First off - this is purely a review piece on the Amazfit Pace fitness tracker/watch after about one month of usage. The watch specifications and many unboxing videos can be found easily on the net, so I will not cover them.
Some background:
I am a casual runner - I run regularly, 4 to 6 time a week, average of 65km per week currently. I am always seeking ways to run faster, but am in no hurry or in any sort of plan.
I have no previous ACTUAL experience of fitness tracker/watch although I have been eyeing on the Garmin Forerunner 235 and Suunto Ambit 3 Run. The day the Amazfit Pace was launched in China, I have made inquiries but realized that it was only available in Chinese. (Although I AM an Asian Chinese - my Chinese sucks big time - story for another day). For launching price of 799 yuan, I had no qualms on purchasing it, provided it is available in English. Part of the reason I was holding out on Garmin and Suunto was that I could not justify the price to pay for a fitness tracker in relation to a casual, non competitive runner like me.
Now the Amazfit Pace is available officially in English and the latest English firmware version at the time of writing is 1.3.3a
Usage:
Most of the time I only use the watch when I run. I am using the Amazfit Pace more as a fitness tracker than activity tracker. So ya.. I don't give a hoot about my daily average heart rate, my quality of sleep, number of steps that I take. :P
I did however leave the continuous heart rate monitor on and wore it for 2 days for review purposes. Just wanted to have a sense of the battery impact (if any). Will come back to this later.
Now on to the watch!
Specs of the Amazfit Pace that mattered to me: (this is not the exhaustive list, full specs can be found on the Amazfit webpage.)
Design
I like the design! It's not too sporty, not too formal. Round, dark ceramic bezel with 22mm easily changeable straps.
This is one of the watch faces that came with the watch - "Marathon Life"
Underside of the watch with 4 contact points to the cradle and in the center is the heart rate sensor.
The watch faces are customizable, with a whole range of analog and digital watch faces to choose from. Users can design their own watch faces so you can always find a new one if you ever get bored with what you have. You can find some nice watch faces here and here. I will not go into details - just copy the .wfz file to a WatchFace folder in the root directory of the watch and you can select from either the watch or the Amazfit Watch app.
Yes - I love Mickey watch faces!
The display is always on and it uses trans reflective LCD - meaning the brighter the surrounding/ambient light, the nicer the screen becomes. No worries for viewing under the sun, unlike many of the normal LCD watches.
The soft silicone straps are just comfy!! More comfortable than many of the watches I'vc had. Have not had a chance to try on 3rd party straps but word of mouth is that they are generally not as soft as the original ones.
Runs:
When you start the Run profile, the watch will take a min or so to search and lock on to the GPS. So what I normally do is to turn on the profile before warm up, and leave it. After the warm up I go back and start the run.
You can choose to have 4 or 6 data fields displayed during the run. I usually use the 4 data field screen. I only look at 3 data anyway - HR, distance and pace. My only complain here is that the actual time (not stopwatch) right on top of the screen, its quite small and harder to read (especially while running) than the rest of the data.
The HR is displayed at the bottom and it changes color from green to yellow to orange. I can't remember the range of values that corresponds to the colors - but you get the idea.
The data fields are not customizable. So you can only get what is seen here (for the 4 data fields).
You can set many alerts while performing your activity: HR Alert, Target Time, Target Distance, Pace Alert, just to name a few. The watch will vibrate with a message shown if any of the value is exceeded.
No issues whatsoever for my runs. After you end/stop the run you get a summary which you can scroll through and the activity can be automatically uploaded to Strava. There were users who had problem pairing their watch with the Amazfit app and/or syncing with Strava, but I have no issues from the get go.
Battery Life:
Amazing battery life for a fitness tracker. It averages about 5% drop every 6 hours with continuous HR on and BT link to the phone. That is only 20% battery usage for 24 hours.
In the Run profile (where the GPS and HR sensors will be turned on) battery level drops 10% after about 100 mins (1hr 40mins) of activity. That means you can easily get more than 10 hours of activity tracking on a full charge.
Bear in mind these figures are from my own usage and NOT data from the webpages or forums :)
Other functions that interest me:
One of the latest function added to the US firmware 1.3.3a is the GPS routing/tracking option. I have tried it twice so far and it worked out good. That will be a separate review later on, together with a short write up on the Amazfit Android app.
Conclusion:
The Amazfit Pace is a very capable fitness/activity tracker. For the casual/average user who runs or bikes, it is the biggest bang for buck currently. The GPS and distance measurements are accurate - contrary to many of the earlier reviews. Maybe the latest firmware helped.
The IP67 held up as I ran twice in moderate/heavy rain for about 30 mins each time and no water damage at all. Swimming is a no no though.
It is NOT so much a smartwatch - you can receive notifications from your mobile but interaction is fairly limited. You cannot reply to the messages. You can see names from incoming calls, and there is an option to MUTE or REJECT the call. You CANNOT answer the call from the watch. However, it has been confirmed that there is a mic on the watch - there is no official word on whether future development will make use of the mic.
If you get your expectations right, you will not be disappointed!
IMO it is PERFECT for a casual fitness user like me - to track my runs and activities with the heart rate, sync the data to Strava so I can view on the PC.
