The Amazfit GTR 4 New is designed for lifestyle users who want a smartwatch that seamlessly complements both their workday and workouts. Priced at Rs 16,999, it’s a premium smartwatch that comes with leather straps. To further enhance the experience, the watch features an AMOLED display with auto-brightness, eight auto-detect sports modes, GPS for accurate location tracking, an offline voice assistant, Alexa integration, music control, and Bluetooth voice calls, among other advanced capabilities.
Bells and whistles aside, how does the Amazfit GTR 4 New fare in practice? I’ve been using the smartwatch with software version 2.0.1.1, paired with my iPhone 14 Plus, for over a month now. While the watch has impressed me, there are areas where it could have performed better. Read on to find out what works—and what doesn’t—for the Amazfit GTR 4 New.
Table of Contents
Design and display
The Amazfit GTR 4 New design is quite similar to most other smartwatches, but I was particularly impressed with its slim form factor. Measuring just 11.6mm in thickness, it fits comfortably even on relatively slender wrists. Moreover, its weight of 49 grams ensures extended usage without causing any discomfort or fatigue. Had it not been for its plastic back, the Amazfit GTR 4 New would have been one of the classiest watches out there hands down. The wearable features an aluminium frame with a matte finish, which keeps fingerprints and smudges at bay.
The watch comes with two 22mm strap options: Brown Leather and Galaxy Black. For this review, we received the Brown Leather option, which is made from vegan leather and features quick-release pins, allowing easy swapping with similarly sized straps. The vegan leather straps are skin-friendly and ideal for lifestyle users. For gym enthusiasts, the silicone Galaxy Black straps are a better choice, as they are less likely to be damaged by sweat or water compared to the leather straps.
Moving on, the Amazfit smartwatch features a sturdy build that can withstand water pressure at depths of up to 50 metres, making it an excellent choice for swimmers. While the curved glass on top is durable, it is prone to scratches, so it might be better to leave the watch behind while engaging in adventurous activities.
On the right side of the GTR 4 New, you’ll find two functional buttons that come in handy when the touchscreen might be difficult to use, such as during underwater activities. The top button, which is larger and features a textured design, serves multiple functions—it acts as a home button, allows you to go back to the previous screen, and quickly access apps and workouts. The second, smaller button is fully customisable and you can assign it to any action you prefer. Importantly, both buttons are ergonomically designed with minimal protrusion, ensuring they won’t press into your wrist or cause discomfort while you’re wearing the watch.
The Amazfit GTR 4 New features a 1.45-inch HD AMOLED display that offers good visibility even outdoors under direct sunlight. The rounded screen supports auto brightness, which is particularly helpful in dimly lit environments, automatically adjusting to ensure comfortable viewing without being too bright. The display provides sharp text and vibrant colours as well, even when viewed from an angle. Furthermore, the Amazfit GTR 4 New’s raise-to-wake feature works seamlessly for a quick glance at the time and other information.
The display is customisable with various themes and supports an Always-on mode, which can be tailored to match the watch face or a specific style. This mode can be scheduled for set hours, enabled throughout the day, or set to “Smart,” which automatically turns off when the wearer falls asleep or removes the watch. Additionally, the Always-on feature can be completely disabled to conserve battery life.
Features and app connectivity
| Features | Amazfit GTR 4 New |
| Watch faces | 200+ |
| Sports mode | 150+, 8 auto-detected mode |
| Water-resistant | IP68, 5ATM / 50 meters |
| GPS | Dual-band and 6 satellite positioning systems |
| Storage | 2.3GB for up to 270-470 offline music |
| Connectivity | Bluetooth v5.0 LW |
| Sensors | BioTracker 4.0 PPG biometric sensor (supports blood-oxygen, 4PD + 2LED), Acceleration sensor, Gyroscope sensor, Geomagnetic sensor, Barometric altimeter, Ambient light sensor, Temperature sensor |
The Amazfit GTR 4 New smartwatch connects to a smartphone via the Zepp app, available on both iOS and Android app stores. I installed version 9.1.0 on my iPhone 14 Plus, and it exceeded my expectations. The app synced data from the smartwatch quickly and remained stable, with no freezing or crashes during my usage. Furthermore, it appears that the company has refined the UI since our review of the Amazfit Balance smartwatch, making it more modern and easier to navigate. The home screen presents information in a clean, card-based layout, with customisable key data like sleep, step count, and activity levels highlighted in different colour schemes.
Moreover, there is a review insight of the data collected, along with some improvement tips, like in the case of the sleep data, which is represented in the form of a score out of a hundred. The score is calculated based on the last night’s sleep duration. The app further offers insights into sleep with metrics, such as deep sleep, REM cycles, awake times, heart rate, breathing patterns, regularity, and more, with each metric highlighted according to its value. However, these health metrics are only viewable on a day-by-day basis. It would be helpful if the app included an option to view cumulative activity status over the week or the past few days.
Be that as it may, the app offers a separate tab for workouts. It offers a similar UI as the home tab, with relevant information such as workouts during the week, exercise status, start workouts, and more laid out in interactive cards. The sequence of the cards can be customised. The tab also offers the option for Zepp Coach, which is a subscription-based service for personalised training programs.
Then, there is Amazfit’s Physiological Activity Indicator (PAI), which provides a score reflecting the wearer’s overall physical condition. This score is calculated mainly from heart rate data over the past seven days, from various activities whether it is workout or resting. The higher heart rates achieved during workouts will generate more PAI scores. Notably, as your fitness improves, it becomes progressively harder to increase your PAI score. This way the users can increase the intensity of their workouts for the week accordingly. Amazfit recommends achieving at least a 100 PAI score.
