Amazfit has unveiled its latest rugged smartwatch, the T-Rex 3, aiming to compete with premium offerings from established brands like Garmin and Apple. This new wearable brings significant upgrades over its predecessor while maintaining a competitive price point.
Key Features and Improvements
The T-Rex 3 boasts a larger 1.5-inch AMOLED display, up from 1.39 inches in the previous model. More impressively, the screen brightness has doubled to 2,000 nits, matching the peak brightness of recent flagship smartwatches from Samsung and Google.
Battery life, already a strong point for Amazfit, sees further improvement:
- Up to 27 days of regular use (increased from 24 days)
- An astounding 180 hours (7.5 days) of continuous GPS usage
The watch retains its 10 ATM (100-meter) water resistance rating and now features a stainless steel bezel for enhanced durability.
Expanded Functionality
Amazfit has significantly expanded the T-Rex 3's capabilities:
- Over 170 sport modes, including new additions like freediving and ultramarathon
- Offline maps with turn-by-turn navigation
- Strength training mode with custom workout creation
- New health metrics: readiness score and heart rate variability
- Zepp Flow AI assistant powered by GPT-4
- Zepp Pay for contactless payments (Europe only)
Pricing and Availability
The Amazfit T-Rex 3 is available now for $279.99 in the US or €299.90 in Europe. While this represents a price increase from the T-Rex 2, it still significantly undercuts high-end outdoor watches from competitors.
Analysis
The T-Rex 3 appears to offer an compelling mix of premium features and extended battery life at a mid-range price point. Its dramatically improved GPS endurance could make it particularly attractive to ultra-endurance athletes and outdoor enthusiasts. However, the lack of a mainstream smartwatch operating system like Wear OS may limit its appeal for users deeply integrated into ecosystems like Google's.
As Amazfit continues to close the gap with more established brands, it will be interesting to see how companies like Garmin respond to this increased competition in the rugged smartwatch market.