of features such as calling and replying. With that in mind, there are better alternatives in the market at this price from Xiaomi, Huawei, and Amazfit themselves. The Samsung Galaxy Watch 4, one of the top smartwatches of 2021, is currently retailing at Rs 12,999, but its Android-only nature may make iOS buyers look the other way. This offers WearOS, which will allow users to download third-party apps, among other things.
