Product test
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by Siri Schubert
Amazfit T-Rex 3 review: sports watch that’s amazing value for money
18.10.2024
Bright AMOLED display, a battery that lasts up to 27 days and more than 170 training modes. These are just some of the features on Amazfit’s new T-Rex 3. The sports watch fares well across the board and comes at a remarkable price.
An impressive number of functions, so many cool ways to use it and at an outstanding price. Where to begin? Perhaps at the start. The new, eagerly awaited T-Rex 3 sports watch from Amazfit launched a few weeks ago. Galaxus has reported on this a few times. And manufacturer Amazfit was kind enough to supply me with a device to test out.
Amazfit T-Rex 3
The most important features at a glance:
What’s included
The watch comes with a charging station, two adapters and a small tool. The latter is for replacing the wristband, while the adapters are designed to make any 22 mm strap compatible with the T-Rex 3. Amazfit has deliberately dispensed with a charging cable. What may seem strange at first makes perfect sense at second glance.
You probably already have several USB-C charging cables lying around at home. That’s the case for me, at least. According to the brand, this lets them save 3 g of metal and 4.5 g of plastic per cable. They also report that their packaging consists of 100% recyclable materials, and that it’s plastic-free and biodegradable.
Optics, design and display
The first thing that catches your eye with the T-Rex 3 is its octagonal housing. This may take a bit of getting used to for some people, but I like it. The case is 48.5 mm in diameter. It doesn’t come in any other sizes (yet). As a result, the watch is quite big and therefore not suitable for delicate wrists.
The T-Rex 3 is 13.75 mm thick and at 68.3 g, it’s averagely heavy. Its stainless steel bezel lends the watch a robust, high-quality look. Thanks to the 1.5-inch AMOLED display with up to 2,000 nits brightness and a resolution of 480 × 480 pixels, it’s very easy to read, especially in sunlight. The display also looks very bright and high contrast, which is typical for an AMOLED.
Amazfit also offers a night mode in this new model, which turns the display dark red.
Battery life
Let’s take a peek at the competition, in the form of the new Fenix 8. According to the manufacturer Garmin, it lasts up to 29 days on a single charge in smartwatch mode. Bearing in mind the big price difference between the two, this garners extra plus points for the T-Rex 3.
Sports and data accuracy
Amazfit supports 177 sports modes with the new T-Rex 3. From simple walking to free diving to HYROX race mode, everything’s included. I can’t think of anything else you’d need. The watch can be connected to peripheral training devices such as a heart rate belt, cycling power meter, bike computer and cadence sensor. And then you synchronise the data with third-party fitness apps including Strava, Adidas Running, Komoot, Relive, Google Fit and Apple Health.
I’ve been using the watch over the last few weeks for biking and strength training. And I went for a short jog again after a long break from it.
The T-Rex 3 collects countless pieces of data and displays them neatly in the Zepp app. Two questions always come up in these situations. For one, how accurate is the data from wearables and secondly, how do you interpret it correctly? About two years ago, I conducted an interesting interview with Dr Silvio Lorenzetti from the Swiss Federal Office of Sport. I’ve linked the conversation here:
In my opinion, the T-Rex 3’s data quality can’t be faulted and is comparable with the likes of my Edge 1040 Solar bike computer from Garmin.
Health features
HRV is an important value when it comes to recovery. Which is why the watch measures the time between successive heartbeats during sleep. This value shows how my body reacts to physical stress and how it deals with recovery. After a few weeks of wearing it, the T-Rex 3 determines the corresponding values and establishes a lower, upper and average HRV.
Bear in mind that there’s no point comparing heart rate variability with other people. This number is in the millisecond range, and it varies from person to person. That being said, if the value is lower than the average, for instance, it may be a precursor to illness. Which is actually the case for me, as I’m currently struggling with a cold and my HRV is lower than usual. Thanks to the T-Rex 3, I already knew a few days ago that something was up (my nose).
Navigation and GPS
You can load maps onto the watch via the Zepp app. Select the desired area, radius and how you’d like the maps displayed. You can choose from basic maps, ski maps and those with contours and contour lines. You can then refer to these during a training session or hike.
I’ve used the maps at home and during my autumn holiday to Majorca. They display street names, points of interest or, in the case of topographical maps, contour lines and hiking trails. I’m yet to try out other free functions, such as Import route or Back to start.
Amazfit’s new watch uses a dual-band GPS that’s supported by six satellite systems. This is another example of the device providing all the features you could want. As far as GPS accuracy is concerned, the watch has nothing to shy away from. Both in open and rough terrain.
Smart features
Another practical function is contactless payment via Zepp Pay. Thanks to integrated NFC technology, Zepp Pay lets you link up to eight bank cards at the same time. You can now make password-protected contactless payment straight from your watch. I can’t pass comment as I haven’t tried this or the music function.
There are lots of other smart features, such as the option to record voice notes or control the watch entirely with your own voice using Zepp Flow, which is based on OpenAI’s GPT-4o technology. But it’d go beyond the scope of this article to list all the available options.
In a nutshell
Amazfit’s T-Rex 3 wows with amazing value for money
The Amazfit T-Rex 3 is probably the most cost-effective on the market at the moment. I don’t know of any sports watch that offers so much for under 300 francs. It’s suitable as a top entry-level watch as well as being perfect if you don’t want to dish out 1,000 francs or more on a gadget like this.
Pro
- Amazing value for money
- Robust, high-quality design
- Large, bright AMOLED display
- Good battery life
- Lots of useful training features
- Ultra-fast UI
- And much more
Contra
- For this price, I honestly have nothing to complain about
Patrick Bardelli
Senior Editor
Patrick.Bardelli@digitecgalaxus.chFrom radio journalist to product tester and storyteller, jogger to gravel bike novice and fitness enthusiast with barbells and dumbbells. I'm excited to see where the journey'll take me next.
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