Industry News
Quick Verdict
If you have been holding off on an Amazfit because something better might land before Christmas, Zepp Health has given you your answer, and it is mostly no. On the Q2 2026 earnings call, CFO Leon Deng said the company is almost done launching for the year, with only one or two more products expected before 2026 ends. The single credible candidate is a solar version of the T-Rex. The other thing Deng said matters more to most buyers: there are no plans to charge for core features, and he framed free professional features as a competitive advantage rather than a missed subscription opportunity. In a year when nearly every rival added or raised a monthly fee, that is a real answer to a real question.
Now the catch, and it is in the numbers rather than the roadmap. Zepp's own release shows revenue up 6.9% to $63.5 million with gross margin improving to 37.4%, but net loss attributable to Zepp widened to $11.3 million from $7.7 million a year earlier, and Q3 guidance of $68 million to $73 million sits below the $75.8 million Zepp did in Q3 2025. That is a company spending hard to hold a subscription-free position while the top line goes sideways. Free forever is a promise, not a contract, and the honest way to buy an Amazfit today is to buy the hardware you want at the price on the tag rather than to buy a pledge about 2028.
What Zepp Actually Reported
These figures come from Zepp Health's own second quarter release, not from anyone's summary of it.
| Metric | Q2 2026 | Q2 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $63.5 million | About $59.4 million (implied by the 6.9% growth) |
| Gross margin | 37.4% | 36.2% |
| Net loss attributable to Zepp | $11.3 million | $7.7 million |
| Cash, equivalents and restricted cash | $106.3 million (as of June 30, 2026) | $95.3 million |
| Next quarter guidance | $68.0 million to $73.0 million | Q3 2025 actual was $75.8 million |
Run the guidance math and the shape is clear. The top of the range, $73 million, is still about 3.7% below last year's third quarter. The bottom, $68 million, is about 10.3% below it. So Zepp is telling investors to expect a down quarter on revenue after an up quarter, which is an unusual thing to guide to in the run up to holiday selling.
Chairman and CEO Wayne Huang's framing in the release is that "The quality of our growth and the structure of our product portfolio continued to improve," and Deng's is that the shift in the product mix "is beginning to yield tangible financial benefits." Both of those are defensible readings of a 1.2 point gross margin gain. Neither addresses the loss getting bigger. Gadgets and Wearables, reading the same call, reports adjusted selling and marketing costs at $18.2 million against $12 million a year ago and an adjusted operating loss of $11.1 million against $4.9 million. That is where the money went.
The Subscription Question, Answered Directly
This is the part worth quoting carefully, because it is the reason a lot of people shortlist Amazfit at all.
Per the5krunner's write-up of the call, Deng said there are "no plans to" charge for core features and described "free professional features" as "a competitive advantage, not a missed subscription opportunity." We did not fetch a transcript, so treat those as the call as reported rather than as a filed statement, and note that the earnings release itself says nothing about subscriptions either way.
The important nuance is what "core" means, because the Zepp app is not entirely free today. The5krunner's read is that the app already carries subscription-style sleep and stress management features, while training, recovery and the HYROX tools stay free. That is a coherent line and it is worth stating plainly: Amazfit is not a company with no paid software, it is a company that has so far kept the metrics you buy the hardware for outside the paywall. Recovery scores and training load are free. Some of the sleep and stress coaching layer is not.
Set that against the market. Whoop has no hardware you can use without paying monthly. Garmin put one of its quarterly features behind a $6.99 per month Connect+ tier. Google's Pixel Watch 5 AI Health Coach costs $9.99 per month. Against that backdrop, "training and recovery stay free" is a genuine differentiator, and it is close to the entire pitch of the Helio Strap. We compared that device against the obvious rival in Amazfit Helio Strap versus Whoop, and our Helio review covers how the free tier actually behaves in daily use.
The caveat we will not skip: a CFO saying "no plans to" on an earnings call is a statement of current intent from a company posting a widening loss. It is not a commitment. Companies that were free until they were not usually also had no plans, right up until the quarter they did.
