The Amazfit Active 3 Premium doesn’t give you the best running features available on an Amazfit smartwatch. What it does do is offer great value and some handy features to make it a nice running watch for beginner runners.
There’s an AMOLED display, free offline maps with turn-by-turn navigation, the ability to pair external heart rate and running power meters and a well-designed training library. This features running sessions to introduce new runners to what a tempo or Fartlek run looks like.
What you mainly miss out on from the pricier Amazfit smartwatches is dual-band GPS, more premium design materials, a built-in flashlight and longer battery life.
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Design & Key Stats
- Price: £169.90/$169
- Size: 45 x 11 x 11mm
- Weight: 38g
- Display: 1.32in
- Case material: Steel
- Screen material: Sapphire glass
- Water resistance: 50m
- Battery life (watch): 12 days
- Battery life (single-band GPS): 24 hours
- Storage: 4GB
Amazfit Active 3 Premium Review
The Run Test: Likes
The Amazfit Active 3 Premium has a nice, compact design and is a light watch to wear. The inclusion of four physical buttons and sapphire glass means you’re getting features on a smartwatch you’d expect to find on sports watches.
While it lacks the dual-band GPS from watches like the T-Rex 3, the single-band setup still performed pretty well in our tests. It’s a similar story for heart rate tracking, where it’s good on the whole but shows more of a struggle for high intensity runs. You do have the option to pair external heart rate monitors to it over Bluetooth.
Zepp Health’s entry-level running software features include a library of workouts that offer simple to follow sessions that also incorporate warm-up and cool-down exercises. It’s refreshing to find access to free offline maps on watch under £200/$200, with support for features like round-trip routing and turn-by-turn navigation also included.
Like other Amazfit smartwatches, you’re getting a watch with good battery life. It’s comfortably good for a week’s worth of training. While the GPS battery life seems shorter than advertised, it still puts in a solid performance. You do have to use a proprietary charger to charge it back up, which does work with USB-C charging cables.
The Run Test: Dislikes
The Amazfit Active 3 Premium definitely has areas it can improve to be a better fit for runners. Like the level of training analysis, which is mainly restricted to training load, VO2 Max and recovery recommendations.
For those that value tracking accuracy, it does miss out on dual-band GPS, which has performed well for us on other Amazfit smartwatches. So if you live or plan to use it on running routes you know creates problems for GPS signals, you might find issues on that front.
While the Active 3 Premium offers a pretty extensive array of smartwatch features and support to sync data with the likes of Strava, Runna and TrainingPeaks, it’s not the strongest smartwatch ecosystem available. The app store doesn’t match Apple or Google’s stores for support, you don’t get payment features in all territories and elements like watch faces and music support aren’t as polished as they are on rival watches.
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Verdict And Alternatives
The Amazfit Active 3 Premium is a pretty solid smartwatch and running watch, that comes in cheaper than most other entry-level running watches. If you can live without the very best GPS accuracy, having bucketloads of training insights and the sleekest smartwatch features, there’s still plenty to like about what the Premium offers.
If you want a sports watch with more advanced GPS support, there’s the Coros Pace 4 and the Suunto Run to consider. For a better smartwatch and running watch combined, there’s the Garmin Forerunner 165 or the Forerunner 165 music edition.
If you can spend a little more, the Coros Pace 4 will get you a better all-round running watch, with some good smartwatch features also thrown in for good measure. The 165, Pace 4 and the Suunto Run all lack the full offline maps, sapphire glass and training library modes that the Active 3 Premium does give you for less money.
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