Zepp Health has added another smartwatch to its lineup with the Amazfit Active 3 Premium. This one is built with beginner runners in mind.
It comes with training plans and workouts aimed at people just starting out, plus the main tracking features you need to log your runs from day one.
More experienced runners aren’t left out either. The watch includes advanced metrics to help you break down your running form, and it covers a good range of activities beyond running, too.
My history with the Amazfit Active series has been hit or miss. But the price sits below what Garmin and Coros charge for their entry-level running watches, which makes it worth a closer look. Whether it holds up in real use is another question. I wore it for a few weeks to see how it actually performs.
Amazfit Active 3 Premium Design and Screen
The Active 3 Premium comes in one case size, 45mm, and three color options, which are silver, blue, and white. On the wrist, it feels smaller than that measurement suggests. It won’t compete with the slim profile of the Coros Pace 4 or Garmin Forerunner 165, both at 43mm, but people with narrower wrists will find it sits comfortably.
You may also like: Amazfit T-Rex Ultra 2 Launches with 30-Day Battery Life and Offline Maps for $549
The build uses a stainless steel frame around the touchscreen, with polymer plastic making up the rest of the body. It feels good without being heavy.
One thing that stands out is the four physical buttons on the case. That’s unusual for a smartwatch, but it gives the Active 3 Premium a feel closer to a dedicated running watch. It’s a smart design call, and one I think most runners will appreciate.
At the center of the watch is a 1.32-inch AMOLED display running at 466 x 466 resolution, protected by sapphire glass. That’s not something you typically see at this price point. Sapphire glass is among the most scratch-resistant materials used in watches, and after weeks of testing, the screen still looked clean.
There is a visible black bezel around the display, which does take up some of the available screen space. The touchscreen itself responds well to taps and swipes, with no noticeable delay.
Colors look vivid, and the viewing angles are good. The one drawback is brightness outdoors. In direct sunlight, you’ll likely need to push it close to the maximum setting to see the screen clearly.
The included 20mm silicone band is comfortable and hasn’t caused any irritation during extended wear. It fastens with a standard watch clasp and swaps out easily if you want to change it. Zepp Health also sells optional nylon bands if you prefer something softer against the skin.
The watch carries a 5ATM water resistance rating, which means it handles both pool and open water swimming without issue. It won’t hold up for recreational diving, but that’s expected at this price.
You may also like: Amazfit Watches Get Runna App Support and Zepp App Redesign
Taken as a whole, the Active 3 Premium feels like a watch built with runners in mind. The design choices suggest Zepp Health actually thought about what that audience wants, rather than just repacking a generic smartwatch with a running label.
Amazfit Active 3 Premium Performance and Software
Zepp Health’s software is probably the weakest part of the overall package. It’s not poor by any measure, but it doesn’t match what you get from Apple, Wear OS devices, or even Garmin.
That said, the Active 3 Premium is simple to use day to day, and it comes with enough features to be useful outside of running.
The four physical buttons earn their place here. During a workout, you can scroll through menus and data screens without touching the display.
There’s a dedicated lap button, a back button, and quick access to the app list. This is how most dedicated sports watches work, so if you’ve used one before, the setup will feel familiar. The buttons integrate well with ZeppOS and don’t feel like an afterthought.
The touchscreen works the same way as other Amazfit watches. Swipe in any direction to reach the app list, widgets, quick settings, or notifications. It’s a familiar layout if you’ve used one before.
This isn’t Zepp Health’s most feature-packed watch, but it covers the bases most people actually use. Bluetooth calls come through with good volume and clear audio, which makes taking calls from your wrist a practical option rather than a gimmick.
You also get Zepp Pay for contactless payments, a voice memo recorder, and the ability to set up to-do lists directly on the watch.
The watch includes 4GB of storage for audio files, app downloads, and offline maps. The offline maps are free but need to be downloaded before use. Depending on how large the app you want to save is, that download can take anywhere from 20 minutes to over an hour.
You may also like: Apple Watch Ultra 2 Deal: $599 (Save $200) on GPS and Cellular Model
There’s also an app store and additional watch faces to choose from. The app store is nowhere near the scale of Apple’s or Google’s, but it’s a genuine effort from Zepp Health to give users something extra. It adds real value without feeling like a token feature.
The approach here is closer to Garmin Connect+, focusing on apps and extensions that improve the workout experience. You can add something like a running economy extension to get more data during runs, or a battery assistant app to monitor power usage on longer outings.
