$170 gets you a lot of watch these days. The Amazfit Active 3 Premium proves that–somehow squeezing in features that, just a year ago, would've cost you twice as much. I spent some time with it at CES, and here's the deal.
Price and Positioning
The Active 3 Premium costs $169.99. Same price as the Active Max. That's wild when you think about it–you're basically choosing between two completely different watches at the same price point.
The Premium cuts battery to give you better materials and navigation. The Max? It'll run for 25 days. The Premium? Twelve. Trade-offs.
Then there's the T-Rex Ultra 2 at $550. Same features, triple the price. Amazfit might've accidentally made their own expensive watches look ridiculous.
What's New and Different
It's not just a Max with a new name. Here's what you're actually getting:
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Four buttons: Finally, buttons on both sides. If you've ever tried using a touchscreen with sweaty hands or underwater, you know why this matters.
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Stainless steel bezel: Feels nicer than the plastic on the Max. Not a huge deal, but you notice.
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45mm case: Smaller than the Max's 48mm. Actually fits on smaller wrists without looking like a dinner plate.
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Offline maps: This is the big one. Routable maps on a $169 watch. You can generate a route mid-run and get turn-by-turn directions without your phone. That used to be a $550+ feature.
Display
The 1.32-inch AMOLED hits 3,000 nits. That's bright. Like, squint-no-more bright. Sapphire crystal keeps the glass from turning into a scratch magnet.
The Active Max has a bigger screen (1.5 inches), but this one is sharper. Pick your poison.
Battery Life
Here's the compromise:
- Active 3 Premium: 12 days / 24 hours GPS
- Active Max: 25 days / 64 hours GPS
The Max wins. Period. If you're doing an ultra and need three days of GPS tracking, that's your watch.
GPS is single-band, not multiband. For most runners–suburban, park, regular trail running–it's totally fine. The multiband stuff matters in canyons and cities with tall buildings. Chase tested the similar Active Max and found it worked well enough.
New Running Metrics
Here's something weird: the $169 Premium has lactate threshold tracking. The $550 Ultra 2 doesn't. I'm skeptical that a wrist sensor can nail lactate threshold, but I'll reserve judgment until we see real-world data.
Posture tracking is also new. Not sure how useful that'll be, but it's there.
Storage
4GB. Enough for maps, music, and podcasts–but not all of them at once. The Ultra 2 has 32GB, which is overkill for most people but does mean you can load up way more topo maps. Most folks can get by fine on 4GB, though.
The Verdict
$169.99 gets you:
- ✅ Premium build with sapphire display
- ✅ Four-button navigation
- ✅ Offline routable maps
- ✅ New running metrics
- ✅ Decent battery
Trade-offs? Single-band GPS and less battery than the Max. But most runners will take the features over the extra week of battery.
Honestly? This makes the T-Rex Ultra 2 hard to justify unless you need serious ruggedness or three-day battery life. That's saying something.
Should You Buy It?
Buy if:
- You want the most watch for your money
- Offline maps and navigation are appealing
- You prefer a smaller, lighter watch
- You like having buttons in addition to touchscreen
Skip if:
- Battery life is everything (get the Max)
- You run in technical terrain where multiband matters
- You want the toughest build possible (T-Rex line)