If you want something rugged and reliable to take on the trails this summer, check out this Prime Day deal that carves 100 bucks off the nearly indestructible Amazfit T-Rex Ultra.
No one smartwatch can do everything perfectly. While sleek, shiny Android watches like the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 Classic and Google Pixel Watch may be great for apps and casual wear, you wouldn't want to take them with you on that 5K mud run or winter hunting trip into the snow-packed Appalachians. Even if they were still usable after the grime, slushy snow, or other fluid exposure, precise GPS tracking would kill the battery in under a day.
That's where more outdoor-oriented smart watches like the Amazfit T-Rex Ultra come in. While they may lack the robust app support of Android's Wear OS system, they won't face the battery guzzling drain of those apps (or the Wear OS system itself). The T-Rex Ultra can get 20 days of battery in full smartwatch mode — and up to 40 hours of use with the Endurance GPS mode — while the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Pro's 590mAh battery only lasts 80 hours in smartwatch mode and less than a day once you get any hour-plus GPS-tracked activity involved.
I've taken the 40mm versions of the Galaxy Watch 5 and 6 golfing. Both of them are basically dead by the time you're getting back to the clubhouse after a full 18 holes thanks to the GPS drain. You shouldn't have that issue with the Amazfit T-Rex Ultra.
Thankfully, Amazon Prime Day is bringing deals on smartwatches and wearables of all shapes and sizes, including $100 off the Amazfit T-Rex Ultra to bring it down to its lowest price to date.
✅Recommended if: you're after a watch that'll survive your dirtiest mud runs and week-long hikes through the Rockies.
❌Skip this deal if: you want a lightweight watch, robust app support, or contactless payments.
This is not the smartwatch most users need. After all, this lacks many of the "smart" features that water buyers look for: there's no speaker or microphone, so you won't be using it for calls Dick Tracy-style. There's no NFC nor any tap-to-pay apps for this watch, so you won't be using it to pay for your post-run snacks at the bodega on the way home from your practice 10K. It's also missing most of the popular fitness tracking apps because it's a proprietary system rather than Wear OS and some more advanced tracking tools like skin temperature or abnormal heartbeat detection. It's also three times as heavy as the Galaxy Watch 6.
That said, what it does have is the most durable body in a smartwatch we've seen under $1000, and the certifications to back it up. There are very few smartwatches out there that offer more than the basic IP68 and ATM5 waterproofing certifications and MIL-STD-810H "military-strength" durability — never mind that half the time, the brand doesn't even mention which actual tests inside 810H they're even using out of the dozens involved in the ridiculously long specification.
(If you ever need to put your brain to sleep, I invite you to go read the actual specification document for MIL-STD-810H. It's 1100 pages and covers a truly staggering range of durability tests for everything from sun exposure to nuclear bombs.)
Among the many specifications Amazfit lists, the temperatures are praiseworthy. Normally, we don't concern ourselves with the temperatures of a smartwatch other than "it's running so hot it's scalding my skin." But like outdoor cameras, the operating temperatures of a smartwatch matter once you're taking it with you on a desert hike or onto a ski course. Many electronics can stop working when it gets too cold outside, and if your watch overheats and shuts off while you're in the middle of your day hike, you could be in serious danger of not finding your way back before that heat exhaustion graduates to heat stroke and cooks your brain alive.
Will most of you be hiking in full sun in the July heat in the Sierra Nevadas? No. Will most of you be on the slopes for more than a couple of hours of skiing? No, but if heaven forbid you accidentally find yourself trapped on the mountain, the T-Rex Ultra will last longer to help you track your way back to base camp.
And with Prime Day bringing it down to the same price as those daintier Samsung watches, now is the time to invest in an ultra-sporty smartwatch that's as sporty and un-killable as you.
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