One of the biggest reasons I rail against most smartwatches is their low battery life. Amazfit, a brand from Xiaomi’s wearable tech supplier Huami, says it’s got a fix for that with its new $100 Bip watch, which boasts more than a month of use on a single charge.
That’s impressive, considering that the Android and iOS-compatible device comes with an always-on color touchscreen, fitness tracking capabilities (including monitoring your heart rate), and GPS. Amazfit says that the Bip will manage to run for about 30 days with all your notifications on, but if you turn that activity down, it can last 15 days more.
You’ll need to pair the Bip with Xiaomi’s Mi Fit app to track your fitness activity and beam notifications from your phone. Besides counting your steps, distance, and calories, you can get additional stats like speed, stride length, and elevation that you don’t find on most budget trackers.
While I’m not particularly keen on receiving a ton of alerts on my wrist, I’m keen to see if Amazfit can recreate some of the long-battery-life magic that the Pebble managed back in its day. Of course, unlike the offerings from the now-defunct wearable brand, the Bip won’t be able to do things like hail an Uber with third-party app integration – at least not yet. Still, its bundle of features should see it appeal to fitness enthusiasts looking for something more substantial than a step counter.
I’m also interested to see if I’d care to include this in my rotation of roughly a dozen traditional watches: the Bip closely resembles the chunky Apple Watch, whose form factor didn’t wow me through its three generations. It still has a chance to win me over with its functionality as a workout companion, though.
Stay tuned for our review of the Bip in a couple of weeks; check out more information on the company’s site, and order your own device here.
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