Amazfit T-Rex 2 Rugged Smartwatch Review: Better than its predecessor?

Yes, it has the same slide from the top to view the quick actions menu, as well as the rotatory main menu, but it’s so much smoother than on a lot of other smartwatches, even in the same price range (I am talking about Polar Grit X). That being said, you do get to every important option after a maximum of two swipes, including Notifications, general stats (swipe up) and the main menu. The menu will give you access to the PAI which stands for Personal Activity Intelligence, but since it’s a complex feature, I have dedicated a section to it.

Then, there’s the Workout section which supports lots of various types of sports, plus there’s a History for all your workouts, as well as the Workout Status (which includes the time until you should be fully recovered – take it with a grain of salt). Amazfit has also included the Heart Rate monitoring in the main menu, along Blood Oxygen, Stress and One-tap Measuring – it uses its sensors to check the main health indicators. You can also see how many steps you took under Activity, as well as check the Sleep monitoring data that the Amazfit T-Rex 2 has been collecting.

I noticed that the developers have included dedicated sections for the Compass and Barometer, and there’s also the usual suite of ‘apps’ which include controlling the Music player, the Calendar, the Cycle Tracking, Find my Phone and more.

The PAI

While a lot of other smartwatches rely on steps for an overall fitness indicator, Amazfit decided to use PAI which gives you a score to show how in shape you truly are. Ideally, this score should reach 100 during a single week, but the most interesting aspect of PAI is that it progressively challenges you to be more active than before. So, if you’re a beginner and just started working out, you’ll quickly get a high score, but, as time passes (and your heart rate doesn’t get as elevated as before during your workout sessions), the score lowers, therefore pushing you to do more and more.

This is a great thing for people wanting to reach a certain goal, but it can be a bit annoying if you’re just trying to maintain you current physique. Still, I have been trying a bit more at the gym and my workouts have been longer the last month with the sole intention of keeping that 100 score, so it works well better than the steps-based tracking. Additionally, be aware that the smartwatch can auto-detect when you’re doing some intense activity (due to elevated heart rate) and will count that to the PAI score even if you haven’t selected any type of workout.

The Workout Section

Amazfit has made sure that pretty much every type of sport is covered by the T-Rex 2 and I know that other people have focused more on the running sessions and how well the smartwatch is able to detect the length of the path. Wearholic has done an interesting video where their team tested the GPS accuracy and the T-Rex 2 seems to have performed well. I am going to focus on a different type of workout, it’s Strength Training ad its relation with the Heart Rate monitoring.

All inexpensive smartwatches that I have tested so far have failed at accurately detecting the rapid changes in heart rate when lifting weights. The TicWatch Pro 2020 did perform a bit better, but even that smartwatch couldn’t always keep up. So, is the Amazfit T-Rex 2 better and more accurate? Overall, it’s good and it can detect spikes in heart rate, although I have seen some instances when my heart rate was above 160 and the watch showed 110. It would pick up after a while, but there are times when minutes would pass with inaccurate readings.

Another thing that Amazfit implemented was the option to have different sets and, while it’s nice to be able to properly asses the quality of the workout, I could not be bothered to manually start the second set. That’s how I ended up with ridiculous one-set 1 hour workout. Another thing that I want to mention is the incredible accuracy of the step measuring system. I took one hundred steps and the Amazfit T-Rex 2 did indeed detect 100 steps which is excellent.

The Battery Life

The Amazfit T-Rex 2 is equipped with a 500mAh battery which is a step up from the 390mAh of the T-Rex Pro and the manufacturer claims that it can reach up to 24 days with normal, usual use. As I said in the intro, this is not entirely the case when you workout a few times a week. For example, when working out 3-4 times a week and checking the time about two times a day, it meant that the Amazfit T-Rex 2 would offer about two weeks on a single charge. This was with adaptive brightness enabled.

The Conclusion

If you’re looking for a rugged smartwatch and don’t want to pay up to $1,000 to get a Garmin device, then the Amazfit T-Rex 2 is perfect for the job, its predecessor still doing a great job a couple of years later. So using only plastic is not really that much of a deal breaker. The display is one of the best features of the smartwatch and the software does offer a healthy amount of features, including lots of workout types and the curiously effective PAI. I do dislike the lack of a microphone and some design elements are a bit tacky, but overall, it’s a decent smartwatch, capable of holding its ground against its main competitors.

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