It's listed at half the price of an Apple Watch or Garmin, with a battery that can last almost a month. So, what's the trade-off?

Vanessa Hand Orellana Lead Writer

Vanessa is a lead writer at CNET, reviewing and writing about the latest smartwatches and fitness trackers. She joined the brand first as an on-camera reporter for CNET's Spanish-language site, then moved on to the English side to host and produce some of CNET's videos and YouTube series. When she's not testing out smartwatches or dropping phones, you can catch her on a hike or trail run with her family.

Expertise Consumer Technology, Smart Home, Family, Apps, Wearables

3 min read

Amazfit is supercharging its sports watch lineup with the Active Max, a new smartwatch that promises nearly a month of battery life and sports-watch level fitness chops. Launched ahead of CES 2026 as part of the wave of Consumer Electronics Show announcements, the Active Max builds on Amazfit's existing Active line with a larger, brighter display and a bigger battery along with training and recovery tools typically reserved for far more expensive watches.

At $169, it's at least $100 cheaper than comparable sport watches from Apple, Google, Samsung and Garmin, though it doesn't quite match the steal-level value of the $80 Amazfit Bip 6, our favorite budget smartwatch of 2025.

Amazfit has built a reputation for making competitive smartwatches with many of the same core health and fitness features as big-name flagships but at a fraction of the price. Because Amazfit runs its own Zepp OS, pairing isn't as seamless as watches tied to their phones' operating systems, but the payoff is cross-platform compatibility with both Android and iPhone.

Bright screen and big battery

The Active Max has a 1.5-inch AMOLED display with up to 3,000 nits of peak brightness. It's framed in an aluminum-and-plastic case, weighs 35.3 grams, and is water-resistant up to 5 ATM.