Amazfit GTS 4 Review: A Reliable Smartwatch

The Amazfit GTS 4 is a very capable smartwatch at Rs 16,999, but it misses out on one very valuable feature.

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The smartwatch market sees a new launch almost every other week. Consumers have a barrage of options to choose from depending on their preferences. Though, only a few companies have been able to make their mark in this category. Amazfit is one of them. The company is known for providing value-for-money watches. They have been able to hit the budget segment and the mid-range segment — as far as smartwatches are concerned. Their latest product, the Amazfit GTS 4, is a flagship smartwatch priced at Rs 16,999. The watch is feature-packed to the brim and comes with a slew of sports modes which every fitness enthusiast will enjoy.

Amazfit GTS 4

₹16,999
8.1

DESIGN

8.0/10

DISPLAY

8.0/10

BUILD QUALITY

7.5/10

FEATURES

8.0/10

BATTERY LIFE

8.5/10

APP FEATURES

8.5/10

VALUE FOR MONEY

8.0/10

What Is Good?

  • Great AMOLED display
  • Smooth UI
  • Accurate tracking features
  • Lightweight
  • Good battery life

What Is Bad?

  • Physical crown feels cheap
  • Cannot reply to messages
  • Only one size is available

Amazfit smartwatches, for most of the time, have enjoyed long-lasting batteries, and when it comes to wearables, charging them daily can be a headache. Finally, the GTS 4 joins the bandwagon and is capable of providing that. Though the Amazfit GTS 4 sees some competition after the recent price drop for Samsung Galaxy Watch 4, it will be interesting to see how it holds onto itself. Read the full review to find out how the Amazfit GTS 4 performs in our day-to-day life and whether you should consider buying one.

Amazfit GTS 4 Review: Design and display

Lately, we’ve seen many smartwatches trying their best to look like the Apple Watch. The Amazfit GTS lineup has been following the squared display design language from its inception. On the other hand, the Amazfit GTR 4 lineup has a circular lineup to cater to the old-school audience. We are fans of both. While the former is great for casual wear and fitness sessions, the latter can be rocked during professional meetings or traditional get-togethers. The Amazfit GTS 4 has a 42mm chassis and weighs around 27g with the strap. The watch is lightweight, and wearing it for days on out was not an issue. It’s available in Infinite Black, Misty White, Autumn Brown, and Rosebud Pink. For this review, we have the subtle and minimal black colour variant. The strap on this particular variant sometimes catches a bit of lint and dust. Though, the matte finish feels good to the touch. The belt uses the exact locking mechanism as the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5. The watch uses standard 20mm straps, which can be switched to any third-party ones. These can be removed using quick-release pins. Even after using the watch for multiple workouts, the strap did not collect any sweat residue, which is good.

Wearing the watch for the entire day was not an issue. Though, the watch looked a bit small on our wrists. This will differ from person to person. The back of the watch holds all the sensors and the magnetic charging pins in place. It has a slight bulge at the back, which helps the sensors get in proper contact with the skin, hence giving close to accurate readings. We did not feel any discomfort due to this. The watch frame’s right side has a crown that acts as a physical button. On the left side, sees a speaker and microphone cutout. The watch is 5ATM water-resistant, which means you can submerge it in up to 50 metres of water for around 10 minutes. We couldn’t test the swimming capabilities of the watch, but showering while wearing it was not an issue.

The front of the Amazfit GTS 4 sports a 1.75-inch AMOLED display. Over the years, the display size of smartwatches has drastically changed — in a good way. There’s more screen estate to fiddle with things and swipe through the UI. It has a resolution of 390×450 pixels and a pixel density of 341ppi. Using the smartwatch outdoors, under direct sunlight, was not an issue, and the content was legible on it. The display is quite vibrant, and the colours look vivid on it. The touch response is good, and the UI feels smooth. The physical crown can be used to navigate through the UI. The haptic feedback while scrolling is quite excellent and responsive. The Amazfit GTS 4 has ample watch faces to choose from. These can be downloaded from the Zepp app as well. It also has an Always-On display and raise-to-wake feature, which work flawlessly.

Amazfit GTS 4 Review: Software and performance

The Amazfit GTS 4 is feature-rich. There are a lot of things to decipher, and it will likely take you about a week to get accustomed to everything on the watch. The home screen itself holds a bunch of information depending on the watch face you select. Swiping down gives you access to the notification bar, which pretty much looks like something you would get on a smartphone. There is a slew of options here to tweak around with. Swiping up allows you to check all the app notifications. 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, which also includes a tab for summoning Amazon Alexa, SpO2 monitoring, call logs, and more.

