The Best Fitness Tracker is Called a “Smartwatch”! Amazfit Bip S 2020 Review and Test

Amazfit Bip S 2020 is another excellent and affordable watch from the company. With a month of battery life, GPS, an always-on display, and a bunch of amazing features, Bip S really is a head-turner. It is a part of the Xiaomi family, designed and manufactured by Huami. No one is sure about the product’s category; it is called a smartwatch, fitness tracker, and feature watch because of some smart features. Amazfit has placed it in the smartwatch category, but it is more like a fitness tracker.

Moreover, on one side, it is compared with advanced fitness trackers like the Huawei Band 4 Pro; on the other, it is almost as good as the Amazfit GTR in terms of intelligent features. And, of course, the design is very similar to the Apple Watch, which makes it even more difficult to find the right place for the watch.

Let’s find out which is the correct category for the Amazfit Bip S.

Overview

In a hurry, read this short overview stating the pros and cons of the 2020 Amazfit Bip S.

Pros

• Comfortable and lightweight body
• Accurate fitness tracking
• Excellent GPS performance
• Call and Notification Alert
• Music playback control
• Incredible pricing
• Battery saving transflective display and HR tracker
• Great mobile app

Cons

• Weal plastic body
• Very basic operating system
• No SpO2 tracking
• No mic and speaker in the smartwatch

Amazfit Bip S – Price

Amazfit Bip S is carrying the tradition of super affordable devices. The device is launched at 69$, but most vendors and stores are selling it for 79$, which I think is the actual price of the smartwatch.

There are variable prices in the market; here is the best deal I found online.

Amazfit Bip S – Unboxing

The unboxing is quite good. It has a nice Amazfit touch that really makes it pleasant. There is nothing special about the packaging; you get the Bip S in the white box, the charging dock, the user manual, and the warranty card.

Speaking of warranty, there have been some complaints about Amazfit declining the warranty as they are not bought from the official dealers. So, I recommend buying it from authorized distributors to avoid inconvenience.

Appearance and Build Quality

The watch feels really soft, comfortable, and weightless in hand. The strap is slim soft, and gentle; throughout the day, you will even get into a situation where you will deliberately check your hand to check if the watch is there. That’s how soft and weightless the watch is.

Transflective Screen Under Bright Sun

Most of the body is made of plastic, as it is one way to save some bucks. On top is a 1.28-inch transflective display, which is quite unusual today, but Bip S is carrying it nicely. The colors are not accurate, but they have some nice animations to enhance our experience. Moreover, it is well visible on bright sunny days.

The slim boxy design and button placement resemble the Apple Watch Series.

Technical Specifications

• Display: 1.28-inch transflective screen with 176×176 resolution
• OS: Amazfit OS
• Body: Plastic body, Stainless Steel Button, Gorilla Glass 3 screen, and Silicon Strap
• Weight: 31 grams
• Battery: 200mAh
• Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.0/BLE
• GPS and GLONASS
• Sensors: PPG Bio-Tracking Optical Heart Rate Sensor, Accelerometer, Geomagnetic Sensor
• Waterproof: 5ATM

Amazfit Bip S – Features

Amazfit Bip S is a basic yet valuable watch. It has many features that make it somewhat close to a smartwatch.

Notification with the Icon

It can receive app and incoming call notifications. You can reject or mute it through the smartwatch. Bip S can show ten notifications at a time with app icons. The emojis support is not that good. Moreover, there are no pre-defined replies or virtual keyboard.

You can also set up to 10 alarms on the BIP S. This can be done through the Amazfit App. It is a nice feature; the vibration is just enough to wake you up.

The smartwatch can also control music playback and has an adjustable backlight. Moreover, the inclusion of PAI and GPS is excellent; both features are tremendous and add significant value to the smartwatch’s performance.

Amazfit Bip S – Performance

Steps Tracking

Amazfit Bip S has excellent step-tracking results like almost every fitness tracker and smartwatch. Sometimes it adds a couple of hundred extra steps, but mostly it is terrific and precise.

Sleep Tracking

Amazfit is known for its nice sleep tracking. Bip S has some great sensors; the data is accurately presented in the Amazfit App. It perfectly measures deep sleep, light sleep, and awake time. Moreover, the watch is still not sure what to do when I sleep during the daytime.

HR Tracking

Considerably Bigger Sensor

Amazfit Bip S has some excellent improvements; one of them is an awesome PPG Bio-Tracking Optical Sensor. It has 3x more sensing area and 7x the luminous intensity compared to the previous generation. Hence improving the accuracy by 98% and reducing the battery consumption by 1/5th.

Sports Modes

Unlike many smartwatches, Amazfit does not have a vast library of sports modes. It can only track 10 modes: outdoor running, walking, cycling, swimming, elliptical trainer, yoga, rope jumping, treadmill, indoor cycling, and freestyle.

GPS

Amazfit Bip S uses a 28nm low-power GPS from Sony. It did not work indoors but has excellent accuracy at route tracking. All the data and workout history can be accessed via the Amazfit app.

Battery

Amazfit Bip S has the best-in-class battery life. It can last anywhere between 40 to 20 days which is exceptional for a 200mAh battery pack. 40 days are in ideal condition; on average, it can give you anything between 15 to 20 days. With three outdoor sessions, GPS on, HR tracking, sleep monitoring, and default brightness.

It also has PAI, which is a big-time battery consumer. So, if you want the best, then use it without PAI and GPS on.

Zepp App

The smartphone app is called Zepp. It received a massive re-design last year, but I am still not impressed with the interface. But I am quite impressed by the functionality. It has many options to fine-tune the smartwatch performance, and the data is precisely and thoroughly presented in the app. All the stats are very detailed and help you become a better version of yourself.

Drawbacks

• Plastic body
• No speaker and microphone
• The SpO2 tracker is not available
• Still have to use a big charging dock to charge
• OS is very basic

Conclusion

Overall, I am delighted with the performance of the smartwatch. It is not a complete smartwatch but can compete against 100$ smartwatches like the Huawei GT series and Amazfit GTR or with great fitness trackers with GPS. I definitely think that Amazfit Bip S is not a massive upgrade over the previous generation. Still, it is totally an excellent choice if you want a basic smartwatch or a fitness tracker with some significant tweaks.

Where to Buy?

Order your Amazfit Bip S now. And learn more about the smartwatch/fitness tracker in our YouTube video.