Amazfit Active 3 Premium Review: An Absurd Amount of Watch for $239

There is a point where a cheap fitness watch stops being cheap because you spend half your time wishing it did something else. Better GPS. More training data. Proper navigation. Physical buttons. A screen you can actually see outside. Eventually, you’ve mentally upgraded yourself into a Garmin that costs several times more.

The Amazfit Active 3 Premium is interesting because it skips quite a few of those compromises while still costing $239 in Australia. That price is current through Amazfit Australia, and it puts the watch in a particularly awkward position for much more expensive rivals.

Despite the slightly clumsy name, this isn’t just an Active watch with nicer glass slapped on the front. There’s sapphire glass, offline mapping, a bright AMOLED screen, four physical buttons, detailed running data, external sensor support and a surprisingly mature software platform underneath it all.

It also feels like Amazfit has finally worked out what sort of company it wants to be. A few years ago, its watches were easy to recommend mainly because they were cheap. Now, products like the Active 3 Premium are interesting because they’re genuinely feature-packed sports watches that happen to be cheap.

That’s a much more dangerous proposition for the competition.

Design / First Impressions

The Active 3 Premium does something I wish more sports watches would attempt: it looks like a normal watch.

That sounds like faint praise until you’ve seen some outdoor watches that appear capable of calling in an air strike.

The round case combines a stainless-steel frame with sapphire glass over the display, giving the Active 3 Premium a much more polished appearance than its price suggests. It’s still clearly designed for sport, but there’s enough restraint here that wearing it with normal clothes doesn’t make it look as though you’ve just finished an ultramarathon in the office kitchen.

It’s not especially thin, and there is a reasonable amount of watch sitting on your wrist. The size makes sense once you consider the sensors, battery and physical controls packed inside, but buyers with particularly small wrists may want to try one before buying. Amazfit only offers the model in a single size, which feels unnecessarily restrictive.

One of my favourite design decisions is the four-button control layout.

Touchscreens work brilliantly until you’re actually exercising. Add sweat, gloves or the minor inconvenience of trying to operate a tiny screen while moving and suddenly a good old-fashioned button starts looking like one of humanity’s better inventions.

The physical controls mean common workout actions can be performed without relying entirely on swipes and taps. It’s a small detail on paper, but exactly the sort of thing that separates a watch designed around exercise from one that simply happens to include exercise tracking.

The supplied testing also praised outdoor display visibility. Colours remain vibrant and information is easy to read in bright conditions, which is far more important here than producing an impressive screen indoors under perfectly controlled lighting.

There’s 5 ATM water resistance for swimming and everyday exposure to water, while conventional 20mm straps mean you’re not locked into some bizarre proprietary band system that requires an archaeological expedition whenever you want a replacement.

One oddity is that the strap arrived unattached in the supplied unboxing experience. Fitting it is hardly difficult, but it does create a slightly unusual first five minutes with a watch that’s otherwise trying quite hard to feel polished.

Key Features / Specs

Amazfit has thrown a surprising amount into this thing.

The major features include:

• 1.32-inch AMOLED display
• Sapphire glass
• Stainless-steel frame
• Four physical controls
• 365mAh battery
• 5 ATM water resistance
• GPS with offline maps
• 170+ workout modes
• Temperature sensor
• Bluetooth 5.3 and BLE
• Built-in microphone and speaker
• Bluetooth calling
• External sensor support
• 20mm replaceable straps
• Zepp OS
• Advanced running and recovery metrics

The headline feature for me is probably the combination of GPS and offline mapping.

GPS isn’t unusual on a modern fitness watch. Proper mapping and navigation at this price are considerably more interesting.

You can take routes onto the watch and use navigation without constantly pulling your phone out. That’s useful for running somewhere unfamiliar, hiking, travelling or those occasions when your planned 5km run becomes 9km because you confidently took one wrong street twenty minutes ago.

Amazfit also goes well beyond basic distance-and-calories workout summaries. Training information includes things such as pace, elevation, training zones, recovery estimates and running-related performance metrics. The amount of information available after a session is one of the areas where the Active 3 Premium feels closer to a dedicated training watch than a conventional lifestyle smartwatch.

There are more than 170 sport modes, which is arguably approaching the point where we’re tracking activities that probably don’t need tracking, but the breadth is useful if you jump between running, gym work, swimming, cycling and other activities.

External Bluetooth accessory support makes the sports side considerably more serious as well. Headphones and compatible training sensors can be connected, giving users room to expand the setup rather than having everything permanently locked to the watch itself.

There’s also a speaker and microphone for Bluetooth calling, while music can be loaded onto the watch through the Zepp ecosystem.

It’s a lot of watch for $239.

Performance

The Active 3 Premium’s sports capabilities are the main reason to buy it, and this is where Amazfit has become surprisingly ambitious.

GPS performance during the supplied testing was described as extremely precise, which is exactly what you want from a watch built around running and outdoor activity. Detailed maps and beautifully presented workout charts aren’t terribly useful if your route looks like you’ve intermittently teleported through suburban houses.

