Amazfit GTR 4 review part 2 : SOFTWARE & CONCLUSION
Read the part 1 : Hardware
Amazfit GTR2 & 2e review
My previous Amazfit watch was a GTR2, which was very nice but lacked refinement, software wise. It was running the old Amazfit OS and didn’t allow text replies, didn’t let the user install apps and alas used tiny fonts for notifications, making it uncomfortable to read.
A WHOLE NEW OPERATING SYSTEM
As I passed on the GTR3, I didn’t use the new Zepp OS system before now. The GTR4 is running Zepp OS 2 which is a huge step forward, coming from the GTR2.
This watch OS feels much more modern and polished.
NOTIFICATIONS
The best part is probably about notifications. Text is now much larger and very easy to read. There are emojis but only the old ones, like on the GTR 2. New emojis are replaced by a square.
What is nice is that you can actually ANSWER to texts or Twitter DM and probably some other apps notifications. No voice recognition here, there is a list of 10 canned responses you can customize with text and emojis. Even better you can respond simply with emojis, and not only one, you can select several emojis to compose a fun but usefull answer on the go. There are 50 different emojis available.
My previous Amazfit watch was a GTR2, which was very nice but lacked refinement, software wise. It was running the old Amazfit OS and didn’t allow text replies, didn’t let the user install apps and alas used tiny fonts for notifications, making it uncomfortable to read.
A WHOLE NEW OPERATING SYSTEM
As I passed on the GTR3, I didn’t use the new Zepp OS system before now. The GTR4 is running Zepp OS 2 which is a huge step forward, coming from the GTR2.
- Everything is faster, snappy,
- There are nice but not obnoxious animations in the user interface, more options, more functions
- There is a small app market.
- Most settings are replicated on the Zepp app on the phone so you can configure your watch in a more convenient way.
- The level of customization is quite incredible and you can really make the watch your own. App list, widget list, shortcut cards list and even the control center you access with swipe to the bottom gesture can be completely customized, removing and reordering items.
- Some apps are much more capable than before
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| You can choose between 3 icons themes |
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| Customizable Shortcut pannel |
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| Apps list can be displayed as list or a mosaïc |
NOTIFICATIONS
The best part is probably about notifications. Text is now much larger and very easy to read. There are emojis but only the old ones, like on the GTR 2. New emojis are replaced by a square.
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| Unavailable emoji replaced by a square |
Long notifications work too, you actually will be able to read fully many mails, for example, only very long ones will be truncated.
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| A long text is not truncated |
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| Answer options : custom messages and emojis |
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| All 50 emojis available |
Be aware that pictures are not displayed. If you receive a text message with a pic, you will get a « image » text on the watch. No image is usual for this kind of long lasting smartwatch. Only Wear OS, Tizen and Apple watches can display images in texts.
One thing is still missing : there is no unread notification indicator. And that’s a shame. Tizen and Wear OS watches as well as Fossil hybrids does show an icon on the watchface when you have notifications to check on the watch. That’s so usefull it should be mandatory !
After 2 weeks of constant use, I found myself using quite a lot canned responses and emoji responses. I don’t really miss voice recognition as I usually don’t feel comfortable speaking to my watch in public spaces or at work. I don’t want to disturb people around me so typing on the phone is better if I need to answer precisely.
WATCHFACES
There are plenty of watchfaces on the store. Some are free, others requires a fee. Globally, Amazfit watchfaces are not my cup of tea. I think it lacks refinement and balance from an aesthetic point of view.
One thing is still missing : there is no unread notification indicator. And that’s a shame. Tizen and Wear OS watches as well as Fossil hybrids does show an icon on the watchface when you have notifications to check on the watch. That’s so usefull it should be mandatory !
After 2 weeks of constant use, I found myself using quite a lot canned responses and emoji responses. I don’t really miss voice recognition as I usually don’t feel comfortable speaking to my watch in public spaces or at work. I don’t want to disturb people around me so typing on the phone is better if I need to answer precisely.
WATCHFACES
There are plenty of watchfaces on the store. Some are free, others requires a fee. Globally, Amazfit watchfaces are not my cup of tea. I think it lacks refinement and balance from an aesthetic point of view.
Moreover most watchfaces does have an AOD … But a very minimal and disapointing one which completely ruins the benefit of an AOD. I speak as a watchface designer, so, you should take my opinion with a good pinch of salt and many people would probably be very happy with the Amazfit store options.
A very very nice idea is the default AOD watchfaces. If you find a watchface with no AOD or an AOD you don’t like … you can replace it with one of the 5 nice default AOD displays. Your selected watchface will display when the watch is active, but the choosen AOD default will be used in ambient mode.
