Amazfit GTS 2 Mini New Version Review: Budget Smartwatch Just Got More Affordable

It’s no secret that Amazfit has a wide selection of smartwatches and smartbands across various price points. Starting with the Amazfit Neo, priced at Rs 2,499, all the way up to the Amazfit Zepp Z, which costs Rs 25,999, the lineup has something for every budget.

Lately, its GTS 2 and the GTR 2 series have been well received by customers both globally and in India. In fact, “Amazfit led the market in the Rs 10,000 – 15,000 price band in India in Q4 2021 with over one-third of the total shipments,” according to a Counterpoint Research report.

The same report also suggests that “86% of the total smartwatch shipments in India were driven by the under-Rs 5,000 price band“. While Amazfit already had an offering close to this range—the Amazfit GTS 2 Mini (which generally received positive reviews)—it appears to have taken cues from the market and announced a new smartwatch, the GTS 2 Mini New Version, for a lower price to narrow down the gap further.

The GTS 2 Mini New Version is identical to the GTS 2 Mini Amazfit launched in 2020 but with new color options and a reduced price tag. It now costs Rs 5,999. Rs 1,000 less than the older model. But is this price drop enough to lure customers into buying one? Let’s find out in our Amazfit GTS 2 Mini New Version review.

Amazfit GTS 2 Mini New Version: Design, Build, and Fit

Right off the bat, the Amazfit GTS 2 Mini 2022 looks identical to the GTS 2 Mini (2020): there isn’t anything—besides the new colorway—to tell them apart visually. Our unit is Meteor Black, and we find it quite clean and elegant. Besides Meteor Black, you can also get the 2022 GTS 2 Mini in Breeze Blue and Flamingo Pink colors.

Moving from the most apparent distinction between the two models, the rest of the cosmetic appearance of the new GTS 2 is the same as before. It’s got a square-shaped case, which we feel is a design choice that many smartwatch manufacturers are opting for lately—even on lower price segments. The case measures 40mm, just like before, staying true to its “mini” label. This small case size, combined with the 19.5 gm weight of the watch, which is pretty light, in our opinion, makes the GTS 2 mini fairly comfortable to wear even for those with smaller than average wrists.

Of course, that’s not to say it won’t look good on people with bigger wrists. It’s just that some people might find the watch too small on their wrists, in which case, something like the GTS 2 comes across as a better Amazfit offering.

In terms of the overall aesthetics, though, we’re fairly pleased with the new GTS 2 Mini, as we mentioned in our original GTS 2 Mini review too. Its chamfered edges along the case blend in nicely with the front of the watch, which gives it a sleek and stylish appearance. Plus, being made out of the same aluminum alloy and retaining the 5ATM rating, there seems to be no cost-cutting from Amazfit regarding the build quality of the new GTS 2 Mini. Being 5ATM rated means you won’t have to worry about using it during intensive workouts or taking it to the pool with you.

Similarly, other aspects of the 2020 GTS 2 Mini that are being carried over to the new model include the multifunction push-button, which lets you access the menu and return to the home screen. This button also supports long-press, so you can program it to quickly access a particular menu or an app you use frequently.

Then, there’s the same 20mm silicone strap, which is soft to touch and comfortable to wear for long hours: we didn’t experience any skin irritation issues with the strap during our time with the watch. However, what did make the wearing experience a bit uncomfortable at times, especially when worn for long hours straight, was the raised sensor grid on the back of the watch that houses all the necessary sensors and charging pins. We found that it used to dig into the wrist quite a bit during our time with the watch, which often left an impression on the wrist and left us wondering if wearing it to bed is a good idea.

Lastly, the strap on the GTS 2 Mini 2022 is a removable one, and the mechanism to swap it is relatively easy to operate too. So should you wish to swap out the band, you can do it comfortably.

Amazfit GTS 2 Mini New Version: Display

Amazfit continues to use the same display on the GTS 2 Mini New Version as its previous iteration. It’s a 1.55-inch AMOLED, and we really like how it slightly curves outwards to meet with the chamfered edges of the case to give the watch a premium look and add to the user experience by providing a smooth scrolling effect when swiping across the screen.

As we’ve previously stated, this is an excellent display for its price and gets pretty bright even in outdoor settings. So if you’re someone who spends most of their time outdoors or prefers to run or workout in an outdoor setting, you won’t have any trouble seeing it under bright conditions.

The same goes for its clarity, too, as the 354 x 306 pixels resolution makes the content on the screen look crisp and clear; it’s something that not many smartwatch manufacturers manage to get right at this price point. Another advantage of having an AMOLED is that you get the always-on display feature, which always shows you the date and time, just like a regular watch, so you can easily take a peek at the time without lifting your wrist.

As for usability, Amazfit employs gestures to ease navigating between different menus and lists on the GTS 2 Mini. During our time with the watch, we found the touch response of the display on the new GTS 2 Mini impressive, and never did we experience any stutters or faltering of animations while scrolling through different menus; nor did we encounter any latency in touch response while navigating between menus/selecting items on the screen.

However, we did feel that its small screen size affected the usability in some sense. We say this because while interacting with the screen, we noticed that some of its contents got covered up with our fingers, which can be a cause of concern for some people.

Amazfit GTS 2 Mini New Version: Performance

The Amazfit GTS 2 Mini New Version is no slouch when it comes to performance. It uses Bluetooth 5.0 for connectivity, which allows for swift pairing, especially on Android smartphones, and has a pretty decent range as well.

Amazfit is bundling largely the same set of functionality on the new GTS 2 Mini as its previous offering. As a result, you get all the essential health tracking features like a pedometer, heart-rate monitor, blood-oxygen saturation, stress monitor, PAI assessment, and a built-in GPS on the new model too, which, generally speaking, are quite accurate.

