Amazfit Active 3 Premium review: a serious Garmin alternative for less
Amazfit Active 3 Premium
Pros
- Premium finish and sapphire glass
- Four physical buttons
- Proper running watch credentials
- Excellent outdoor screen
- Maps on your wrist
Cons
- GPS not dual-band
- Screen not the biggest
Amazfit Active 3 Premium: One minute review
The Amazfit Active 3 Premium does not really try to break new ground, and that is perfectly fine. What Zepp Health has done here is take the proven feature set from its recent watches and package it into a more compact design with slightly more premium materials.
That means you are getting a familiar mix of solid health tracking, strong sports features, offline maps and dependable battery life, all wrapped in a watch that feels good on the wrist and looks a step up from the standard model. The Zepp Health app has also continued to improve, which helps the overall experience feel more polished than it did a year or two ago.
The main appeal is the balance between features and $170 price-tag. If you want much of what Zepp Health already offers on its recent lineup, but in a smaller and more refined package, this watch makes a lot of sense.
Amazfit Active 3 Premium can be purchased from Zepp Health or Amazon*
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Design, hardware
Look & feel
The Amazfit Active 3 Premium leaves a good impression from the start. It feels closer to a mid-range sports watch than something in the sub-$200 bracket, and much of that comes down to the materials. You get a stainless steel frame, sapphire glass over the display and a clean round design that gives it a premium look.
In terms of size, the watch comes in at 45 x 45 x 11 mm and weighs 38g without the strap. On the wrist, it feels light enough for 24/7 wear without ever coming across as flimsy.
The four-button layout is also worth mentioning. It gives the watch more of a sports-watch feel and, from a practical point of view, makes navigating workouts, maps and menus easier, particularly when moving.
The 1.32-inch AMOLED display is decent. It runs at 466 x 466 resolution with 353 PPI and can hit up to 3,000 nits brightness, so outdoor visibility is no problem. In bright daylight it remains easy to read, whether checking pace data during a run or looking at notifications.
The sapphire protection is another plus, especially if the watch is going to be used regularly for training. On the downside, the screen does attract fingerprints quite easily, and it is a shame there is no anti-fingerprint coating.
In many ways, the device feels like a sibling to the Amazfit Active Max. But while that one comes with a larger 48.5mm case and feels more substantial on the wrist, the Active 3 Premium comes across as more of a unisex option, better suited to those with smaller wrists. So while the Max goes bigger with its 1.5-inch display and larger case, the Active 3 Premium strikes a better balance for anyone after something less bulky.
I, personally, prefer the Active Max. Sure it’s a less premium design. And you get two physical buttons instead of four. But I prefer the larger size. Of course, not everyone will agree with this.
Overall, the design of Active 3 Premium works well. The lighter weight means it never feels cumbersome, and for a watch at this price, the combination of sapphire glass, steel frame and a bright AMOLED screen is a strong selling point.
Under the hood
Under the hood, the Amazfit Active 3 Premium is well equipped and shares much of its hardware with Zepp Health’s recent watches. There is no sense that anything important has been stripped back here.
At the core is the latest BioTracker optical sensor, using a 5PD plus 2LED setup. This handles heart rate, blood oxygen and the wider set of health and fitness data the watch tracks. It is the same generation sensor tech found on the newer models, which is good to see.
Backing that up is a full sensor array that includes an accelerometer, gyroscope, geomagnetic sensor, barometric altimeter, ambient light sensor and temperature sensor. For outdoor use, the barometric altimeter is particularly useful as it helps track elevation changes more reliably during runs, hikes and climbs. The geomagnetic sensor also helps with direction when using on-wrist maps and route guidance.
GPS hardware is another important part of the package. The watch supports five satellite systems, which should provide solid location tracking in most environments. It does not use dual-band GNSS, so this is something worth noting.
A nice touch is the inclusion of both a microphone and speaker. That means Bluetooth calling, voice assistant features and audio prompts during workouts are all available. These are still extras you do not always see on watches at this price.
Battery life
Battery life is pretty decent. Zepp Health quotes up to 12 days of typical use, and while real-world results obviously depend on settings and workout frequency, that figure does not feel unrealistic. I switched on pretty much all the bells and whistles apart from the always-on display, and the watch is capable of comfortably lasting well over a week with a few exercise sessions thrown in.
Once you start leaning more heavily on GPS, the picture changes a bit, but it still holds up well. For longer activities, the GPS battery performance feels strong enough to comfortably cover long runs, marathon sessions and day hikes without any real battery anxiety. That matters because it means the watch’s sports credentials are not let down by weak endurance.
Amazfit Active 3 Premium*
Order nowThe always-on display also has a noticeable impact, so anyone who likes the screen permanently visible should expect shorter endurance. Even then, it remains far more forgiving than watches that struggle to get through two full days.
