Pleasant endurance with a new crown

Almost exactly twelve months have passed like water, and Zepp Health (formerly Huami) is launching a new generation of its “fashion” Amazfit GTR and GTS watches worldwide. This year we saw three variants in the first wave. The slightly more modern-looking GTS 3 relies again on a rectangular display, more conservatively tuned model with a round dial then arrived in the form of GTR 3 and GTR 3 Pro. We just got the last mentioned watch to try it out and here is the (due to the small time space incomplete yet) review…

Review of Huami Amazfit GTR 3 Pro

Packaging and its contents

The very unpacking of the watch from the box amused me and convinced me that Huam… pardon, Zepp Health… he really can do it with a watch. The handy folding center, from which the GTR 3 Pro can be removed without having to unzip, has drawers with additional contents on the sides. On the one hand, it is a paper manual, on the other hand, it is a cable charger. Do not look for anything else in the package.

Design and control

At first glance, the Amazfit GTR 3 Pro looks just like last year’s representatives. Giant round AMOLED display with a slight rounding at the edges, two control buttons and a pleasantly low body. The straps are 22 millimeters wide and it is not a problem to swap them with others (which you can see in galleries, as I prefer a sporty style). But the big change in this year’s model is the fact that the top button has changed to rotating control crown with haptic response.

The control of the watch therefore no longer depends only on clicking on the buttons and swiping your finger on the display, but you can also scroll through the menus with this crown. The haptic response always tries to vibrate when “jumping” to the next menu item, however it does not always succeed and sometimes skips or responds late. As I ran vertically between the round cards, the vibration seemed completely confusing.

Gentlemen with big hands may not like the crown at all, because it is quite small (for example, compared to the one on the Huawei Watch 3 Pro) and therefore very sensitive due to the tightness of the menu items. Combined with an imperfect haptic response, this is difficult to learn, but a future update may help. They can be set for both buttons own actions. A short press on the top always opens a menu or hits the user on the dial, but a long press can be assigned to anything else. This also applies to a short press on the lower one, which basically triggers sports modes. There is available over 150 different dials, with a tenth of them animated.

Comparison with GTR 3 and GTS 3

If you are wondering how the most equipped variant of the GTR 3 Pro differs from the classic one, you will find the most important differences in the following table. We also add a comparison with square GTS 3.

A new, but still quite closed system

The newly named Zepp OS is already officially running in the Amazfit watch, which in many ways resembles an already experienced environment, but should ensure greater energy savings as well as more agile control and response. I can certainly confirm the latter by narrowing my eye at the mentioned haptic response. From the dial, drag left and right to scroll between full-screen tabs (their presence and order can be changed in the settings), the control shutter opens from the top, and the notification tab expands from the bottom. In the case of received messages, they also contain emoticons, but there is no way to respond to themwhich is a big minus.