Amazfit PowerBuds Pro Review: Surprisingly Great True Wireless Earbuds with Integrated Fitness Tracking

We test a lot of earbuds around here. We also test a lot of fitness equipment. In a slightly strange crossover, we’re taking a look today at the Amazfit PowerBuds Pro, which combines quality headphones with fitness tracking. Are these the ultimate in workout headphones? Let’s dive in and find out!

It’s not hard to see that Amazfit took some inspiration from Apple’s Airpods; the PowerBuds Pro come in an oblong white charging case and are true wireless earbuds with little white stems. The case can be charged via USB-C and provides up to 30 hours of battery life.

The earbuds themselves are IP55 dust and water-resistant, so water-resistant, not waterproof. You’re good if you sweat buckets, but don’t take them swimming. Amazfit thoughtfully includes several earplugs so you can dial in your fit properly.

Crayon for scale

We’ll get to all the fitness goodies that Amazfit crammed in soon. But none of that matters if the headphones don’t sound good, right? So let’s start there because these earbuds are amazing. Right out of the box, the Amazfit PowerBuds Pro sounded great, and you can tweak the noise cancellation and other metrics in the app if you like.

I spend pretty much all day on the phone when I’m working, and when I’m home, I try to use the headphones I’m reviewing to give them a good torture test. I had several people tell me I sounded especially clear when I used the Amazfit PowerBuds Pro; unprompted, two or three people commented, “wow, you sound really clear today, I guess you’re in the office?” They were surprised to hear I was calling them from home!

I also found that they’re very comfortable to wear for long periods of time. Sometimes keeping earbuds in too long can make my ears ache, but I left the PowerBuds in almost all day on Friday and didn’t really notice!

Answering calls or interacting are as simple as tapping the Amazfit PowerBuds Pro’s stem to answer the call. It’s touch-based and not a button, which is how I ended up hanging up on my coworker once because I accidentally hit it twice! Once you avoid the itchy trigger finger issue, it’s easy to use taps to interface with the earbuds quickly. The Zepp app lets you control active noise cancellation and “thru mode,” which does the opposite and lets you hear what’s going on around you.

So the Amazfit PowerBuds Pro works great as just earbuds, but the real hook is in the various health and fitness features they’ve also added. You can connect these via Bluetooth and use them as-is anytime.

But when you’re ready to work out with a run, bike ride, or walk, fire up the Zepp app, and suddenly you’ve got a treasure trove of tracking and heart rate information. You get all the usual metrics like distance, cadence, heart rate, but it’s all measured via the earbuds instead of on your wrist.

The app will pipe up if your heart rate gets above a certain level, and it will update you on your distance every mile, or you can tap the earbud to get an update anytime. You can also set the earbuds to give you an alert if you bend your neck too far out of alignment with cervical protection.

I found the Amazfit’s distance and heart rate measurements very similar to the same readings as my Apple Watch on a recent walk. If you’re using them for running, walking, or biking, they’re a great way to combine music with tracking. I wish they worked for more activities than those three, though; it would be nice to get the heart rate measuring features while lifting weights or using a rowing machine, for example.

Even with the thru-mode enabled, I personally don’t love running or biking with earbuds in for safety reasons, so I’d love to be able to get the same health data off what I usually do when I work out at home. Amazfit tracks a slew of activities through their watches, so they definitely have more in their database. Iit would be great to see the tracked exercises expand in a future update.

Still, if you’re more of a cardio user, these do a great job. I could see them being very useful if you’re the type that wants the data, but you don’t want to have it strapped to your wrist as a constant distraction.

At $149.99, the Amazfit PowerBuds Pro skirts close to the price of AirPods. But they’re offering longer battery life and fitness tracking, so that does give them a feature boost over the competition.

Here’s the real deciding factor for me, though: I have multiple sets of headphones and earbuds lying around, and since I started testing the Amazfit PowerBuds Pro, they’ve been my go-to choice! The one-two punch of excellent sound quality for both music and voice calls combined with the comfortable earbuds and bonus fitness features makes these my new favorites, and they might end up being yours too!

The Amazfit PowerBuds Pro retail for $149.99; they are available directly from the manufacturer.

Source: Manufacturer provided review sample

What I Liked: Comfortable fit; Excellent microphone quality; Long battery life; Accurate heart rate measurement; They sound great!

What Needs Improvement: It would be nice if more fitness activities tracking were available; The Zepp app is still limited in 3rd party connections