Amazfit Bip S Lite Detailed Review: A Good Affordable Smartwatch. Amazfit bip s lite

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Amazfit Bip S Lite Review

This year some of our fitness routines might have fallen by the wayside for reasons well-known. As for the tenacious ones amongst us, no gym, no outdoor venture are lame excuses. All they need is a good fitness tracker, and determination to carry out home workout. So if you muster the latter, but don’t have a fitness logger, a budget smartwatch is prolly the best place to start.

Today, we have one such product with us — the Amazfit Bip S Lite, which comes at ₹3,799. It was anticipated ever since the vanilla variant launched the other month. Anyhoo, I have had it as a close companion for a little while now. And so here is my review of it.

But first, have a look at what’s different between the Bip S and the Lite edition —

Amazfit Bip S Lite vs Bip S Specs and Price

Model Bip S Lite Bip S
Display 1.28 Transflective Color 176 x 176 Pixels Always-On Touchscreen Display(with 2.5D Corning Gorilla 3 generation tempered glass anti-fingerprint coating) 1.28 Transflective Color 176 x 176 Pixel Always-On Touchscreen Display (with 2.5D Corning Gorilla 3 generation tempered glass anti-fingerprint coating)
Dials 2 Built-in Editable Dials and more than 150 Watch Faces (only 50 available right now) 4 Built-in Dials (2 editable 2 non-editable) and more than 40 dials to download
Band Silicone Silicone
Waterproof 50 meters waterproof 50 meters waterproof
Sensor Huami-PAI Health Assessment System, BioTracker PPG Bio-tracking Optical Heart Rate Sensor, 3-axis Acceleration Sensor, 3-axis geomagnetic sensor, Sleep-tracking, Notifications, remote music control, alarm clock, sedentary reminders, weather forecast, and more. High-precision Sony 28nm low power GPS, BioTracker PPG Bio-tracking Optical Heart Rate Sensor, xis accelerometer, Sleep-tracking, Notifications, remote music control, alarm clock, sedentary reminders, weather forecast, and more.
Sports mode 8 10
Bluetooth v5 BLE v5 BLE
Battery Life 30 days 40 days
Weight 30g 31.8g
Price ₹3,799 ₹4,999

Now that’s done, here are the inbox contents:

Amazfit Bip S Lite Unboxing

  • The watch
  • Charging cradle
  • User guide and other papers

Amazfit Bip S Lite Design and Display

Much like its predecessors and several other watches, this one’s also a square watch. Upfront, it flaunts a 1.28 Transflective Color Display with 176 x 176 pixels resolution and 64 RGB color gamut. It is an Always-On touchscreen panel. Even when the screen locks, the main watch face is visible. It is also sufficiently bright outdoors. Indoors, when not in use, the screen dims. And when you need a glance, you just have to lift the wrist. Convenient!

As for protection, you get 2.5D Corning Gorilla Glass 3 tempered glass along with an oleophobic coating. Look you would notice some smudges, but since the view isn’t spoiled, it’s gonna be alright. The only qualm with the screen is that the actual visual real estate is limited by the surrounding bezels.

Bip S Lite comes in three color options viz. Charcoal Black, Oxford Blue, and Sakura Pink. The overall finish feels Smart and sturdy. The watch stays lite, fit, and intimate to the wrist. The plastic used offers a nice tactile sensation and you wouldn’t mind wearing them 24×7. Niceties include the detachable (hence replaceable) strap and the strap buckle.

It supports 5ATM water resistance, which means it can be worn in shallow-water activities, like swimming.

Let’s now unlock the screen and get a vibe of what’s within.

Amazfit Bip S Lite Software Experience

Once unlocked, you get to sail through various functions laid across multiple screens. Here’s a quick rundown of the navigation options —

  • Swipe Up to see the recent phone notifications (The text look jammed and ham-fisted. Plus, you can’t interact with them. So, it comes of use only as a notifier, nothing more.)
  • Swipe Down to access 4 quick settings viz. Do Not Disturb for notifications, Lockscreen, Brightness Toggle, and Music controls.
  • You can also Swipe Left/Right or press the Crown while on the homescreen to cycle through various health trackers, features, and settings.
  • Anytime you want to return to the previous screen or directly jump to the main screen, just press the Crown.
  • You can also long-press on the home screen to change the watch face. (BTW, the built-in designs are limited and clumsy.)
  • You can set “Long Button Press” to swiftly start any activity tracker.

