Amazfit Balance 3 and Balance Ultra push the range deeper into sport

Zepp Health has now listed the new Amazfit Balance range on its website, confirming a clear shift toward a more serious sports identity. The lineup consists of Balance 3 in stainless steel or grade 5 titanium (coming soon), alongside the higher-end Balance Ultra.

A sportier identity for Balance

Balance has always been one of Zepp Health’s most approachable watches. It offered long battery life, health tracking, decent sports tools and a design that worked well enough for everyday use.

Balance 3 keeps the broad idea, but the tone has changed. The watches look more rugged and more athletic, with bolder bezels, tougher styling and a stronger training feel.

This is still not a full T-Rex-style outdoor watch. But it clearly leans further into sport, and that makes the range feel less like a lifestyle watch with fitness features and more like a training watch with everyday smarts.

That shift also shows up in the software direction. Zepp Health is leaning more into hybrid training tools, with HybridCharge, LifeLoad, Weekly Focus and Training Balance sitting at the centre of the new range.

HybridCharge combines BioCharge, LifeLoad and Training Load into a single system designed to reflect current capacity. The idea is to help users decide when to push, when to recover and how to manage effort across strength, endurance and day-to-day life.

HYROX also plays a much bigger role this time. Balance 3 includes HYROX Race Mode strategy, advanced analytics and structured hybrid training plans, while the product page also mentions race simulations, HYROX Virtual Pace and post-race analysis covering pacing, station performance, rankings and cumulative race time.

That gives the new Balance line a clearer use case. The company describes Balance 3 and Balance Ultra as part of a connected Hybrid Training ecosystem, built around people balancing strength, endurance, recovery, work, stress and daily life. In plain English, this is aimed at users who mix running, cycling, gym work, strength sessions and functional fitness rather than sticking to one neat activity type.

The risk is obvious. Hybrid training can become a vague label very quickly, so Zepp Health will need to show that these tools give useful guidance for regular runners, cyclists and gym users, not just people following structured event plans.

Hardware moves up across the range

The hardware also looks stronger this time around. The display remains at 1.5 inches, but brightness rises and sapphire glass is used across the range.

Navigation looks more complete too. The range gets dual-frequency, six-satellite GPS, 64GB of onboard storage, preloaded full-colour contour maps, automatic rerouting and turn-by-turn guidance directly from the wrist.

A built-in flashlight is also there, with red and white support listed in the specs. Audio is covered as well, with a microphone and speaker, plus Bluetooth calling across the range.

Zepp OS 6 runs on the new watches. That fits the wider direction, because this generation seems less about adding another pile of workout modes and more about making the training picture easier to understand.

How it compares to Balance 2

Compared to Balance 2, the new Balance 3 is a much more substantial watch. Zepp Health has moved from an aluminium alloy frame and polymer case to stainless steel or grade 5 titanium options, while the design grows from 47.4mm to 51.4mm across the case.

That extra size brings more hardware. Balance 3 has four physical buttons instead of two, a brighter 3,000-nit AMOLED display, double the storage and the above-mentioned flashlight. GPS battery life also improves.

It is not a straight upgrade in every area. The BioTracker 6.0 PPG sensor remains the same on paper, and water resistance stays at 10 ATM. Balance 3 is also noticeably heavier.

Ultra gets the bigger battery

The new Balance Ultra is the most interesting version. It uses grade 5 titanium and a 780mAh battery, with up to 30 days of typical battery life, up to 15 days with heavy use and up to 10 days with the always-on display.

That puts it above the regular Balance 3 configurations and gives Zepp Health a proper top-end option in this line. The Ultra also has five grade 5 titanium buttons, compared to four stainless steel buttons on the Balance 3 models.

The standard Balance 3 uses a 658mAh battery and offers up to 21 days of typical battery life, up to 10 days with heavy use and up to 7 days with the always-on display. Balance Ultra increases those figures. Typical battery life there is up to 30 days.

Weights vary by material. Balance 3 Titanium comes in at 55 grams, Balance Ultra at 57 grams and the stainless steel Balance 3 at 62 grams.

The case sizes are close, but not identical. Balance Ultra measures 51.8 x 51.8mm, while Balance 3 measures 51.4 x 51.4mm. Ultra is also thicker, at 15.5mm with the sensor and 13.4mm without it, compared to 14.6mm and 12.5mm for Balance 3.

Pricing and availability

Prices follow the same structure. Balance 3 starts at $369 for stainless steel and rises to $449 for the grade 5 titanium version, while Balance Ultra comes in at $599.

That puts the Ultra in a much tougher competitive space. Buyers at that level will naturally compare it with Garmin, Suunto, Coros and Polar watches, especially if they care about training guidance, mapping and battery life.

All of this suggests Zepp Health is giving Balance a sharper identity rather than simply updating the hardware. It still looks like the approachable all-rounder in the Amazfit range, but the new tools, tougher design and Ultra model push it much closer to the sports-watch category.

Pre-orders are open in the US now on the company’s website. Shipping starts mid-June.

Tech specs differences: Balance 3 range