Furthermore, the app offers an array of customisations, with downloadable paid and free watch faces. The Zepp app also features an app store that enables users to download apps directly to their smartwatch. Unfortunately, the selection of available apps is somewhat limited, not including music streaming apps and more, highlighting an area where Amazfit could enhance its offerings. In comparison, the OnePlus Watch 2R, which is a couple of thousand rupees more expensive than the GTR 4 New, runs WearOS and features the Play Store, enabling users to download a wider range of third-party apps, including Spotify.
Performance and software
I was quite impressed with the overall performance and software features of the Amazfit GTR 4 New. There was no noticeable lag or stutter while switching between the screens, launching apps, and getting work done. Part of this could be attributed to the software, which is nicely optimised to deliver smooth animation without any stutter. The software has a similar interface and experience as most smartwatches, making it intuitive and easy to use, even for a first-time smartwatch user. The customisable app drawer can be launched with the top button on the right spine, while the bottom button offers workout options. Swiping left/ right from the home screen provides access to vital health data, including heart rate, steps walked, weather, PAI, music control, ‘overview’, and more. Both the order and the selection of these options can be customised to suit your preferences, adding a welcome level of personalisation.
Swiping down from the home screen brings quick controls while swiping up offers a notifications panel. The Amazfit GTR 4 New support notifications from a variety of apps on the smartphone, including WhatsApp, Instagram, Gmail, and more. The watch also provides several productivity tools, such as a To-do list to keep track of the pending work compiled using the compatible Zepp app, and hands-free control with Alexa support, which can be summoned with a long press of the top button after completing the setup on the smartphone. The AI voice assistant Alexa works seamlessly as long as the watch is connected to the smartphone.
Now, let’s take a look at the GTR 4 New’s activity-tracking performance, which is the heart of any smartwatch’s functionality. Like most wearables, the Amazfit GTR 4 New is not a medically certified device, so its data should be viewed as a general guide to daily activity and wellness, rather than as precise measurements or for medical diagnoses. That said, the GTR 4 New provides a decent overview of the wearer’s lifestyle, offering useful insights for tracking habits and improvements over time.
The smartwatch’s tracking capabilities are not entirely accurate, but reliable. Step counts tend to have a 2–3 percent discrepancy per 100 steps. Similarly, the sleep and heart rate tracking have a slight margin of error. It’s worth mentioning an instance when the watch displayed two different heart rate readings while measuring them sequentially—first with the ‘One-time measurement’ feature, which runs a series of health tests at once, and then with the dedicated ‘Heart rate’ feature, all while in the same resting position.
Amazfit claims that the GTR 4 New can auto-detect as many as eight workout modes, including Treadmill, but I couldn’t get it running during my time with the device. Hopefully, a software update could fix things in the future. Besides, treadmill running, I utilised the Free Training and Walking workout modes on the smartwatch. Before I get to them, it is to be noted that the watch might not be ideal for gym workouts without tempered glass as its display is prone to scratches.
The Free Training mode was ideal for my weightlifting sessions at the gym, offering real-time insights into workout duration, heart rate, and calories burned. After each session, the watch presented the average heart rate and calories burned, as well as the workout intensity, categorising it into levels such as warm-up, intense, and more. I also appreciated the watch’s ability to keep me updated with at-a-glance smartphone notifications during workouts. If you listen to music while exercising, you can change tracks, adjust the volume, and play or pause songs directly from the smartwatch, making it easy to stay in the zone without reaching for your phone.
As for the Walking workout mode, the watch effectively locks onto your position using its built-in GPS, calculating the distance covered along with heart rate and calories burned. For more accurate location tracking, it’s recommended to enable the 3D data mode in the workout settings, which accounts for changes in elevation and vertical height along your route. The Amazfit GTR 4 boasts a barometer that measures air pressure and altitude, making it suitable for trekking as well. Besides this, the watch features a built-in thermometer; however, its reading is not the most accurate.
The Bluetooth calling feature on the Amazfit GTR 4 New is decent, though not outstanding. The microphone, positioned between the buttons on the right side, captures voices clearly, even in moderately noisy environments. However, the speaker quality falls short, sounding slightly muffled, and it tends to crackle at maximum volume. While it’s not flawless, the calling feature is functional enough for brief conversations.
Battery
The GTR 4 New continues the legacy of Amazfit providing remarkable battery life. The company promises up to 12 days of battery life with normal use, 8 days with heavy use, and 28 days in battery saver mode for the watch’s 445mAh battery. My standard usage of tracking activities, sleep, and workouts, along with always-on display and notifications and reminders alerts saw me charging the watch once every week, which is impressive.
For charging, the watch uses a proprietary magnetic dock which can be plugged into any USB Type-A port. The charging time is slightly on the slower side, taking roughly two hours to lift a dead battery from 0 to 100 percent. I do wish the GTR 4 New had fast charging support for quicker top-ups.
Verdict
While the smartwatch excels in many areas, there are some shortcomings that potential buyers should consider. The smartwatch’s activity tracking, while generally reliable, shows slight discrepancies that could be improved for accuracy, especially for fitness enthusiasts. Additionally, the limited app ecosystem and the absence of fast charging may deter some users from seeking more advanced functionality.
Overall, the Amazfit GTR 4 New is a commendable choice for those looking for an attractive and capable smartwatch for daily use and fitness tracking. The wearable impresses with its stylish design, vibrant AMOLED display, and a robust set of features, including extensive fitness tracking and smart connectivity options. Moreover, its lightweight and slim profile make it comfortable for all-day wear, whether at work or during workouts.
Editor’s rating: 7.5 / 10
Pros
- Slim, lightweight profile
- Vibrant display
- Robust features
- Impressive battery life
Cons
- Limited app ecosystem
- Slow charging speeds