Let’s now get to the other half of the software experience, ie, the Amazfit app, which can be loaded from the app store.

It is feature-packed and easy to use. To deliver on the performance, it does collect a bunch of app-permissions. In case you need to know what they collect and why they collect, here’s the brand’s privacy statement.

Speaking of performance here is how it fared in my short stint.

Amazfit Bip S Lite Performance and battery

Coming to the main purpose of buying a smartwatch, the Bip S Lite brings onboard the following health and fitness features:

  • It is capable of tracking 8 sports modes such as indoor running, outdoor running, cycling, walking, freestyle, yoga, treadmill, and elliptical training. Off these, I suppose I’ll be using just the walking tracker for the time being. The step-counting relies on the 3-axis Acceleration Sensor. But for mapping the distance and route triangulation, the phone’s GPS is used.
  • It comes with a BioTracker PPG optical sensor for heart rate monitoring. You can see this sensor running constantly (thanks to a green LED indicator by the base), measuring the resting heart rate. This and the manual readings are listed inside the Amazfit app.
  • Then, there is the PAI (Personal Activity Intelligence) score, which also considers the heart rate (BPM) during the entirety of 7 days. Again, the app exhibits the results in easy-to-grasp graphs.
  • Additional perks include the Find a device ringer, Sleep analysis, weather forecast, and sedentary reminder. You can push a ringtone from the watch and locate the phone if it’s somewhere inside the house like maybe under the huddle of clothes. On the contrary, if you click the Find Watch option from within the Amazfit app, it just vibrates the watch, which is pointless IMO. The sleep assessment and “Get your ass off the bed” prompt are nifty. Even weather data is on par with what Google tells.

It packs a 200mAh lithium-ion Battery and claims to last for 30 days. Now, the real-day mileage is likely to differ from lab data. Still, in our testing, the battery life on the Bip S Lite has been freaking awesome! As for charging, you get a proprietary USB magnetic dock which takes about 2 hours to top it up.

Finally, here’s my take on the Amazfit Bip S Lite —

Amazfit Bip S Lite Review: Verdict

There aren’t any surprises here. The Amazfit Bip S Lite looks and functions like most of the watches of its ilk. It alerts you of the phone notifications and even some basic health parameters like heart rate. Ergo, if you’re a person who works out in fits and starts, and are limited by budget, the options you get with the Bip S Lite should suffice.

However, if you’re an enthusiast, you may find this one to be more watch than a Smart Band, but with fewer smarts than your smartwatch expectation.

  • Excellent battery life
  • Always on Display is legible outdoors
  • Decent build
  • A fair set of features and functionality
  • Lower display resolution and larger bezels
  • Average-looking watch faces
  • Spotty distance tracking for the lack of GPS

Amazfit Bip S Lite Detailed Review: A Good Affordable Smartwatch

Gone are the days of those digital watches. Smartwatches have currently become the latest trend. The craze for having a smartwatch around your wrist has increased rapidly. From basic fitness bands to funky looking watches, the category has increased. Usually, Smartwatches start from Rs 4K and go high and higher. But, today we have a smartwatch that fits your budget very easily, the Amazfit Bip S Lite. The Amazfit Bip S lite is a downgrade version of Amazfit Bip S which comes at a price tag of Rs 5K. The only difference b/w these two watches are Built-in GPS system and 10 days extra battery life in Bip S. The Amazfit Bip S lite is priced at Rs 3,799 which makes it one of the most affordable smartwatches. So, the question still remains, How’s the Amazfit Bip S Lite, Is it good? Don’t worry we are here to cover you for this. I have been using this watch for more than 10 days, and have some mixed opinion about this watch, let’s start with the content we get in the box.

In the Box

The Amazfit Bip S lite comes in a black box which looks attractive. The box feels slightly tight while opening, it takes some effort while opening it. Inside the box, we get the following contents as shown in image

Build Display

The Bips Lite is completely made up of plastic and the straps are of silicon. The build quality looks good according to the price. It feels very lightweight, and one of the good things is it doesn’t leave any rashes or spots which are visible on the hand during the summer days. On the back, there is a heart rate tracker. On the side, there is a knob that helps you scrolling the menu. There are some thick bezels on the top and below with the branding.

