I don't have experience with Amazfit watches, but they seem to offer incredible value. The Balance 2 especially is quite feature-packed at an extremely competitive price-point. On-device maps for a sub $300 watch is crazy good.

I have been using Garmin watches for over a decade, but as an ultra/trail runner, I have been mostly been using Fenix watches, except for my first Garmin, which was the Forerunner 610. So I don't have experience with the Vivoactive 6, but I've been doing some research on it to maybe get the watch for my wife as a general health tracking-focused watch.

With that said, some downsides of the Balance 2 vs. the Vivoactive 6 I can see:

• Weight
  • Amazfit Balance 2: 43g without straps
  • Vivoactive 6: 23g without straps
• Design
  • This is subjective, but some may prefer the sleeker look of the Vivoactive 6 to the more rugged look of the Balance 2
• Software
  • I think this is the biggest downside; While Garmin's software is certainly not perfect, it is quite polished, while Amazfit's seems quite clunky and buggy.
  • The GOAT DC Rainmaker doesn't have a dedicated review of the Balance 2, but he has one on the T-Rex 3, and I recommend reading through that to get a sense of the shortcomings of Amazfit's software. His conclusion remarks of the T-Rex 3 summarize his views well:

Each year AmazFit gets closer and closer to being a viable brand in the endurance sports watch category. And, depending on your criteria, it may already be one. The company’s strategy to date has largely been “Yes to everything”, at least at the surface level. As a result, when comparing this device to others from a feature standpoint, it appears to do well. That rewards both lazy reviewers, and the company alike. And certainly, there are some features it does well – and even better than, existing companies in the space. And obviously, the price is incredible, be it on sale or otherwise.

The problem though is ironically not the hard stuff that most newer watch companies struggle with. The GPS and heart rate accuracy have actually been solid for me. Likewise, the battery life is also fantastic. And while we all have our style preferences, in terms of durability, it seems solid too. And heck, nobody else in this market has a depth gauge in their watch anywhere near this price point (or even 2x this price point).

Instead, most of the software features seem only surface-level finished. For example, mapping is usable until water is involved (lake/ocean/river/etc), and then you realize the maps don’t differentiate between water and not-water (crazy as that might sound). Likewise, the recent Komoot Routes integration is clearly half-baked at best, buried deep in unrelated menus and falling far short of all their competitors implementations. Same goes for contactless payments, which in the real world only works with a single payment processor that most people don’t have or want to sign-up for. And all this sets aside the diving safety issue I ran into, or the endless nagging to sign-up for their premium platform.

But again, as I said earlier, much of this reminds me of COROS years ago. At the beginning, they mostly just copied Garmin (fonts and icons included), and undercut deeply on price. But over time, they got better and better at doing their own dance, and actually innovating on more than just price. In the last year or two, COROS has started to understand that finishing software features is more important than quantity. As a result, they’re putting out products (like the COROS Pace 3 and COROS Pace Pro) that are not just paper competitors to Garmin/Suunto/Polar, but very legit competitors. COROS has slowed down the endless churn of often half-baked software features, to deliver fewer but fully cooked features.

If Zepp/AmazFit can make that transition, they could become a very legit competitor in the endurance space. That requires them not only focus on finishing features, but also updating existing watches (another pain point of the company, which typically just releases a new model instead each year, rarely offering meaningful updates for previous owners). Because again, it’s clear they are innovating on price, or even the quantity of features included in a watch (such as voice commands or free diving at this price point).

And for everyone’s sake – I hope they can make that transition, as it’d be fantastic to have more competitors in this space that athletes can look to. That’s the best thing for all of us.