When it comes to smartwatches, it is necessary detach the hardware from the software. The clock is remarkable, the application a little less. Let’s start by saying that the smartwatch is solid and resistant, in line with the product philosophy, designed for sports, even extreme ones. The GPS has dual frequency positioning to reduce environmental interference and relies on five satellites, which makes it accurate. The T-Rex 2, third version of the Amazfit T-Rex family, is a good watch for those who love outdoor adventures and for sportsmen generally. Zepp Health Corporation points out that the smartwatch has passed 15 military-grade tests. Regardless, we mistreated him for a few days and the result was positive.
Technical specifications
The operating system, Zepp OS, was born at the end of 2021 to replace Amazfit OS and was designed to be more contained in terms of space (55 Mb), to increase battery life and to create an ecosystem of developers capable of create compatible applications.
The display is 1.39-inch Hd Amoled, with a definition of 454×454 pixels, clearly visible even during sunny hours and communication with the smartphone takes place via Bluetooth 5.0. The lack of Wi-Fi appears to be a flaw. The dimensions of the watch are 47.1 x 47.1mm, with a thickness of 13.65mm, the weight is 66.5 grams. The wrist does not cause any discomfort and the silicone strap does not irritate the skin. The batteria of 500 mAh it takes two hours to fully charge. Measurements of the wearer’s parameters are entrusted to native BioTracker technology, equipped with six photodiodes.
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What is it for
In addition to the ability to measure heart rate, stress, breathing and blood oxygenation in a cyclical way (convenient functions that pay the price of greater battery consumption), the smartwatch allows you to detect the effort made during more than 150 sports activities that the watch recognizes automatically. Interesting the triathlon and golf modeswhich are normally found only on high-end smartwatches or specially designed for endurance and green lovers.
Added to these are useful outdoor functions such as the compass, the altimeter, the movement of the Sun and the Moon, the weather, as well as other more universal ones including calendar, alarm clock, stopwatch, countdown, list of things to to do, the controls for the camera and music player of the smartphone to which the watch is paired or for a GoPro camera. About fifty different dials are available for customization, some of which can be modified to show the most useful information to the wearer.
On the proprietary app store you can find other apps (not many, at least for the moment). These include Home Connect, which allows integration with smart devices, including scales capable of interacting with the smartwatch and keeping track of the user’s weight variations.
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Proof
Between military tests passed include resistance to temperatures ranging from 70 to -40 degrees centigrade, water resistance up to 10 atmospheres (100 meters). Furthermore, the same tests also certify exposure to humidity for 10 days and to the salt spray test for 4 days. The latter is a corrosion resistance test carried out in a special chamber in which the object to be tested is inserted previously immersed in a saline solution. We left it in the freezer (at -18 degrees) for three hours and took it to the pool to take a few laps. Both tests that he passed without difficulty.
By setting the heart rate detection every 10 minutes, the stress one every 5 minutes and the sleep monitoring function, keeping the GPS always on and setting the display brightness to 50%, wearing it to record the data of walks and morning runs, battery consumption is 5% per day, the Amazfit T-Rex 2 therefore holds up to 20 days without needing to be recharged. If the opinion about the phone is positive, the same cannot be said about the mobile app, which is not up to par.
I parameters and data recorded by the smartwatch appear reliable: pedometer, heartbeat and oxygenation were also detected in parallel by other devices, as well as the data relating to blood oxygenation detected by the watch were compared with an oximeter. We did not detect major differences between the data collected and, in any case, we are unable to charge the smartwatch, or other devices used, to be responsible for the differences we have noticed. The altimeter also appears accurate. By comparing the data with a topographical map, we calculated a difference of one meter in altitude. There vocation to sport – even extreme – the Amazfit T-Rex 2 is partly stifled by the inability to make emergency calls from the watch.
The application
A mister watch paired with an application, Zepp, with bugs. Notifications are not usable: when they arrive on the smartwatch they do not emit sounds and, those rare times when it emits one, it has a low volume that it is difficult to hear it even in low noisy environments. The vibrations, the intensity of which can be parameterized by the user, do not work. We tried in every way (both by pairing the watch with Android and iOS devices) but there was no way to make the smartwatch vibrate. Mute notifications from practically all the applications installed on the smartphone then appear on the display, with the exception of those relating to the iOS Mail app. A sin that can however be remedied with one future version of the app.
When you practice a sport activity, the app recognizes the moments of pause and also takes care of announcing them but through a questionable text to speech, it pronounces texts written in English in Italian: therefore “workout paused” becomes, literally, “uorcout paùsed”. Weather and forecasts are rather cheap, they return those of a location about 40 kilometers from the place where we are, which, moreover, does not appear among the places in the database to which the app refers.
The GPS, which has an impact on the duration of the charging cycle of the smartwatch, can be set according to principles of accuracy or energy saving, leaving the user to select the number of satellites to which it refers. The Zepp app is compatible with Android (from version 7.0 onwards) and iOS (12 and above).
What we liked
- resistance
- the duration of the bacteriumWhat we did not like
What we didn’t like
- the application to improve
- no Wi-Fi
In fine
The many pros of the smartwatch are partially alleviated by the Zepp application bugs. However, it is a resistant watch and therefore suitable for those who do outdoor activities: it resists any climatic condition, even the most adverse. Among the many functions of the watch, the possibility of making emergency calls is missing and, considering that the Amazfit T-Rex 2 is located in the medium-high range of products, the absence of Wi-Fi should be remedied. The application, it must be said to be honest, at the moment it is below reasonable expectations, so it is to be hoped that the bugs will be fixed in the future. The price is 229.90 euros.