Amazfit Active Max review: Proof you don't need to spend big to train smart

The thing about budget wearables is that while they can look the part on paper, they often prove a bit of a let-down once they’re actually on the wrist.

You get drawn in by the feature list, strap it on, and before long, you realise you're wearing something that seems more like a toy next to the likes of Garmin watches or Apple's wearables. It's certainly a category that promises a lot but rarely follows through.

Amazfit has been challenging this notion for a while now, and with great success. The brand, backed by Zepp Health, has carved out a reputation for cramming a ridiculous number of features into watches that cost a fraction of the competition's.

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The Amazfit Active 2, which I also reviewed earlier, proved to be one of the better affordable wearables, and now the Active Max takes the same philosophy to the next level.

This time ‘round, you get a 1.5-inch AMOLED display with 3,000-nit peak brightness, up to 25 days of battery life, 4GB of onboard storage for maps and music, 170+ sport modes, NFC payments, and AI-driven coaching. All for a nibble under £170.

I've been wearing it for the past few weeks during runs, gym sessions, and daily life to see whether it's genuinely competitive or just another landfill-bound budget buy. Here's the verdict.

Amazfit Active Max review

Price and availability

The Amazfit Active Max is available now in the UK for £ 169.90, direct from Amazfit and online retailers such as Amazon. In the US, it's effectively even cheaper, priced at just $169.99 (£125!). There's only one colour option, though - a boring black - and it only comes in one size at 48.5mm, but at this price, who cares?

Compared to rivals, the Active Max’s price is considerably lower than that of cheaper models from Garmin, such as the Forerunner 165 (£249), the Apple Watch SE 3 (£249), or the Pace 3 by Coros (£199).

The closest Amazfit alternative is the aforementioned Active 2, which starts at around £99 but comes with a smaller screen, less storage, and shorter battery life.

At this price, the Active Max sits in a watch with flagship-level specs on paper, costing less than a decent pair of running trainers.

Specifications

• Screen: 1.5-inch AMOLED, 480 x 480, up to 3,000 nits
• Case Material: Aluminium alloy frame, polymer case
• Water Resistance: 5ATM (50m)
• Battery Life: Up to 25 days (typical use)
• Sports Modes: 170+
• Smart Features: Notifications, Zepp Pay (NFC), offline maps, music storage, voice assistant, calls
• Price: £169.90 / $169.99

Design and build quality

Let’s talk about looks. I’ll be honest, the Active Max isn't going to break the internet on looks alone. Its 48.5mm polymer-and-aluminium case is pretty chunky at 12.2mm thick, and the all-black colourway, while inoffensive, lacks much personality. It looks like a fitness tracker that's grown up a bit, rather than a watch you'd choose to wear for style.

That said, it's comfortable enough. At 39.5g without the strap, it's light and feels good on the wrist, and is even comfy enough to sleep in, probably thanks to its pivoted lug design, which means it sits naturally on the wrist rather than jutting up awkwardly.

The smooth 22mm silicone strap helps here too, with a simple pin buckle and ventilated sections for breathability. This is also swappable, by the way, so you can switch it out for something a bit more interesting if the stock band doesn't do it for you.

The Active Max’s 1.5-inch AMOLED display is the main design highlight here. It's bright, punchy and properly readable outdoors, even in direct sunlight.

That 3,000-nit peak brightness figure matches the Apple Watch Ultra 3, which costs nearly five times as much. Colours are vivid, the touchscreen is responsive, and the always-on option looks decent if you're willing to trade some battery life.

Build quality is perfectly acceptable for the money. I wouldn't call it premium, but nothing felt flimsy or cheap during testing. The 5ATM water resistance covers swimming and showers, and the watch held up well during sweaty gym sessions and a few rainy Manchester runs without issue.

Finally, it’s a pretty straightforward setup here in terms of operation - there are just two physical buttons, both on the right side, which handle navigation alongside the touchscreen. The top button wakes the watch and opens the main menu, while the bottom gives quick access to workouts. It's simple, but it works.

Features and performance

This is where the Active Max earns its keep: the feature list for a watch at this price is shocking, but in a good way.

Fitness tracking covers over 170 sport modes, from the obvious (running, cycling, swimming) to the niche (HYROX, snow shovelling, sepak takraw, if that's your thing).

There's automatic workout recognition for eight activities, and the strength training mode can detect reps, sets and rest periods across 25 different exercises.

In practice, I found the auto-detection worked well enough for standard gym movements, though it occasionally miscounted reps on less common exercises. Most smartwatches do that from time to time, I’ve found (even the Garmin Venu 4, which costs more than three times as much!).

Heart rate tracking from the Active Max’s BioTracker PPG sensor seems pretty good for the price. During steady runs and gym sessions, readings were consistent and in keeping with those from other wearables I've used.

Like all wrist-based sensors, it can drift a bit during high-intensity intervals, but for everyday training, it's more than good enough.

The 4GB of onboard storage is another bonus. You can load offline maps for hiking and skiing, store music for phone-free runs, and there's podcast support too. For a sub-£200 watch, that's exceptional.

However, there had to be a downside to the performance of a fitness watch this affordable, and that has to be the Active Max’s GPS capabilities. It uses single-band GNSS rather than the dual-band setup you'll find on pricier Amazfit models and most competitors above £200.

In practice, this means routes are generally fine for casual tracking but can drift off roads and paths, and distance figures tend to be a bit off. If you're training for a specific pace target or care about accurate splits, you might notice, but for general fitness logging, it's perfectly acceptable.

As a day-to-day smartwatch, the Active Max covers the basics. Notifications come through clearly, you can take calls via the built-in speaker and mic, and Zepp Pay gives you contactless payments in the UK. There's also voice control via Zepp Flow, though it's fairly basic.

What you won't get is a proper app ecosystem, and the Zepp companion app, while functional, still feels a bit cluttered and less polished than Garmin Connect or Apple's Health app, as you’d probably expect.

Battery life on the Active Max is genuinely outstanding. Amazfit quotes up to 25 days in typical use, and while that figure assumes fairly conservative settings, I comfortably got over 10 days with raise-to-wake enabled, regular notifications, and a few GPS workouts per week.

With the always-on display running, you're still looking at about a week. For the price of this thing, that’s outright brilliant, in my opinion.

Verdict

The Amazfit Active Max is a perfect example of a smartwatch that makes you question what you're actually paying for when you buy something from a rival that’s three times the price. The display is excellent, the battery life is superb, the fitness tracking is detailed and super useful, and features like offline maps, NFC payments and onboard music storage are bonuses you simply don't expect at £170.

It's not perfect, of course. The design is more practical than pretty; the single-band GPS can't match pricier alternatives in accuracy; and the Zepp app still needs work. If you want a watch that looks as good as it tracks, or you need pinpoint GPS data for training, you'll be better served by a Garmin Forerunner series for a bit more money.

But if you want a capable, feature-rich fitness watch that won't drain your bank account or your battery, the Active Max is a seriously impressive package. For the price, I'm not sure there's anything better out there right now.