When I took the Amazfit Band 5 out of the box, I thought, “Hey, I’ve seen this before.” Sure enough, as I sifted through my collection of activity bands, I noticed that this Amazfit band has the same slim, rectangular shape as several existing inexpensive fitness trackers, more curvy than the $25 Wyze Band but more Xiaomi Mi Band 4 It looks quite similar. The black version I tested is particularly familiar in design, but the eye-catching orange and green models are more unconventional.
The display is hard to see, but the Amazfit Band 5 allows you to check a series of indicators as you complete activities in 11 different sports modes. The continuous heart rate sensor not only tracks BPM throughout your workout, but also breaks down how many minutes you spent in a heart rate zone, from relaxed to focused to anaerobic.
[content-egg-block template=offers_logo hide=price]These metrics are a scaled-down version of Fitbit’s Activity Zone Minutes, which debuted on the Fitbit Charge 4. the Charge 4 calculates a target heart rate zone based on age and resting heart rate and tracks progress toward the goal of spending 150 minutes per week in that zone The Charge 4 can also track your progress toward your goal of spending 150 minutes per week in that zone.
Because I was unable to exercise during the course of the review due to back pain, I had time to explore more of the Amazfit Band 5’s non-fitness features. It offers a fair amount of text messaging, WhatsApp communication, alarms, reminders, music, podcasts, audiobook app controls (volume can be adjusted as well), weather forecasts, and scheduled events from the calendar.
Most oddly, you can use the band as a remote control for your smartphone’s camera. Simply open the camera app, get ready to shoot, and tap the shutter button in the camera section of the band, and your uncle will take the picture. Not sure what you would use it for, but it is fun just to have it on board.
While all of these features are useful, the band’s inability to read emojis and other metadata is its only impediment. So while you will often see strange characters at the beginning or end of a message, you can still read all the main text. It takes a little time to get used to the swiping controls, but you’ll soon get used to it.
The Amazfit Band 5 is a competent little fitness tracker at a much more affordable price than the comparable Fitbit, with some unique features that truly stand out in this price range, such as Alexa support and SPO2 sensors. Still, the app could use a little refinement and a more organized design, but once you have it all set up, you’ll pretty much live on the homepage anyway.