Huami recently released the Amazfit Stratos 3. Read along to see how it fares among the other Amazfit series.
Huami is one of the budding names in the smartwatch and tech wearables industry. After producing smartwatches such as the Amazfit Bip S and Amazfit T-Rex, the company decided to release the latest of its Amazfit models, the Amazfit Stratos 3.
This smartwatch seems like a consolidation of its predecessor and possesses some impressive and exciting features.
In this review, we will discuss some of the features of the Amazfit Stratos 3. We will also examine how to use these features and the possible drawbacks associated with using the smartwatch.
Our verdict
Ratings: 7 out of 10
The Amazfit Stratos 3 is an obvious upgrade from the other smartwatches produced by Huami. This upgrade is evident in terms of design, functionality, and construction. There are also new features that you may not find on the Amazfit Stratos 3's predecessors.
With these new features, the Amazfit Stratos 3 is a worthy contender with popular industry brands such as Garmin, Samsung, and many more.
Why we like it:
- Has numerous impressive features
- A perfect blend of fashion and functions
Why we hate it:
- Poor app connectivity process
- Has no mic nor speaker
Design and Appearance
- Possesses an LCD and Optical Layer Features
- It is a relatively big watch
- Uses buttons instead of a touchscreen
From the design and construction of the Amazfit Stratos 3, it is easy to see that the smartwatch is an outdoor watch. The Amazfit Stratos 3 exudes properties of an ideal sport and outdoor watch from the straps to the case design.
However, the display design of the smartwatch is the main evidence of its outdoor use. Huami is reputable for making excellent smartwatch display screens. Amazfit Bip S, one of the Amazfit Stratos 3 predecessors, has one of the best display screens in the industry at the moment. However, with the Amazfit Stratos 3, Huami goes an extra mile by adding a MIP transflective screen to the smartwatch.
A transflective MIP (memory in pixel) screen is an LCD screen with an optical layer embedded on top. The LCD feature and the optical layer allow the display screen to transmit and reflect light.
As a result of this feature, the screen becomes brighter as more light falls on it. This makes the outdoor viewing of the Amazfit Stratos 3 impressive as you will be able to see the content of the display screen clearly, even under direct sunlight.
Away from the innovative screen display feature, there is a 1.34-inch screen with a resolution of 360 by 360 pixels. This display screen uses Gorilla Corning glass for protection and doesn't come with an auto-brightness feature. The absence of the auto-brightness feature is understandable as the optical layer, and LCD feature suffices for all the brightness control you may need.
Another excellent design feature on the Amazfit Stratos 3 smartwatch is the adoption of buttons rather than touchscreen features to control the smartwatch. As Huami designed the smartwatch with athletes and sportspeople in mind, it is easier to use buttons than a touchscreen. Hand and fingers may get sweaty from exercises and sports activities, making a touchscreen feature difficult to use.
Therefore, there are two push buttons tagged ‘Select' and ‘Back.' These buttons are for selecting an option or menu and backtracking to a previous page or screen. In between these two buttons, there are two rotating buttons for scrolling vertically on the smartwatch. With these button layouts, you need not touch the screen of the Amazfit Stratos 3.
The case of the Amazfit Stratos 3 measures 48mm in diameter and 13.4mm thick. This means that it sits comfortably and prominently on the wrist. While this sounds like a big watch, it fits perfectly on a medium-sized wrist.
Talking about its materials, the case of the Amazfit Stratos 3 is made from stainless steel and plastic. The bottom case is plastic, while the other parts of the case are stainless steel. Its bezel is also made from zirconia ceramic. The smartwatch's strap is made from silicone and measures 22mm in length. It is overly comfortable on the wrist, and you can swap the strap for other options.
Function
- There are sport and activity tracking features on the smartwatch
- It also has GPS tracking features
- There are smart features such as notifications and a music player
- Has no mic nor speaker
This is another area where the Amazfit Stratos 3 impressed other users and us. This smartwatch combines many sports tracking, activity tracking, and smartwatch features all into one gadget. And it is no gainsaying when we said that the Amazfit Stratos 3 surpassed many of its predecessors when it came to features and functions.
To start with, let's discuss the GPS tracking feature of this smartwatch. The Amazfit Stratos 3 allows you to track your location and save this data on your smartwatch. The GPS feature can be linked with other features to coordinate your walking, swimming, hiking, cycling, or running activities. The Amazfit Stratos 3 provides you with about 70 hours of GPS tracking.
There are also multiple sports modes on the smartwatch. This mode/feature allows you to track the duration and other data from many sporting activities. As an upgrade from its predecessors, Huami added 19 sporting activities to this smartwatch against the 11 than most of the other smartwatches from the company. Some of these activities include treadmill, running, walking, jump rope, hiking, open water swimming, tennis, triathlon, and many others.
The smartwatch doesn't only track these activities; it provides accurate and rich analytics during and after the activities. Amazfit Stratos 3 also uses the Firstbeat algorithm to provide data peculiar to specific sports. These data will help you understand your current fitness level and map out strategies to attain your fitness goals.
