- Amazfit has unveiled the T-Rex Dual Solar smartwatch
- It offers solar charging on an AMOLED watch — a feat not even Garmin has managed
- As well as charging from the front, the innovative back plate allows the wearer to invert the watch for maximum light absorption
In a world in which most smartwatches now have the same features and similar specs, it’s always nice to see something innovative. The Amazfit T-Rex line is a range of rugged adventure-focused smartwatches that are generally — like almost all of Amazfit’s products — great value alternatives to more expensive wearables such as the best Garmin watches.
Despite focusing on solar charging, as seen on some top-tier Garmin watches such as the Fenix 9 Pro, the T-Rex Dual Solar brings innovation all of its own. Amazfit’s newest smartwatch not only provides battery-lengthening solar charging from the front, but also a secondary, more efficient solar charging plate on the back of the watch. With enough sunlight, this back plate can reportedly revive a completely flat battery. That means if you’re out of power, you could invert the watch and wear it inside-out, or leave it on a rock with the back plate facing the sun, to bring it back to life.
Amazfit says that “for those who adventure at the edge of the map, solar offers something more: a way to bring a completely depleted watch back to life using sunlight when traditional power isn’t available, helping users regain access to essential functions like maps and route information.”
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However, the most interesting bit is that Amazfit has finally cracked what Garmin has not been able to, as yet: bring solar charging to an AMOLED watch. The Amazfit Dual Solar, as its name suggests, charges from both sides, even though it’s got a bright AMOLED screen, as long as you’re in conditions of 50,000 lux or more for three hours or more. Without exception, Solar charging Garmin watches uses lower-power memory-in-pixel displays in conjunction with Garmin’s Power Glass solar charging tech.
Sara Webster Wylie, VP of Global Marketing at Amazfit, says: “With T-Rex Dual Solar, we didn’t want users to have to choose between the bright, premium display they want every day and the battery endurance they need outdoors. Bringing AMOLED and solar together for the first time lets us deliver both.”
Other specs & pricing
In normal conditions, the watch packs up to 25 days of battery life, extended up to 35 days in optimal solar conditions, and 41 hours of use in ‘accurate GPS mode’. A flashlight with red and white modes is built into the titanium casing, while its sapphire crystal screen is capable of up to 3,000 nits of brightness.
With full color preloaded maps (including ski maps), intelligent route planning with turn-by-turn directions and Apple Watch Ultra-style waypoints, and LiveShare (Amazfit’s equivalent of Garmin’s LiveTrack location-sharing feature), it’s certainly a powerhouse of a watch.
Unusually for Amazfit, it’s also very expensive, priced at $649.99 in the US. Other regions’ pricing is TBC, but that’s around £500 / AU$900. Having seen what Amazfit can do with budget devices such as its five-star Amazfit Active 3 Premium, I’m excited to get my hands on a high-end model.
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matt.evans@futurenet.com (Matt Evans)