Fitness freaks will be delighted to discover that the Amazfit GTS 4 has over 150 sports modes. Most of the presets are loaded onto the watch, while the rest of them can be customised using the Zepp app. Speaking of the companion app, it has to be one of the most detailed and concise fitness apps for a smartwatch we’ve used. The homepage shows you all the necessary health data, sleep records, and workout history. A tab on the top right corner opens another realm of features that you can check out and monitor. Most of the settings can be accessed from the watch itself, but continuous heart rate monitoring and a couple of other features need you to log on to the app. Zepp also allows you to reorganise all the tiles as per your preference.

While the integration of Amazon Alexa has made us lazier than ever, it’s a great introduction — especially during winters in Delhi when you just don’t want to get your hands out of the hoodie. Amazfit has used a neat trick to summon Alexa with just a flick of the wrist, though we found it to be a bit inconsistent at times. You can ask it to play music straight from the watch, set the alarm for the next day, and more. Though, you cannot place a call using Alexa. That would’ve been a useful addition.

We’ve been using Amazfit watches since the Verge and Verge Lite days. It never gave us a chance to complain about its efficacy when it comes to tracking workouts. The Amazfit GTS 4 is no slouch. We tested the watch against some big guns from the smartwatch industry. We wore the Amazfit GTS 4 and the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 together for a walking and jogging session. We manually counted 500 steps, and both watches showed accurate results. After walking for over 3000 steps, the Amazfit GTS 4 was slightly off by a step or two compared with the Galaxy Watch 5. As for the distance and speed, both were in sync. The Amazfit GTS 4 breaks down your workout in the Zepp app and is quite informative. It Monitors your speed, BPM, heart rate zones, strides, cadence, altitude and a bunch of other things. This is very brief and will be useful for athletes. It also has a bunch of presets for strength training, and the watch automatically recognises it depending on your hand movements. It counts your reps and also tracks your rest time in between sets. GPS tracking was also accurate.

We tested the Amazfit GTS 4’s SpO2 and heart rate monitoring against the Galaxy Watch 3 and Galaxy Watch 5. All the data were in line with the Galaxy Watches, which is excellent. As for sleep tracking, it managed to record sleeping time and waking up time well. The app breaks down your sleeping pattern to help you understand the cycles. We again tested the sleep tracker by sleeping with both smartwatches on our wrists. Trust me, it’s not that comfortable. Both watches showed the same results. The Amazfit GTS 4 also has a feature called “Smart Alarm” it essentially calculates the optimal time to wake you up from light sleep so you won’t feel drowsy from a deep sleep. If it’s unable to calculate the time properly, it will wake you up at a set time. We tried this, and the watch woke us about 10 minutes before setting the alarm.

So overall, the Amazfit GTS 4 is a very reliable smartwatch for tracking your workouts and sleep. While health monitoring was also quite good, we always suggest using professional medical tools for more accuracy.

Besides all this, another use of a smartwatch of this stature is replying to messages and using the calling function. Sadly, the Amazfit GTS 4 falls short of the former. This was quite baffling for us as Amazfit markets it as a smartwatch — and this is a core feature to have. The Zepp app allows you to add a few texts presets that can be used to reply to WhatsApp messages. As for notifications, they arrive on time, but the design of the text pop-up is not palatable. Calling, on the other hand, works flawlessly. The person on the other line was content with our voice and did not complain once about the voice breaking or the quality of the microphone. Speakers are decent, too, and they get loud enough even when listening to music.

Amazfit GTS 4 Review: Battery life and charging

Amazfit watches are known for their long-lasting battery life. The GTS 4 packs in a 300mAh battery which lasted us about 5 days at a stretch with an Always-On display. Amazfit claims a bunch of other numbers depending on your usage. If you are someone who does not use GPS or Always-On display aggressively, chances are the watch will last you much longer. The Amazfit GTS 4 comes with a proprietary charger in the box, which uses two magnetic pins to connect to the back of the watch. It takes the watch about 30 minutes to reach 43 per cent. Another 30 minutes of charging ensures the battery is juiced up.

Amazfit GTS 4 Review: Verdict

The Amazfit GTS 4 is an excellent smartwatch for everyday use, and it holds onto itself very well. The AMOLED display upfront has excellent colours, and reading content on it outdoors was not an issue at all. The strap quality is good and does not collect any residue or cause any rashes. Thanks to its weight, wearing it for longer hours is no trouble.

Tracking workouts and monitoring heart rate and SpO2 works well on the Amazfit GTS 4, and it portrays accurate results almost every time. Integration of Amazon Alexa is something that comes in handy a lot. Offline voice control is just another cherry on top. The battery life is great, and the charging times are also acceptable. One thing which disappointed us was the fact that we couldn’t reply to the messages straight from the watch. It’s a basic smartwatch feature which should’ve been included without second thoughts.

As for competition, the GTS 4 is fending off the GTR 4 in the same price segment, though it comes with a larger battery and a circular design. The Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 also saw a couple of price slashes during the sales and is also a very good smartwatch to consider – it allows you to reply to messages and comes with WearOS. Nevertheless, the Amazfit GTS 4 is a reliable smartwatch and should make it into your list.