The Zepp E is a great first device for the Zepp brand, with only a few annoyances.
You might not know the name ‘Zepp’, as the Zepp E is the first smartwatch with the branding, but you might recognize ‘Amazfit’, which the company was called before it rebranded. Amazfit was a popular maker of affordable and commendable smartwatches and fitness trackers, and its rebranding came alongside a push into a more mid-range and high-end market. So the Zepp E is a fairly mid-priced smartwatch, for people who don’t want the cheapest wearable available but don’t want to stretch to a truly premium wrist-mounted life companion, and it’s pretty great for what it is. The Zepp E looks fantastic – it has a subtle two-tone design (at least, the model we tested did), an understated body, and a very minimalist feel that makes it blend into your outfit. It’s lightweight too, enough for you to forget you’re wearing it, which is perfect for exercising or sleeping. We found the Zepp E great for exercising as it provides detailed feedback from activities, which helps you get insight into your fitness. It also shows you a little map of your workout if you go for a run or a walk, which is interesting if not necessarily game-changing. There are a few other health features here too – sleep tracking is included for example, and is detailed enough to chart the distinction in your different types of sleep and give feedback on how you can improve your napping. There’s also automatic heart rate charting and built-in Personal Activity Intelligence (PAI) tracking, which takes a bit of research to understand but can be useful once you do. In fact, most of the issues we had with the Zepp E smartwatch were just minor gripes that not everyone will care about. There’s only one band included in the box, leather or fluoroelastomer depending on which you opt for, and we’d have liked multiple so you can switch between them based on whether you’re working out or using the watch normally. In addition the software is perhaps a little barebones, as there’s no dedicated night mode, so to avoid blinding yourself at night you have to fiddle with quite a few different modes to stop the watch auto-waking when you twitch, and the music handling was also tricky to get working. It’s worth pointing out that there are two versions of the Zepp E, one is circular and another is square, and we tested the former for this review. We’ll point out where the devices are different when it’s relevant. This smartwatch is a great first showing for Zepp, and we’re looking forward to where the brand can go from here. The Zepp E costs $249.99 / £209 (roughly AU$370). The smartwatch hasn’t been announced for Australia, but some Amazfit devices reached there, so it’s possible the Zepp E will too. At that price it’s definitely not the cheapest smartwatch worth considering, but it’s more affordable than the likes of the Apple Watch 6 or Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 which start at $399 / £379 / AU$599 and $399 / £399 / AU$649 respectively. The square and circle versions of the Zepp E both cost the same; likewise, you won’t pay more for the leather or fluoroelastomer versions, or any of the various color options that you can get for each type of strap (the straps come in different colors, but the body seems to always be the same). The Zepp E was meant to go on sale on September 1, but while it has now arrived in the UK (albeit later than the announced date) at the time of writing we can’t find it for sale in the US; we’ll update this article when that changes. The circular Zepp E has a 1.28-inch screen with a 416 x 416 resolution, while the square model has a 1.65-inch 348 x 442 screen. Both versions of the smartwatch have AMOLED screens, which looks bright and punchy – you can choose custom photos for the watch face if you want, and the screen did justice to the snaps we used for this. The Zepp E consists of the main body and a replaceable strap. The version we tested only came with a leather strap, which wasn’t ideal for exercising, and won’t be great for people who want cruelty-free watch straps, but you can also buy the watch with a fluoroelastomer band if you want. For what it’s worth, the band felt quite comfortable on the wrist, though the leather felt a bit weak – it started to show permanent creases the more we used it.