What Is Left to Launch This Year
Deng's line, per Gadgets and Wearables, is that Zepp is "almost done with new product launches for the year," with "1 or 2" more to come. The two write-ups count the year so far slightly differently, which is worth flagging rather than smoothing over: Gadgets and Wearables says roughly six or seven launches happened in Q2 alone, while the5krunner counts nine products released against original guidance of ten or more launches in 2026. Either way, the runway left is short.
On what those one or two are, the two sources agree on the direction. The T-Rex Dual Solar is the stronger bet. The5krunner points to a regulatory filing listing model A2570 and a "Solar Boost Mode" reference inside the Zepp app, which is the kind of evidence that usually precedes a launch by weeks rather than quarters. Gadgets and Wearables notes the T-Rex range already accounts for roughly half of activations, so a solar variant is the commercially obvious next move.
The Falcon 2 looks stalled. The5krunner reports no new evidence since April 2026 and describes an engineering problem that is easy to picture: combining premium materials with an antenna that still delivers good GPS. The cited example is the Balance 3, where titanium construction reportedly dragged GPS accuracy down to 77% from 85%. Metal cases and satellite reception have always fought each other. If you are waiting on a Falcon 2, you are waiting on a physics problem, not a marketing calendar.
Zepp's own release describes the quarter's launches as spanning professional running, Hybrid Training, entry-level smartwatches and screen-free fitness and health wearables, which lines up with the Balance 3, Helio Strap and Bip products the coverage names.
The Supply Problem Nobody Puts on the Box
Here is the detail that changes buying advice. Gadgets and Wearables reports management naming supply constraints as a drag on Q2 and on the Q3 outlook, specifically for the Balance 3, the Helio Strap and the Bip line, and says Helio Strap demand ran ahead of available supply.
That is the more useful explanation for the soft guidance than any story about demand. A company guiding down while telling you it cannot make enough of three products is describing a manufacturing ceiling, not a shopper problem. For you, it means two practical things. If the Helio Strap is the one you want, buy it when you see it in stock rather than waiting for a sale that a supply-constrained product has less reason to run. And if a listing shows an unusual delay or a third-party seller at a markup, that is the constraint showing up at retail, not a deal.
Should You Wait or Buy Now
Buy now if you want a Helio Strap, a Balance 3, a Bip or anything in the current T-Rex range. The lineup for 2026 is effectively set, the pricing is not being restructured around a subscription, and waiting buys you nothing except a chance the thing you wanted is out of stock.
Wait if you specifically want solar. The T-Rex Dual Solar has a regulatory filing and a software reference behind it, which is about as close to confirmed as an unannounced product gets, and buying a standard T-Rex weeks before a solar sibling appears is the one avoidable mistake on this list.
Look elsewhere if you were holding out for the Falcon 2. There is no evidence it is close. If the appeal was a premium metal multisport watch, that decision is really a platform decision, and our Garmin versus Apple Watch Ultra versus Coros comparison is the more honest place to start than waiting on a watch with no filings behind it.
And if what actually drew you to Amazfit was the absence of a monthly fee rather than any particular watch, the category is wider than one brand. Our roundup of no subscription alternatives covers the field, and Amazfit Helio Ring versus Oura covers the same trade in ring form.
Where Vora Fits
Amazfit's free tier and Vora solve adjacent problems, so it is worth being precise about the boundary. Zepp gives you good hardware and a free app that scores your training and recovery inside its own walls. Vora does not talk to watches directly at all. We read from Apple Health and Health Connect, which means Amazfit data reaches us to the extent the Zepp app writes it into those stores on your phone, and Zepp's own computed coaching output stays in Zepp by design.
That is the honest limit, and it is the same limit that applies to Garmin, Fitbit and everyone else. Before you count on a specific metric showing up, check what actually crosses over. Our integrations page lists what we read today, and which wearable metrics actually sync to Apple Health covers the gap between what a device measures and what it exports, which is usually larger than the box implies.
The reason any of this matters is that a subscription-free watch only stays cheap if the software you eventually want is also free. Buying Amazfit hardware and pairing it with something that reads your phone's health store is the version of this that does not put you back on a monthly bill in eighteen months. If you are weighing that path, the screenless tracker roundup covers where the Helio Strap sits against the rest of the field.