The display is of 1.28 inch and it’s always on display. The screen is transflective which means this screen uses the outer light to display its screen. Talking about the display, I personally feel, the display here could have improved. The display indoor is not good and the colors are not accurate. The screen looks reddish inside. But, outdoor there is a reverse case, the display looks satisfying here and the colors look pretty good. Obviously, the reason here is the transflective display which uses sunlight to display the screen. The touch feels quick responsive.

There were several watches faces on the Amazfit app, which I found good but disappointed after applying it due to display.

amazfit, lite, detailed, review

Connectivity Setup

The Bip S lite was very easy to pair with my smartphone. You just have to download the Amazfit app and scan the QR code displayed on the screen. Keep the Bluetooth and location on to keep connected with your watch. Also, I found the Amazfit app very useful and well optimized. There are several functions that you can explore while surfing the app. There are some changes you can do with the app to customize your watch. Overall, I liked the fast setup and connectivity,

Features

The Bip S lite being the affordable smartwatch is filled with many useful features. It has all the basic features like Heart and Sleep rate monitoring, It tracks your steps, distance, and calories. If you are thinking about the accuracy, don’t worry as Amazfit is a brand you can rely on it. There is also a PAI measurement from Huami. You can control your songs here too, although it won’t show which track are you playing. In these 10 days, I have received 2 updates for the watch. The notification and call alert works fine.

Amazfit uses its own Amazfit OS which I found easy to use. This was my first-time usage of this OS and I learned everything about it in just 5 mins. Swiping down fills you with notification, whereas swiping up has some settings like lock screen, brightness, sleep mode, etc. Whereas pressing the knob takes you to the menu which has many options. There are a total of 8 workout features. You can also do swimming as the watch has 5 ATM water resistance.

amazfit, lite, detailed, review

I regularly used it for my evening walks, It tracked my heart rate automatically. The always on display here is good and the raise to wake function works very fast.

Battery

Now, this is a segment where the watch is much advertised, Amazfit claims the Bip S Lite can give a battery backup of 30 days. While testing it for 10 days with keeping mostly features on, my watch used 48% battery, So the remaining battery should drain in the next 10-12 days. As far as I can say, the battery will give you a backup of 20-25 days which is still a steal deal at this price. The charging time was 2 hr from 0% to 100%.

Overall, I find the Amazfit Bip S lite a value for money product. You absolutely get what you pay for. In case, you are looking for an affordable smartwatch, The Amazfit Bip S Lite is a perfect match. This sums up my review, You can check out the product below.

You can check out the below video for more details

Amazfit Bip S Lite first impressions

Huami has launched a new affordable smartwatch in India, the Amazfit Bip S Lite. The company is most well-known for making the very popular Mi Bands for Xiaomi, but launched its own Smart wearable brand. Amazfit. a while ago.

Amazfit Bip S Lite is the latest addition to the company”s affordable Bip series, and is the stripped-down variant of the Bip S launched in India last month. I spent a few days with the entry-level wearable and here are my first impressions.

Specifications

  • Display: 1.28-inch TFT | 176 x 176 pixels | Corning Gorilla Glass 3
  • Water resistance: 5 ATM certified (up to 50 meters water depth)
  • Sensors: BioTracker PPG bio-tracking optical heart rate sensor | 3-axis acceleration sensor
  • Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.0/BLE
  • Weight: 30g (with strap) | 18g (without strap)
  • Supported devices: Android 5.0 or iOS 10.0 and above

Design

The Amazfit Bip S Lite sports the familiar Amazfit smartwatch design we’ve seen so many times and that’s not a bad thing. The minimalist design makes it suitable for a variety of audiences with different wrist sizes. The build quality looks pretty good and the soft silicone strap too, is decent. The watch weighs just 30 grams, and apart from the feel of silicone on my wrist, often I didn’t even realize I was wearing it.

It comes with a 1.28-inch square TFT display with curved edges and Gorilla Glass 3 protection. There are thick bezels all around, which makes the display look cramped even though it’s one of the larger ones in this segment.

