Amazfit - Bip 5

>a lot of smartwatches had to be recharged every few hours, not just every day My Amazfit Bip had about 3 weeks of battery life, Amazfit GTS3 had 2 weeks, and the current Amazfit Bip 5 have 7 to 10 days.

My first watch was an Amazfit and it was awesome. I bought a higher-end model for $60. I loved it so much I bought all my family members their own for Christmas and they're all still wearing them 2 years later. Great budget watches that don't feel like budget watches. They do everything.

I'm really sorry. If it's still relevant at all I got him the Bip 5. They might have something that large and newer by now. If not it's still a really solid model. He's wearing it every day, and the health stuff tracks with my samsung. $60 right now on Amazon.

I bought an original Amazfit bip 4-5 years ago and still use it for the gym to track time between sets. That's about all it's good for.  A few months ago I went deep down the rabbit hole of affordable smart watches and weighed cost, features, battery life, ecosystem, HR monitoring accuracy,  developer support, etc. and I think the winner at the time was the Amazfit Active/Edge (now supersedes by the Active 2 for $100).  For less than $40 new you're not getting anything that's much worth using. Slow, laggy screens, HR monitoring will be way off, likely to have QC issues, GPS will lose tracking and be inaccurate, no chance of standalone music or Bluetooth connection to other devices, battery may degrade quickly, and they'll probably have proprietary OS with poor app options and support. I'm a big Amazfit fan, so I'd say maybe the Bip 5 on sale right now for $50 is worth it. Has Zepp 3.5 which has some nice features.  I'd say you're either seeing bot reviews or people with very low expectations. If all you want is to read notifications, see the weather on your wrist, skip music tracks, and read the time then sure, but beyond that you can't expect much. 

I've had a charge 6 for about a year and a half. It might be me or it might be my device but I would sum it up as 'inconsistent' I've never gotten a HRV value although it always says it's in my personal range. I very seldom get breathing rate but that one at least says no data available. I get REM and a sleep score very infrequently. Usually its Asleep/Restless/Awake with no score. I have it set to use the phone's GPS. Sometimes I would get a map for the walk activity, sometimes not. Since the recent update I never do. Something in the device or the app? IDK. I've been comparing it to a Amazfit Bip 5 which seems to be a lot more consistent but I really like the smaller form factor. Amazfit has a Band 7 but it is rarely mentioned on r/amazfit which makes me suspicious. The internal GPS is not very good and affects battery life. When using the phone's GPS battery life is good, except for the inconsistent results.

The Active 2 has a barometer and tracks elevation gains. I find that useful since most of my walks are on mountain trails that involve significant gain. It wouldn't be very useful in Kansas. Also I'm not fond of the rectangular form factor. I have a Bip 5 and wanted a round device.

My Fitbit totally bit it a few months back. I opted to go cheap and see what happens. I spent $42$ on an Amazon Amazabit and it’s great. Holds charge for days/weeks, waterproof for swimming, tons of features and the app it uses- ZEPP is pretty easy to use. Really thought this would be a temporary solution, but honestly I’m thrilled and have no plans to replace it anymore.

I came to recommend an Amazfit 5 (I don't know what a Bip is). That is the watch I am currently wearing right now and have had for years. It is priced at half your budget and given that your previous watch was an Amazfit 5, you're already familiar with its interface. Are you sour on them because of a warranty process (by the way, *what* warranty? As a fellow owner, I would love to know. I thought this watch was so cheap it was unsupported after purchase.), or would you give them another chance? It's a solid watch, ocean-worthiness notwithstanding.

Kinda regretting getting the round early. I'm used to the square Bip and this feels sexy.

Bip s. I literally bought a backup unit because it's so cheap and so good

As someone who has used a good amount of the alternatives, I fall under the case of nothing really beats a Pebble. Wear OS is still an unstable mess imo and feels too much like just a phone on my wrist. The Pebble actually feels like an extension of my phones abilities but not overwhelmingly so. Plus, you can make your own apps for it if you are into it. The BangleJS2 and Bip are some alternatives but I didn't enjoy them anywhere near as much. A readable screen, you are looking at e-ink or the e paper we get on the Pebble, Bangle, Bip, JS, Fossil HR (I believe that is what they called their hybrid) and I believe some Garmin watches, though they fall into the category of I haven't used them. The battery life is the killer feature on the Pebble to me. Though the Bangle and Bip have great battery, the pebble just did more with it to me. The ability to reply is nice but a touch screen only was a deal-breaker for most watches nowadays. The buttons are really nice when I need them like when wearing gloves for work. I'm excited for my Time 2, and have my Time Steel on while I wait. I took off my Ticwatch Pro 3 and it has sat with getting put on the charger once a month to keep the battery from just stopping from working. If you have concern, grab a used time for cheap if you can and use it for a bit. Don't like it? Cancel your preorder and you can find something you do.

Amazfit. I think the worst you'll get is 5-7 days with everything enabled, most will do 10+, and some 20+ days with a mix of features enabled. They all have really good screens, the newer ones have better features like enhanced notifications with images, ability to reply to messages with voice or typing, built in AI assistant The Active 2 is often on sale, there's also the Active 2 Premium which adds sapphire glass screen and NFC for contactless payments, then there's the Balance and Balance 2 for basically every feature with a bigger screen and battery, they do the Active 2 square if you prefer that, they also do the Bip range for cheaper square ones. It does depend on what features you want, they aren't WearOS so you can't get the same range of 3rd party apps and watch faces, but there's still quite a few out there. Personally I prefer them as they run smoothly, have good battery, and are generally smaller than WearOS Watches.