Amazfit T-Rex was our Editor’s recommendation for the best rugged smartwatch at a budget. The brand is now one-upping its offering with the launch of the Amazfit T-Rex Pro. It is more rugged than ever, adds a biometric sensor to detect atmospheric pressure, gets a 3-axis gyroscope sensor and offers more positioning options and over a 100 sports modes. But do these additions deserve the $30 price hike? Let’s take a look at the new Amazfit T-Rex Pro’s capabilities in our quick review.
The new rugged wearable is built out of polycarbonate, which is strong enough to withstand hammer blows (yes, I tested that – just don’t put the hammer to the screen). It is rugged all around but that doesn’t translate to bulk. The smartwatch weighs just below 60 grams (straps included). It is really lightweight for the kind of design it offers.
The Amazfit T-Rex Pro is one of the most affordable Military Certified rugged smartwatches. It can withstand extreme temperature and conditions from 70-degree Celsius to -40-degree Celsius. I tested these numbers as far as I could by putting it in the freezer, and it still worked after 20 minutes. Obviously, I couldn’t test out the extremes. Further, the 5ATM rating has been bumped up to 10 ATM, which means it can withstand splashes, rain or snow to a depth of 100 meters.
The outer of the smartwatch is similar to its predecessor. You get Up and Down buttons on the left edge, and Select and Back buttons on the right. These are meant to help you with UI navigation, but I found myself using the touchscreen more often.
The buttons are likely to come into play if you are showering or swimming because water droplets on the screen cause hindrance in navigation. On the back of the device, you’ll find the Bio-Tracking Optical sensor. Coming to the straps, these are silicone bands, and are still the same – comfortable to wear 24 hours a day.
The Amazfit T-Rex Pro comes equipped with a 1.3-inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 360 x 360 pixels. It lies under the protection of 3D Corning Gorilla glass, which also has an anti-fingerprint coating over it. Essentially, it is the same screen as the predecessor. It is easily visible under direct sunlight.
However, it does take 1-2 seconds to turn on the screen on wrist-to-wake, which is more than what I experienced on the original T-Rex. You also get an always-on display (AOD), which is also bright enough to see the time at a glance without the whole display lighting up. Plus, like before, there are two options for AOD – digital or analog. These presets cannot be changed to your liking. That said, you get important stuff like time, day and date on AOD.
Amazfit has bumped up the sports modes from 13 to 100+. You get a slew of modes under the following major modes: Running & Walking, Cycling, Swimming, Outdoor Sports, Indoor Sports, Dance, Combat Sports, Ball Sports, Water Sports, Winter Sports, Leisure Sports, and Others. I was able to test walking, outdoor running, and badminton but I’ll test more in our Amazfit T-Rex Pro full review.
You can swipe right and go to Workouts to start tracking. While testing, it took a while to acquire a GPS signal. In running, it shows current and average pace, distance, duration, and heart rate. And with walking, I can conclude that the wearable doesn’t register fake steps. Plus, during exercise, it shows the usual duration, calorie consumption, and heart rate.
Aside from that, you can set a 1-minute interval while measuring heart rate 24×7. However, it consumes a lot of battery. While I didn’t achieve the quoted 9 days on heavy usage, the T-Rex Pro lasted me 7 days with AOD off and heart rate interval set to 1 minute. You can get extra juice if you set the heart rate interval to up to 30 minutes.
Further, sleep tracking has been improved. It is pretty accurate. However, I cannot say how accurate are the REM, Deep Sleep, and Light Sleep numbers – there is no way to tell that. Plus, it can measure naps that are 20 minutes or longer.
While the UI is simple to use and pretty straight-forward, the response time or latency can be reduced. As I said before, it takes a second or two for the watch to light up when I raise my wrist. That being said, I didn’t encounter any stutters while navigating through the watch. The watch also allows you to control your music. You can skip a track, go to the previous track, and adjust the volume.
The notifications still remain non-actionable, meaning that you get informed of what’s happening but you can’t take action on it. For instance, if you get a message from your friend, the watch will display the message but you’ll not be able to do anything with it. You’ll have to pick your phone to reply to the message. This is more of a limitation of RTOS, which is what the watch is based on. The companion app and its functionalities remain the same. You can read about it in our T-Rex review here.
To conclude, the Amazfit T-Rex Pro is an awesome rugged fitness wearable. However, it could get smarter with actionable notifications to make it a full-fledged smartwatch. We’ll take a deeper dive in more sports modes in our Amazfit T-Rex Pro full / long term review. As for what’s on offer for USD 180 / INR 12,999, it is a compelling package. You can go for it if you are into outdoor sports, and like to stay connected while you are on the mountains hiking or swimming by a beach.
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