When looking for budget fitness watches—especially one under $130—you often brace for a pared-down experience: basic notifications, heart rate tracking, step counts, maybe sleep tracking, and marginally decent GPS.
It’s rare to find surprises beyond that checklist. But the Amazfit Active 2, starting around $99 (premium edition about $129), offers all the basics plus extra features typically reserved for devices twice its price.
This isn’t just hype. The Active 2 includes a speaker and mic for Bluetooth calling, offline map support, a barometric altimeter, and the premium variant upgrades to a scratch-resistant sapphire lens.
You get up to about a week of battery life, features that many watches twice or three times the price don’t offer altogether. So the big question: does it live up to these promises—or is this just wishful marketing?
We put this watch through its paces in running, cycling, weight training, and everyday use to find out.
Two Versions and How They Compare
There are two versions of the Amazfit Active 2: the Premium model at $129 and a standard model at $99.
The premium variant steps up with a sapphire lens instead of tempered glass, which offers stronger scratch resistance.
It also includes two watch straps — a faux leather band plus a silicone band — compared to just a silicone strap on the standard.
Contactless payments are supported on the premium version, but only in the EU for now. Otherwise, both versions share the same features. For just $30 more, that sapphire lens and extra band feel like a solid upgrade.
From a style perspective, this watch looks better than you’d expect at the price point.
The stainless steel bezel with tick marks adds a sharp touch, making it stand out from some other Amazfit designs. For $130, it’s a sleek package.
Design, Comfort, and Display
The watch comes in a 44mm case size, which hits a sweet spot—not too big or too small.
It’s very comfortable thanks to a thin design (under 10mm) and light weight of around 30 grams. On my 7.3-inch wrist, it felt good during workouts, all-day wear, and even at night while sleeping.
The 1.32-inch touchscreen is bright and colorful with a peak brightness of 2,000 nits. That means you can see the display even in direct sunlight without trouble. Colors are vivid and contrast is sharp.
It features an ambient light sensor to auto-adjust brightness. Still, outdoors, it wasn’t very responsive—brightness mainly stayed the same in bright sunlight. Indoors and at night, the sensor did seem to dim the screen as expected.
Getting around the watch is done with a combination of the touchscreen and two physical buttons. The upper button opens the app list and acts as back, while the lower button opens your workout list.
The touchscreen itself is very sensitive, which can sometimes make scrolling feel a bit too fast. Still, I didn’t notice many accidental taps.
One odd quirk: during workouts, if the display is off or dimmed, you have to double-press the pause or lap button. The first press wakes the screen, and then a second press pauses the workout or records a lap.
This feels awkward compared to most watches, where one tap is enough. Still, the physical buttons are helpful when your hands are sweaty.
Smartwatch Features and Connectivity
The Amazfit Active 2 supports notifications for calls, texts, and app alerts, whether you use an iPhone or Android.
However, if you have an iPhone, you can read texts but can’t reply. This is because Apple locks iMessage replies to Apple Watches only.
If you use Android, you can respond with pre-set quick replies, an on-screen keyboard, emojis, AI-generated smart replies, or voice dictation.
The watch also come with speaker, and built-in microphone you can take calls directly from your wrist, regardless of phone brand—though your phone needs to be nearby since it lacks LTE.
The watch supports voice commands through its “Zep Flow” feature. You can say commands like “start a workout” or “start a timer,” but again, your phone has to stay connected since processing happens on the phone, not the watch.
There’s no onboard music storage or playback, but you can control music playing on your phone.
Battery life claims up to 10 days in typical use and 5 days with heavy use. Tested with everything on, including always-on display, I consistently got 4 to 6 days, depending on activity.
The magnetic charger puck is USB-C but does not include the cable, which is a minor inconvenience.
Health and Fitness Tracking Features
Sensors and Metrics
The watch tracks heart rate, calories, steps, floors climbed, blood oxygen (SpO2), and even skin temperature while you sleep.
One standout feature rare at this price is support for external sensors like chest or arm heart rate straps and cycling power meters. Few budget watches offer that.
Sleep Tracking and Readiness Score
Sleep tracking provides sleep stages and a sleep score. The watch generally detects bed and wake times well, but it missed wake time detection once, which messed up the score.
The sleep scores tend to stay in a narrow range (mostly 73 to 95), not reflecting fundamental night-to-night changes in how you may feel.
Alongside sleep, the watch gives a “Readiness Score,” which combines your physical and mental readiness based on sleep, heart rate variability (HRV), blood oxygen, and respiration.