While the screen resolution is good enough for entry-level wearables, the display quality is just average. The blacks are not very deep, which is an easy giveaway of a cheaper display. While the outdoors visibility is mostly okay – not great., it struggles under direct sunlight. I had a hard time taking photos of the watch for this article in my balcony.

Performance

The Amazfit Bip S Lite is technically not a smartwatch, since it doesn’t run a full-blown operating system like Google”s Wear OS, and hence cannot hook into a third-party app ecosystem. However, while this might be a consideration as you go higher in the value chain, you shouldn’t expect those smarts in a 50 smartwatch.

You get what you see, which means the eight sport modes to track activities such as outdoor cycling, treadmill, walking, outdoor running, indoor cycling, yoga, freestyle, and elliptical training, as well as heart rate and sleep monitoring. Of course, you can also control the music playing on your smartphone and mirror notifications from the paired smartphone. The notifications are not actionable though. you can’t answer the incoming calls or reply to a text message from the watch.

The user experience is quite straightforward, and I didn’t experience any lags in the navigation or while playing around with what’s on offer. The Bip S Lite works with both Android and iOS devices via the companion Amazfit app. In the past, Amazfit watches have had a small collection of watch faces, but this time around, there are 40 watch faces at the launch, and an upcoming OTA update should take the number to 150.

One of the highlights of the Bip S Lite is its stellar battery life. While Amazfit claims a 30-day battery life, in my few days of usage, I guess it would be around 20 days with real-world everyday usage.

Conclusion

The Amazfit Bip S Lite has been launched in India at a price of ₹3,799 (50), and will be available on Flipkart and at Amazfit’s online store in three color variants. Oxford Blue, Sakura Pink, and Charcoal Black.

The Bip S Lite is essentially a fitness tracker masquerading as a smartwatch. It’s for anyone who wants a smartphone companion that aids in one’s fitness routines, without straining the wallet. If one goes in with low expectations, the Bip S Lite is likely to deliver enough value to not disappoint.

Amazfit Bip S Lite features a 30-gram lightweight body, a 30-day battery life, a colour transflective display and more. Is it worth the asking price of Rs. 3,799? Find out in this review.

Amazfit Bip S Lite is priced at just Rs. 3,799.

Having been in the lockdown for long, many of us have developed a paunch of sorts. A lot of us have realised the fact, hence you are reading this review, and want to do something about it before we have to go back to our normal life. Acting on this Amazfit has released its Bip S Lite Smart fitness tracker, which doubles as a basic watch priced at Rs 3,799.

Amazfit Bip S Lite is a steal in terms of its on-paper specs, with a 30-gram lightweight body, a 30-day battery life, a colour transflective display and more. It seems like a definite buy, however, is it that? That’s the question I am going to answer in this review.

Amazfit Bip S Lite review: Design and Display

To start off, the Bip S Lite can easily be mistaken for the Bip S or any other Smart fitness tracker from the Bip lineup of devices. But remember the Bip S Lite is a specced down variant of the Bip S.

Overall, I do not have much to say about the watch’s design. It has a plastic build with a heart rate sensor on the back, charging contacts, and a simple touch display. The straps are made out of rubber and feel a bit uncomfortable. One good thing about the build is that it comes with a 5ATM water resistance rating, which means you can take it out for a swim, but good luck doing that right now. It also features Gorilla Glass 3 protection on top to avoid scratches.

It features a colour display.

The display is to dull for my taste and even the pixelation is quite evident. The dullness issue can be taken away when you are out in the sun as the watch sports a transflective panel, but indoors, where most of us are locked these days, it is too dull.

The colours also do not seem to be in the right place and feel as is the company did not colour calibrate the panel perfectly. But, that could just be because I am coming down from a Samsung Galaxy Watch.

The button comes in handy while navigating through the UI.

The touch panel is quite responsive and the UI is extremely simple to navigate. You are always a few swipes away from what you want to do. The side button also comes very handy.

Amazfit Bip S Lite review: Performance

Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, I did not get much time to step out and test the fitness tracker to its complete capabilities. So my observations are only based on working out at home.

The step counter is an important feature in any fitness tracker and having it accurate should be your major goal as, without an accurate tracker, you might end up having completed 10,000 steps just while typing. The watch is a bit off on the step counter, but not enough to make a major difference, due to which I will not be docking points there.

