hi everyone welcome to Wesknows tech news and reviews!
As we all know there are plenty of good smart watches out there
but there aren't many which are truly exceptional!
Today we'll be comparing two smartwatches which are truly exceptional
but for very different reasons and nonetheless
create serious value for their lucky owners! The Amazfit GTS
will take on the fitbit versa 2! if you are new to Wesknows tech news
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don't miss out! A history flashback - basically fitbit was
born in 2007, as a startup magnifico they saw the
potential of having sensors in tiny wearable devices. So
fitbit essentially started off as a fitness tracker brand
and only became a smartwatch brand after the release of the Fitbit blaze at the start of
2015. Until 2015 fitbit was the king and ruler
of the wearables market share. What i'm getting at is that fitbit has a
whole lot of credibility and experience in the wearables market.
In fitbit's current range of smart watches
versa 2 sits as the flagship model on par with the Fitbit ionic. And now a small
history note on huami or Amazfit. So Amazfit
belongs to huami. Huami in turn has a strategic partnership
with xiaomi since 2014. So essentially all the mi band trackers,
all the amazfit smart watches and sport watchers are
sitting under the umbrella of xiaomi. And today
in 2020 xiaomi is the second largest manufacturer of wearables
worldwide and it's second because the first spot is still held by the apple
watch. Now that we know who is who, we can appreciate that today's showdown
is huge! We literally have a head-to-head
between the best of the best! We have structured our review in a way which
will show off the differences in design, display, connectivity and battery life
and then we'll dive into features and functions.
By the end of the video you should have a clear picture of what
these two watches can and cannot do and which one fits your
needs best! Let's kick off right from the start. How
are these two wearables presented? Here's the box from fitbit - plain if not
to say boring, especially considering the hefty price
tag of 200 pounds or $200. You pull out a tray and voila the versa
2 greets you with its usual casing. you have the watch in one compartment
and the charging dock in the other. interesting thing here is that the
charging dock may look like a thought through clamp
but in essence it's not quite right... basically because the cable is coming
out from under the clamp there is no way that
this can lie flat on any surface while charging. now let's take a look at
the gts presentation. the outer box is compact but inside is
another box which exudes style and a feeling of a premium product. take
off the lid and the gts 1.64 inch AMOLED screen look at you.
in the compartment below the watch you get a charging cable with a minimalistic
magnetic dock on the end.
let's talk design, both watches feature a square-like design.
yet the gts is more elongated to offer a significantly larger screen.
both cases are aluminium and hence light but the gts is much lighter still
at only 25 grams versus 38 of the versa 2.
the gts really nails it with a case that sits only 9.4 millimeters high
on your wrist while the versa 2 is 12 millimeters thick.
the versa has a minimalistic button on the left side while the gts has a single
button on the right side of the watch face.
the bands are replaceable on both watches but i found the versa 2 straps
quite difficult to change because of the sporty case design.
without any lugs the band is tapered to the sides
and getting the straps into place is a real chore.
but i have to give it to the versa 2. the no lug design
does make the overall look more interesting than the standard lugs on
the gts.
Both displays are similar in quality but very different in terms of size.
both watches feature amoled screens for bright and crisp displays.
the blacks are very deep on both and you can easily read off the watch faces
inside and outdoors. the display on the gts is significantly larger
with 1.65 inches versus 1.34 inches on the versa 2.
another important point is that the amoled panel on the gts
actually feels and looks more premium than on the versa 2.
the amoled panel on the gts seems to stretch from bezel to bezel
but on the fitbit you can see the outline of the panel
under the gorilla glass and the bezels are just too
thick and old-fashioned!
the resolution is also higher on the gts with 348 by 442 pixels
versus 300 by 300 on the versa 2. the brightness settings are adjustable
in the fitbit with just three levels dim normal and max while the brightness
gauge on the gts is much easier to use. The brightness bar is very
easy to adjust and essentially has much more brightness levels
available. always on display is available on both
watches. Now the versa 2 allows to reduce battery drain
by manually setting the off hours - effectively it's the times between which
you expect to be asleep and will not be needing the always on
display. But the GTS does it better by offering both the timed approach as
well as an automated approach which identifies whether you are
sleeping or not. Let's talk sports and activities management!
the versa 2 tracks exercise and can be taken to just about
any activity including running, biking, and free exercises in the gym.
it's water resistant up to 50 meters so you can take it to the pool with you as
well. you can keep up to seven activities in
your shortcuts but there are 20 to choose from on the watch.
