Amazfit Active 3 Premium Review

Design and screen

• 3 colour options
• AMOLED display with sapphire glass
• Four physical buttons included

The Active 3 Premium comes in just a single 45mm case size in either silver, blue or white colours. That 45mm case actually feels a bit smaller than that when it’s on. While it’s not as dinky as watches like the Coros Pace 4 (43mm) and the Garmin Forerunner 165 (43mm), it’s going to be a good fit for those with skinnier wrists.

Materials-wise, you’re getting a nicely weighted stainless steel frame sat around the touchscreen with polymer plastic everywhere else. Interestingly, there are four physical buttons planted on that case, which isn’t the norm for smartwatches. It helps give the Premium more of a traditional running watch experience, and I certainly approve of the decision.

At the centre is a 1.32-inch, 466 x 466 AMOLED protected by Sapphire glass. It’s rare to find this type of glass on a watch this cheap. It means you’ve got some of the toughest protection against scratches on offer on a watch. I’ve seen no scratches on that screen in my testing time with it. 

You do get some black bezel surrounding that AMOLED display, which does eat a bit into the screen estate. The touchscreen is perfectly responsive to taps and swipes, with no horrible lag to deal with. It’s a pretty vibrant screen with good viewing angles, though I found I had to turn it up to close to maximum brightness when using it in brighter outdoor light. 

That’s accompanied by a nice-quality 20mm silicone band that hasn’t irritated or been uncomfortable to wear. It uses a traditional watch strap clasp and is removable, with optional nylon bands available to buy if you want a softer, more snug-feeling strap to wear instead.

It’s a smartwatch with a 5ATM waterproof rating, making it suitable for swimming in both the pool and open water. It’s not optimised for activities like recreational diving, but that’s not a massive surprise, given the price.

Overall, the Premium feels like a running watch and includes elements that show Zepp Health has paid attention to what runners will want and appreciate.

Performance and software

• Compatible with Android and iOS
• Zepp Pay, App Store and free offline maps
• Bluetooth calls supported

I’d say that Zepp Health’s software and smartwatch ecosystem is arguably its weakest element. It’s not bad, just not the best you’ll get, especially when you compare it to other smartwatches from Apple, Google’s Wear OS clan and even Garmin.

The experience you get on the Premium makes it a smartwatch that’s pretty easy to get to grips with, and it comes well stocked with features for when you’re not running with it.

On the watch, the larger array of buttons lets you scroll through menu and data screens during a workout. You also have a lap button for runs, the ability to go back a screen or get quicker access to the app list screen. As mentioned, this is how most sports watches operate, so if you like the idea of more buttons, they’ve been well integrated into the ZeppOS software.

The touchscreen provides a familiar Amazfit smartwatch feel. You can swipe from all directions to get to features like the app list, widget stream, quick settings or notification stream.

While this isn’t Zepp Health’s most fully-fledged smartwatch, there’s still a lot that does make the cut. You can make Bluetooth calls with plenty of volume and good clarity, making handling calls worthwhile. You have Zepp Pay, which brings contactless payments, the ability to record voice memos and features like setting up to-do lists.

There’s 4GB of storage to make room for audio files, app downloads and the free offline maps. The latter needs to be downloaded first, which, depending on how much of a location you want to save, can take anywhere from 20 minutes to over an hour.

There is an app store to access, as well as scope to add more watch faces. The app store isn’t the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store, but I think this is a valiant attempt from Zepp Health to offer a storefront that can add value to your smartwatch.

It takes more of a Garmin Connect+ approach, offering both apps and extensions designed to improve the workout tracking experience. So I could add a running economy extension for run tracking, or simply add a battery assistant app to keep a close eye on battery performance over longer outings with the watch. 

The Active 3 Premium may not be the most complete smartwatch, or even the slickest, but it does plenty well on that front to give you something beyond workouts that’s worthy of being on your wrist.

Tracking and features

• Over 170 sports modes
• Built-in training library for new runners
• No dual-band GPS

While the Premium puts runners first, this is a smartwatch that’s absolutely capable of tracking a host of other sports.

It has a dedicated mode for Hyrox training and racing, and you have access to strength training with recognition for 25 different movements. If you like a game of Chess, you can even track that as well. Basically, there’s a lot of sports covered here. I’ve used it to track other workouts like swims and indoor workouts, and it’s performed just fine.

Running is the main one, and it’s why you’ll find features like the Training Library, which consists of running sessions that help you get to grips with what a recovery run or a tempo run looks like or offer workouts based on the run-walk method.

I decided to try a mix of beginner and more advanced sessions and was pleasantly surprised by how well presented and delivered they were. Whether that was being able to see clearly if I was sticking to the paces or seeing prompts on the watch for how to perform warm-up stretches, this feature has been handled very well.

Other running-centric features include the ability to create your own interval-style workouts or to perform a lactate threshold test, which helps assess your current level of running fitness. During a run, the Premium will capture running data staples like pace and distance as well as more advanced metrics like stride length, ground contact time or vertical oscillation.

Unlike pricier Amazfit smartwatches, you don’t benefit from the latest dual-band GPS support to offer the best in positioning technology. Unsurprisingly, I found distance tracking a little off from a dual-band GPS watch, which meant pacing data was different too. It wasn’t a terrible showing, though, and I think for many runners, the level of accuracy is good enough.

It wasn’t a great showing for heart rate, however, as Zepp Health’s BioTracker sensor array typically produced average and maximum heart rate readings that didn’t exactly match a chest-strap heart rate monitor across a range of running paces and intensities.

You do have the option to pair a Bluetooth heart rate monitor to improve accuracy, and that would be the way to go if you care about accurate heart rate tracking. 

In terms of available running insights and analysis, you can expect to be told things like the effect workouts have on your aerobic or anaerobic fitness. VO2 Max scores are there as another way to gauge your current state of fitness, and a suggested recovery advisor will make sure you take enough time to rest before going again.

I compared recovery suggestions to a Garmin watch, and the Premium in general tended to suggest longer recovery times after workouts. When the watch has more data to analyse, those insights become a bit more reliable and useful for offering guidance on training and training volume.

• Up to 12 days battery life 
• Up to 4 days in always-on display mode
• 24-76 hours GPS battery life

The Active 3 Premium has a 365mAh battery, which is smaller than the one in the Amazfit Active Max. As a result, you’ll enjoy less battery than the Max, but more than you’ll get from the Amazfit Active 2.

Numbers are broken down into typical and heavy usage, as well as what to expect when the screen is on at all times. In typical usage, the battery should last up to 12 days. That drops to 7 days with heavy use and 4 days with the always-on display in use.

I would say those numbers have been representative of my time with the Premium. I never felt shortchanged on battery unless you opt to keep the screen on and use GPS every day, along with other features.

The GPS battery performance has been fine overall, but maybe not as strong as claimed. You can enjoy up to 24 hours in general use, and it can max out at 76 hours if you stick the watch into low power mode.

I found that an hour of GPS use reduced the battery by 6%. That would equate closer to 16 hours than 24 hours, some way short of the claimed 24 hours. It’ll still be enough to get you through a few marathons, and it never felt like there was any sort of undesirable drain using the GPS.

Should you buy it?