Some background:
I am a casual runner - I run regularly, 4 to 6 time a week, average of 65km per week currently. I am always seeking ways to run faster, but am in no hurry or in any sort of plan.
I have no previous ACTUAL experience of fitness tracker/watch although I have been eyeing on the Garmin Forerunner 235 and Suunto Ambit 3 Run. The day the Amazfit Pace was launched in China, I have made inquiries but realized that it was only available in Chinese. (Although I AM an Asian Chinese - my Chinese sucks big time - story for another day). For launching price of 799 yuan, I had no qualms on purchasing it, provided it is available in English. Part of the reason I was holding out on Garmin and Suunto was that I could not justify the price to pay for a fitness tracker in relation to a casual, non competitive runner like me.
Now the Amazfit Pace is available officially in English and the latest English firmware version at the time of writing is 1.3.3a
Usage:
Most of the time I only use the watch when I run. I am using the Amazfit Pace more as a fitness tracker than activity tracker. So ya.. I don't give a hoot about my daily average heart rate, my quality of sleep, number of steps that I take. :P
I did however leave the continuous heart rate monitor on and wore it for 2 days for review purposes. Just wanted to have a sense of the battery impact (if any). Will come back to this later.
Now on to the watch!
Specs of the Amazfit Pace that mattered to me: (this is not the exhaustive list, full specs can be found on the Amazfit webpage.)
- GPS and GLONASS
- Compass
- Heart rate sensor
- Run, Bike, Trail Running (which I used for hiking) Profiles
- Measurements in Metric
- Long lasting battery life. (more details below)
- Connectivity and sync to Strava
- IP67 rating
Design
I like the design! It's not too sporty, not too formal. Round, dark ceramic bezel with 22mm easily changeable straps.
Underside of the watch with 4 contact points to the cradle and in the center is the heart rate sensor.
The watch faces are customizable, with a whole range of analog and digital watch faces to choose from. Users can design their own watch faces so you can always find a new one if you ever get bored with what you have. You can find some nice watch faces here and here. I will not go into details - just copy the .wfz file to a WatchFace folder in the root directory of the watch and you can select from either the watch or the Amazfit Watch app.
Yes - I love Mickey watch faces!
The display is always on and it uses trans reflective LCD - meaning the brighter the surrounding/ambient light, the nicer the screen becomes. No worries for viewing under the sun, unlike many of the normal LCD watches.
The soft silicone straps are just comfy!! More comfortable than many of the watches I'vc had. Have not had a chance to try on 3rd party straps but word of mouth is that they are generally not as soft as the original ones.
Runs:
When you start the Run profile, the watch will take a min or so to search and lock on to the GPS. So what I normally do is to turn on the profile before warm up, and leave it. After the warm up I go back and start the run.
You can choose to have 4 or 6 data fields displayed during the run. I usually use the 4 data field screen. I only look at 3 data anyway - HR, distance and pace. My only complain here is that the actual time (not stopwatch) right on top of the screen, its quite small and harder to read (especially while running) than the rest of the data.
The HR is displayed at the bottom and it changes color from green to yellow to orange. I can't remember the range of values that corresponds to the colors - but you get the idea.
The data fields are not customizable. So you can only get what is seen here (for the 4 data fields).
You can set many alerts while performing your activity: HR Alert, Target Time, Target Distance, Pace Alert, just to name a few. The watch will vibrate with a message shown if any of the value is exceeded.
No issues whatsoever for my runs. After you end/stop the run you get a summary which you can scroll through and the activity can be automatically uploaded to Strava. There were users who had problem pairing their watch with the Amazfit app and/or syncing with Strava, but I have no issues from the get go.
Battery Life:
Amazing battery life for a fitness tracker. It averages about 5% drop every 6 hours with continuous HR on and BT link to the phone. That is only 20% battery usage for 24 hours.
In the Run profile (where the GPS and HR sensors will be turned on) battery level drops 10% after about 100 mins (1hr 40mins) of activity. That means you can easily get more than 10 hours of activity tracking on a full charge.
Bear in mind these figures are from my own usage and NOT data from the webpages or forums :)
Other functions that interest me:
One of the latest function added to the US firmware 1.3.3a is the GPS routing/tracking option. I have tried it twice so far and it worked out good. That will be a separate review later on, together with a short write up on the Amazfit Android app.
Conclusion:
The Amazfit Pace is a very capable fitness/activity tracker. For the casual/average user who runs or bikes, it is the biggest bang for buck currently. The GPS and distance measurements are accurate - contrary to many of the earlier reviews. Maybe the latest firmware helped.
The IP67 held up as I ran twice in moderate/heavy rain for about 30 mins each time and no water damage at all. Swimming is a no no though.
It is NOT so much a smartwatch - you can receive notifications from your mobile but interaction is fairly limited. You cannot reply to the messages. You can see names from incoming calls, and there is an option to MUTE or REJECT the call. You CANNOT answer the call from the watch. However, it has been confirmed that there is a mic on the watch - there is no official word on whether future development will make use of the mic.
If you get your expectations right, you will not be disappointed!
IMO it is PERFECT for a casual fitness user like me - to track my runs and activities with the heart rate, sync the data to Strava so I can view on the PC.
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