Workout screens are also highly configurable, allowing the information you actually care about to be prioritised during exercise.

That’s important because different users care about very different things. Someone doing casual runs might want pace, distance and elapsed time front and centre. A more serious runner may want considerably more data available without constantly diving through menus.

Once the session is finished, Zepp offers a lot to dig through.

Elevation gain, pace data, training zones, recovery information and running performance metrics give you more than the usual congratulatory animation telling you that you’ve exercised for 37 minutes and should apparently be extremely proud of yourself.

Offline navigation adds another layer to that performance.

The watch isn’t merely tracking where you’ve already been. Maps make it useful before and during the workout too, particularly if you’re exercising away from familiar routes.

The display also performs well outdoors. Strong brightness and good visibility make workout data easy to check while moving, and the physical controls make interacting with that information much easier than relying entirely on touch.

Battery performance is more complicated.

The Active 3 Premium uses a 365mAh battery. In the supplied testing, enabling the always-on display alongside continuous health monitoring and approximately one tracked workout per day resulted in around 20 to 25 percent battery consumption per day.

Switch the always-on display off and roughly a week of use becomes more realistic. Reduce GPS use and some health-monitoring features further and significantly longer runtimes are possible.

That’s good, particularly compared with traditional smartwatch territory, but it isn’t spectacular by Amazfit’s own standards. The company has become annoyingly good at building watches that refuse to die, so the Active 3 Premium actually looks fairly ordinary beside some of its siblings.

Still, charging once a week under reasonably demanding use is hardly a tragedy.

What It’s Like to Use

Zepp OS might be the biggest reason the Active 3 Premium feels more expensive than it is.

Amazfit software used to be something you tolerated because the hardware was cheap. That’s changed significantly.

The interface now feels like a proper platform. Apps can be installed, widgets can be customised, button functions can be adjusted and there’s a large range of downloadable watch faces.

Settings are logically arranged rather than buried in a menu structure designed by somebody who apparently hated users.

The companion Zepp smartphone app is where things become considerably more detailed.

Training sessions can be analysed in depth, music can be managed, Bluetooth calling contacts can be configured and fitness information can be connected with third-party services. The BioCharge and exertion sections are particularly useful if you’re interested in how individual workouts fit into your broader activity and recovery patterns.

Health tracking extends beyond exercise too.

Sleep information provides data around rest, recovery and sleep stages, while the wider ecosystem covers activity, stress, blood oxygen, daily movement and other wellness information. The supplied testing considered sleep tracking useful and consistent, even if not necessarily class-leading.

I also appreciate Amazfit’s approach to subscriptions.

There are paid Aura features available, but the core fitness and health functionality isn’t locked behind a compulsory subscription. You don’t buy the watch and immediately discover half the interesting graphs have been placed behind a monthly fee like some sort of data-themed nightclub.

There are still a couple of software oddities.

The default watch faces are surprisingly inflexible considering how customisable the rest of the experience can be. The supplied testing specifically noted that the standard faces couldn’t be configured to show something as basic as a step counter.

That’s a strange limitation on a watch that is perfectly happy to discuss considerably more advanced training information.

None of this makes Zepp OS difficult to use, though. The bigger challenge is simply the volume of information available.

Anyone coming from a basic fitness band may need a little time to understand what all the recovery, exertion and performance measurements actually mean. Once you’ve worked that out, there’s enough depth here that the watch doesn’t feel like something you’ll outgrow after six months.

What I Liked

The main thing I like about the Active 3 Premium is that the useful features aren’t being treated as luxury extras.

Sapphire glass is useful because watches get knocked into things.

Physical buttons are useful because touchscreens aren’t always ideal during exercise.

Offline maps are useful because phones aren’t always convenient.

External sensor support is useful because people who become more serious about training often want to expand their setup.

None of those things exists purely to make the specification sheet longer.

The design also deserves credit. There are tougher, larger and more dramatic sports watches, including several from Amazfit itself, but the Active 3 Premium’s restraint makes it more versatile.

You can wear it running in the morning, keep it on for the rest of the day and not look like you’re preparing to summit something.

The screen is another standout. AMOLED colour and contrast make everyday interactions pleasant, while the strong outdoor visibility means the display isn’t sacrificing practical usefulness for good showroom photos.

Then there’s the software.

Zepp OS is now mature enough that Amazfit no longer feels like the cheap alternative you choose while wishing you could afford something better. For a lot of users, this may simply be all the training platform they need.

That’s a fairly major shift.

What Could Be Better

Battery life is the most obvious area where the Active 3 Premium doesn’t dominate.

It’s perfectly respectable, particularly once the always-on display is disabled, but Amazfit sells watches capable of significantly longer runtimes. Anyone prioritising multi-week endurance above everything else has better choices within the company’s own range.

The single case size is also unnecessarily limiting.

This isn’t an enormous watch, but giving buyers a smaller alternative would make sense when Amazfit is clearly positioning it as something that can move between sport and everyday use.

There’s also no LTE or eSIM option.

