Amazfit Stratos review

Amazfit convinced everyone in 2017 by creating maybe the best budget smartwatch on the market. We’re obviously talking about the Bip (Check on Amazon.com). And now the company is looking to capitalize on Bip’s success with the Stratos (Check on Amazon.com).

Read more: Amazfit Bip review

Package

Other than the smartwatch inside the package we find the USB charging base.

Build quality

The Stratos is very light, it weighs just 60 grams. It is made almost entirely of plastic and what looks like carbon fiber but is actually polycarbonate. The crown around the glass seems to be ceramic (and doesn’t scratch easily). The real novelty is on the right side where we now have three physical buttons useful to control the smartwatch. They are easy to press and give good feedback.

We are not entirely convinced by the design of the product: it is more of a sports watch and much less a stylish timepiece. The watch is now dust and water-resistant up to 5 atmospheres. The 22mm rubber band is very comfortable, but not beautiful and gets dirty very easily.

Hardware

We have a 1.2GHz processor, 512MB of RAM and 4GB (only 2.5GB are free) of internal memory for your music. There is also a compass, gyroscope, heart rate sensor and GPS. We also have Wi-Fi although there are not many reasons to use it.

Display

The display is a wide 1.34-inch screen with Transflective LCD technology and a resolution of 320×300 pixels. This technology has a huge advantage and a huge disadvantage. The advantage is that the display is always visible. The huge disadvantage is that the display never appears vivid, except at certain unlikely angles. Therefore the colors always seem washed. Clearly, Amazfit chose the functionality over the aesthetics.

Software

You can track virtually any sport including swimming and triathlon. The information that is shown during the activity is always very complete, precise and clear. Among other features, you can always make use of the timer, stopwatch, music player, physical activity planner, compass and weather software. The alarm is also very good and the vibration is powerful enough to wake you up.

Notifications management is exemplary. It will notify you about everything you want, although it is not possible to interact with them (also erasing them from the watch does not delete them on your smartphone).

At night, if you keep it on your wrist, it will also track your sleep.

The companion app is rather “simple” but it will show you all the important stuff and all your physical activity sessions.

Autonomy

The battery guarantees about 5 days of autonomy, which goes down to 3 if you also track your sleep. Obviously prolonged physical activity sessions with the GPS turned on will drain it even faster.

Price

The Amazfit Stratos has a price of (Check on Amazon.com). This is its strongest suit considering how complete this offering really is. On the other hand, it is also double the price of the Bip (Check on Amazon.com).

Final Verdict

The Amazfit Stratos is the smart sports watch we have all been expecting. It has a higher than average autonomy, always visible screen and a huge number of data that you can collect from your physical activities. It also supports swimming. The design is a bit hit and miss, but if you like it this might be the perfect smartwatch for you.