Amazfit Active Max Review: Big Value Running Watch With Offline Maps

Introduction

The Amazfit Active Max is a fitness watch built around a simple idea: deliver a long list of popular running and smartwatch features at a much lower price than the competition. It costs £169.90 or $169.99, and for that money you get 4 GB of storage, offline maps for outdoor activities, up to 25 days of battery life, a 1.5-inch AMOLED display rated at 3,000 nits, over 170 workout modes, training insights, sleep, stress and nutrition tracking, Zepp Pay, a built-in microphone and speaker, and hundreds of mini apps.

After using it for a couple of months alongside watches such as the Garmin Forerunner 970, Fenix 8 Pro, Huawei GT Runner 2 and Coros Pace 4, the overall picture is consistent: this is a genuinely strong value package that narrows the gap to the top tier, even if it does not quite close it.

Who This Watch Is For

The Active Max makes the most sense for runners who want a capable, feature-rich watch without spending a lot. It is well suited to people who do not obsess over deep analytics and simply want a watch that tracks runs, syncs everything to Strava, and covers the basics of sleep and daily health. If you dig deep into every stat, the interface can start to feel cumbersome, but for general runners it provides everything needed at a glance.

The health tracking suite is broad for the money: 24-hour heart rate, blood oxygen saturation, stress and skin temperature monitoring, plus detailed sleep tracking with heart rate variability, sleep stages including REM, daytime naps, sleep schedule, breathing quality and a sleep score. There is also a BioTracker energy system and a BioCharge feature, Amazfit’s take on Garmin’s body battery, showing how much energy you have left through the day.

Main Strengths

The biggest selling point is the overall package. Offline full-color maps on a watch at this price are rare, and in practice the maps turned out to be surprisingly good: clear to read, with routes that can be set up fairly easily in the app. It is not quite at the level of Garmin Connect, but it is not far off, and the ability to build simple routes on the go is a real highlight.

Battery life holds up well too. With the screen at full brightness and the always-on display enabled, the Active Max lasted 16 days including 10 hours of GPS run time. A one-hour run burned around 3%, doubling to 6% for two hours, and the overnight drain was as low as 1 to 2%, notably better than the Garmin Forerunner 970 in the same test setup.

GPS performance was also better than the spec sheet suggests. Without dual-band GPS, the Active Max still matched the Garmin Fenix 8 Pro and Forerunner 970 closely for overall distance, and on some occasions stuck to routes better than the multi-band Garmin, such as running under a flyover where the Garmin lost the plot. VO2 Max readings tracked close to Garmin’s, sometimes a few points higher, but followed the same fitness trend.

Training features cover running dynamics, training load, recovery time, readiness and VO2 Max, with structured workouts, training plans and interval sessions. Zepp Coach guidance is edging closer to Garmin’s daily suggested workouts and Polar’s FitSpark. There is also support for connecting external heart rate sensors, and a neat little AI voice tool that responds quickly to simple running-related questions.

Things to Consider Before Buying

The design divides opinion. It is Amazfit’s best-looking watch yet, subtle and simple, and the plastic construction keeps it lightweight and comfortable despite sitting thick on the wrist. But it is not eye-catching, and rivals like the Garmin Forerunner 165 look more confident and slick. Only two physical buttons means heavy reliance on the touchscreen, which is fine at home but frustrating mid-run when sweat makes it unresponsive.

Software is the real Achilles heel. The Zepp app is cluttered, more like an online shop than a training dashboard, burying the features you actually care about under screens of stuff most people will never use. On the watch, the interface looks premium and the display is gorgeous, but finding things quickly while running takes effort. It works, it just needs tidying up.

There are a few other practical issues. Heart rate accuracy was mixed: good on steady runs, but the Active Max tended to read averages and max HR higher than the Garmin Fenix 8, and on some runs it produced rogue spikes and failed to track intensity changes during interval sessions compared to a chest strap. Real-time pacing sometimes ran about 10 seconds slower than Garmin. Finally, the touchscreen is so sensitive that a jacket sleeve can end a run mid-session; a screen lock exists but must be activated manually each time, and no automatic option could be found.

Buying Advice

If budget is the deciding factor, the Active Max is hard to beat on raw features. The blend of a big bright AMOLED display, serious tracking and training tools, offline maps and smartwatch smarts for under £170 will make a few established manufacturers pause for thought. If it hits a sale, it becomes an absolute steal.

If you can stretch the budget, the Garmin Forerunner 165 and Coros Pace 3 and Pace 4 offer slicker software and more polished overall packages, though none of them include full-color maps. Within Amazfit’s own range, the T-Rex 3 and T-Rex 3 Pro add dual-band GPS, more storage and richer external sensor support for a bit more money. But if you want the most features for the least money, this is the one to look at.

Conclusion

The Amazfit Active Max is a fantastic value running watch. It is not as slick or sophisticated as Garmin, Coros or Suunto, and the lack of dual-band GPS, occasional heart rate wobbles and cluttered app are worth weighing up. But for general runners who want a great-looking watch with nearly every feature they could need, at a price that undercuts the competition, it is well worth a look.