Wyze Watch vs. Amazfit Bip U

Smartwatches may sometimes seem like expensive, luxury devices, particularly when you usually have to buy them with a smartphone to get the most out of them. However, Wyze and Amazfit are two brands bucking the trend of pricier watches to bring you two models that are both comfortably under $100. In fact, the Wyze Watch will launch in February at the too-good-to-be-true price of $20, while the Amazfit Bip U launched in October for a very reasonable $60.

They may be cheap, but both smartwatches offer a surprisingly wide range of functions, including fitness tracking and monitors for heart rate, sleep patterns, blood oxygen levels, and menstruation. They also look very stylish, despite their affordability. The question is: which one is better?

We answer this question by comparing the two watches in a head-to-head. We look at their specs, designs, displays, health features, battery life, and special features, weighing up which one is the best smartwatch overall. This should help you decide which one to go for.

Also check out the best smartwatch deals available now if you’re interested in other models.

Specs

Design and display

It may have an absurdly low-price, but the Wyze Watch looks pretty similar to the much more expensive Apple Watch. It features a “squircle” design, with curved corners and edges, as well as a sleek black casing that’s made of aluminum. By contrast, the Amazfit Bip U is built with cheap plastic, which feels a little grubby compared to aluminum, and may irritate your skin if you wear it too tight. Having said that, it also looks almost uncannily like the Apple Watch, so it does look pretty good, if not original.

When it comes to the display, both smartwatches pack TFT LCD touchscreens. The Wyze Watch offers a choice of two display sizes, with the 44mm model boasting 320 x 320 pixels, and the 47mm model boosting this to 320 x 385 pixels. The Amazfit Bip U is available in only one size, 40.9mm, which provides 320 x 302 pixels. Overall, the clarity and vividness of each smartwatch will be basically the same, particularly because they both incorporate the same LCD technology. Some people, however, may be more impressed by larger screens, so either Wyze Watch model may be preferable to the Bip U.

When taken with the improved feel of aluminum, the bigger screen size makes this round a win for the Wyze Watch.

Winner: Wyze Watch

Fitness and health-tracking features

Again, both the Wyze Watch and Amazfit Bip U are low-cost, but they fit an impressive array of fitness and health-tracking features into their small frames. They both feature accelerometers, heart rate sensors, blood oxygen sensors, and gyroscopes, while they also support a wide range of sports and offer sleep- and menstruation tracking.

For example, the Amazfit Bip U includes modes for such sports as running, walking, cycling, core training, rowing, strength training, pilates, swimming, sailing, skateboarding, basketball, boxing, martial arts, skating, hunting, gymnastics, and many more. Unfortunately, the Wyze Watch doesn’t extend so far in its coverage of sports and fitness activities, with its native OS offering only step-counting. It does support Google Fit and Apple Health, however, so you can track different activities using either of these.

In terms of the accuracy of the built-in sensors, initial impressions suggest that the Amazfit Bip U is broadly reliable as a health monitor. Its sleep tracking and oxygen monitoring have been accurate so far in tests, although its heart rate monitor can be a little off during workouts, in that it misleadingly claim your pulse is going off the charts. As for the Wyze Watch, it’s due for release in February, so we nor anyone else have been able to give it a rigorous road test.

Both watches use their own custom real-time operating systems. In the case of the Bip U, the OS is fairly streamlined, but in conjunction with the official Zepp app (formerly Amazfit), you can download extra watch faces, for example. It’s also worth pointing out that both watches are compatible with iOS and Android smartphones.

This is a difficult round to call, given that the Wyze Watch hasn’t been released yet. Nonetheless, because it supports a wider range of sports modes, we’re giving this round to the Bip U.

Winner: Amazfit Bip U

Battery life

Regardless of whether you choose the Amazfit Bip U or Wyze Watch, both watches claim up to nine days of battery life. This claim seems to be largely true for the Bip U, although if you use it extensively and turn up its brightness, for example, you’ll probably find it needs a recharge sooner than nine days.

As with the accuracy of its sensors, we can’t say with any confidence as to whether the Wyze Watch will generally last anywhere close to nine days under normal usage. Its battery has a capacity of 300 mAh while Amazfit Bip U’s cell offers only 230mAh, so it’s probably a safe bet to say that it should last around nine days. Of course, without testing, we can’t be sure.

The Bip U and Wyze Watch also provide fairly speedy charging. The Bip U recharges to 100% in about two hours, while the Wyze Watch claims that it needs two and a half hours to do the same. Again, because the Wyze Watch hasn’t yet been released, we can’t confirm this, so we’re going to call this round a tie.

Winner: Tie

Special features

Both smartwatches are pretty cheap, so you’d be forgiven for thinking that neither are overflowing with special features. However, the Wyze Watch lets you monitor and control any other Wyze smart devices you may have installed in your home, such as the Wyze Outdoor Camera. As with most other smartwatches, you can also use a number of popular apps with it, including WhatsApp, Facebook, Gmail, and Twitter.

This is something that can’t be said for the Amazfit Bip U, which doesn’t support any third-party apps. It does have Alexa support built-in, however, yet other than that you’ll have to make do with the Zepp app and the watch’s native OS, which is pretty basic.

Neither smartwatch supports calls, although the Wyze Watch can be used to accept or refuse incoming calls to your smartphone. Added to its compatibility with other Wyze devices and various third-party apps, we’re awarding it another win.

Winner: Wyze Watch

Price and availability

The Wyze Watch starts from $20 for either the 44mm or 47mm models. It launches in the U.S. in February 2021 and can be pre-ordered from Wyze.

The Amazfit Bip U launched in October in India, with no official release date for Europe or North America. Despite this, it can now be ordered from the US Amazfit website. It’s officially priced at $60 but has recently been discounted to $50.

Overall winner: Wyze Watch

Overall, the Wyze Watch is a better watch than the Amazfit Bip U. It looks and feels better, has a larger touchscreen, offers more special features (and third-party app support), and is around $40 cheaper than the Bip U. That’s not to say that the Bip U is a bad smartwatch, and it may be a better choice if you’re particularly focused on fitness, but the Wyze Watch just checks more boxes than its rival.