Tech specs
Feature | Amazfit Active 3 Premium | Amazfit Active Max |
|---|---|---|
Display | 1.32″ AMOLED, 466 x 466, 353 PPI, up to 3,000 nits | 1.5″ AMOLED, 480 x 480, 323 PPI, up to 3,000 nits |
Touchscreen | Sapphire glass with anti-fingerprint coating | Strengthened glass with anti-fingerprint coating |
Case size | 45 x 45 x 11 mm | 48.5 x 48.5 x 12.2 mm |
Weight (without strap) | 38g | 39.5g |
Frame material | Stainless steel | Aluminium alloy |
Case material | Polymer | Polymer |
Water resistance | 5 ATM | 5 ATM |
Buttons | 4 | 2 |
Sensors | BioTracker PPG (5PD + 2LED), acceleration, gyroscope, geomagnetic, barometric altimeter, ambient light, temperature | BioTracker PPG (5PD + 2LED), acceleration, gyroscope, geomagnetic, barometric altimeter, ambient light, temperature |
Positioning | 5 satellite systems | 5 satellite systems (no dual-band GNSS) |
Microphone and speaker | Yes | Yes |
Vibration motor | Rotor motor | Rotor motor |
Bluetooth | BLE 5.3 | BLE 5.3 |
Battery life | Up to 12 days (typical), 7 days (heavy use), 14 hrs continuous GPS | Up to 25 days (typical), 13 days (heavy use), 10 days (AoD), 64 hrs GPS, 22 hrs GPS with music |
Strap material | Silicone / leather depending on edition | Silicone |
Strap width | 20mm | 22mm |
Buckle | Classic pin buckle | Classic pin buckle |
Colour | Apex Silver, Atlas Blue, Aero White | Black |
Health & fitness tracking
Health and fitness tracking is very much in line with what you get on Zepp Health’s recent watches. There is nothing radically different here.
As mentioned, the Active 3 Premium uses the same latest-generation sensor setup as the company’s newer devices. So you are getting the full suite of metrics you would expect, including heart rate, sleep, blood oxygen, stress and recovery-focused insights. Nothing important missing here.
Performance is broadly where you would expect it to be as well. Accuracy in day-to-day health tracking feels solid, particularly for continuous heart rate, sleep trends and general wellness data. If you have used other recent Amazfit watches, the experience here will feel very familiar.
What’s worth a special mention is the smartphone side of the experience. Zepp Health has been steadily improving the app over the past year or so, and it now does a much better job of presenting data in a way that is useful.
A good recent example is the rollout of the updated BioCharge tools on the Amazfit Balance 2, which will almost certainly make their way to other Amazfit watches soon. Alongside Life Log, which lets you manually add things like stress, alcohol intake, travel and illness, the update also introduces boundary alerts during workouts and a new Self-check feature designed to flag unusual trends in your recovery data.
That is the bigger point here. Zepp Health is not just tweaking the visuals of the app, it is actively improving the way the data is interpreted and presented, which makes the whole ecosystem feel more mature.
Sports tracking
Sports tracking is also very much in line with what Zepp Health has been doing on its recent watches, and that is a good thing. The Active 3 Premium gets the same broad workout tracking platform, so if you have used the Balance 2, T-Rex 3 or Active Max, the experience here will feel very familiar.
For running, most of the advanced metrics are here. I did several runs and the watch performed well. Here’s an example of my most recent run as compared to a Garmin Forerunner.
Distance tracking was almost identical. The Amazfit recorded 5.50 km, while the Garmin came in at 5.52 km. A 20 metre difference over a run of this length is negligible in real-world terms and well within what you would expect even between two high-quality devices.
Pace data also lined up extremely well. The Amazfit reported an average pace of 5:58/km, while Garmin showed 5:56/km. That two-second gap is about as close as you could realistically hope for, and it suggests both GPS tracking and pace calculation are working very well on the Zepp Health watch.
Heart rate was virtually spot on. Both watches returned the same average of 135 bpm, while maximum heart rate was 155 bpm on the Amazfit versus 154 bpm on the Garmin. That is an excellent result and suggests the optical sensor is doing a very solid job, at least for this type of steady run. It helps that the watch is very light – so does not move much on the wrist while you are exercising.
The same applies to running dynamics. Cadence was 173 spm on the Amazfit and 172 spm on the Garmin. Stride length was effectively identical at 97 cm on both. Ground contact time was 260 ms versus 265 ms, which is again very close. The only noticeable difference was vertical oscillation, where the Amazfit came in at 9.1 cm compared with Garmin’s 8.3 cm. That is still in the same ballpark, but it is one area where the numbers are not perfectly aligned.
Power tracking was also close enough to inspire confidence. The Amazfit averaged 298 W, while Garmin showed 311 W. A 13-watt difference is not huge and could easily come down to how each brand calculates wrist-based running power.
Plus Zepp Health has recently added a lactate Tthreshold figure. That is also in line with my Garmin, at 155 bpm only 1 bpm difference.
Beyond running, the usual wide range of sports profiles is present, covering cycling, swimming, walking, gym sessions and the other activity modes you would expect from a recent Zepp Health device.
Offline maps and route navigation are also included, which remains one of the stronger parts of Zepp Health’s sports offering. At this price, having mapping on the wrist is still a real advantage, particularly for outdoor runs and hikes.
The main takeaway here is that Zepp Health has not stripped anything back for this model. It gets the same strong sports feature set as the company’s other recent watches, just in a smaller and more premium-feeling package.
Smartwatch features
On the smartwatch side, the Active 3 Premium covers all the essentials you would expect from a modern Amazfit device. Notifications come through reliably, calls can be taken directly from the wrist thanks to the built-in microphone and speaker, and there is support for voice assistant functionality as well.
Music controls are present and work well, which is handy for day-to-day use as well as during workouts. More importantly, the watch also offers 4GB of onboard storage for offline maps and audio, so you can load music or podcasts directly onto the device and head out without your phone.
Amazfit Active 3 Premium*
Order nowYou also get the usual collection of alarms, timers, calendar reminders, weather and other everyday tools that most users will rely on. And as with other recent Amazfit watches, there is a decent selection of apps and watch faces available through the Zepp Health ecosystem. It is not trying to compete with the depth of Apple’s App Store or Wear OS, but for most people the core functionality is all here.
Amazfit Active 3 Premium can be purchased from Zepp Health or Amazon*
*We are a review site that receives a small commission from sales of certain items, but the price is the same for you. Purchasing items by clicking on links in this article allows us to run this website. We are independently owned and all opinions expressed here are our own. See our affiliate disclosure page for more details.
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