As you all know that Amazfit is known for its smart wearable devices which offers an awesome battery backup and with precise GPS functionality. Huami announced the Amazfit Bip 2 years ago and now they’ve come up with it’s refined version; Amazfit Bip S. If you love the appearance of Apple Watch, this holds a very similar design approach to that. Bip S has excellent exercise tracking, real-time heart rate monitor, and even GPS for accurate tracking. It’s a revived version of Amazfit Bip and comes with few improvements i.e Better Bluetooth Connectivity and Display. After using it as my primary smartwatch for more than 3 months. Here is our Long term review of the Amazfit Bip S.
DESIGN & DISPLAY
As soon as you’ll start using it; you’ll notice after wearing the watch that how lightweight and comfortable the watch is; Thanks to its polycarbonate construction of Tracker with its thin silicon strap. The design language is quite identical to the previous Amazfit Bip which means it looks like an Apple Watch, with a lighter frame, and with thicker bezels on the display.
In terms of Display, it tops off 1.28-inch Transreflective colour TFT screen which is protected by 2.5D curved Corning Gorilla Glass 3 with an Oleophobic coating which protects it from water droplets and resists smudges on it. As it boasts a Transreflective Display, it looks great both in the Indoor and Outdoor conditions, the content on the watch looks clearly visible. It never felt like turning on the Display. It bundles a plethora of features i.e, Raise to Wake Detection, Always On Display and 5 levels of brightness which is decent.
The Display resolution can be improved from 176×176 pixels; it’s still similar to its previous generation Bip Series. The screen is not copious with colours, especially with Black. However, the display always remains on without obstructing the battery life. To be honest, it tenet both merits and demerits explicitly. This transreflective display is a bonus over the Realme Watch if you are comparing with the competitor out there. The Amazfit Bip U & Realme Watch holds more vibrant colours than Bip S because Bip U has LCD Panel which doesn’t support AOD Display like Amazfit Bip S does. This AOD Display attracts the people and they won’t hesitate it calling it an Apple Watch at First Glance.
On the rear, this stuffs a PPG bio tracking optical sensor for monitoring the heart rate and a poco pin for juicing up the battery with its magnetic charging dock. On the right, it holds a crown button which works for waking up the watch and also as a back button for interacting in the watch itself. With water-resistant up to 5ATM; which means using it in the Rain or while talking it to a shower, it can handle that stress with an ease.
ACTIVITY & FITNESS TRACKING
As the name suggests, Amazfit packs almost every essential features into it which can be beneficial for the fitness freaks. It comes with several workout modes composing of Outdoor Running, Treadmill, Cycling, Indoor Cycling, Freestyle, Walking, Open Water, Pool, Elliptical Trainer and Yoga.
After putting up with an Evening Walk for around 3.72 Kms, The in-Built GPS rendered by Sony impressed us a lot. It takes almost a minute to lock on the location and it worked precisely accurate. In the meanwhile, We disconnected the Smartwatch with our Device because of the Low Battery. The watch still manages to get the path perfectly without even being connected to the Smartphone itself which means the In-Built GPS works correctly in Amazfit Bip S.That’s the place where in-built GPS comes to play, it doesn’t rely on the smartphone GPS and if your device is not along with you, it can still fetch your location accurately. The Satellite location reflects in the Amazfit/Zepp App for a detailed brief into your physical activities for the same. The Amazfit Bip U and Realme Watch have to rely on Device GPS to track your path.
Talking about Heart Rate Tracking, it can continuously track 24 hour Heart Rate Monitoring. You can even customise it on an interval of time i.e., 1,5,10 or every 30 minutes and can monitor the statistics within the app. If you are the one who wants to have a brief glimpse of your fitness activities, You won’t be disappointed with it. Meanwhile, the Amazfit Bip U shares more features than Bip S i.e, more improved heart rate sensor, blood oxygen tracking, stress and period tracking.
Stepping towards Sleep Tracking, the sleep data can’t be accessed on the watch directly; but all the sleeping statistics are stored in the app. As I usually sleep at around 4:00 AM, peaceful sleep for Around 8 hours and 22 minutes; gave a sleep score of 89 including Deep and Light Sleeps along with Time awake. To chalk it up, it offers abundant features which work pretty well
SOFTWARE EXPERIENCE
It boasts a simplistic UI which is based on Amazfit OS. The UI is highly responsive and I didn’t notice any lags or stutter while navigating. If we’ll compare it with its competitor, the Realme Watch UI is not as smooth as Amazfit Bip S. The Software Experience makes a lot of difference.
It shows the notification, indicates the weather forecast for an upcoming week, set alarms and To-Do and can even control music on your smartwatch. After the latest Firmware Update, you can even control your music while performing any workout which was not possible earlier. Talking about one of its demerits, The music can’t Play Directly from your Smartwatch, it’s necessary to access the smartphone to trigger the music first and then it can be controlled by the smartwatch. There is still no Emoji Support in the watch like it’s earlier iteration. When it comes to Voice Calls, You cannot respond to the call, you can either reject it or can mute it.
I’ve seen people complaining about the limitation of the watch faces in this watch; Amazfit/Zepp app offers you a good amount of Watchfaces. If that’s not sufficient then you can download more watch faces via Third-Party Apps which can be downloaded from PlayStore in Android. Throwing light on the connectivity, it can be connected and paired with both Android and iOS devices through the Amazfit/Zepp app.
BATTERY
Amazfit claims a battery life of upwards a month and this claim is not entirely false. I used this Smartwatch for a month and however, it still left with 13% battery in it. You’ll get a proprietary charging magnetic dock in the box which can charge your smartwatch up to 2.5 hours. When we compared it with Realme Watch and Amazfit Bip U which stands for 7-8 Days of Battery Life, Amazfit Bip S is far ahead of It.
THE UNBIASED VERDICT
To sum it up, Amazfit Bip S delivers you a pretty good Trans reflective Display, In-Built GPS Made by Sony, Lightweight Design, Long Lasting Battery Backup with a good level of Water Resistance. However, if you’re a fitness freak on a budget or just want a decent wearable with a Design approach like an Apple Watch that can indicate some notifications and can last long on a single charge then Amazfit Bip S is for you. The Amazfit Bip S will available in four colours: Black, White, Pink and White And Orange and Black which is priced at around Rs.5000.And according to that price, its overall a great deal.
If you want a vibrant colour display, with much enhanced and latest fitness tracking features like Sp02 sensor which other smartwatches and smart bands lacks at this price segment and in-Built GPS and AOD Display doesn’t matter to you in much more affordable price, Then you can go for Amazfit Bip U.
Disclaimer: We tested the Amazfit Bip S as our primary smartwatch for more than 3 months. All our reviews are unbiased and are published without the brand getting to read it before you guys. We don’t change our reviews on pressure from brands and that’s the reason we are not sent review units from companies like Samsung, OnePlus, and a few more.