the versa 2's achilles heel is that it doesn't have built-in gps.
so you'll have to use your smartphone for your runs, cycles or other
outdoor activities. On the GTS you get 12 preset sport modes and they all seem
useful and well thought through. And actually modes that you're likely to
use such as outdoor running and cycling, trail running, treadmill, skiing and pool
swimming to name a few.. the activities are goal-based as they
are on the versa 2 as well. that is you can set goals for an
activity like duration, distance covered, or calories burnt
and of course you do get in-built gps here, making the gts
much more functional if you are into outdoor activities!
because gts is waterproof up to 50 meters
open water swimming is also available in sport modes.
to be fair whatever the versa 2 lacks due to not housing gps
it makes up for with smarts! there are seven auto recognisable exercises.
to name a few there is walking, running, and biking.
But the versa 2 doesn't stop there. There are additional smarts that allow
adjusting of when the activity recording actually
kicks in.
both watches do what they're supposed to do very well.
they're both very innovative so obviously they do have the usual
functions such as stopwatch, timer, sedentary
reminders, notification management, etc. We don't
want to bore you with all that boring stuff.
We want to get to the exciting and the awesome features
that the gts and the versa 2 offer! so we're finally here let's dive into
the cool features found on both the gts and versa 2.
let's kick off with huami PAI - it stands for personal activity intelligence.
let me explain why this is such a cool feature - the purpose of research behind
PAI was to develop a single, easy to
understand, activity tracking metric that could help people manage their
health. PAI is an activity metric backed by science that guides you to
optimal cardiorespiratory fitness levels. research has found that maintaining 100
PAI or more is associated with the reduced
risk of cardiovascular disease by an average of 25 percent.
the versa 2 has an inbuilt microphone and hence
that opens up a whole area of options. One of which is
access to amazon's alexa. It allows you to ask
questions and make requests with your voice.
essentially use alexa on the go to start an exercise,
get quick news, info and weather, set bedtime reminders and alarms,
control your smart home devices and more just by speaking to your watch.
i really do enjoy how the gts shows the prior workout screens -
the map the gts shows when you go to past workouts
(if it was a gps tracked activity that you did then) the watch shows you the map
of your workout and the other key stats below it. all the
activity tracking screens are very informative
and insightful on the versa 2. as you swipe up from the bottom of the
screen you get to see five screens which can actually be customized in the
settings. i have the steps, steps this hour, heart rate, sleep and
workout screens as my five. And you can dive deeper into any of
these metrics with just a swipe.
Let's talk music, the gts has no internal storage option
for music downloads, you only have music controls on the watch face
when connected via bluetooth with your smartphone.
But on the versa 2 you can download up to 300 songs onto your watch
for listening on the go. Another important point here is that the versa 2
also supports spotify but only if you have the premium subscription service.
sleep tracking is very important. the gts only records light and deep sleep while
the versa 2 is taking sleep monitoring to a whole new level.
it's attempting to create new sleep habits by providing a sleep score
based on the night's heart rate, restlessness time, awake and duration of
sleep. it actually records your light, deep and
rem sleep! in addition there's another awesome
feature called smart awake, this will stir you awake during the
optimal time of the sleep cycle. on top of that, fitbit is currently in
the process of beta testing a feature that will tell its smartwatch wearer if
it notices snoring. i get that price is not exactly a
feature nor function but this is a crucial difference between
the two smartwatches! you can get the gts for just 120 pounds
or 120 bucks and the versa 2 is either 200 pounds or 200 dollars!
that's a significant difference. the extra 80 pounds you splash out for the
fitbit is for those additional smarts..
fitbit is saying you can get five days plus from the smartwatch
with casual use. i don't quite agree because i've been using a workout
profile once every two days for 30 to 45 minutes and without always
on display and i manage squeezing out just four
days and if you do decide to use the always-on display
then the battery life drops to a dismal two days.
similarly for the gts. Amazfit was promising 14 days of casual use.
all i'm getting with occasional gps tracking at medium brightness levels and
no always on display is around seven to eight days. at the end
of the day everyone's tastes are different and we
consider different aspects of value in smart watches. for some it's brand
recognition, for others it's the availability of
numerous sport modes, some people just love having alexa on
their wrist, while others may find more value in the
fact that you have inbuilt gps in your smartwatch. As we mentioned at
the start of the comparison - both watches are exceptional. they're
both very innovative and they offer a lot of value
but as always it comes down to your personal preferences
and requirements! If you have enjoyed watching our video review
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