If you’ve never heard of the Amazfit Bip let alone the Amazfit company, you are not alone. While many of you may not be aware of, Amazfit’s mother company is Huami, a subsidiary of the Chinese megabrand Xiaomi. Check out this Amazfit Bip music control review.
Now that we’ve cleared the air on the brand and its origins, let’s make way for the Amazfit Bip. This is surely not a premium smartwatch, but it does have to be. The Amazfit Bip offers a balance between price, value, features, and most of all, performance. Let’s delve deeper into those aspects of our review.
Design
The Bip is relatively attractive for the price and a delight to wear with its Apple Watch-inspired style. The lightweight silicone band is superlatively suited to both beefy and small wrists.
The case is lightweight at 1.1 ounces that the timepiece is almost toy alike, and its square design, surrounded with a black thick bezel, does not disprove the idea. The watch display is reminiscent of the Pebble smartwatch, in that its color screen of 1.28”, 176 x 176-pixel is low resolution and supports always-on functionality. The crown has a tactile tone and feels relaxing to touch
But don’t let the featherweight of the watch fool you; matte-plastic construction, its polycarbonate, and Corning Gorilla Glass 2.5D touch screen keep you up against tear and wear. The watch also has IP68 dust and water certification which means it is safe against dust and could be submerged for 30 minutes up to five feet in the water.
The Bip is available in four different colors: blue, black, orange, and green. While barely a dress watch, the black Bip’s model suits comfortably with dresser outfits. Mostly, I think it’s a nice, useful sporty watch every day. The strap is 20 millimeters normal, so you can change it out for different bands.
Features
The Amazfit Bip surpasses some essential basic aspects of other models in terms of general convenience. It has an always-on monitor, which is easy to read in direct sunlight, and its battery can go between charges for weeks. Yes, weeks, not days. And yet it also loads your phone’s heart rate monitoring, GPS, and simple alerts. It is likewise water-resistant.
It is graded as water-resistant (IP68), which is shower-friendly but theoretically unfriendly to swimming. It can be used for hours in the pool, and it was perfect, but do so at your own risk. It monitors heart rate. It can receive updates by phone. It has GPS aboard.
A Gorilla Glass (2.5)-covered display is also on the product which offers protection for scratches or scuffs.
Software
In tandem with the Mi Fit companion software for iOS and Android, the Bip runs on its proprietary OS. Mi Fit syncs with the watch, takes care of monitoring and maintaining records, and even connects to the Apple Health program. However, unlike the Fitbit Versa or the Apple Watch, the Bip doesn’t have an app store and few third-party compatible devices.
The software for the Bip is pure simplicity. To unlock the watch, you first click on the crown. Starting with the main face, for the big operations, you just keep swiping to the left, tapping the one you want for more information.
App
The watch’s companion app aptly called the Mi Fit, is essentially a sports app installed on the phone which measures most outdoor activities such as running, cycling, and walking. Mi Fit syncs and saves location, steps, distance, and other information gathered by your watch.
The app also lets you toggle updates directly from Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Instagram, and YouTube, while a general control allows notifications to be sent from all other devices for which notifications have been activated. On the Bip contact only takes place in one direction: inbound. As with higher-end smartwatches, you can not respond to warnings on this watch as you should. You will need to grab your phone if you get a message and have to respond.
Monitoring
You can track your activities and set targets for success with the watch’s GPS, heart rate monitor and pedometer combined with the Mi Fit app. With or without GPS the watch records your speed.
The Bip’s GPS — which can be used while walking, biking, and cycling- is reliable to track your distance. You can configure the system to take constant heart rate readings (at any cost to the battery life, which is difficult to quantify) or to make the heart rate monitor run continuously while you’re sleeping.
Battery
The major selling points for the Bip is the battery life. Bip’s battery 190-mAh lithium-polymer guarantees to last through daily usage for about 45 days, which includes sleep and activity monitoring. Extended use of GPS and continuous monitoring of the heart rate can reduce the battery life considerably more. The Bip’s battery drain was at 50 percent of using it in two weeks, by GPS and the heart rate monitor intermittently on.
The battery life of the Bip is impressive compared to other regular smartwatches like the Apple Watch and Fitbit Versa. The thing lasts for weeks, not for days. For always-on heart rate and a lot of alerts, a watch that monitors the seconds, you can get to about two weeks on a single charge and it’s in motion. You can do better by changing ping heart rate on settings, or by changing faces of the watch.
There’s still so much battery life that you would keep wondering where the charger is. Similar to other wearables the Bip uses a proprietary connector. The cradle design of the Amazfit Bip charger is wide but identical to the Fitbit Versa charger design.
Pro’s:
- Lightweight
- Comfortable band material that fits wrists comfortably
- Has all the required sensors for a smartwatch
- Reasonable price against what it offers
- Substantially long battery life
Con’s:
- Cannot respond to notifications
- Measurements are relatively not precise
- The screen is a low resolution
- Lack of music storage and playback controls
Price
The Amazfit Bip is one of the lowest-cost smartwatches with both GPS and a heart monitor, at less than $70 on Aliexpress.
Final Thoughts
In this Amazfit Bip music control review it shows that the Amazfit Bip has a relatively successful companion app, as well as many separate, compatible iOS and Android applications. If you are searching for advanced smartwatch features like music storage, a dedicated app store, and the ability to respond to emails and messages, you’ll want something like the Apple Watch. But if you just want something that has a lot of functionality, basically looks like an Apple Watch and costs a lot less, your option could be the Amazfit Bip.
Amazfit BIP music control
Less than $70
Pros
- lightweight
- fits any wrists comfortably
- reasonable price
- long battery life
Cons
- measurements are not precise
- low resolution screen