BUILT-IN APPS
There is a lot of apps here and good ones !
SMART APPS
Some watchfaces are customizable directly on the watch, and you can choose complications and design elements.
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| Some watchfaces can be customized |
A very very nice idea is the default AOD watchfaces. If you find a watchface with no AOD or an AOD you don’t like … you can replace it with one of the 5 nice default AOD displays. Your selected watchface will display when the watch is active, but the choosen AOD default will be used in ambient mode.
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| Default AOD watchfaces |
BUILT-IN APPS
There is a lot of apps here and good ones !
SMART APPS
- MEMBERSHIP CARDS is perfect to store QR code based cards, and it works for the european Covid vaccine pass.
- MUSIC (more on it later)
- CALENDAR is a looooooot better than on the old GTR2. It now syncs with your agenda on the phone and lets you see your next appointments as well as a month view with dots where you have something scheduled … You cannot edit anything, of course.
- TO DO unfortunately doesn’t sync with anything else than tasks in Zepp … Which is rather useless. However you can use Alexa to get a good task managment.
- VOICE MEMOS lets you audio record anything in the watch memory. Then you can sync it later in the Zepp app on the phone and get the files where you want. It automatically makes a direct WIFI connection for fast file transfer. Well done !
- PHONE lets you call back recent calls, call some favorite contacts or directly dial a number. Very convenient.
- ALARM let you set several alarms, on choosen days, at any time you want, you can keep alarms and activat or deactivate it easilly. Perfect !
- STOPWATCH
- WORLD CLOCK
- POMODORO TIMER
- COUNTDOWN
- FIND MY PHONE
- CAMERA REMOTE which doesn’t work on my Xiaomi phone
HEALTH APPS
ENVIRONMENT APPS
ALEXA
I found Alexa better integrated and more reliable than on the GTR2. It does work, it’s quick and display is easy to read. Voice is clear and loud enough, you can of course set the volume. Unfortunately you cannot use it to send a message, that would be very nice ! However it’s perfect to set a time, a reminder, a task, a shopping list …
OFFLINE VOICE ASSISTANT
This is a very good idea which was already here on the GTR2. These watches does use offline voice recognition to respond to basic commands like launching an app or an activity. This doesn’t require any connection and is pretty reliable and easy to use. Unfortunately only chinese, english, spanish and german are currently supported.
APP STORE
There are about 85 apps available on the store for now for the GTR4. These are small and simple apps like timers, calculators, calories counters, workout apps, pregnancy apps, time managment, dice, baby records … Some apps are not very useable or usefull, like the News app … which won’t let you choose a langage, a feed source or anything … There’s a Go Pro remote and a couple navigation apps to pass Google maps navigation directions to the watch, all of that I didn’t tested yet. However, I found the calculator very useful and convenient.
There is no music app for any streaming service. Frankly I don,t really see the point of these apps, I wouldn't go on a stroll without my phone for obvious security reasons, I don't need a music streaming app on my watch.
The app market is young and still not very mature but it does exist and can expand nicely an already large choice of built-in apps.
That being said, let’s take some time to consider what is the use of an app store on a smartwatch. We definitively don’t need hundreds of apps on a watch. We need a handful of well designed and usefull apps. We don’t need a web browser, or a video player or a ridiculous system to automatically match your watchface with your clothes. That’s useless bullshit. A smartwatch is not supposed to replace a phone. I would be perfectly happy with something like 100 to 200 usefull apps.
WIDGETS
There are plenty of widgets. Most of them are animated with wome weather simulation, scrolling text, animated icons …
SHORTCUT CARDS & MULTITASK
Swipe to the right to access a very nice shortcuts pannel which gives you a condensed view of selected informations as cards. This is a very convenient system as it shows 2 or 3 cards in one page and gives quick access to usefull data. It’s used for multitasking too as you can access running processes like music player or timers.
There is no blood pressure and no ECG on this watch. Let’s compare with the Samsung GW4 or GW5 … these watches does have ECG and blood pressure … but only if you own a Samsung phone. For reasons I find difficult to understand these 2 functions are not available on any other brand Android smartphone. Let’s note that blood pressure may be a nice addition but it doesn’t seem to be very reliable anyway in the current state of technologies.
Another missing thing is the stairs climbed count. The watch does features a barometric altimeter but doesn’t seem to use it to track the number of stairs you can climb everyday. It’s not the most usefull metric tho.
MUSIC
You can remote control you phone player from the watch, as usual on most smartwatches. It works perfectly fine. The cover art doesn’t show, it’s not extremely annoying but this is one of the things that could be improved.