In practice, this score tends to cluster high, often overlooking poor sleep or challenging workouts from the previous day, and sometimes provides contradictory advice.
The raw health data appears accurate, but the feedback could benefit from updates to be more meaningful.
Sports and Workout Features
The Active 2 supports a wide range of sports profiles: running, cycling, swimming (pool and open water), triathlon, skiing, snowboarding, strength training, and even less common ones like dance and hula hooping. Newer additions include rock climbing.
Profiles give sport-specific metrics — running shows cadence, stride length, and running power; weight training tracks reps and auto-detects exercises while letting you log weights for each set. Exercise recognition is solid, but it misses some exercises, such as bicep curls. Rep counting was usually spot on.
Training load tracks cardiovascular strain based on heart rate zones. The Active 2 tends to report higher absolute values than other devices, but trends over time line up well.
Considering the price, the fitness feature set is impressive.
GPS, Altimeter, and Navigation
One of the most surprising features is offline maps. You can download maps with street and trail labels directly to the watch. This lets you navigate pre-loaded routes without your phone, much like what the pricier Amazfit T-Rex 3 offers.
Downloading maps is quick in small chunks, but storage is limited. I had to clear out saved activities and maps to install a software update. If you plan to use this regularly, managing storage will be necessary.
GPS accuracy for running and cycling was generally good. The watch gets a satellite fix quickly (within 5 to 10 seconds). Running GPS tracks matched closely with other devices.
On cycling routes, it was accurate on straights. Still, it tended to overshoot corners at higher speeds, though not enough to impact total distance significantly.
Elevation tracking through the barometric altimeter was accurate. One glitch caused a wildly wrong elevation gain reading due to altitude calibration being enabled accidentally — the watch suggests this is off by default and should be checked if you see strange data.
Heart Rate Accuracy Across Different Exercises
Resting heart rate and HRV were accurate as expected. For indoor cycling, where arm movement is minimal, the heart rate sensor stayed aligned with external monitors, with only brief deviations.
For running, both steady state and interval runs showed impressive accuracy. The watch kept pace with external heart rate sensors and responded well to rapid heart rate changes during intervals.
However, outdoor cycling posed more challenges. The heart rate readings were sometimes erratic, jumping higher than actual at times, especially in the latter half of some rides.
High-intensity interval training and weight lifting proved tricky, as wrist movement and flexion affect the optical heart rate sensor.
The Active 2 sometimes missed intervals or gave scattered readings.
Interestingly, the Apple Watch on the other wrist also struggled during the same movements.
For best results during intense workouts, pairing the watch with an external heart rate monitor is recommended. Amazfit supports chest straps and arm bands, which is rare at this price.
The watch can sync cycling and running power meter data to Strava. This is an improvement over the older T Rex 3 model. However, the power data seen on the watch’s app doesn’t always match exactly what’s on Strava.
Also, cadence from power meters is not displayed or sent to Strava.
The Good and the Not-So-Great
✅ What We Liked:
- Lightweight and comfortable
- Bright, colorful screen
- Great battery life
- Bluetooth calling and voice features
- Offline maps and strong GPS
- Supports external sensors
❌ A Few Quirks:
- Auto-brightness isn’t great outside
- Limited internal storage (for maps and updates)
- Heart rate can be spotty during intense workouts
Despite these quirks, nothing feels like a deal-breaker. The hardware reliability and feature set make this a substantial value for a budget fitness smartwatch.
Where to Learn More and Buy
If you’re interested in the Amazfit Active 2, you can find it on popular retail sites. Check out the full specs and purchase options to get the best price.
Follow Smartwatchsphere for ongoing coverage of sports tech and reviews through Twitter, Facebook, and more.
This Amazfit Active 2 In-Depth Guide shows that the watch is an excellent choice for anyone wanting a budget-friendly smartwatch packed with features usually found on more expensive devices.
While not perfect, it’s a strong performer with smart compromises, especially considering its affordable price.
Suppose you want solid GPS, a reliable heart rate sensor for most activities, and unique extras like offline maps and call handling. In that case, the Active 2 deserves a hard look.
Get your hands on one and see how it fits your fitness goals!
Also See:-
What is the peak brightness of Amazfit Active?
The Amazfit Active has a peak brightness of approximately 546 nits, thanks to its 1.75-inch AMOLED display. This provides good visibility indoors and in shaded environments, though it may appear dim in direct sunlight compared to newer models like the Amazfit Active 2, which offers up to 2,000 nits.