The Active 3 Premium isn’t the most complete smartwatch on the market, and it’s not the most polished either. But it does enough beyond fitness tracking to justify wearing it all day, not just during workouts.
Amazfit Active 3 Premium Tracking and Features
Running is the focus, but the Active 3 Premium tracks a wide range of other activities too.
It has a dedicated Hyrox mode for training and racing, strength tracking with recognition for 25 different exercises, and yes, even chess. The sports list is long. Outside of running, I used it for swim sessions and indoor workouts, and it handled both without any issues.
Running sits at the core of what this watch does, which is why features like the Training Library exist. It gives you a range of guided sessions covering things like recovery runs, tempo runs, and run-walk interval workouts, with enough variety to suit both beginners and those with more experience.
I tested a mix of sessions from both ends of that spectrum and came away impressed. The sessions are clear and well-structured.
You can see in real time whether you’re hitting the right pace, and the watch even shows prompts for warm-up stretches before you head out. It’s the kind of detail that shows genuine thought went into building this feature.
You may also like: Moto Watch brings Polar’s pro-tier fitness perks
Beyond guided sessions, you can build your own interval workouts or run a lactate threshold test to get a clearer picture of your current fitness level. During runs, the watch captures the basics like pace and distance, along with more detailed metrics such as stride length, ground contact time, and vertical oscillation.
One trade-off at this price is GPS. The Active 3 Premium uses single-band GPS rather than the dual-band system found on more expensive Amazfit models.
In practice, distance tracking was slightly off compared to a dual-band watch, which also affected pace readings. It wasn’t a major problem, and for most everyday runners, the accuracy is more than acceptable. But if precise data is a priority for you, it’s worth knowing going in.
Heart rate tracking was a weaker area. Across different paces and effort levels, the BioTracker sensor consistently produced average and maximum readings that didn’t line up well with a chest strap monitor. The gap was noticeable enough to matter if you train with heart rate zones.
The good news is you can pair a Bluetooth heart rate monitor directly to the watch. If accurate heart rate data is important to your training, that’s the route worth taking.
You may also like: Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 Classic Drops to $369 at Amazon
On the analysis side, the watch breaks down how each workout affects your aerobic and anaerobic fitness. It also tracks VO2 Max as a fitness benchmark and includes a recovery advisor that tells you how long to rest before your next session.
I compared the recovery suggestions against a Garmin watch, and the Active 3 Premium consistently recommended longer rest periods after workouts. That’s not necessarily wrong, but it’s worth noting.
The insights also tend to get more accurate and relevant over time as the watch builds up more data on your training patterns. In the early days, take the guidance with some caution.
Amazfit Active 3 Premium Battery Life
The Active 3 Premium runs on a 365mAh battery. That puts it between the Amazfit Active 2 and the Active Max in terms of capacity, so battery life lands somewhere in the middle of those two models as well.
In typical daily use, Zepp Health rates it for up to 12 days. That drops to around 7 days under heavier use, and down to 4 days if you keep the always-on display running. Those are reasonable numbers for a watch at this price, as long as you go in with realistic expectations.
Those estimates held up reasonably well in my testing. Battery life felt adequate for normal use. The only time it became a concern was when combining the always-on display with daily GPS use and other active features running at the same time.
You may also like: Google Fitbit Band with AI Coach and No Screen To Beat Whoop
GPS battery life was fine, though slightly below the advertised figures in practice. Zepp Health claims up to 24 hours of GPS use in standard mode, and up to 76 hours if you switch to low power mode. Both numbers are worth treating as ceilings rather than guarantees.
In my testing, one hour of GPS use drained about 6% of the battery. That works out to roughly 16 hours of GPS runtime, noticeably short of the 24-hour claim. It’s still enough to cover several marathons back to back, and the drain never felt excessive during normal GPS use. Just don’t plan around the official figure.
Amazfit Active 3 Premium Verdict
The Amazfit Active 3 Premium is a capable, well-equipped watch that makes a strong case for new runners who want solid features without paying the premium that rival brands charge.
Pros | Cons |
| Good feature set for the price | Not the best run tracking accuracy available on an Amazfit smartwatch |
| Good designed features for new runners | More limited training insights than rival running watches |
| Good daily battery life | GPS battery life seems shorter than claimed |
Final Thoughts
The Active 3 Premium shows that Zepp Health pays attention to what runners and smartwatch users actually want from a device.
It doesn’t get everything right, but it gets most things right. The feature set is excellent, the design works, and the price comes in below what Garmin and Coros charge for their entry-level running watches. That combination is hard to argue with.
