Amazfit’s new Garmin Fenix rival has solar charging on both sides to stretch battery life even further
The smartwatch solar race just got considerably more interesting
by Matt Kollat · T3
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Amazfit has been going after Garmin for years, and with its latest smartwatch, it's finally offering something the wearable giant can't match just yet.
The T-Rex Dual Solar is a new outdoor watch with solar charging surfaces on both the front and back.
The company describes it as the world’s first AMOLED sports watch with a dual-sided solar charging system, combining a 3,000-nit display with a second solar collector built into its glass-ceramic caseback.
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The rear charging area is more than twice the size of the front collector, although it obviously can’t harvest much light while the watch is being worn.
To address that, Amazfit includes a woven lanyard that lets you attach the T-Rex Dual Solar to a backpack, bag, or other outdoor gear.
This exposes the rear panel to sunlight and lets the watch keep harvesting energy when it isn’t on the wrist.
Two sides are better than one
Amazfit’s battery figures suggest the larger rear panel can make a sizeable difference under the right conditions.
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Typical battery life is rated at up to 25 days without solar charging.
With the front solar collector getting around 50,000 lux for three hours a day, that increases to 34 days, while the rear collector boosts it to up to as much as 51 days under the same conditions.
In Clock Mode, which switches off all-day heart-rate monitoring, the Bluetooth phone connection and other smartwatch functions, leaving only step counting and basic sleep tracking active, the watch can survive 15 days without solar.
This goes up to 92 days with the front solar panel and a whopping 424 days with the rear panel, again based on three hours per day at 50,000 lux.
Amazfit stresses that solar charging is designed to slow battery depletion and can't effectively charge the battery.
Solar charging can also be disabled when temperatures get too high, or the battery is nearly full.
Built for longer adventures
The unusual charging system is designed for trekking, climbing, and multi-day expeditions, where access to a conventional power source may be limited.
The specs back this up. The T-Rex Dual Solar has a 1.32-inch AMOLED display protected by sapphire crystal, a Grade 5 titanium bezel, 64GB of storage and 10 ATM water resistance.
It also supports recreational diving to depths of 50 metres and is designed to operate in temperatures as low as -30°C.
Navigation features include dual-frequency, six-satellite positioning, preloaded full-colour maps, contour maps, offline route planning and waypoints.
Amazfit also lists more than 180 sports modes, alongside Hybrid Training tools, Zepp Coach support and recovery features.
It also has a built-in flashlight with white and red modes, Bluetooth calling, offline MP3 playback, and Zepp Flow voice controls.
Pricing and wider availability for the Amazfit T-Rex Dual Solar are unconfirmed at the time of writing.
Head over to Amazfit for more information about the watch.
TOPICS
Garmin