Another functional feature of the smartwatch is the heart rate monitor, also known as BioTracker. The tracker is an in-house sensor that Huami products use to monitor and track the heartbeat rate. This feature comes with preference settings, one of which is supposed to alert you in case of irregular or high heartbeat rate.
Apart from the activity and sports tracking features, other smart features are embedded in the Amazfit Stratos 3. These features include a standalone music player, notifications, and water resistance.
The smartwatch's standalone music player is enabled by a whopping 4GB storage space, which allows it to store many songs. You can play these songs during your workout sessions using a Bluetooth speaker or headset, as the Amazfit Stratos 3 doesn't come with a speaker or a microphone.
To consolidate its swimming tracking activities, the Amazfit Stratos 3 is water-resistant to about 50 meters deep. This means that you can have an awesome time swimming with your smartwatch on your wrist without having to worry about water damaging the smartwatch.
You can even link the GPS feature with the swimming tracker to know the pool's precise location. This linkup can also help you get and analyze advanced swimming data such as SWOLF, Swimming pace, and many more.
The notification feature of the Amazfit Stratos 3 allows it to connect with and receive alerts and notifications from some applications on your phone. These notifications include calls, text messages, and social media notifications. As said earlier, the smartwatch doesn't come with a speaker or a microphone, so you cannot reply to many of the notifications, especially calls.
There is also a connectivity feature on the smartwatch. The Amazfit Stratos 3 smartwatch allows for Bluetooth and WIFI connectivity to devices around. You can use the Bluetooth connectivity feature to connect to a speaker or headphones to listen to music on the smartwatch. The WIFI connectivity is useful for connecting to the companion app and for getting updates for the smartwatch.
Storage and Performance
The Amazfit Stratos 3 comes with a 4GB storage space. As you cannot make calls or reply to texts, music files, and songs are the likely things you would need to save on the smartwatch's storage. You can also store the data from your GPS tracking on the storage, but this is negligible as it does not occupy much space.
The performance of the Amazfit Stratos 3 is exciting to a very large extent. Its GPS tracking data is relatively accurate to a very large extent. You can also say the same thing for its sports tracking activities.
App Connectivity (include setup and updates)
This is a good point to introduce the companion app that works with the smartwatch to provide advanced performance analytics and many other benefits. This companion app is an integral part of the smartwatch's performance; thus, it is vital to say one or two things about it.
The app works for both Android and iOS devices. This means that regardless of the smartphone you use, you can use the smartwatch and connect it with the app for more functionalities. However, your Android device must use an OS with at least an Android 5.0 version or higher. For iOS devices, you need 10.0 or above.
The process of connecting the app to the smartwatch is a bit problematic. This has been a regular problem with Amazfit smartwatches, and the Amazfit Stratos 3 didn't have additional features to solve this problem.
You may need to update the smartwatch before connecting it to the app. This is not a problem as the Amazfit Stratos 3′ WIFI feature connects automatically to pull the necessary updates from the internet.
However, setting up the WIFI for connecting to the app is the problem and takes numerous retries to eventually set it up. Updating the app and the smartwatch takes a long time (about an hour) before you can start using the smartwatch.
Battery Life
The battery life is a feature that Amazfit smartwatches excel in, and the Amazfit Stratos 3 is not an exception. The Amazfit Stratos 3's battery can last for as long as seven days of average use. This is a very impressive offering for battery life, as most smartwatches in the industry have poor battery lives.
The average use includes GPS and activity tracking feature, notifications, decent brightness level, and heart rate monitor every day. There is an Ultra-Endurance battery mode where the battery would last for a whooping 14-day period.
This mode, however, is a tradeoff between battery efficiency and some important UI and functionality features. Under this model, you won't be able to use the WIFI, nor will you be able to use more than 12 sport modes.
To charge the Amazfit Stratos 3, the smartwatch comes with a 4-pin pogo charger whose port can be found at the watch's base. The charging duration is impressive as it charges 30% under 30 minutes. In all, a full charge takes about two hours.
Who's this for?
If you are a sportsperson/athlete or you are a sucker for functional smartwatches, the Amazfit Stratos 3 is for you. It features all the necessary sports, fitness, activities, and even smart features you can ever wish for. However, you should pay a considerable amount of money as it is the most expensive of the Amazfit series.
Competition
Two major competitions can stand side by side with the Amazfit Stratos 3. These are the Garmin Vivoactive 3 and the Amazfit T-Rex Smartwatch.
This smartwatch encompasses many notable and impressive features that allow it to stand as a worthy alternative to the Amazfit Stratos 3. The Garmin Vivoactive 3 features superlative fitness and sports activities tracking. Being a fitness watch, its superior activity tracking features are not surprising.
It also has an NFC contactless payment feature, a feature absent in the Amazfit Stratos 3.
This is another watch from the Amazfit series. This smartwatch features a rugged design and a stronger battery life (20 days) than the Amazfit Stratos 3. Also, it uses an AMOLED screen display instead of the MIP LCD used by Stratos 3.
Conclusion
The Amazfit Stratos 3 is a very good smartwatch watch with impressive designs and functions. Although it has its inadequacies, especially regarding app connectivity, it still ranks as one of the best products from Huami.
