A few days ago Zepp Health has made available for purchase in the US the next iteration in its Amazfit Bip series. Bip 3 comes in a regular and Pro variant. These devices upgrade the Amazfit Bip U line which was released just over a year ago.
A lot of the specs are unchanged, but there are some important differences to be aware of. This time around, the main upgrades are to do with design.
Whichever of these devices you choose, it will not set you back an arm and a leg. The Bip range is a popular budget smartwatch and the low price has stayed the same.
What exactly is the difference between the three iterations of this watch? Read on to find out.
The Bip 3 line retains the square shape and flat sides of its predecessor. The same is the case with the no-nonsense plastic body build coupled with a sporty silicone strap. The watch is more about practicality and low price and less about expensive material and fancy looks. Nevertheless, this is a perfectly decent looking device that is very lightweight on your wrist (around 30 grams).
What has changed with Bip 3 are the dimensions of the watch. The have have grown a bit to 44.12 x 36.49 x 9.65 mm. Which makes the watch larger but thinner than its predecessor. Bip U Pro dimensions come in at 40.9 x 35.5 x 11.4 mm.
Essential reading: Top fitness trackers and health gadgets
The increase in size was necessary in order to accommodate the larger display. The TFT-LCD measures a whopping 1.69 inches and most would consider this the biggest upgrade with this generation. However, it is not all good news.
Despite the increase in display size, the resolution of the screen has come down to 240 x 280 pixels. Bip U Pro comes with a 1.43 inch IPS-LCD display with 302 x 320 pixel resolution. Which means you get a bigger display with Bip 3, but one that is a bit less high-res. In both cases, this is protected by 2.5D tempered glass.
Beyond that, the design is pretty much the same. There’s one physical button on the right on all of these devices, that you use in combination with the touch-display to navigate around the menus. Of course, there are some slight design tweaks – but nothing jarring.
Water resistance is also unchanged at 5 ATM. This makes the watch good in and out of water.
The colour options between the variants are a bit different. Bip 3 comes in Black, Pink and Blue; Bip 3 Pro in Black, Cream and Pink; Bip U Pro in Black, Pink and Green.
Just like with Bip U and Bip U Pro – the only difference between Bip 3 and Bip 3 Pro is the inclusion of built-in GPS on the latter. This is makes it more convenient for outdoor runs and cycle rides as you don’t need to have your phone around to get a satellite signal. If you want detailed tracking of activity on the vanilla version of Bip 3, you will need to carry your smartphone with you in order for Connected GPS to work.
Bip U Pro also has built-in support for satellite connectivity. But in its case you only get GPS, whereas Bip 3 Pro can tap into four different satellite systems. This should ensure quicker connection and better accuracy on the latter.
As far as sensors, all of these devices have the BioTracker 2 PPG biological tracking optical sensor, 3-axis acceleration sensor and SpO2. It is a bit disappointing that Zepp Health has not included the BioTracker 3 PPG biological tracking optical sensor on its latest Bip watch. We’re not sure why this is the case. Bip U pro also has a gyroscope and geomagnetic sensor.
The larger display size is one area of improvement on the Bip 3 line. The other is to do with battery life. These devices can keep going for up to 2 weeks in smartwatch mode which is much better than the 9 days of the Bip U Pro.
Here’s a table showing how the three devices compare in terms of general specs and design.
Zepp Health has packed plenty of health and fitness features into its Bip series. All of these watches can track heart rate, activity, sleep and stress around the clock and support manual measurements of blood-oxygen saturation. There is little actual difference that can be found there.
Other functionality includes breathing exercises, abnormally high heart rate alerts and menstrual cycle tracking. There’s also support for around 60 different sports.
The watches work in combination with the Zepp Health app. Sync up your watch with smartphones via Bluetooth v5.0 LE and you’ll get insights, trends and a detailed look into your statistics.
The watches also have the ability to spit out smartphone notifications, calls, messages, reminders and more. It’s worth noting, the excellent battery life comes courtesy of the lightweight RTOS. The downside is that you don’t have the ability to download and use third-party apps. So its not exactly the full smartwatch experience you might hope for. But you do get a choice of 50 different watch faces to make the device your own.
The final bit of info worth flagging up is Alexa support. This is present on the Bip U Pro but not on the Bip 3 series. To this end the device comes with a built-in microphone. You can interact with the smart assistant to set alarms, times, get weather information and more.
The $59 Amazfit Bip 3 (check price on Amazon) and $69 Bip 3 Pro (check price on Amazon – availability starts July 14th) are identical in all respects apart from GPS support. The first has Connected GPS, the second built-in GPS. If you are a runner or someone who cycles often, we suggest going for the one which works untethered from your smartphone. The price difference is negligible.
An important improvement over Bip U Pro is that you get more screen real-estate. The TFT-LCD measures 1.69 inches enabling you to get the essential info without straining your eyes. The other improvement worth mentioning is battery life which has increased from 9 days to around 2 weeks.
Bip U Pro sells for exactly the same price as Bip 3 Pro (check price on Amazon) and deserves exploring if one is on a budget. It, too, has a few things going in its favour. The first is that it uses a more high resolution panel on its IPS display (despite its smaller 1.43 inch size). Plus it has a microphone which enables built-in support for Alexa. Also, you might be able to find good discounts as that device is over a year old now.
The Bip line is popular for a reason. Running on RTOS, it is not exactly a powerhouse as far as smartwatch functionality. But the watches are cheerful, they look good and offer plenty of health and fitness functionality at a low price.
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I often exercise with an external heart rate monitor paired to my sports watch. As good as wrist based heart
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