The sleep tracking feature is also quite good and it provides quite an accurate chart of how I slept. And after a point of wearing this and checking my stats daily, I noticed that I started sleeping better and getting up well-rested.

The heart rate sensor helps in tracking sleep better.

The heart rate sensor is a good addition to have, as it makes the sleep data, body stats and other details much more accurate.

The device comes with 8 sports modes: treadmill, outdoor running, walking, indoor and outdoor cycling, yoga, elliptical trainer, and freestyle. All of which, calculate the rate at which you burn calories differently.

Other than the fitness tracking features the watch can also change tracks, play/pause music, show who is calling and more.

Overall, for the price, I do not have much to complain in the performance department.

Amazfit Bip S Lite review: Battery

Amazfit claims that the Bip S Lite features a 30-day battery. That did not hold true in my case, with the device only lasting for around 12 days. However, that can be blamed on the fact that I had constant heart rate tracking enabled, the always-on display feature enabled, sleep tracking and more. For a fitness tracker, this might not be the best result. However, for a hybrid, it is among the best. To charge up the device from 0 to 100 it takes around two hours.

Amazfit Bip S Lite review: Verdict

Should you buy the Amazfit Bip S Lite? That is the question that you require the answer for. And I would say that this is a good hybrid to own if you do not want to spend over Rs. 4,000. The overall package managed to impress me, and the few faults I noticed can be forgone considering the price. It is one of the watches I would have paid extra for if I did not know the actual price.

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Amazfit Bip S review: A good fitness watch marred by bad connectivity

The Amazfit Bip S is a good fitness tracker if you’re looking for reliable stats and accurate GPS under 100. However, its biggest drawback is spotty connectivity with the Amazfit app — which could be a firmware issue — but makes it difficult to recommend.

What we like

Clean and simple watch UI

amazfit, lite, detailed, review

What we don’t like

Terrible app connectivity and sync

Slightly reflective display

No third-party app support

No way to record freestyle workouts

Huami Amazfit Bip S

The Amazfit Bip S is a good fitness tracker if you’re looking for reliable stats and accurate GPS under 100. However, its biggest drawback is spotty connectivity with the Amazfit app — which could be a firmware issue — but makes it difficult to recommend.

Huami’s Amazfit series has always piqued my interest, not just because the company also makes the ultra-popular Xiaomi Mi Band, but because Amazfit wearables offer a ton of features at affordable price points. One of the biggest strengths of the Amazfit smartwatches we’ve reviewed in the past — the T-Rex or GTS — is their long battery life. However, we’ve so far been unimpressed by the software features and app experience these wearables bring to the table.

The Amazfit Bip S carries forward Huami’s tried and tested formula. It’s a follow up to the 2018 Amazfit Bip and retains the same squarish build that’s reminiscent of the Apple Watch. The screen size and lightweight body also remain largely unchanged. That said, there are some notable upgrades under the hood, including better water resistance, a more capable heart rate sensor, and an improved display. With all this and more, does the Amazfit Bip S manage to bury the ghosts of its predecessors? Read on for our full Amazfit Bip S review.

About this Huami Amazfit Bip S review: I used the Amazfit Bip S for a little over one week, running firmware version 2.1.1.02. I paired the Amazfit Bip S review unit with my Apple iPhone SE (2020) for the duration of this review. Huami supplied Android Authority with the Amazfit Bip S review unit.

What is the Amazfit Bip S?

While Huami would very much like to call the Amazfit Bip S a smartwatch, it’s not really worthy of that status. It can’t take or make calls, it doesn’t support third-party apps, and its software experience is pretty basic.

It does bring a bunch of activity tracking features to the table. These include outdoor running, treadmill, cycling, walking, and swimming. Compared to the 2018 model, the only major difference here is the addition of swim tracking. The Amazfit Bip S comes with a 5ATM rating, which means it can withstand submersion up to 50m. In contrast, the original Bip could withstand a maximum depth of 1.5m with its IP68 rating.

Elsewhere, the Amazfit Bip S packs a bigger 200mAh battery, Bluetooth 5.0 (up from 4.0), an improved PPG optical heart rate sensor, a Sony 28nm built-in GPS chip, and the same promise of 40-day battery life.