That won’t matter if your phone is usually nearby, but users who want to go running without carrying a phone while remaining independently connected will need to look elsewhere.

The default watch-face restrictions are irritating too. A watch with this much data and customisation shouldn’t suddenly become strangely stubborn about what information can appear on the main screen.

I’d also argue that Amazfit still lacks some of the polish and identity of Garmin at the upper end.

The hardware specifications are increasingly competitive and Zepp has improved enormously, but Garmin has spent years building a very recognisable training ecosystem and a loyal audience around it. Amazfit is closing that gap by giving you a frankly absurd list of features for less money, but brand and ecosystem familiarity still count for something.

Finally, there’s the name.

“Active 3 Premium” sounds like the third-best trim level of an insurance policy.

The watch deserves something slightly more memorable.

Price and Competition

At $239 in Australia, value is where the Active 3 Premium becomes difficult to dismiss. Amazfit Australia’s current store price puts it well below plenty of established sports watches while still delivering sapphire glass, offline maps, GPS, an AMOLED display and deep training functionality.

One obvious rival is the Garmin vívoactive 6, which launched in Australia with an RRP of $549. Garmin gives you access to the well-established Garmin Connect ecosystem, Connect IQ apps, Garmin Pay and a platform many long-term fitness users already have years of data stored inside. But the official price difference is substantial.

The more interesting competition might actually come from Amazfit itself.

The Amazfit Active Max is also $239 at the time of writing. It moves to a larger 1.5-inch AMOLED display, offers 170+ workout modes, offline maps and advertises up to 25 days of battery life. Buyers who care more about a large display and endurance should absolutely compare the two before ordering.

Move up to the T-Rex 3 and the Australian price rises to $389. That watch is considerably more rugged, uses a larger 1.5-inch display and claims more than three weeks of typical battery life. It makes more sense for users whose idea of exercise regularly involves trails, camping, hiking or somewhere mobile reception stopped existing 40 minutes ago.

Amazfit also currently lists the T-Rex 3 Pro from $543.15, pushing it into a very different price category.

This is where the Active 3 Premium starts making a lot of sense.

You don’t get the monster battery or extreme construction of the T-Rex models, but plenty of the useful training philosophy has made its way down into a watch costing $239.

I’d argue that is the sweet spot for most people.

Unless you genuinely need an adventure watch, spending substantially more simply because the expensive model exists isn’t automatically the smarter purchase.

Who Is It For?

The Active 3 Premium makes the most sense for someone who wants to move beyond basic smartwatch fitness tracking without immediately committing to a much more expensive dedicated sports watch.

Runners are an obvious audience.

The physical controls, GPS, offline maps, training information, structured data and external accessory support all make sense once running becomes something you actively want to improve rather than an unfortunate event that happens when you’re late.

It’s also a good fit for people who mix activities.

Gym sessions, outdoor exercise, walking, cycling, swimming and general fitness can all live inside the same ecosystem, while the design remains conventional enough for all-day wear.

Someone upgrading from a cheaper activity tracker will probably notice the biggest difference in how much information becomes available after a workout.

Instead of merely knowing what you did, the Active 3 Premium starts trying to explain what that session means in the context of training and recovery.

On the other hand, I’d look elsewhere if your priorities are LTE connectivity, a massive third-party app ecosystem or maximum battery life.

Apple Watch and Galaxy Watch models remain stronger choices for people who primarily want an extension of their smartphone.

The T-Rex range makes more sense if you care more about rugged construction and endurance than subtlety.

And if you’re already deeply invested in years of Garmin data, moving ecosystems purely to save money may be less attractive than it looks on a specification sheet.

For everyone else, $239 buys an awful lot here.

Verdict

The Amazfit Active 3 Premium feels like the point where Amazfit stops being interesting merely because it undercuts Garmin and starts being interesting because the product itself is genuinely good.

The hardware is better than the price suggests. Sapphire glass and stainless steel give it a more substantial feel, the AMOLED display works well outdoors and four physical controls show somebody involved in the design actually considered what happens when people exercise instead of just drawing a pretty watch in a meeting room.

The sports features are even harder to argue with.

Accurate GPS performance in testing, offline maps, more than 170 activity modes, external sensor support and detailed post-workout analysis give the Active 3 Premium enough depth that it shouldn’t immediately become limiting as your training gets more serious.

Zepp OS deserves plenty of credit too. It’s no longer something I would describe as impressive “for a cheap watch.” It’s a capable fitness platform in its own right, with enough customisation and data to satisfy most users without demanding another monthly subscription.

There are compromises. Battery endurance doesn’t match Amazfit’s marathon-running T-Rex models, there’s only one case size, default watch faces need more flexibility and LTE isn’t available.

At $239, though, those compromises are remarkably easy to live with.

The Active 3 Premium takes several features that used to be reasons to spend much more on a sports watch and quietly moves them into the mid-range. That’s probably bad news for watches costing twice as much.

For buyers who want proper running and fitness features without turning a smartwatch purchase into a minor financial event, this is one of Amazfit’s most convincing watches yet.