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The Amazfit Bip smartwatch is down to $70

Think you can't afford a decent smartwatch? Think again. Here's why I'm still bullish on the Bip. Plus: four bonus deals!

Rick Broida Senior Editor
Rick Broida is the author of numerous books and thousands of reviews, features and blog posts. He writes CNET's popular Cheapskate blog and co-hosts Protocol 1: A Travelers Podcast (about the TV show Travelers). He lives in Michigan, where he previously owned two escape rooms (chronicled in the ebook "I Was a Middle-Aged Zombie").
Rick Broida
3 min read
amazfit-bip-black
Amazfit

The Amazfit Bip is an Apple Watch lookalike that's more like a Pebble under the hood -- and overall a pretty nice blend of the two. It normally sells for $100, but I've shared it at $80 and $75.

Today, and for a limited time, you can get the Amazfit Bip for $69.99 shipped with promo code CHEAPSKATE.

Because I've written about the Bip thrice before, I won't repeat myself at length here. I will say that Amazfit has partially addressed my main complaint: 24-hour digital watchfaces. Some of them now support 12-hour time, which is great. But why not all of them? Maybe a future firmware update will make that happen.

Watch this: The Amazfit Bip is a steal at $70

Actually, if you're an Android user, there are tons of third-party watchfaces you can install (analog and digital alike, 24- and 12-hour alike). It's not particularly easy, but it's do-able. iPhone users, alas, don't really have that option.

Another thing I like is the growing user community, which reminds me of Pebble days. Check out sites like Amazfit Central and Amazfit Watch Faces for faces (natch), tips, forums and the like.

Speaking of third-party stuff, hit up Amazon and eBay for a wide assortment of replacement bands, in all kinds of colors and styles. That's great, because the Bip itself is available in just four colors. You can really up the flair factor with some new bands.

For just $70, this is a pretty amazing product. As you've heard me mention, it has GPS, a heart-rate monitor, a reflective always-on display (which looks fantastic outdoors) and a battery that's good for up to 30 days. (In your face, Apple Watch!)

Yes, the screen is pretty low-res, and I miss being able to respond to notifications. But, hey, at this price, some compromises are to be expected.

Your thoughts?

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eMeet

Bonus deal: Did you know I share business-oriented deals over on ZDNet? My nom-de-deal there is Business Bargain Hunter.

Yesterday, for example, I wrote about the eMeet M2 Bluetooth conference speaker. Thanks to an exclusive discount code, it's $179 instead of $210. As I noted there, I was really impressed by the sound quality. It's orders of magnitude better than any smartphone or office phone.

Thought you might want to check it out!

Bonus deal No. 2: If you're a PlayStation 4 owner and you've been waiting for a good PlayStation VR deal, wait no longer: Dell Home has the PlayStation VR Headset Bundle for $239.99 shipped -- the lowest price to date (and even lower it was just a week ago).

The bundle includes not only the headset, two Move controllers and the PlayStation Camera, but also the "breathtaking" Skyrim VR. To put that in some perspective, the headset alone was $500 when it debuted in 2016.

Bonus deal No. 3: Game time! The top-rated World War I shooter Battlefield 1 is just $9.99 at Amazon, in the form of a digital-redemption code for Origin. Meanwhile, Fanatical is offering Batman Arkham Origins with Season Pass for just $3.99 -- that one gets redeemed on Steam.

Read GameSpot's Battlefield 1 and Batman reviews if you want to know more about both games.

More great E3 week gaming deals can be found here.

Bonus deal No. 4: Get a Nintendo Labo Robot Kit for $55.99!


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