Xiaomi, is starting to have a very complete catalog of connected watches dedicated to sport. The Amazfit T Rex model is a little apart, standing out with several military certifications supposed to ensure its solidity. But is this enough in the face of the fierce competition that reigns at this price point? Every year, at least two or three new Amazfit smartwatches are born. A frantic pace of release for this brand that is still young, but which seems to want to establish itself in the market for connected objects. The T-Rex wants to be as imposing as the prehistoric animal from which it takes its name. A marketing choice that comes out of the ruts, reinforced connected watches are not legion in the mid-range. It remains to be seen if the rest are up to the task, as the 2018 Verge turned out to be rather mixed in our previous test. Marketed at 159 €, the Amazfit T-Rex must also face serious competitors such as the Huawei Watch GT2e or the Polar Ignite which are also aimed at avid athletes. The confrontation is going to be tough! [content-egg module=Amazon template=custom/compact_extra groups="t rex"]
Amazfit T-Rex: technical specifications
Myself, owner of watches from the Chinese brand, I must admit that the latest productions are often very close to each other in terms of technical characteristics. The T-Rex stands out, however, with its hardened shell designed to endure the harshest conditions. As for the characteristics, they are very classic as you can see below: 1.3 ”AMOLED touchscreen – 360 x 360 px – Gorilla Glass 3 Proprietary bracelets Bluetooth 5.0 Heart rate sensor GPS and GLONASS Water resistant 5 ATM MIL-STD 810G certification 390 mAh battery Dimensions: 47.7 x 47.7 x 13.5 mm for 58 grams Android based home OS We remain in the standard of current sports connected watches. The Amazfit T-Rex does however make concessions on the features: no Wi-Fi, no NFC, no SPO2 sensor, no internal storage for music, no microphone, proprietary bracelets … the same price, the Huawei Watch GT2e is much more complete. Even the old Stratos from 2018 is fuller. The manufacturer made drastic compromises to maintain the best possible value for money. But what you lose in functionality you gain in strength, the T-Rex being very robust. A choice that ultimately seems relevant in a world where the slightest shock endangers the proper functioning of our trusty smartwatches. Compatibility level, the Chinese reinforced watch can work with smartphones running Android 5.0 and iOS 10 or more. For this test, we went on a Xiaomi Pocophone F1 running Android 10.Design and construction
Considering its decidedly large dimensions, the design of the Amazfit T-REX is one of those who hate or love each other. This is clearly a predominantly masculine design and with which little attention has been paid to optimizing spaces, but it should be remembered that this is a rugged smartwatch, and for that l he aesthetic aspect of the T-REX is more than suited to its category. But even if the dimensions are what they are, it must be admitted that Amazfit did a great job with the T-REX, which with its 58 grams Its weight is decidedly comfortable on the wrist also thanks to its structure entirely in reinforced plastic , which guarantees resistance and extreme lightness and the possibility of being submerged to a depth of 50 meters. There are four metal keys on the side with which it will be possible to interact with all the elements of the software, among which we find those on the left that allow you to scroll through the menu without having to touch the screen: the solution is not bad, especially bearing in mind that this smarwatch was made to be used in extreme situations or in water, where the touchscreen is difficult to use. Very well. Even the dial is completely plastic (with a polimeter designed to withstand all weather conditions) and while the first impact might be to use a decidedly inexpensive product, the ability to wear the smartwatch without worrying too much about the weather. shocks, scratches and drops overshadow this detail.
Screens and display
It is true, however, that the polimeter that protects the screen tends to make you lose that sense of quality that the fantastic panel should convey AMOLED used in T-REX, a 1.3-inch diagonal circular panel with 360 resolution. X 360 pixels, which ensures excellent brightness outdoors and supports automatic activation through wrist rotation capable of operating fairly precisely, although I would have preferred it to be faster.
Considering the technology used in the panel, always-on display mode is supported, characterized by a decidedly spartan graphical interface and which, I say, has nothing to do with the available dials: whatever the dial it is chosen to use, when the always active is active, only two interfaces will be displayed, one digital and one analog, much less refined. In short, the flaw in the details of the always on finally led me to decide to deactivate this feature in favor of the always on screen, which however drains the battery in a much more obvious way.
Screens and displayOperating system: heavily modified Android
Like many of its competitors, Amazfit uses a home interface. Although based on Android, it has nothing to do with WearOS, the system for connected watches from Google. For the T-Rex, the Xiaomi subsidiary is changing a lot of things in the operation of its interface. To be honest, the more time goes by, the more Amazfit gets to the point … It’s not as light logically speaking as the Polar Ignite, but it’s pretty close. From now on, navigation between the various dials is done from top to bottom and more from right to left. As always, the main screen is the one dedicated to the time. The T-Rex offers two basic watchfaces, one digital and one analog. About 20 more can be downloaded from the app, but only one dial is registered on the watch at a time. A small regression knowing that on the previous watches of the brand we could store several. Swipe down to access the settings panel. It takes the basic shortcuts: Flashlight Energy saving mode Do Not Disturb Mode Brightness Lock the screen You can also see the weather forecast, the battery level and the date in US format. And no, after all these years European users still do not have access to data in their region’s format … Always sliding up or down, you arrive on the dial dedicated to the heart rate. It displays your current calculated pace every minute and the intensity zone. By pressing it, you access the graph of the readings of the day, as well as the percentage spent in each zone: light, intensive, aerobic, anaerobic and VO2Max. We get to the essentials without having to open the application. The last dial shows your data for the day, in particular the number of steps. It also gives you an estimate of the distance traveled and calories burned. With a press, you can also access a graph giving a general idea of the progress over the current week. Don’t expect something very detailed, you have to use the app for that. Connected watch requires, we have some utility applications accessible with a swipe to the left. There is a jumble of a compass, an alarm, a stopwatch or even the weather forecast. Nothing very exciting, if necessary you can remove from the application the apps that are of no use to you. It should also be noted that the weather part, although it is quite complete, is still as capricious as on previous productions of the brand.
Further parameters are also accessible in the list. It is through them that you can adjust the screen time, activate AoD mode or choose which application to launch with the button at the top right. It is clear that the parameters proposed have been reduced this year. Amazfit seems to want to make the use of its watches as easy as possible. It must be said that the lack of Wi-Fi or music storage quickly limits usage. Even pre-designed training programs are taking their reverence …
To end this roundup, let’s review the notification system. Nothing new on this side, we are sticking to something very basic. You can technically display any type of notification on the watch, whether it’s text messages, emails, or whatever. But under no circumstances will you be able to reply with pre-programmed messages or even reply with a hypothetical virtual keyboard. The T-Rex does like all Amazfit watches: it just serves to display notifications, period.
And the buttons in all of this? They can replace the touchscreen in almost all cases. Those to the left of the box scroll the screens from top to bottom. The other two are used to navigate forward or backward in the menus. A long press on the button at the top right activates the shortcut to your favorite application, programmed by default for launching an activity. In use, the touch screen is faster and more precise. In addition, it is not possible to open the list of applications through the buttons. However, we imagine that in bad weather conditions such as in pouring rain, these physical buttons must be practical to navigate through the interface without too much hair pulling.
To conclude, the change in look of the Amazfit home interface also brings a change in philosophy. It seems that the Asian brand is always aiming for more simplicity. In absolute terms, it works well, the T-Rex is very easy to use. But it feels more like a big activity tracker on your wrist than a real smartwatch packed with functionality. It’s quite a shame …
