The brand recently refreshed its famous GTS mini series of wearables with the launch of the new Amazfit GTS 4 mini, which features a metal frame, AMOLED display, 15-day battery life, always-on display support, and more. But is it the best smartwatch under Rs 7,000, or are there too many quirks that detract from the overall experience? Let us find out in our Amazfit GTS 4 mini review.
Amazfit GTS 4 Mini: Build and Design
Like most smartwatches on the market, the GTS 4 mini has a rectangular metal frame with slightly rounded corners. The watch weighs just 19 grams, making it extremely light, and you can barely feel its weight when you wear it on your wrist. However, we would not call it the highest-quality watch, as we have seen watches in this price segment that feel better.
As for the quality of the strap, it is very nice. We had no problems wearing the watch for a long time, but you have to find the right fit for your wrist, or it might feel a bit scratchy on your skin. Also, you can easily swap the strap for another one you prefer. If we had anything to complain about, it would have been nice if the power button/function button doubled as a digital crown, which would have improved the watch’s overall experience. On the back of the watch are the SpO2 and heart rate sensors, as well as two magnetic pins for quick charging of the watch. In addition, the watch is 5 ATM water resistant, so you can easily take it swimming or submerge it in water up to 50 meters deep.
Amazfit GTS 4 Mini: Display
The display of the GTS 4 mini is a small step up from its predecessor, the GTS 2 mini. The screen size has increased from 1.55 to 1.65 inches, and the resolution has improved slightly. It is still an AMOLED display that supports the “Always on Display” feature. The display is by far one of our favorite aspects of the GTS 4 mini. It is sharp, vivid, and sufficiently bright, so you can easily view the time outdoors in direct sunlight. However, the display is not perfect. Since the display does not refresh at 60 Hz, we often felt that the clock was a bit slow and did not respond smoothly to our touches/taps. Also, while the bezels around the display are a bit thick, they do not detract from the overall experience as the deep AMOLED blacks blend well with the black borders. When we first received the watch, the always-on display worked great and automatically turned off at night according to our schedule. But soon, that changed, the AOD no longer turned off automatically at night, and even when we tried to disable the AOD altogether, it stayed on. No sooner said than done; a quick factory reset fixed our problem.
Amazfit GTS 4 Mini: Performance
Before we get into the watch’s performance, let us first look at the connectivity performance. The Amazfit GTS 4 mini uses the Bluetooth 5.1 standard for connectivity, and we never had a problem pairing the watch with our smartphone. The connection was rock solid and effortless, so there were no complaints on the connectivity front. The watch’s UI performance was also pretty smooth, with occasional jerkiness. As we mentioned earlier, the lack of a 60 Hz display makes the watch feel a bit sluggish and detracts from the overall experience. Moving on to the most important part of any fitness watch, activity tracking. During our testing, we found the watch to be quite accurate in heart rate and step counting. However, it did happen that the watch did not count some steps, but this is something that can be fixed with a future software update.
We also liked the sleep monitoring feature of the watch, as it is quite accurate, easy to understand, and provides detailed information on sleep quality. While the support for SPO2 is a good feature, we recommend investing in a medical device rather than the watch if you are just looking for a device to measure oxygen levels. To top it all off, the watch also supports 105 sports modes, including outdoor running, treadmill, swimming, Zumba, and more. Unfortunately, I do not consider myself a fitness freak who can do all sports, but the tracking performance was pretty decent for the activities I did. The watch can also measure stress levels, which we found to be more of a gimmick than really helpful.
Amazfit GTS 4 Mini: Battery and Software
Before we get into the watch’s performance, let us first look at the connectivity performance. The Amazfit GTS 4 mini uses the Bluetooth 5.1 standard for connectivity, and we never had a problem pairing the watch with our smartphone. The connection was rock solid and effortless, so there were no complaints about connectivity. The watch’s UI performance was also pretty smooth, with occasional jerkiness. As we mentioned earlier, the lack of a 60 Hz display makes the watch feel a bit sluggish and detracts from the overall experience. Let us move on to the most important part of a fitness watch, activity tracking. During our testing, we found the watch to be quite accurate in heart rate and step counting. However, it did happen that the watch did not count some steps, but that can be fixed with a future software update.
We also liked the watch’s sleep monitoring feature, as it is quite accurate and easy to understand, providing detailed information on sleep quality. While the support for SPO2 is a good feature, we recommend investing in a medical device rather than the watch if you are just looking for a device to measure oxygen levels. To top it all off, the watch also supports 105 sports modes, including outdoor running, treadmill, swimming, Zumba, and more. Unfortunately, I do not consider myself a fitness freak who can do all sports, but the tracking performance was pretty decent for my activities. The watch can also measure stress levels, which we found to be more of a gimmick than really helpful. On the companion app side, there is good news. Zepp (formerly known as Amazfit app) is the companion app for the GTS 4 mini that works without issues. You get detailed information about your fitness activities, such as step count, sleep cycle, etc. The app also gives you access to more than 50 watch faces that you can easily apply to the watch. Some may find the availability of watch faces to be a bit low; therefore, we recommend you read this article to get access to many fun Amazfit watch faces.
Amazfit GTS 4 Mini Review: Verdict
In summary, the Amazfit GTS 4 mini is a good fitness smartwatch that does many things right but also misses some things compared to the competition. Let us first discuss the good things about the watch. The watch has a great HD AMOLED display that enhances the overall experience; the build quality is pretty good, and the battery life, while not the best, is pretty good. The fitness tracking and accuracy levels are also something you should not worry about buying the GTS 4 mini. If you are in the market for a Bluetooth watch, then the Amazfit GTS 4 mini may not be your ideal fitness watch. The software also needs some tweaking, as we encounter bugs every now and then. For Rs.7000, the Amazfit GTS 4 mini is a decent offering, but there’s nothing unique or anything we have not seen in the market before. In fact, if Alexa and lightweight form factor are not of utmost importance, then we would recommend taking a look at Amazfit’s own GTS 2, or if you want to save a few bucks and also get call support, then you can take a look at the Realme Watch 3. Buy Amazfit GTS 4 Mini