You can put music in your watch too, to listen directly on the tiny and not so bad speaker on on a bluetooth speaker or headset. You can only transfer MP3 and have something between 2 to 3 Gb to store your music.
PROS
Health data can sync with many services, including Google Fit
Calendar syncs
CONS
- ONE TAP MEASURING is nice and feels a bit like the same function on some Garmin watches.
- STRESS
- BLOOD OXYGEN
- HEART RATE
- SLEEP gives you some details on your last sleep directly on the watch but not as much as what you can find on the Zepp App.
- BREATHE
- WORKOUT / WORKOUT HISTORY / WORKOUT STATUS
- ACTIVITY
- PERIODS
- PAI
ENVIRONMENT APPS
- WEATHER is good but lacks hourly forecast for the current day. It has nice weather animations tho.
- SUN & MOON gives you sunset and sundown times as well as moon time and tides
- COMPASS is precise and easy to calibrate, much easier than Garmin's or other brands compas app
- BAROMETER
ALEXA
I found Alexa better integrated and more reliable than on the GTR2. It does work, it’s quick and display is easy to read. Voice is clear and loud enough, you can of course set the volume. Unfortunately you cannot use it to send a message, that would be very nice ! However it’s perfect to set a time, a reminder, a task, a shopping list …
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| Alexa showing weather forecast |
OFFLINE VOICE ASSISTANT
This is a very good idea which was already here on the GTR2. These watches does use offline voice recognition to respond to basic commands like launching an app or an activity. This doesn’t require any connection and is pretty reliable and easy to use. Unfortunately only chinese, english, spanish and german are currently supported.
APP STORE
There are about 85 apps available on the store for now for the GTR4. These are small and simple apps like timers, calculators, calories counters, workout apps, pregnancy apps, time managment, dice, baby records … Some apps are not very useable or usefull, like the News app … which won’t let you choose a langage, a feed source or anything … There’s a Go Pro remote and a couple navigation apps to pass Google maps navigation directions to the watch, all of that I didn’t tested yet. However, I found the calculator very useful and convenient.
There is no music app for any streaming service. Frankly I don,t really see the point of these apps, I wouldn't go on a stroll without my phone for obvious security reasons, I don't need a music streaming app on my watch.
The app market is young and still not very mature but it does exist and can expand nicely an already large choice of built-in apps.
That being said, let’s take some time to consider what is the use of an app store on a smartwatch. We definitively don’t need hundreds of apps on a watch. We need a handful of well designed and usefull apps. We don’t need a web browser, or a video player or a ridiculous system to automatically match your watchface with your clothes. That’s useless bullshit. A smartwatch is not supposed to replace a phone. I would be perfectly happy with something like 100 to 200 usefull apps.
WIDGETS
There are plenty of widgets. Most of them are animated with wome weather simulation, scrolling text, animated icons …
- Activity
- weather
- Heart Rate
- PAI
- Music
- Sleep
- Event
- Barometric altimeter
- Compas
- Tasks
- Training history
- Training status
- One clic Health assessment
- Stress
- Periods
- Breathing
- SPO2
- Alarm
- Agenda
- World clock
- Voice memo
SHORTCUT CARDS & MULTITASK
Swipe to the right to access a very nice shortcuts pannel which gives you a condensed view of selected informations as cards. This is a very convenient system as it shows 2 or 3 cards in one page and gives quick access to usefull data. It’s used for multitasking too as you can access running processes like music player or timers.
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| Some cards |
Those cards are like mini widgets and you can choose from a nice list :
HEALTH
There is an impressive list of features. What’s new is that not only heart rate and stress are monitored in background, SPO2 background measurement can be activated too, which seems usefull in this time of neverending COVID pandemia. You can even get an alert if your SPO2 is too low ! In the same way, you can get alerts in case of HR too high or too low. HR mesure frequency can automatically increase when an activity is detected. Breath quality during sleep can be monitored too.
- Music
- Current Weather
- Weather Forecast
- Next calendar event
- Tasks
- Alarm
- PAI
- Sleep
- Heart rate
- Activity
- SPO2
- Téléphone
- Stress
- World Time
- Timer
- Last training
- Total training
- Training status
- VO2 max
- Breathing
- Countdown
- Suggestions
HEALTH
There is an impressive list of features. What’s new is that not only heart rate and stress are monitored in background, SPO2 background measurement can be activated too, which seems usefull in this time of neverending COVID pandemia. You can even get an alert if your SPO2 is too low ! In the same way, you can get alerts in case of HR too high or too low. HR mesure frequency can automatically increase when an activity is detected. Breath quality during sleep can be monitored too.
