Amazfit T-Rex Dual Solar
3.0
Pros & Cons
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Comes with a dedicated red/white LED flashlight. -
Very nice 1.32-inch AMOLED display. -
Features a speaker and mic for call and assistant support. -
More than 40 hours of GPS tracking battery life.
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No native support for subscription music services. -
Limited third party apps. -
Only available in one large size.
For the first time ever, Amazfit launched a sports watch with solar power charging technology and a vibrant AMOLED display. The Amazfit T-Rex Dual Solar is a unique watch with a niche target market, and one that I’ve been waiting to go hands-on with.
I’ve only had the watch for a few days so haven’t put it through a long endurance test yet, but Amazfit battery life estimates have proven accurate in the past. Typically, solar power adds an incremental increase in battery life, which is most useful for pushing the battery’s limits over an extended period of time. However, with improved processors and larger batteries in modern sports watches, the jury is still out on whether solar is the best option, as it takes space away from other features.
Solar on the front (and the back)
Over the past few years we’ve seen a few T-Rex products with similar names, looks, and feature sets, but the solar power capability of the new T-Rex Dual Solar is a clear differentiator. The target audience is focused on those who spend long periods of time outdoors, have limited access to external power sources, and need solar charging capability.
The solar charging implementation is interesting, but I’m not yet convinced that giving up a significant portion of the viewable front display (1.32 inches here versus 1.5 inches on the T-Rex Ultra 2), is worth adding solar charging capability. The previous generation T-Rex product, the Ultra 2, had a very large 870 mAh battery capable of providing up to 50 hours of accurate GPS location tracking. The Dual Solar watch has a 660 mAh battery and is rated to provide up to 40 hours of precision GPS tracking.
Matthew Miller/ZDNETMost of the back panel is capable of solar charging, so you have to remove it from your wrist and secure it on your backpack or tent with the back facing outwards while you camp in order to charge it for long expeditions. However, with the watch mounted on your wrist, the solar charging panel doesn’t collect solar energy — so being forced to remove the watch to capture this power is an interesting design feature.
Looking at early test results to compare the value of solar charging, Amazfit states that in typical usage scenarios the battery life is 25 days. Add in three hours of front-side charging and gain up to five more days, and if you had three hours of rear-side charging, that would increase from 25 to 42 days, making that large back solar panel much more impactful. If you plan to use the watch for long periods without access to an external power source, then definitely take it off and make sure the back panel is facing the sky to charge up the watch.
Matthew Miller/ZDNETA new charging solution
The BioTracker 6.0 PPG biometric sensor is positioned at the center of the large back solar panel, but with the solar panel the typical Amazfit charging puck is not used. A new side charging solution is implemented with two metal connection points where the new magnetic charging adapter attaches magnetically.
Matthew Miller/ZDNETAmazfit includes a high-quality leather lanyard that is attached to this small adapter. You can attach the lanyard to your backpack or keys. There is an opening on the adapter that connects to a standard USB-C cable.
Rugged design features
The T-Rex Dual Solar is a very large watch with a 51.4mm case diameter, 16.9 mm thickness, and 69 gram weight (without the strap). It has a grade 5 titanium bezel, sapphire-crystal display, and 10 ATM water resistance with support for diving up to 50 meters. It comes with a nice black silicone watch band, along with a rather unique fabric band that uses flexible cords to attach to one end with a hook that slides into a loop to secure the band.
The loop in the flexible cords can be used to hang the Dual Solar for charging the back panel when you want to recover some of the power during a break in your outside adventure.
Matthew Miller/ZDNETIt supports color maps and full navigation, including ski maps and golf courses, turn-by-turn navigation, waypoint navigation, points-of-interest, and color-coded elevation profiles. With a connected phone you can also enable real-time location sharing with family and friends so they can track you while you’re out on your adventures.
Also: I compared this Amazfit with my $1,300 Garmin for outdoor tracking, and it was surprisingly close
The watch is easy to navigate with the four large physical buttons and a responsive touchscreen display. The Zepp Flow offline voice control functionality to quickly open apps, switch modes, start a workout, and more. The Zepp Coach feature is also an excellent way to set up a running or cardio plan personalized for you.
Matthew Miller/ZDNETThe T-Rex Dual Solar performs as well as the last T-Rex model, the Ultra 2, with accurate GPS tracking, consistent heart rate tracking, customizable workout data screens, and access to hundreds of activities. You can wear it to track your golf game, your ski adventures, or even your walk around the neighborhood.
The Zepp app and ecosystem continues to offer an extensive amount of insight into the metrics captured by the Dual Solar. Custom workouts, AI coaching, sleep assessments, and details in health and fitness monitoring are readily available to users. Sleep tracking is a bit tricky, in my experience, because the watch is big and bulky so when I roll around at night it tends to affect my sleep quality.
Also: I wore Coros and Garmin’s sub-$300 sports watches – both are excellent, but one lasts longer
The app store continues to grow with quite a few third party apps now available to install on your watch, including a QR code app so you could add your Starbucks card to the watch, a note taking app, a ski jump tracker, and more. There are hundreds of available watch faces too, but you can’t customize the complications, so there are limits to personalizing the watch face.
ZDNET’s buying advice
Ever since sports watches made the move to AMOLED display, I’ve been wondering who would be the first to add solar to AMOLED. I actually thought Garmin might have done it first with a Fenix or Enduro model, but I’m glad to see Amazfit take the reins with the new T-Rex Dual Solar.
I personally prefer to have more viewable display area rather than solar charging, and given the smaller capacity battery in the Dual Solar compared to the T-Rex Ultra 2, it seems there is a very specific customer for this watch that spends lots of time outdoors with no access to external power sources.
