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Amazfit Balance Smartwatch -- DEMO & REVIEW
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Jun 22, 2024
In the market for a sharp looking smartwatch that works with Android or iPhones but isn't as expensive as the top three? The Amazfit Balance features just about every feature and sensor you could ask for, including a built-in AI assistant, and looks beautiful. Want a new watch face? There are more than 200 options! Review by watch fan and tech expert Dave Taylor. Check it out at: https://amzn.to/3K5Yysx Visit Dave's Q&A Web site at: https://www.AskDaveTaylor.com/ #amazfit #smwartwatch #balance #balancewatch #amazfitwatch #androidwatch #iphonewatch #askdavetaylor
View Video Transcript
0:00
This smartwatch has a beautiful screen
0:02
Let's check it out. Dave Taylor here and I'm checking out this
0:12
This is the Amaze Fit balance smart watch. Now you might immediately say, oh, well, is it running Android
0:21
Is it running WatchOS? What's the deal? The answer is AmazeFit has its own operating system
0:28
So this is actually running something called ZepOS. And that was just something so that these companies in China could actually have an operating system
0:38
and then sell it wherever they want with whatever configuration they wanted
0:42
So they didn't have to worry about like the Android terms of service or anything. End result is they started from scratch and built an operating system specifically designed for smart watches
0:53
So it is a very smart and elegant experience. It's also very darn similar to all of the other smart watches out there
1:01
So, for example, if I swipe different sides, I get different results
1:06
If I swipe up or down, I get different things. If I tap and hold, then it will actually let me change watch faces
1:15
Now, I'm going to show you all of that in close up, because I know you couldn't really see what I was doing
1:19
But let me give you some specs here first, and then we'll jump right into that demo
1:23
So it's a 1.5-inch AMO-L-E-L-D. screen it is a big bright it's a beautiful screen 480 by 480 I don't really
1:33
understand those dimensions given that it's a round screen but that's what they
1:37
say it has a ton of tracking so it has body and mind wellness tracking including
1:43
sleep tracking blood oxygen heart rate body composition basically everything that anyone's ever done with having a health monitor in a smart watch they've
1:55
added to this one. Now, whether they're precise and accurate and whether you should make health
2:01
decisions based on the data, we'll get back to that. So it also, and this is perhaps the most
2:06
exciting thing, is it has a built-in AI fitness partner. So the AI is actually something super
2:13
easy to work with. They call it Zepflow. And again, I'll demo that. But if you don't like that
2:19
it also has built-in Alexa once you configure it. So if you're away, you could tell your watch to
2:25
turn on your lights or start your coffee maker or whatever it is that you've hooked up via
2:29
Alexa. Dual band GPS, which allows you to have route navigation while you're out on a run or a
2:35
bike ride. And like I said, it works on Android or iPhone. I have it hooked up with my iPhone
2:42
but it runs its own operating system. It does work via low energy Bluetooth so that you can
2:49
actually, you get all of your notifications. And there are times when it's just endlessly popping up
2:54
and vibrating, that sort of haptic feedback. But you can also take calls because it's a Bluetooth connection
3:01
And the battery is really one of the shining points here. It's a 14-day battery
3:07
Now, I have mine for Always On. And, of course, every time I move my wrist, it then turns on the back screen
3:14
But even when it's just sitting there resting, I can look at it right now and see what the time is
3:19
even though the display is turned off. Now, the point of that is that I really like Always On Display
3:24
they eat a lot of battery life. Because most of the time when you have your watch you not actually looking at it so it doesn need to be on so it saving battery So this is a 14 battery 25 days on full standby which is to say never turning on
3:41
But if you have it always on, then you should expect maybe weekly. Now, for those of you that have Apple watches, the idea of charging it once a week is a little mind-boggling
3:51
Very cool. 200 faces. It supports 150 different sports. It comes with its own little charging unit
3:58
And let me take this off preparing for our demo. I really, really like the design
4:04
Let me give you a couple of close-ups. The band is a really nifty design
4:09
It's going to fit just about all wrists, and you can't actually pop it off
4:14
and have it where you can't have it easily be the strap, which is nice
4:19
So it's a very attractive design. And then the back charger, you basically, there's two little
4:28
dots on one of the edges and so you just lined it up so that the two pins on this line up
4:36
and now it's ready to charge the other end is USBA. So enough talk, let's get into that demo
4:43
This is the Always On Display. Normally I could tap it to wake it up but since it's not on my wrist I have to push the dial
4:50
and you can see it is a big, bright, colorful display. If I swipe left, then I get to this Z
4:58
Zepflow or Alexa for AI. Let's go back. Left, then I get readiness, which is Zep's number that gives you a sense of how well you slept
5:09
and how ready you are for the day. Since I didn't wear this to bed last night, it doesn't have any data
5:15
Then you can see, I haven't done much activity yet today, but it's a nice, simple, easy-to-read display
5:22
Then here's my heart rate. It has been elevated because I have been on camera
5:27
and here's the local weather and I can start a workout from here
5:33
and then I'm back to the AI interface and then I go here
5:37
if I swipe from the top that gives me various settings the most useful of which is the little double mask
5:44
which is theater mode so please if you wear this in a movie theater
5:49
use that mode go up and then I go from the bottom
5:53
and then this is where my notifications would be and I have some stuff here
5:58
You can see various things are happening. But let's go and let's try the AI
6:04
So I'm going to do this and hold. What's the weather in Jakarta
6:15
So that's pretty fun. It can show me the weather. And it is an AI
6:20
It has limited capabilities, but it can do some things. Let's do it again
6:26
How do I say hello in Chinese? Seems appropriate for a Chinese watch
6:37
So it's nihau, but the problem here is that the AI doesn't have access to the speaker
6:43
So it is a little less useful than it could be. And now if we go to apps, you'll see there are a lot of apps here
6:52
and there's a lot of things you can do if you go to settings, you go to settings, which is that one
6:58
then there a lot of different settings you can get to here So turn on and off voice assistant you can change all of your preferences battery manager map You can get to system settings themselves
7:13
