Zepp Health has quietly pushed its first solar-powered smartwatch through five separate regulatory bodies in five weeks — and none of them have made the technical case easier to decode. The Amazfit T-Rex Dual Solar, confirmed by name in Malaysia’s SIRIM regulatory database, has now cleared Indonesia, South Korea, Malaysia, the Eurasian Economic Union, and, as of August 12, the FCC — making the watch’s launch essentially certain and its architecture still genuinely open.
What a shopper in the outdoor-watch market needs to understand before IFA 2026 opens in Berlin on September 4 is not just whether the device is coming (it is) but what “Dual Solar” actually means for battery life, display technology, and whether it can do something Garmin has spent six years proving is very hard to do.
The paper trail for the A2570 model began in Indonesia, where the Sertifikasi Indonesia database issued Amazfit certificate 125183 to PT Globaltama Sukses Makmur, listing an Amazfit-branded smartwatch manufactured in China. South Korea’s Radio Research Agency followed with verification code RC-hM6-A2570, granted August 4, naming Anhui Huami Information Technology Co., Ltd. as the applicant — the Chinese subsidiary that is Zepp Health’s operative hardware entity — and listing both China and Vietnam as countries of manufacture.
Malaysia’s SIRIM filing, approved August 3 under type approval code RDCX/40N/0726/S(26-4227), was the one that resolved the name question: the A2570 is the T-REX DUAL SOLAR. The Eurasian Economic Union registry added a fourth clearance. The FCC listed model A2570 on August 12, confirming Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and what appears to be dual-frequency GNSS; battery capacity and solar-panel specifications are held under confidentiality cover.
Five-territory simultaneous regulatory clearance is the standard final-stage signal for a product in production readiness. Devices in this profile typically surface in certification databases four to six weeks before an official announcement. IFA 2026 — the Berlin trade show where Amazfit launched the T-Rex 3 in 2024 — opens September 4 and is the most plausible reveal window.
The regulatory approvals did not appear without context. In June 2026, teardown analysis of the Zepp Health companion app surfaced solar-related code in Zepp app that had not previously appeared in the software. The discovered class names included SolarBatteryChargeRecord, alongside parameters for watch_face_input_power and case_back_input_power. The watch-face parameter was expected for a solar device. The case-back parameter was not.
A few weeks after the code discovery, an unidentified rugged watch appeared briefly on Amazfit Spain’s Instagram account. The device had the chunky round profile and red bezel accent associated with the T-Rex family but lacked the glossy finish that characterizes recent AMOLED-equipped T-Rex models. Observers noted the display appeared to be a lower-power panel — consistent with a solar-first design philosophy.
This is the part of the story that matters most to a buyer considering whether to wait.
Garmin has been shipping solar smartwatches since the Fenix 6 Solar in 2019 — and for six years, every one of them has used a Memory-in-Pixel (MIP) display rather than AMOLED. That is not a design preference; it is a physics constraint.
MIP displays are transflective — they reflect ambient light to render an image, and each pixel contains its own SRAM memory cell that retains its state without continuous refresh. A MIP display draws power only when pixels change. A static watchface in this mode costs almost nothing: total system consumption runs approximately 5 to 10 milliwatts. Against that baseline, photovoltaic cells producing 1 to 10 milliwatts per square centimeter can offset a meaningful share of the watch’s total power budget — and under the right conditions, tip the balance so the watch never depletes.
AMOLED displays work on a fundamentally different principle. Each pixel generates its own light, producing vivid color and deep blacks, but drawing 50 to 100 milliwatts while active. The same solar input that is transformative on a MIP watch is essentially irrelevant against an AMOLED display’s sustained draw.
Garmin has filed patents for solar-AMOLED integration but has never shipped a production device using it. The company has explicitly stated that solar over an AMOLED panel would not deliver meaningful energy gains. Suunto launched the Vertical 1 with solar and a MIP display, then released the Vertical 2 with AMOLED — and dropped solar entirely.
