Wear's The Catch?

Amazfit’s cut-price wearable offers features the Apple Watch SE doesn’t have, and for half the price. But it’s never that simple…

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Our natural reaction to a R3 000 smartwatch is to look for the cut corners. But what we find here is a feature list borrowed from a much more expensive wearable: an always-on screen, SpO2 and temperature sensors, and promises of whopping battery life. Well, the ‘e’ does stand for ‘essential’.

With its aluminium alloy case and 1.39in AMOLED display, the GTR 2e does a fine impression of a serious timepiece. The giveaway is the very plain 22mm silicone strap – which, while comfortable to wear, looks like something you’d get on a R150 effort from Mr Price.

The 454x454 screen is bright, sharp and easy to read, and while there is a bezel it’s used for the hour markers so the display still feels nice and big. If you’d prefer a square face, the Amazfit GTS 2e is just about functionally identical but in Apple Watch wannabe form.

Amazfit’s OS will pair with an iPhone or Android phone. There’s an app store for watch faces but you can’t install third-party apps, only pick the ones to receive notifications from. It doesn’t fully integrate with your phone’s OS either, so the two are not always exactly on the same wavelength.