Related: OnePlus Nord Watch vs Amazfit GTS 2 Mini New Version

Starting with the pedometer, we found the step counter on the new Amazfit GTS 2 Mini reasonably well (and not very accurate). To test this, we stacked it against a Fitbit Charge 3 on one wrist and found the step counts on both to be slightly off – the GTS 2 Mini recorded fewer steps than the Charge 3. On one occasion, the GTS 2 Mini was well off by over 600 steps in a day’s reading. To be honest, even a difference of 15-20 steps during every walk or run becomes significant the moment you factor it into your daily step count. So if you actively want a tracker for counting your steps, this could let you down a bit.

Talking about other health-tracking features like heart-rate monitoring and blood-oxygen saturation, we’d say the GTS 2 Mini is pretty accurate at recording them. For example, heart-rate data has been consistent throughout our testing, including those times when we checked it against that on the Charge 3 and a pulse oximeter, and so was its SpO2 reading.

Similarly, the GTS 2 Mini New Version also lets you track sleep and stress levels, both of which have been present in the previous version too. Aside from stress tracking, which mostly seems gimmicky, the sleep tracking functionality on the smartwatch was quite accurate in our testing. It gave all the necessary details about sleep, like different sleep stages, including REM sleep, and a sleep score that can help you better analyze your sleep.

Moving on to fitness tracking, the Amazfit GTS 2 Mini New Version offers mostly the same set of activity and sports tracking features as its previous model. Amazfit, however, notes that the watch is missing a barometric altimeter, which disables some of the sports modes compared to the original GTS 2 Mini. [This, in addition to the change in color and price, is the only difference between the new and the old GTS 2 Mini.]

Although most smartwatches these days offer a range of sports modes, we really like the inclusion of the Free Exercise, Walking, and Stretch modes on the new GTS 2 Mini. All of these modes work well and are pretty useful for those who like to work out from their home. Similarly, the built-in GPS on the smartwatch also worked accurately in helping us map out our runs.

Amazfit GTS 2 Mini New Version: Software and Features

The Amazfit GTS 2 Mini New Version runs on a custom Amazfit UI, just like its previous version and most other Amazfit smartwatches and fitness bands. It’s a non-standard smartwatch operating system made specifically for Amazfit devices. While performance-wise, its UI is pretty fluid and easy to navigate—even for first-time smartwatch users—and offers a decent number of features, it does fall short on third-party support and notification replies.

As a result, you can only view incoming messages on the smartwatch but can’t respond to them, nor can you install third-party apps like Strava or any other fitness tracking apps to track and sync your activity or fitness data.

But as we said, Amazfit compensates for them with a bunch of handy features on this software, which is a nice touch. For starters, there’s support for Alexa that gives you the ability to speak into the built-in microphone on the smartwatch to perform operations like view time, set the alarm, and create a to-do event, among a few others.

Then, there are a bunch of built-in apps like Compass, Stopwatch, To-Do List, Music, World Clock, Alarm Pomodoro Tracker, and Camera Remote to ease out your various operations. In addition, the smartwatch also has a Find Phone app that helps you locate your smartphone when you misplace it somewhere.

It also has a companion Amazfit app for its devices, called Zepp. It lets you adjust some of the smartwatch’s settings, sync your health and fitness data, update the smartwatch’s firmware, and change watchfaces. Zepp is available on both Android and iOS and works pretty well. It features widgets upfront on its home screen, which offer you a glance at all the essential health and fitness information you need to know. You can even customize this data card to your preference and include only information as per your needs.

While the overall experience of using the app is pretty good on both Android and iOS, we did encounter issues trying to authorize Alexa on the iOS app. In fact, we had to give up on setting it up on iOS and continue using the watch with our Android phone to test out the Alexa functionality.

Amazfit GTS 2 Mini New Version: Battery

The new Amazfit GTS 2 Mini comes with a 220mAh battery, the same capacity as the original GTS 2 Mini. Amazfit says this battery can last up to 14 days on a single charge under moderate use and around seven days with heavy use.

During our two-week period with the watch, wherein we used it to track daily activity, including outdoor runs on a few days (using the built-in GPS) and a few workout sessions, as well as sleep, on a couple of days, the Amazfit GTS 2 Mini New Version lasted us 11 days. This also included frequent heart rate and pulse oxygen monitoring, and we had the always-on display mode turned on for four days during this two-week period. Compared with other smartwatches and smart trackers in this segment, this battery performance is right up among the better ones.

As for charging speeds, Amazfit says the 10W bundled charger can fully charge the battery in about 1.5 hours. We found this claim to be pretty accurate in our testing.

Amazfit GTS 2 Mini New Version Review: Verdict

Coming in at a price of Rs 5,999, the Amazfit GTS 2 Mini New Version is one of the top contenders among the current budget smartwatches in the market. It offers a bright and responsive display, includes all the essential health and fitness tracking features, and generally performs well with regard to tracking steps, heart rate, and oxygen saturation. The built-in GPS, in particular, is a nice addition to the watch and is something not many smartwatches in this range offer.

However, that said, it does miss out on a few core smartwatch features, like the ability to respond to notifications and lack of third-party app support, which we feel can be a deal-breaker for those looking for a complete smartwatch experience.

Taking into account all these factors—and the fact that it’s essentially the same GTS 2 Mini from 2020 but with a reduced cost—we’d say it’s a good option for people buying their first smartwatch or moving from a fitness tracker (for the sake of a bigger and more interactive screen).

However, if you’ve already been using one of the budget smartwatches, or if you happen to have the older GTS 2 Mini, you may want to look for other smartwatches in a slightly upper price bracket. Ones that fill the missing gaps on the GTS 2 Mini New Version and offer better value for your money.

Buy Amazfit GTS 2 Mini