Update: You can now read our full Zepp E review for our first thoughts on this brand new smartwatch.
The Zepp E smartwatch has gone live, with two designs and a host of biometric and fitness features.
The two watches are the Zepp E Circle and Zepp E Square and we now have a release date and pricing.
For those that don't remember, Zepp was big in the early days of wearables for making sensors for things like golf and baseball.
It was pretty good (and niche) stuff, until the company was bought out by Amazfit's parent company Huami, which also has a partnership with Xiaomi.
And now it seems Zepp is ready for its second life.
Update: This article was updated on 19 August with details on the release date and pricing.
After rumors and sightings at the FCC, the Zepp E smartwatch has gone live on the company’s web site. It's set to cost and will be released on 25 August in the US.
There are two smartwatch designs in the Zepp E range: the Square and Circle.
Each device is available in black, grey and blue with the Zepp E Circle getting a champagne gold option. There are multiple strap options, too.
The Zepp E Square uses a 1.65-inch AMOLED display with a 348x442, 341ppi screen inside a 43mm case.
The specs mirror the Amazfit GTS almost exactly, but there’s a re-designed button on the right bezel.
However, the Zepp E Circle isn’t a re-hash of the Amazfit GTR, and looks like a newly designed device.
It has a 1.28-inch, 326ppi 416x416 screen inside a slim 42mm case. It’s rounded and sleek, with no dominant bezel, and a sleek button on the right-hand side. It’s not something we’ve seen from Amazfit or Xiaomi to date.
Both Zepp E smartwatches boast a heart rate monitor loaded with an SpO2 sensor for the measuring of blood oxygen. There’s also 24/7 stress monitoring too, which is something we’ve seen introduced on the Xiaomi Mi Band 5.
Like the Mi Band 5 and newer Amazfit smartwatches there’s the use of the PAI score, which rates your weekly fitness activity with a single score.
It’s simultaneously really easy to understand and a little abstract – but it’s been developed from a validated medical study so you can rest assured it’s doing the job.
Sleep tracking also takes a leaf out of the Mi Band 5's book, with REM sleep tracking, sleep analysis and the ability to record and analyse naps longer than 20 mins.
There are 11 sports modes that will be familiar to any user of Xiaomi and Amazfit devices. It's waterproof and will track swimming, as well as running, trail running, cycling, elliptical and more. We can't see GPS listed on the spec sheet, but would be astonished if this feature was missing.
It's also a shame that none of Zepp’s old features make it to the watch. There’s no golf or baseball modes, and while the accelerometer used by Huami likely wouldn’t be accurate enough for Zepp’s golf/baseball swing analysis, it would have been nice to retain an app for on-course distances, for example.
And that could count against the Zepp E when it’s launched.
We feel that Huami’s purchase of Zepp is to get more traction in the US, similar to what it’s done with the license for the Timex Metropolitan smartwatches. Those are pretty similar again, with a simple re-hashing of the GTS and GTR with some more premium materials.
Zepp was hardly was household name in the US, so the decision not to follow on with any of the sports tracking it was known for seems unusual.
But the Zepp E range becomes another smartwatch with a strong spec sheet of health and fitness features that’s set to land at the end of 2020.
Add that to the mix with Samsung Galaxy Watch 3, Amazfit GTS 2, Oppo Watch and Apple Watch Series 6 and there’s going to be serious choice.
We'll be getting our hands on the Zepp E for a full review soon.
How we test
James is the co-founder of Wareable, and he has been a technology journalist for 15 years.
He started his career at Future Publishing, James became the features editor of T3 Magazine and T3.com and was a regular contributor to TechRadar – before leaving Future Publishing to found Wareable in 2014.
James has been at the helm of Wareable since 2014 and has become one of the leading experts in wearable technologies globally. He has reviewed, tested, and covered pretty much every wearable on the market, and is passionate about the evolving industry, and wearables helping people achieve healthier and happier lives.