Amazfit Stratos 3 review: the Sportwatch that convinces !!!
The common mistake that is often made towards the Stratos series of Amazfit is to think of him as a smartwatch with sports functions, but since the first generation it has been shown that in reality we are in the presence of a real sportwatch. Amazfit Stratos 3 confirms it is certainly the best alternative to the famous sports wearables? Let's find out in our full review.
Inside the sales package we find the following equipment:
- Amazfit Stratos 3;
- charging base with magnetic hook;
- instruction manual.
I state that the Amazfit Stratos 3 maybe it is poco suitable for women, not so much for the design adopted but because of the rather generous dimensions, we are talking about a case of 48,6 mm and a thickness of 13,4 mm, while the weight settles on 59,6 grams which is they translate into a rather good comfort, without creating particular annoyances in terms of wearability.
In terms of pure design, the Stratos 3 does not differ much from the previous generation, keeping faith with the use of decidedly premium materials, such as metal and carbon fiber reinforced polycarbonate with carbon effect, giving the watch particular elegance and sportiness. The bezel is slightly tilted inwards in order to safeguard the display from possible knocks and falls, while on the right profile we find 4 physical buttons that allow navigation through all the system menus of the watch, thus allowing you never to touch the touchscreen, a truly ingenious feature in consideration that this will allow us to use the smart watch even with gloves or during intense sports activities in which even the hands are sweaty, or underwater. The upper key allows the selection of the menu, the lower key the return to the previous screen while the central keys allow you to scroll up or down between the menu items.
Overall, the construction was very solid and resistant to shocks in general and to this is added an IP68 certification of up to 5 ATM, therefore resistant to diving in water so that it can also monitor water sports.
The display adopted on the Amazfit Stratos 3 is a 1,34-inch circular type in 320 x 320 pixel resolution with transflective TFT technology, protected by a Corning Gorilla Glass 3 glass and anti-fingerprint treatment. Transflective technology proves to be a winning weapon for this device, as it allows excellent visibility in direct sunlight and therefore outdoors where we generally carry out most of the sports that we can monitor. On the contrary, the more intense the light, the more the display will be visible, thus allowing the identification of the required information.
We also find a sort of Always On Mode, as the display always remains active showing the basic screen, really consuming poco in terms of battery. We do not find the presence of an automatic brightness sensor, however settable on 4 different intensity levels, as there is a backlight that will allow us to read the contents of the display when we are in the dark.
To conclude the overview of the display, this can be activated through the gesture of the rotation of the wrist or via the double tap on the screen, options that can be activated / deactivated from the settings but above all we can go to act on changing the watchfaces, available through the companion app or Network.
The strap is made of soft silicone which was comfortable and above all allowed a wide breathability of the skin even during the most intense sweats, but if you do not like it in the color or type you can always change it thanks to the presence of the quick release, considering that the pitch adopted is that of 22 mm.
Amazfit Stratos 3 is a sample of autonomy, which on average reaches at least 7 days of continuous use, considering a 24-hour heart rate monitoring as well as an infinite series of receiving notifications and calls and at least 2/3 monitored sports activities of at least 40 minutes each. However, we can go even further, up to 14 days, using the Ultra Mode, which will reduce the definition and limit some functions to better preserve the battery.
Autonomy depends entirely on your personal use, but in any case the 300 mAh battery should guarantee satisfaction for the vast majority of users. Charging takes place via a dedicated base in about 1 hour and 40 minutes, the same base that will allow us to connect the watch to the PC to transfer music or watchfaces.
We come to the flesh of the review of this Amazfit Stratos 3 which offers at the hardware level a processor with a maximum clock at 1.2 GHz of the dual type for the separate management of sport functionality and that related to smartwatch. This is accompanied by 512 MB of LPDDR3 RAM and 4 GB of eMMC storage, although in reality there are only about 2 GB available to the user, allowing the transfer of new watchfaces, third-party apk or a playlist of music to listen directly to from your Stratos 3 as it is possible to associate TWS headphones thanks to the presence of a Bluetooth 4.2 which is flanked by a single band WiFi and a powerful GPS provided by Sony with the possibility of navigation in GLONASS, BeiDou and Galileo.
Theoretically we would also have the NFC sensor available but in ROM Global this has been deactivated as the functions associated with it are typical designed for the Eastern world. The hardware equipment is completed by a wide range of sensors such as accelerometer, gyroscope, compass, barometer and heart rate monitor, the latter particularly performing and precise in data collection.
The software that moves this Amazfit Stratos 3 is more or less the same that we have known in previous generations. The Italian language is present as well as some basic functions for the smart side of the watch, such as the ability to view the weather, the timer and stopwatch, alarm clock, sleep monitoring, barometer and compass function and heart rate detection to name a few.
But the true essence of Stratos 3 comes out in the monitoring of sport which basically offers 19 different sport activities which can be extended up to 80 including the most varied sports, ranging from simple walking or running to karate etc ... E It is possible to set goals or choose to take advantage of the recommended type of training, which based on the data collected by our smartwatch will create a sort of personalized training for each type of sport. For many sports, GPS is also activated, which has returned a really fast satellite fix and above all allows us to take advantage of our sportwatch without having to resort to the smartphone during sports. Even the step count and sleep monitoring was painstaking in the count, adding that it is also possible to monitor the VO2Max value.
The smart side of Stratos 3 is limited to receiving notifications, however limiting the action to only reading / deleting the same without the possibility of answering, as well as for calls it is possible to change or reject the call as the device does not have a microphone and speaker. For some apps such as Telegram, a sort of notifications is created, thus allowing only the reading of the last message received (which is not the case for WhatsApp). In any case, the notifications were punctual and precise.
All monitored data will be conveyed in the Amazfit app of the same name, through which it is possible to set some additional settings but above all enjoy even more in-depth analysis of the monitored activities, displaying maps and graphs.
Conclusions
Amazfit Stratos 3 is a truly complete and non-disappointing sport watch. It could be the perfect ally for those who really intend to get back in shape, offering a truly unique suite of fitness data thanks to the FISTBEAT algorithm that provides a variety of professional data based on the type of training set. The company also often updates its devices by introducing more and more new improvements and features. So if you are looking for a device that allows you to monitor your sports activities with great precision while offering a basic smart side, such as simply receiving notifications, then Stratos 3 is probably the best low-cost solution you can find. on the market. The only drawback perhaps the price too in line with direct competitors.