There is no blood pressure and no ECG on this watch. Let’s compare with the Samsung GW4 or GW5 … these watches does have ECG and blood pressure … but only if you own a Samsung phone. For reasons I find difficult to understand these 2 functions are not available on any other brand Android smartphone. Let’s note that blood pressure may be a nice addition but it doesn’t seem to be very reliable anyway in the current state of technologies.
Another missing thing is the stairs climbed count. The watch does features a barometric altimeter but doesn’t seem to use it to track the number of stairs you can climb everyday. It’s not the most usefull metric tho.
MUSIC
You can remote control you phone player from the watch, as usual on most smartwatches. It works perfectly fine. The cover art doesn’t show, it’s not extremely annoying but this is one of the things that could be improved.
You can put music in your watch too, to listen directly on the tiny and not so bad speaker on on a bluetooth speaker or headset. You can only transfer MP3 and have something between 2 to 3 Gb to store your music.
Alas, you cannot browse your music in the watch by artist or album ... it's a big mix of everything and you can just make playlists.
What is a very nice idea is that, as soon you launches the music transfer from the Zepp app on the phone, the watch and the phone activate a direct WIFI connection to ensure a quite fast copy of your music. In comparison, the 16 GB of an Apple Watch cannot practically be used to store your own music because the transfer only uses bluetooth which is incredibly slow. Nice move Amazfit !
ACTIVITIES
There is a quite impressive list of activities to track. Automatic detection is available for 8 activities with a sensitivity level which will allow a simple walk to be detected very quickly (after something like 1 or 2mn at it’s more sensitive setting). In this case this maybe too sensitive for a walk and will activate tracking for a simple bit of walking in your house. Let’s keep medium setting which is something like 5mn and is perfect. The Samsung GW4 or 5 doesn’t do so well in comparison taking at least 10mn before actually tracking your walk.
I won’t tell you much more about sports as there are already good reviews for that on the Internet.
CONCLUSION
The Amazfit GTR4 is probably the best Amazfit watch available. I’m extremely happy with my purchase and genuinely impressed. GTR2 was very good for its price. GTR4 is excellent, period. Indeed the price is higher, but it’s still a rather inexpensive watch if you consider all its functions and battery life.
What is a very nice idea is that, as soon you launches the music transfer from the Zepp app on the phone, the watch and the phone activate a direct WIFI connection to ensure a quite fast copy of your music. In comparison, the 16 GB of an Apple Watch cannot practically be used to store your own music because the transfer only uses bluetooth which is incredibly slow. Nice move Amazfit !
ACTIVITIES
There is a quite impressive list of activities to track. Automatic detection is available for 8 activities with a sensitivity level which will allow a simple walk to be detected very quickly (after something like 1 or 2mn at it’s more sensitive setting). In this case this maybe too sensitive for a walk and will activate tracking for a simple bit of walking in your house. Let’s keep medium setting which is something like 5mn and is perfect. The Samsung GW4 or 5 doesn’t do so well in comparison taking at least 10mn before actually tracking your walk.
I won’t tell you much more about sports as there are already good reviews for that on the Internet.
CONCLUSION
The Amazfit GTR4 is probably the best Amazfit watch available. I’m extremely happy with my purchase and genuinely impressed. GTR2 was very good for its price. GTR4 is excellent, period. Indeed the price is higher, but it’s still a rather inexpensive watch if you consider all its functions and battery life.
At this point I don't use anymore my Samsung W4. The lack of pictures in text messages and of voice reply on the GTR4 is just a very mild downside compared to the amazing 10 days battery life with AOD on VS the mediocre 2 days mileage of the Samsung W4 with AOD on.
PROS
Health data can sync with many services, including Google Fit
Calendar syncs
- Emojis in notifications are displayed
- Customized canned answers and on the go multiple emoji answers
- QR code app works for covid vaccine pass
- Nice shortcut & multitask cards
- Very easy to read interface & notifications
- Large choice of watchfaces
- 5 AOD default watchfaces
- Alexa works fine
- Offline assistant is a good addition
- App store
- Compas is easy to use and reliable
- Gorgeous design
- Large screen without making the watch too big
- Titanium like color
- Standards 22mm armbands
- Settings can be accessed from the watch and from the phone
- Voice recorder efficiently syncs files
- Rather fast music transfer
- Phone calls on and from the watch
CONS
- Recent emoji are missing
- No pictures in text messages
- No auto brightness in AOD mode
- No unread notification icon
- No anti-glare treatment on the glass, just the border
- Tasks doesn’t sync (but you can use Alexa)
- Display color temperature is too cold
- No voice dictation to answer messages
- Offline assistant is only in chinese, english, spanish and german
- The watch doesn’t count stairs (Samsung W4 & W5 doesn't either)