Amazfit Verge 2 to launch internationally soon, gets regulatory approval
Amazfit Verge 2 should launch internationally very soon, as evidenced by a recent Bluetooth SIG certification. So far the watch has only been available for purchase in China.
Essential reading: Top fitness trackers and health gadgets
Huami launched two products earlier this month, the Amazfit Health Watch and Amazfit Smart Watch 2. The first is a health focused Amazfit BIP look-alike that comes with the ability to spot low heart rate, arrhythmia and atrial fibrillation. There’s also an ECG sensor capable of measuring the electrical activity of the heart muscle and the watch can be used for fall detection.
Some had speculated that this is actually the much anticipated successor to the Amazfit BIP, but we doubt that. In our view this is a separate health oriented line that may be reserved for the Chinese region only.
Adding credence to this view is the fact that Amazfit Smart Watch 2 received Bluetooth SIG certification a few days ago from Launch Studio. The Bluetooth 4.2 low energy standard, mentioned in the filing, is required for a smartwatch to consume less power. However, the Amazfit Health Watch has not been listed by the regulatory agency so far.
What doesn’t help is the fact that Huami has a different naming convention for the Chinese market as opposed to the international market. But looking at the specs, it is widely expected that Amazfit Smart Watch 2 is actually Amazfit Verge 2, whereas Amazfit Health Watch is not Amazfit Bip 2. Confused yet?
We reviewed Amazfit Verge last year and found it to be perfectly decent GPS sports watch that costs less than many other brands. Perhaps not as premium looking as Stratos, but a good option nevertheless.
As mentioned, the next generation of the product has launched in China a couple of weeks ago – on June 11th to be exact. The thing takes across everything from its predecessor and slaps on eSIM support, health alerts and ECG monitoring capability. These are all very worthy additions which should make the watch an even better health and fitness companion.
Verge 2 is also more premium looking than the first generation sporting a microcrystalline zirconium ceramic frame instead of a reinforced plastic casing, and coming with a more high-res display.
On the hardware front, there’s a 1.1GHz Quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 2500 processor, 512MB of RAM, 4GB of internal storage and eSIM support for 4G VoLTE. Unfortunately no Snapdragon Wear 3100 chip.
Now that the watch has received Bluetooth certification the international launch should not be too far off. The non-ECG Amazfit Verge 2 currently sells for 999 yuan ($144) in China but this is likely to increase once it makes it across the border. The full edition retails for 1299 yuan ($187). The first generation Amazfit Verge currently sells for around $160 in the US.
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