Tag: Amazfit

Amazfit GTS 4 Mini Review

First Impressions

I got the Amazfit GTS 4 Mini as an upgrade from my current GTS 2 Mini, as there were a few features that I really felt were lacking from the GTS 2 Mini. I also have a Samsung Galaxy Active 2, which I use a bit and can compare against the Amazfits I have. My impression of the GTS 4 Mini is that it is a very nice, slim watch with an excellent screen and great battery life. The UI has been completely overhauled over the GTS 2 Mini and seems a little cleaner and easier to read at a glance.

GTS 2 Mini (left), GTS 4 Mini (right)
GTS 2 Mini (left), GTS 4 Mini (right)
GTS 2 Mini (left), GTS 4 Mini (right)
GTS 2 Mini (left), GTS 4 Mini (right)
GTS 2 Mini (left), GTS 4 Mini (right)
Comparison between Amazfit GTS 2 Mini and GTS 4 Mini

Screen

The screen on the GTS 4 Mini (1.65” 384×336) is slightly larger than the GTS 2 Mini (1.55” 354×306), which also increases the case size slightly as well from 40.5mm x 35.8mm to 41.8mm x 36.66mm. In daily usage, there isn’t much difference between the two as for visibility or readability, as both are quite good. The AMOLED screen on the GTS 4 Mini is definitely a major step up from the TFT screen of the Bip series (Bip 3 Pro). Text is very clear, brightness is easily visible in daylight outdoors, and touches are recognized well.

GTS 4 Mini Cards
GTS 2 Mini (left), GTS 4 Mini (right)
GTS 2 Mini (left), GTS 4 Mini (right)

Notifications

Finally you can clear notifications from the watch and have it cleared on the phone, too! On the GTS 2 Mini, it does not clear it from the phone, so I have to clear from the watch, plus clear from the phone. I do like some notifications on my Galaxy Active 2 a little better, as motion alerts from my Wyze camera will actually show a snapshot of the video on my Galaxy Active 2 on the notification, where the GTS 4 Mini just shows the text of the motion alert.

Negatives

  1. Some watchfaces aren’t fully developed. For example, the “Future Impressions” watchface has a lot of useful info, but the time shows “AM”, no matter if it’s actually morning or evening. This is basic watch functionality, why is this an issue???
  2. Customization – There are 49 watchfaces currently and most of them cannot be customized to show the data you want. You are stuck with the color and whatever data that face shows. Samsung is much better about this, with most watchfaces letting you edit the Complications to show the data you actually want to see.
  3. App Store – This is borderline for me. The GTS 2 Mini didn’t have any App Store functionality, but with the apps available for the GTS 4 Mini (Brush tooth guide, Color Blindness check, Water Time), this seems like a pretty worthless addition at the moment. Unless the selection drastically improves, this is useless.
  4. Weather sync – Still no way to set the update frequency or manually refresh the weather. This is such a simple thing, why is this an issue?

Upgrade over GTS 2 Mini?

So, the main upgrades of the GTS 4 Mini over the GTS 2 Mini that I feel like are worth mentioning are:

  1. Calendar integration – Finally I can see my calendar items! No calendar integration was a HUGE issue for me on the GTS 2 Mini and one of the main reasons I started wearing my Galaxy Active 2 more.
  2. Battery – 270mah vs 220mah. Though with the bigger screen, this only results in 1 day more in the Typical (15 days vs 14 days) and Heavy (8 days vs 7 days) use patterns.
  3. BioTracker 3.0 – The sensor array has been updated over the BioTracker 2 on the GTS 2 mini, but I don’t really see any improvement in day-to-day use. Compared to my Samsung Galaxy Active 2, both BioTracker versions are not quite as accurate.
  4. GPS systems – The GTS 4 Mini supports all 5 GPS systems (GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, BDS, and QZSS). For me, this is a non-issue, but depending on what country you are in, this could be nice vs the GTS 2 Mini with only GPS and GLONASS. Both do a good job of tracking walks and runs on open trails, but both come up a bit short for me when mountain biking on off-road trails in wooded areas.

Overall

At the current price of $119.99 on Amazon, this is a hard recommendation from me. You can get a new open box Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 for $130 on eBay, or a Galaxy Active 2 for well under $100. The GTS 2 Mini regularly goes on sale and can be had for around $80 or less. While the GTS 4 Mini is a good watch overall, I feel like you could spend basically the same money on something with much better functionality, or spend a lot less on the GTS 2 Mini and basically have an almost as good experience.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09Z6GMPC6?tag=tdb010-20