As mentioned earlier, it doesn’t let you answer calls or notifications. However, it does buzz and provides you with alerts.

Amazfit Bip S: Price, availability, and competition

The Amazfit Bip S isn’t officially available in the US, but you can get it on Gearbest for 79.99. In India, where we reviewed the watch, it’s slightly cheaper at Rs. 4,999 (~66) on Amazon.

In its own ecosystem, the Bip S sits between the 139 Amazfit T-Rex and the original Bip, which is still available in the US for a reduced price of 69.99. However, if you compare it to the competition, it’s much cheaper. Here’s how other budget fitness trackers with similar functionalities line up against the Bip S: Fitbit Charge 4 (149.95); Fitbit Versa 2 (199); Garmin Forerunner 45 (149); and Garmin vivosport (193)

That said, the Amazfit Bip S does make some compromises compared to the more expensive competition. For one, its polycarbonate body and silicone strap feel cheap compared to the rest. The seamless smartphone connectivity that you might take for granted on the Fitbits and Garmins is also a huge problem area of the Amazfit Bip S.

The full list of Amazfit Bip S specs can be found below.

1.28-inch TFT color display 64 RGB color gamut176 x 176 resolution2.5D Corning Gorilla GlassAnti-fingerprint coating

Outdoor runningTreadmillWalkingCyclingSleepSwimming (open water and pool)Elliptical trainer (expected)Yoga (expected)Freestyle (expected)Continuous heart rate monitoringMusic controlApp and call notifications5ATM water resistanceCompass

amazfit, lite, detailed, review

Amazfit Bip S: The pros

First and foremost, the thing you expect from a fitness wearable is that it does what it’s built to do — accurately track fitness activities. In this aspect, the Amazfit Bip S is a huge improvement over the more expensive Amazfit GTS that I last reviewed. Step tracking on the smartwatch is pretty accurate, and when I compared it to the Apple Health app and Mi Band 4 the results were pretty close.

Accurate step and GPS tracking

After an evening walk around the block, my Amazfit Bip S recorded 3,914 steps. In comparison, the Mi Band 4 registered 3,900 steps, while the Apple Health app on my phone counted 3,956 steps. The difference across all three platforms is marginal and that’s the first reassuring sign that the Amazfit Bip S does a good job of activity tracking.

The other impressive feature of the smartwatch is its in-built GPS. The Sony chip takes a minute or two to lock on, but works just fine for tracking runs and walks. In a 3km brisk walking session, the watch managed to trace my path perfectly. The slight issue was when I walked into my building complex. As you can see in the third screenshot, I seem to be walking through some buildings whereas I was walking just beside them. The path corrects itself later as I entered the garden area of my complex. So yeah, there are some small chinks to fix, but largely the GPS managed to run pretty decently.

What I also liked was that I could see a very clear satellite map of my route on the Amazfit app, with the ability to zoom into the exact start and finish points. I wish I could have tested the GPS accuracy in more challenging conditions, but the current lockdown situation here in India prevented me from going much further than my own neighborhood

Battery life for days

The biggest advantage of the Amazfit Bip S is its battery life. After eight days of usage, it still has 44% capacity left to exhaust. This was with all app notifications switched on, 30 minutes of GPS use every day, brightness at almost 60% (sometimes adjusted to 100%), and continuous heart rate monitoring.

Compared to the Apple Watch Series 4 that I was using before, the seemingly endless battery life was a huge relief. True, there’s no comparison between the Apple Watch and the Bip S from certain aspects, but if it needs charging after every few hours, the experience is that much more excruciating.

Nevertheless, it’s safe to say the Amazfit Bip S will last you for 15 days easily, even if you go for walks or runs every day. The company promises up to 40 days of battery life if you use the watch with basic settings. From what I’ve seen, I believe it.

Reliable heart rate readings

When it comes to heart rate tracking, the Amazfit Bip S is capable of continuous 24-hour monitoring. You can set it up to measure your heart rate every minute, or every 30 minutes. The optical sensor is made in-house by Huami and is fairly accurate compared to the Mi Band 4 and even the Apple Watch 4’s electrical system. At the peak of a 30-minute dance routine, the Amazfit Bip S read my heart rate at 165 BPM, while both the Mi Band and Apple Watch read it at 164 BPM.

