By now, you should know the name Amazfit, especially with how many we’ve reviewed here. For the most part, I’ve been very impressed with what they’ve come out with. While more fitness-oriented than an actual smartwatch, Amazfit watches have proven to be very reliable and solid choices for those who want accurate metrics of daily activities and health-related data. Now Amazfit has a new product that is smaller, more rugged, and even more affordable so more people can stay healthy and fit in their lives. The Amazfit Band 5 is the latest in their lineup and is considered a smart wristband, with all the features you come to expect from Amazfit, now with Amazon Alexa built-in.
DESIGN & SPECS
The Amazfit Band 5 is not unlike a watch. In fact, it does pretty much everything Amazfit’s watch based products do, just in a different form factor. A wristband has a different appeal than that of a watch. I dare say that a wristband might actually appeal to more people, mainly because not everyone likes to wear a watch. A watch can be bulky, heavy, and can get in the way of certain activities. A wristband on the other hand is much smaller, less intrusive, and weighs a lot less.
This is definitely true of the Amazfit Band 5. This is no larger really than those silicone wristbands you see some people wearing with just a slight bulge on the top for the tracker portion. The band is made of skin-friendly TPU material. It’s lightweight, has multiple adjustment points to fit any size wrist, and it’s comfortable to wear. That comes into play when we talk about some of the Amazfit Band 5’s features later.
Moving on to the display, the display is a 1.1″ full color, AMOLED display with a 126×294 resolution. It is very bright and very clear, even in broad daylight. The UI elements are high resolution and don’t have that pixelated look that older wristband style fitness bands have had in the past.
On the back of the unit, you’ll find the new BioTracker 2 PPG Bio-Tracking Optical Sensor along with the magnetic charging points for the charger. note that this does have its own proprietary charger you’ll have to use so it’s not compatible with other Amazfit charging units.
Speaking of sensors, the Amazfit Band 5 also includes a 3-axis acceleration sensor and a 3-axis gyroscope sensor. There’s also GPS to track your runs. Internally, there’s also a 125mAh lithium-ion polymer battery good for around 15-days of use between charges. Battery life fluctuates however depending on your usage.
EXPERIENCE
What makes the Amazfit Band 5 such an interesting proposition is that it does many things a full-featured fitness smartwatch can do, and more. It uses the same Zepp app that all Amazfit devices use. The Amazfit Band 5 tracks steps, heartbeat, and sleep. It also tracks blood oxygen levels (SpO2) with something called OxygenBeats. This is one of the newer metrics that Amazfit is starting to track and it’s interesting that it’s available on their most affordable tracker.
Another notable metric that is tracked is your stress levels. The Amazfit Band 5 will know whenever you are pressured or stressed and provide simple breathing exercises to help relieve your stress levels.
Workouts of course can also be tracked and that includes running, walking, cycling, swimming, and seven other sports modes for a total of eleven. I mentioned swimming in there because the Amazfit Band 5 is waterproof with a 5 ATM rating.
The Amazfit Band 5 isn’t just a fitness and health tracker, however. It’s also a smart companion in which it also does things you’d expect a smartwatch to do. You can get your standard call and text notifications, notifications from apps fo your choice from your phone. There’s a weather app, a phone app, an alarm clock, reminders, events, and a timer. You even get an app that can control the camera on your phone and music controls.
Let’s not forget that there’s also Amazon Alexa included, which was just added in the latest update. Apparently, there is a mic on the band and you can give commands by talking into it. You can use Alexa to control your smart home gadgets, set reminders, add items to a list, get information about random things, and more. The only issue with this is that Alexa will not talk back to you and instead shows the answer to your query on the tiny screen. It’s still a neat feature to have though.
Like I’ve been saying, this is almost like a full-fledged smartwatch, just in a much smaller package.
FINAL THOUGHTS
I’m really digging the Amazfit Band 5. I usually like wearing watches, but on the days I don’t, the Amazfit Band 5 is a perfect substitute. I like being able to track my daily activities and metrics, but I don’t like wearing a bulky watch all day. This seems to be a great compromise as it does everything a good fitness smartwatch should do but is so light and small that you won’t even notice it is there half the time, even when you’re sleeping. Amazfit did a great job packing so many features into a small package and the inclusion of Amazon Alexa just makes it more attractive. The $49.99 price tag doesn’t hurt either.
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