professionals and cons
- Top quality sapphire glass and stainless-steel supplies
- Superior operating metrics
- Obtainable free operating exercises and Zepp Coach coaching plans
- Sensible 3,000-nit AMOLED show
- Single band GPS
- 4GB storage limits offline maps
- Shorter battery life than most Amazfit watches
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With final 12 months’s Amazfit Lively 2, I used to be in a position to practice with a really small watch priced slightly below $100. This 12 months’s Amazfit Active 3 Premium improves upon that mannequin in a number of methods, making it an almost good sports activities look ahead to runners starting their journey. It is also nice for anybody in search of a smaller, high-quality smartwatch that helps an in depth variety of different actions.
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In early 2025, Amazfit launched the Lively Max, priced at precisely the identical $170 because the Lively 3 Premium. The Lively Max is 3mm bigger throughout the face, has a primary two-button design, makes use of mineral glass, whereas the Lively 3 Premium makes use of sapphire glass, and has a bigger battery with twice the battery lifetime of the Lively 3 Premium. The Lively 3 Premium has a number of extra metrics for runners with a measurement good for everybody.
If you take a look at the software program on Amazfit watches, there are only a few variations in functionality between a $170 watch and fashions priced over $400, together with the Amazfit Cheetah 2 Professional and Cheetah 2 Extremely. The first variations within the watches are the supplies, LED flashlight, inner storage, mapping performance, and some superior actions corresponding to detailed golf monitoring.
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Constructed for runners
The 4 bodily buttons on the Amazfit Lively 3 Premium are helpful for runners who do not wish to swipe on a show whereas operating, particularly if sweat or rain reduces touchscreen effectiveness. I personally use buttons for all of my watch interactions whereas operating, which is one motive I just like the 5 buttons on Garmin devices.
The Lively 3 Premium can also be good for individuals with smaller wrists who need a lighter watch. The 20mm vast band helps maintain issues small, and whereas the watch is a bit too small for me, the show continues to be vibrant and clear, so I can learn it with my getting older eyes.
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The Lively 3 Premium supplies key operating metrics, together with lactate threshold, restoration knowledge, coaching load, and extra. I skilled bursitis in my hip, probably from winter alpine snowboarding, and used the Lively 3 Premium and onboard coaching plans to slowly get again out and run. The Lively 3 Premium helped information me via a sluggish restoration moderately than beginning with a half-marathon that might presumably have set again my therapeutic.
Offline mapping can also be obtainable that can assist you discover your means again to the place you began your run. Navigation like this isn’t an everyday characteristic of entry-level sports activities watches.
By way of the Zepp app, you possibly can simply arrange coaching plans utilizing Zepp Coach, the intensive Zepp coaching plan library, coaching templates the place you create your individual customized plan, or join third-party coaching plans from companies like Runna, TrainingPeaks, and Intervals.icu. I began with Zepp Coach and luxuriate in the way it guides you thru inquiries to create a plan that matches your present health stage and helps you obtain your targets.
International positioning and sensor efficiency
The Amazfit Lively 3 Premium helps six international navigation satellite tv for pc techniques and has confirmed correct at monitoring my location whereas operating or biking in my native space. The watch doesn’t have dual-band GPS, which is predicted given its low worth. If you’re making an attempt to navigate in areas the place clear-sky views aren’t obtainable, you might even see some uncertainty within the monitoring.
Coronary heart price monitoring has labored effectively for me whereas operating and sleeping. The watch additionally helps exterior sensors, so in case you are performing actions with plenty of arm motion, it’s possible you’ll wish to join a chest or arm band coronary heart price sensor to trace each motion. The watch’s small measurement and weight assist it keep tight in your wrist for higher accuracy, too.
The Lively 3 Premium can final for as much as every week with a few runs throughout this era, however the battery capability is small (365 mAh), so it’s positively not a multi-week sports activities watch. Amazfit advertises as much as 24 hours of GPS use, so that may cowl each runner who is probably going to purchase this look ahead to not less than a number of runs. The colourful always-on show mode will lower battery life in half, so maintain that in thoughts too as you set it up in your coaching and each day use.
ZDNET’s shopping for recommendation
The Amazfit Active 3 Premium is a strong contender for anybody keen on a smartwatch for exercise monitoring and for leisure runners in search of teaching plans customized to their health stage and each day well being metrics. It simply exceeds expectations for a $170 watch, and the beautiful Atlas Blue one I examined is beautiful, with supplies that make it really feel like a watch costing twice as a lot.