But what I really like is I just really like the time display with steps
7:18
I know that might just be, well, get a pedometer, but I really like a nice looking watch too
7:24
And if I push and hold, then here are some of the other watch faces that I've preloaded
7:31
And let's go to this one. That's actually my favorite at this point
7:35
And when the screen turns off, you'll see the always on display is also really very simple and elegant
7:42
And there's really lots to like here. That is a really simple way for me to glance at my watch and see what time it is
7:48
Now, let me jump back on camera. For part two of the demo, let me show you what's happening in the Zep app
7:54
And here, this is a good way to look at the data that the watch is collecting
7:59
So you can see so far today, I'm at 47. 76 steps. That's not very good. I've walked two-tenths of a mile in my house. I haven't actually
8:07
left the house yet. Zepora is a pay subscription and it is an AI coach that is intended to help
8:16
you with mental health and sleep and such. My heart rate is elevated because, hey, I'm on camera
8:24
That's kind of how that works. And you can see it gets a little confused with things. So it's
8:29
showing me I did two workouts yesterday and the day before on my elliptical, but it says total
8:35
workouts this week zero. So it's a little confusing. And then you can see these are the kinds of
8:42
apps that I'm using more frequently. And then my stress level is normal. I have burned 25 calories
8:49
this morning walking around my house. So I guess if I just did that all day, I would burn a couple
8:55
100 calories, not a very efficient way to burn calories. Heart rate variability is related to
9:00
sleep. And then at the bottom, there's an ad. I can go more directly into the sleep mode. And it's
9:08
giving me a really poor score because the one night that I wore it, I slept very poorly and
9:13
decided that I didn't like having it on. So I haven't worn it since. I will say that from reading
9:18
other reviews, people find the sleep ysis to be probably the weakest point in this watch
9:25
That's true of most smart watches. That's a very difficult task. So I think a lot of the watches that are out there from even bigger vendors
9:34
are not necessarily doing the good a job as you think they are
9:38
As you can see, it said that I slept for an hour and 36 minutes
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I am entirely confident I slept for more time than that. But be that as it may
9:46
If I go to workouts, then I can see my training load
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I can start a workout. There's all sorts of stuff here. it's actually a pretty slick piece of software
10:00
I find that I don't use it very often. And when I do, I just want to see trends
10:04
I want to see a graph of like, what's my average heart rate over the last two weeks and things like that
10:09
Because that is actually pretty helpful. And when you get into larger sort of perspectives like that
10:15
then what happens is the accuracy doesn't matter quite as much because you're looking at bigger trends, right
10:20
So when you go and spend every Saturday, you know, volunteering at the preschool or something, then on average, does that mean your heart rate goes up or down
10:31
So that could be something really interesting to consider when you trying to decide should I go golfing or should I go to the preschool again today Well you can have data to see which one actually better for your health So let me turn off my recording here
10:47
And so there's a lot I like about this watch. Most notably is it is very attractive
10:53
It's a really beautiful display. I really like all the different watch faces
10:58
Once I figured out how to turn on the always on display, it became much more interesting to me because it, you know
11:05
one of these things where it's a drag when you look at it and it's just black and then it has to be like
11:10
a half a second before it actually turns on i know that sounds rather trivial but i found that when i
11:15
didn't have always on enabled then i often was like oh i don't know what time it is and i had to
11:21
wait and that felt tedious but turn on always on display and you're good now in terms of all the different
11:28
monitoring stuff well that's probably like i said one of the weaker sides of this it's a really hard
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And the other companies that are saying they have super accurate data, they're probably being a little bit optimistic there
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So I think this is really good for collecting data. I would say, assume there's some percentage of variability or inaccuracy in the data
11:51
But nonetheless, if it's telling you your resting heart rates 103, then it's probably not 50
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It's probably maybe 100 or 96 or 111 or something. So, you know, as long as you can accept that there's going to be some variation and some error in the reporting, which is just inherent in this sort of thing, then this is a really great data collection system
12:14
The AI is helpful. I don't know that it's something I will use every single day, given that everything around us is getting these AI voice interfaces
12:23
My phone has that. My computer has that. My web browser has that
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My TV has that. My voice systems like my Alexa speakers have that
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At some point, they're all just going to start arguing, and I won't even need to be in the loop
12:38
But all said and done, if you are looking for a smartwatch
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with a big, bright, round screen and a beautiful design and a bunch of interesting functionality
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this is a really solid one to check out. Now, we do need to talk about price
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but before we get there, I'm going to invite you to subscribe to my channel. Click or a tap on that subscribe button
13:00
Hit the bell icon for notifications. Give me a thumbs up if you found this of value
13:05
I hope you did. And that's what we got. Cool. This is the Amaze Fit Balance Smartwatch
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And it is 22319 at Amazon.com. Now, I will note that different band colors and stuff have slightly different prices
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So you might want to look at all of the different configurations and options before you
13:26
purchase one. it is a solid entrant in this segment. Now, there are other smartwatches from other companies we don't need to mention
13:35
but they're all more expensive. So this gives you high-end smart watch functionality at the lowest entry price of all of the different options out there
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That's what I got. I think I need to go burn some calories by walking around my house
13:50
So I'll catch you in my next video