The Amazfit app also provides useful data on your maximum, minimum, and average heart rate during the day. You can even monitor your changing heart rate in real-time on the watch when you start one of the preloaded workouts. Once you complete a workout, you can view helpful graphs on the Amazfit app reflecting the changes in your heart rate in relation to the speed and intensity of your activity. If you like the whole graphical approach to fitness tracking, you won’t be disappointed. There’s just enough data here to keep you interested.

Amazfit Bip S: The cons

All is well with the Amazfit Bip S until you start using the app. The Amazfit app UI itself isn’t such a big problem, although it could be better. However, connectivity is unreliable, to say the least.

Painful app connectivity

Each time you fire up the app, it takes a good few minutes to sync and reflect the latest data from the watch. This is despite an active Bluetooth connection. The situation worsened for me when my phone restarted, in which case the Bluetooth connection was dropped for a bit. I had to manually unpair the watch from my phone’s Bluetooth settings many times after the Bluetooth was switched off and on again. Only after manually unpairing the watch did the app let me pair it again to my phone. This was pretty annoying and I would have liked the watch to pair automatically when I’ve already given the app Bluetooth access in permissions.

However, as of writing this review, the issue seems to have corrected itself a bit. I forcefully switched off the Bluetooth on my phone several times to recreate the problem and was able to do so thrice in ten tries. Still, the problem did persist. When I reached out to Huami, I was told it might be a firmware bug. We will update you on any software updates going forward.

Pairing the Amazfit Bip S to the phone during the setup process was also a pain. For the longest time, it simply refused to pair with my iPhone SE. I had to uninstall and reinstall the app twice before I could get the pairing to work. I repeated the process on a Google Pixel 3 just to check if the problem existed on the Android platform as well and, sure enough, it didn’t connect on the first go.

As per Huami’s advice, I had to clear the Bluetooth cache from my phone, restart the phone, and re-login to the Amazfit app for the watch to connect. I can only imagine how difficult it would be for users who don’t have access to immediate help from the company to try and figure this out for themselves.

Unstructured updates

There’s no structured way in which updates arrive on the Bip S. The watch randomly starts updating its firmware or other GPS settings. Sometimes, these updates take a long time, rendering the app and the watch useless for the duration. Sadly, there’s no way to switch off automatic updates.

Music controls are useless

Another small, but noticeable issue is that you can’t control your music from the watch during a workout session. When you start an activity such as running or walking, the screen remains glued to that activity and you can’t do anything else without first ending the workout. Whenever I started recording my walks on the watch, I had to whip out my phone to change the tracks. Why provide a feature if it’s basically unusable?

Doesn’t record freestyle workouts

Lastly, the Amazfit Bip S has no way to record freestyle workouts, such as dancing or yoga. The company does advertise these on its website, but I am guessing they’ll be added with a software update at a later date. If you are stuck at home without a treadmill to run on, you’re pretty much restricted to only counting your steps and measuring your heart rate. I reached out to Amazfit and they confirmed that they’ll soon roll out a firmware update to add tracking for yoga, elliptical trainer, and freestyle workouts.

Amazfit Bip S review: The verdict

All in all, the Amazfit Bip S is a pretty good activity tracker for its price. It’s cheap, yet offers accurate tracking, a lightweight design, a good level of water resistance, a decent (albeit slightly reflective) display, and a comfortable fit. I didn’t have any issues with the watch itself, but app connectivity and usability is a big drawback. This was the same problem I had with the Amazfit GTS and the same problem Jimmy had with the T-Rex. It’s about time the company worked on a solution. It’s the one thing that holds down the Amazfit Bip S and other Amazfit smartwatches.

If a firmware update resolves the app connectivity issues I faced with the Bip S, then it’s definitely worth considering at the low price. It’s hard to downright dismiss the watch because it does do the job of activity tracking pretty well, but app connectivity issues make it difficult to recommend right now.

The Amazfit Bip S is a great fitness tracker if you’re looking for reliable stats and accurate GPS tracking under 100. Its only drawback is spotty connectivity with the Amazfit app, but if you’re willing to live with that, the Bip S is a good buy.