Huami Amazfit GTS 2: Global version with Alexa & music storage for $179.99 from Amazon

With the Huami Amazfit GTS Huami made a spot landing last year, we can still unconditionally recommend the Smartwatch today. The Huami Amazfit GTS 2 and the Amazfit GTR 2 will once again compete with Apple, but at a fraction of the price. The GTS 2 will get hotly anticipated new features without changing the basic recipe for success.

• Huami Amazfit GTS 2
  • at Amazon for $179.99 | GearBest for $238.98

Technical data of the Huami Amazfit GTS 2

Round or square

The Amazfit GTS 2 and the Amazfit GTR 2 are a seamless continuation of their predecessors. The designers of the Amazfit GTS 2 stick to the square design, the Apple-like look was certainly one of the reasons why the GTS is so popular. The highlight of the GTS was the display, and the second generation does not change anything about that. The square AMOLED screen offers a display diagonal of 1.65 inch. The resolution is still 348 x 442 pixels, resulting in a pixel density of 341 ppi. Whether the display will again be protected with Gorilla Glass 3 is not revealed by the manufacturer. The predecessor introduced the customizable Watchfaces, which also find their place on the Amazfit GTS 2.

On the right side it remains a function key, but the housing is now slightly bent at this point and encloses the key. Do you want to get away from the Apple Watch design easily? The case of the GTS 2 is made of an aluminum alloy, while the bottom is made of plastic. With a weight of 24.7 g, it is just as light as its predecessor, measuring 42.8 x 35.6 x 9.7 mm. You can also shower and swim with the watch due to the ATM5 classification.

Surprisingly, the number of color variations is halved. While the first generation was available in six different colors, the Amazfit GTS 2 is available in black, gray and gold. The 20 mm silicon strap is matched to the color of the watch case. As with its predecessor, these can be easily replaced, so you could also use the strap from the first GTS.

Improved heart rate measurement & sleep tracking

On the bottom of the watches is not only the new BioTracker 2 PPG heart rate monitor, which not only permanently measures heart rate but also blood oxygen saturation. For this purpose Huami bundles different LEDs and combines this with the in-house OxygenBeats Engine to provide even more accurate data on SpO2 and sleep tracking, according to Huami. Other sensors such as a geomagnetic sensor, a gyroscope and an ambient light sensor are also included.

Amazfit has installed both GPS and GLONASS for positioning, which is especially useful for sports like jogging. There are a total of 12 sports modes, including swimming, cycling, skiing and climbing. Hopefully the GPS tracking has been improved a bit, here the competition from Huawei is ahead of the competition. Amazfit is also implementing its own PAI again, i.e. Personal Activity Intelligence, which distributes points for activity.

Amazfit claims to have revised the sleep tracking. Nightly sleep is still divided into deep and light sleep as well as REM phases, but now breathing during sleep is also controlled. In addition, there is now “Nap Support”, meaning that the Amazfit GTS 2 now also tracks the occasional nap. This was often criticized, and rightly so, and has now probably been fixed.

In addition, you can expect typical watch functions that we already know from various Amazfit Smartwatches. You can use the watch as an alarm clock, but you can also set a timer and the stopwatch, there is a weather display, you can set reminders, and you can display notifications from the apps. For this you need an active connection to your smartphone, on which the Zepp app must be installed. For this, Bluetooth 5.0 is integrated, but the watch is also equipped with 2.4 GHz WiFi.

New functions, but less runtime

But a small highlight is the internal music memory and the possibility to play music offline. For this purpose, about 3 GB of internal memory is integrated, according to Amazfit, there is room for 300 to 600 songs. However, the NetEase cloud music streaming service is used in China, which is only interesting for the Chinese market. It is not yet known which streaming service could be used for a global version. Or you could solve it without streaming service and simply offer a plug-and-play solution like the older Amazfit Stratos 2. 3 GB of music storage is also available, which can apparently be easily filled with mp3 files using the Zepp app. The GTS 2 even supports iOS and Android!

The Global version of the Huami Amazfit GTS 2 is compatible with Amazon Alexa, so it can accept voice commands, which allows you to control your smart home or check the weather forecast, for example. If you don’t use Alexa, the GTS 2 also has an offline language wizard, with which you can activate a sports mode, for example. In total there are over 65 voice commands. The China version also has integrated NFC, which can be used in China for public transport or Alipay. NFC is also integrated in the Global version, but you don’t specify what you can use it for.

The Huami Amazfit GTS 2 finally gets an integrated microphone and a loudspeaker, which makes Bluetooth telephone calls possible. So one can accept incoming calls on the cell phone on the clock and lead them over the clock. But there must also be an active Bluetooth connection with the smartphone. We already know this from the Honor Magic Watch 2 and it works very well!

Unfortunately, the new functions are at the expense of the battery life. But Huami still states 7 days, which of course depends on the individual usage. The 7 days should be possible if you have heart rate monitoring and sleep tracking enabled, use GPS, music playback and Bluetooth phone calls for 30 minutes each, use NFC a few times and get about 150 notifications per day. If one uses the clock little, up to 20 days running time should be possible, with continuous GPS use only 25 hours. But one integrates a 246 mAh large battery.

Evaluation

The Amazfit GTS 2 has become somewhat more expensive than its predecessor, also due to the new features. The RRP is $211.33 (179.90€), while the predecessor came on the market for about $150. The GTS 2 is similar to its predecessor in many respects, but has useful features such as offline music playback and Bluetooth phone calls. It’s nice that in contrast to the China version you hardly have to do without anything! If the GTS 2 is convincing in the test, I am cautiously optimistic that the Amazfit GTS 2 will be able to catch up with the lead of a Huawei Watch Fit or Honor Magic Watch 2. I am really up for it! You too?