Amazfit Balance 2 gets offline route planning and equivalent pace

Amazfit Balance 2 firmware 3.50.4.1 is rolling out now. It adds several upgrades, including Equivalent Pace, offline route planning and GPS heading inside topographic maps. The update also brings Activity Data Fusion, Bluetooth speaker support, HYROX Race x Stryd integration and a set of map, diving and watch face refinements.

The update package shown in the Zepp Health app is 16.17MB, which does not sound huge, but the change log is fairly packed. The app also recommends using Wi-Fi OTA for the update. That makes sense here, as the update screen specifically says to keep the watch above 50 percent charge, keep the network stable and use 2.4GHz Wi-Fi if updating directly on the device.

Let’s dive into the specifics.

Equivalent pace comes to Balance 2

A new addition is something called Equivalent Pace. This combines personal physiological data, fitness level and gradient changes to convert uphill and downhill effort into an equivalent flat-ground pace.

That should make pacing easier on rolling terrain. Raw pace can look messy on hills, especially when a steady effort produces very different numbers depending on gradient. Equivalent Pace tries to make that easier to read by translating the effort into something closer to flat-ground running.

This is the type of metric that makes more sense on Balance 2 than on a basic fitness watch. The device already leans into outdoor and performance features, so adding a smarter pace interpretation gives runners another way to judge effort without obsessing over every rise and dip.

Garmin has had a similar feature called Grade Adjusted Pace for a while. The idea is broadly the same as Zepp Health’s Equivalent Pace on Amazfit Balance 2: both try to turn uphill and downhill running into a flat-ground pace estimate, so the runner gets a cleaner read on effort rather than raw pace alone.

The difference is in how each company frames it. Garmin’s GAP is mainly presented as a pace field adjusted by terrain steepness, while Zepp Health says Equivalent Pace also combines personal physiological data and fitness level with gradient changes.

Offline route planning gets a real boost

An important addition for many users will be Offline Route Planning. The change log says users can now create loop routes and routes from the current location to a destination within the Topographic Map app while offline.

There is also automatic recalculation if you go off course during navigation. That is a useful safety net, especially when running or hiking somewhere unfamiliar and trying to avoid reaching for the phone every few minutes.

GPS Heading has also been added inside Topographic Maps. The update describes this as bringing heading display to the Topographic Map app for a navigation experience more consistent with workout navigation.

Zepp Health has optimised topographic map display and on-watch route creation. The notes mention navigation to points up to 100 km away and dynamic contour-line precision adaptation. That points to a smoother mapping experience.

Multi-device data now gets smarter

Another change is Activity Data Fusion & Sync Back. The change log says data from multiple devices can be fused through Zepp and synced back to all devices for better consistency. We actually thought this would arrive as part of Zepp OS 6, but Zepp Health seems to be rolling it out earlier.

The feature will be important to those who own more than one Amazfit device. For example, someone might wear a watch for workouts and the helio strap for sleep or recovery. A cleaner sync system should reduce duplicate or inconsistent activity records.

Balance 2 also gets Bluetooth Speaker support. The notes say the watch can connect to your phone and play phone audio.

HYROX and diving also get attention

The update adds HYROX Race x Stryd integration. According to the change log, Balance 2 can connect to Stryd and show pace-related workout metrics in real time.

That fits with Zepp Health’s wider push into hybrid training. HYROX support already makes sense on the newer Amazfit lineup, and Stryd integration gives more serious runners another data layer during race-style sessions.

There are also diving improvements. This includes depth calculation, descent and ascent detection, plus suppression of system notifications during workouts.

Watch face status indicators have been optimised as well, with users now able to customise their visibility. Map downloads also get work, including support for combined downloads of multi-level cloud maps, although the screenshot cuts off the rest of that line.

For Balance 2 owners, this looks like a worthwhile update. Zepp Health has started publishing a monthly look look ahead for updates coming to each watch, and this firmware patch includes pretty much everything promised for June and then some. Next month, Balance 2 owners should see another round of refinements, with Zepp Health flagging an enhanced Zepp OS 6 user experience, improved weather handling, optimised terrain map downloads and better navigation alerts.