Amazfit Balance 2 Review

Introduction

The Amazfit Balance 2 is the follow-up to the Balance, a smartwatch that prioritises your fitness above all else.

Whether you love Hyrox, want something to help you train for a marathon or jump in the water with it, the Active 2 has the smarts to cover you. Beyond that tracking, it also wants to help you make smarter decisions about when you train or take a rest day.

Outside of exercise time, it aims to rival the Apple Watch and Wear OS watches, such as the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8, by allowing you to pay your way, stream music on the move, and download apps to enhance the Balance 2’s capabilities.

Like other Amazfit smartwatches I’ve tested, the new Balance comes packed with features, but does it deliver where it truly matters? I’ve been wearing it during workouts to find out.

Design and screen

• One case size option, two straps provided 
• 1.5-inch AMOLED display
• Waterproof up to 100 metres

The Balance 2, like the original Balance, has a fully round case design with a slither of a physical bezel, alongside a single pusher and rotating crown-style button. It’s a pretty sleek-looking watch overall, though at 12.3mm thick, it’s a bit chunkier than the last Balance.

That 47mm case is made from a well-weighted aluminium alloy with polymer around the back where the optical sensor array lies. The silicone strap is a pretty standard fare one, and not all that different from one you’d find attached to a Garmin or Polar sports watch. What’s nice is that there are two different coloured straps included in the box to switch between.

Front and centre is a 1.5-inch, 480 x 480 resolution AMOLED touchscreen, matching the screen on the first Balance for both size and resolution. 

Smartwatch brands currently love to talk up peak screen brightness, and on the Balance 2, it’s up to 2,000 nits. The display offers a good experience overall. It’s perfectly sharp, offering good visibility in brighter outdoor light and is responsive to swipes, taps, and prods.

That display is protected from scratches with sapphire glass, giving you some of the toughest protection you’ll find on a watch. It’s usually found on much more expensive watches, so it’s good to see it on a more mid-range watch. There’s also been zero signs of scratches during testing.

The Balance 2 goes big on waterproofing too. It carries a 10ATM waterproof rating, up from the 5ATM that’s attached to the first Balance. That now makes it suitable for being submerged in water up to a depth of 100 metres. In addition to that, it’s also fit for recreational diving up to 45 metres. You’d typically have to pay a lot more for a smartwatch that’s equipped to do that.

Performance and software

• Compatible with Android and iOS
• Access to Zepp App Store
• Zepp Pay for contactless payments

The Balance 2, like other Amazfit smartwatches, runs on a proprietary operating system. It’s packing Zepp OS 5.0, which carries a strong AI influence, whether that’s through using the mildly useful Zepp Flow smart assistant or Zepp Coach for fitness purposes.

Outside of those AI-fuelled smarts, you’re also getting some typical smartwatch functionality, like the ability to view notifications, which are displayed in a stream on the watch. They’re not the actionable kind, but they do the job. There is the ability to take calls over Bluetooth, where the onboard microphone and speaker offer good volume and clarity, and there’s also a well-optimised music player with playback controls.

You do have contactless payment support through Zepp Pay, which, at the time of writing, works in 31 countries. It’s not quite as seamless as Apple Pay, but it does at least give you the option to leave your contactless cards and spare change behind, which is more difficult to do with other Apple Watch and Wear OS smartwatch rivals.

You also have access to additional apps and watch faces. For watch faces, I’d especially suggest looking at the other options in the store, as the preloaded ones aren’t all that fantastic. 

In terms of available apps, you’re getting a mix of free and paid-for ones. There are a small number of official apps for GoPro, DJI and Sonos. Beyond that, you do need to do some searching to find the most useful ones to download. Google Play, it is not.

On the watch, the software experience is a pretty typical gesture-centric one. All key features are a finger swipe away. Off it, the Zepp companion app has evolved to become a bit less clunky, though it remains busy in sections like the device settings and navigating the workout tabs. 

Is the smartwatch experience as good as the one you’ll get on an Apple Watch or a Wear OS smartwatch? I’d say no. Is it good enough? I’d say there’s enough to satisfy most if you’re not too fussy about having the very best smartwatch features.

Tracking and features

• Over 170 workout modes
• Dual-band GPS and free full colour maps
• AI-powered Zepp Coach

It’s time to get into the nitty-gritty of what the Balance 2 is mainly about, and that’s being a smartwatch that can track your workouts. It has pretty much everything you’d expect it to have to do that. 

There’s the latest dual-band GPS technology for more accurate outdoor tracking, the ability to build and follow training plans, training insights like VO2 max and recovery time suggestions and the ability to sync data to third-party fitness apps like Strava.

From a pure tracking point of view, the Balance 2 performed well in our GPS tests up against one of Garmin’s top-tier dual-band sports watches. It did, on occasion, record slightly shorter distances for some outdoor workouts however. 

The heart rate sensor performance was strong during exercise too. When I used it for interval-style workouts versus a dedicated heart rate monitor, it held up well for average and maximum heart rate readings. It’s also good to see that you can pair up external heart rate monitors if you ever question the reliability of that wrist-based data. For pool swims, it closely matched other swim trackers in terms of distance, pacing, and stroke recognition.

Zepp Health makes a big deal of its available Hyrox modes and, for those into their strength training, also offers recognition for a host of strength-based workouts. 

These modes, in general, work well. If you’re using it for Hyrox workouts or on race day, it can track runs and effort levels for the latter. For training, you can build workouts in the app, picking out exercises to sync to the watch. It’s all easily done.

For those who like to work up a sweat on an adventure, you also get access to free colour maps, which need to be downloaded first on the app and then synced over. The mapping support is very good, and while it may lack the level of settings you’ll find on the best watch-based mapping support out there, it does a much better job than most smartwatches on this front.

If you’re looking to the Balance 2 to be more of a training companion, I’d say that’s where it’s playing catch-up with the sports watch establishment. The AI-powered Zepp Coach and premium Zepp Coach Chat features didn’t feel hugely useful and all that insightful to use. 

Building workouts and relying on training insights, such as VO2 Max estimates and training load, are things you can turn to the Balance 2 to do, offering data and support on par with sports watches.

In terms of sleep tracking, the Balance 2 will track duration, generate sleep scores, and break down sleep into its various stages. I’ve been wearing it alongside the Oura Ring 4, and the data on most nights for that core sleep data has been pretty similar.

Battery life

• Up to 21 days of battery life
• Up to 10 days in heavy usage
• 33 – 67 hours of GPS battery life

The Balance 2 is a smartwatch that can last for weeks between charges or withstand a week of more intensive use. Zepp Health claims you can get up to 21 days of battery life, which drops to 10 days if you’re using the most power-intensive features.

If you don’t have the screen set to stay on at all times, the Balance 2 is absolutely capable of getting through over a week of use. Even when the always-on display mode is enabled, the battery drop was roughly 10% a day. That’s a very good showing.

The GPS battery performance was solid too. In the most accurate GPS tracking mode, the battery is expected to last up to 33 hours, but can extend to 67 hours if you’re willing to sacrifice accuracy to record your longer workouts. Those numbers in the best GPS accuracy mode certainly held up in my testing time.

When it’s time to charge, there’s a small proprietary charging cradle that does require one of your own USB-C charging cables to power back up, as one isn’t included in the box. It’s a relatively snappy charger as well, though you won’t be charging it on a massively regular basis like other smartwatches.

Should you buy it?

FAQs