So there's a pretty popular smartwatch on the market right now called the Amazfit Bip,
costing $80 on Amazon.
It's got some pretty impressive capabilities for the price, but I've had 3 people Tweet
me recently saying the screen falls off.
Now obviously, this isn't ideal for a smartwatch.
All the best specs in the world aren't worth it if the thing just falls apart.
It's time to review the Bip from the inside.
Let's get started.
[Intro]
This watch is pretty lightweight at just over an ounce.
Pulling the charger out of the box, it's got two gold pins on the back.
This allows the power to flow through from the charger into the watch.
The dock itself is not magnetic like we've seen on the Apple watch or the Samsung Galaxy
watches, but this watch is a fraction of the price of the big boys, while maintaining a
lot of the same functionalities.
Because of that super low price, I'm not going to critique it too much, unless, of course,
the screen falls off on its own, in which case we'll critique it a lot.
Pairing the watch is easy enough.
Connects to my Galaxy S8 Plus and updates itself just fine.
The Amazfit has a lot of things going for it at the $80 price point.
It can tell you the weather, exercise heart rate, and even has a built-in GPS for outdoor
running.
It can receive text messages and notifications, but can't respond.
Pretty solid for the price, especially when paired with a 30 day battery life.
I'm not here for the specs though – we're here for the insides...and to see if the watch
falls apart on its own.
The screen of the Amazfit Bip is pretty flush with the outside body.
My fingernails were unable to lift the screen from the housing.
The housing itself is made from plastic.
The little knob is made from metal.
And there's a lot more plastic on the back.
The stock black bands are made from rubber, but are standard and interchangeable.
I'll try to lift the screen with my razor.
If there was a wide spread screen adhesive issue, like we saw with the BlackBerry KeyOne
smartphone, the screen should be falling off by now with the amount of pressure that I'm
applying.
One reason why my screen might be staying on is because this watch has been out for
over a year now.
The first batch might have had screen adhesion issues but could have been quietly fixed.
And subsequent batches could have used stronger adhesive.
So far my Amazfit Bip is very well stuck together.
Let's add some heat.
Heat is what I would normally use to soften the adhesive between the glass and whatever
frame the glass is stuck to.
You can see the 1.28 inch display pixels going from their normal black color to a softer
gray with the heat.
But even then, with extreme persuasion, the screen remains intact.
My razor blade can find no entry point between the glass and plastic layers.
Permanent adhesive would make the watch impossible to repair, but at least now we know the screen
won't be falling off on its own...at least with the current models.
My display was only removed by unreasonable amounts of force.
Since we're inside, let's take a closer look.
You can see the thin rubbery band of adhesive surrounding the lip that holds the plastic
and glass together.
But if we look closely at the Fit Bip owners who got gypped when the screen slipped and
flipped exposing the microchips, making them second guess their ownerships, we can clearly
see that none of the watches have adhesive around the edges.
Or if they did have adhesive at one point, it's a different style of adhesive that doesn't
hold anything down.
Either way, the insides of their watches are very clean with no residue.
Remember my watch is brand new as of a few days ago and was purchased over a year after
the initial launch of the watch.
So Amazfit has had plenty of time to quietly correct the issue.
The internal battery connector is over here on the right side under the small metal plate
which is screwed in with one screw, as well as glued into the side of the housing with
a little dollop of glue near the bottom.
Once the metal plate is off, I can unplug the battery and set it's little square 200
milliamp hour self off to the side.
This supposedly lasts 30 days without needing to charge.
Using GPS and stuff of course will drain it a little faster, but either way, it's pretty
impressive.
The optical heart rate monitor pops out from inside the watch.
There is a slab of glass on the outer layer making this thing splash proof.
The heart rate sensor of the watch is on day and night, keeping track of everything over
on your smartphone.
The motherboard has another strange dollop of glue holding it to the side housing.
I guess they ran out of space for more screws.
Then the motherboard can come loose.
I would suggest unplugging the vibrator motor before pulling out the main board.
Ripping ribbons is detrimental to the device.
The vibrator is pretty darn cute though – it's another eccentric rotating mass vibrator and
I don't think I've ever seen a smaller one.
Over on the right side of the watch there is a gold antenna with contact pads resting
up against the bottom of the motherboard with one last little silver bracket up here at
the top next to the hole in the plastic frame.
At first glance it might look like a microphone hole, but since there are no microphones on
the motherboard, I'm going to assume this one's for the barometer since barometers measure
air pressure.
And the little hole probably allows the air inside the watch to match the air outside
the watch so it can measure fluctuations with the weather and altitude.
Overall, it's an interesting watch.
And from my one example, it looks like Amazfit has fixed the Bip screen falling off issue.
I do hope though that if any more screens fall off, that customers will get taken care
of.
Yeah, $80 is cheap for the amount of tech this watch provides, but it's still expensive
enough that the watch should last for quite a long time.
Should I take apart more smartwatches in the future?
What fitness trackers would you like to see taken apart?
With so many out there it's hard to sort through them all.
Come hang out with me on Instagram and Twitter.
Thanks a ton for watching, and I'll see you around.