No production smartwatch has shipped a commercially viable solar-charging system paired with a primary AMOLED display.
Two architecturally distinct interpretations of “Dual Solar” have emerged since the Malaysia SIRIM filing named the device. Analysis of both is detailed in dual-display or dual-zone solar coverage by Notebookcheck.
The first, and currently more widely discussed, is that “Dual” refers to a hybrid display arrangement: an AMOLED panel for primary interaction — navigation maps, workout data, full-color visuals — paired with a low-power MIP secondary screen for always-on timekeeping and solar harvesting. This approach would be architecturally unprecedented in production smartwatches, but it would solve the core physics problem: solar cells paired with the MIP layer could harvest energy during the long periods when the AMOLED is off and the MIP is handling passive display duties. The MIP panel’s near-zero static draw is what makes solar contribution meaningful.
The second interpretation, supported directly by the case_back_input_power code parameter, is that “Dual” refers to two solar collection zones on a single-display design: photovoltaic elements embedded in both the watch face and the rear case. Rear-mounted solar cells might seem counterintuitive — the wrist faces down and ambient light does not routinely strike the caseback while worn — but the design is not impractical. Depending on chassis geometry, ambient light can reach the outer edges of the underside. More practically, when a watch is off-wrist and resting on a surface near a window, a rear solar array could harvest light that would otherwise go uncollected. An outdoor athlete leaving a watch on a table during a rest stop or tent meal would benefit from a rear-collection architecture that a face-only design would waste.
Garmin’s Gen 2 solar architecture — introduced with the Fenix 8 Solar and Enduro 3 in 2024 — concentrates cells exclusively on the bezel around the display, eliminating the semi-transparent central overlay that produced a reddish tint on earlier models and claiming up to five times the solar-charging power of previous generation models. The T-Rex Dual Solar, if it ships with rear cells, would be attempting something different from Garmin’s current production architecture — not just catching up.
This question deserves a direct technical answer for buyers comparing specifications.
Garmin’s benchmark for solar contribution assumes three hours per day at 50,000 lux — bright outdoor midday sunlight in an open environment. Under those conditions, Gen 2 solar hardware on an Instinct 3 Solar can achieve what Garmin designates as “unlimited” battery life in Max Battery GPS mode: the watch gains energy faster than it spends it. This is confirmed in the5krunner’s Garmin solar analysis.
Real-world conditions vary significantly. Wrist angle relative to the sun matters: output falls to approximately one-sixth of peak when the wrist points sideways. Cloud cover, canopy, and indoor use all reduce contribution. An experienced endurance athlete who has tested solar watches extensively has noted that for event planning purposes, solar contribution should be treated as a bonus rather than a planning variable — it can extend range meaningfully on multi-day outdoor routes in good conditions, but it cannot be counted on for a race where battery failure has consequences.
The relevant comparison figure: the T-Rex Ultra 2, Zepp Health’s current flagship ($549), carries an 870 mAh battery rated for up to 30 days of typical use without solar. Solar assistance on a device designed around genuinely low power consumption — particularly if the T-Rex Dual Solar uses a MIP secondary display for always-on states — could push that envelope considerably further.
Garmin built its solar advantage systematically. The Fenix 6 Solar (2019) introduced solar. The Fenix 8 Solar / Enduro 3 (2024) introduced Gen 2 — bezel-only cells, no display tint, five times the energy capture. The Instinct 3 Solar (January 2025) brought Gen 2 to the mid-tier lineup. The engineering moat is not just the solar lens; it is the complete system: the MIP display optimized for near-zero static draw, the Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) algorithms managing cell output, the elimination of external RAM on newer processors, the consolidated radio chips — six years of component decisions compounding into a power budget no competitor has yet replicated.
Amazfit has narrowed the feature gap on every other dimension. The T-Rex 3 Pro, at $299, offers a 1.5-inch AMOLED display, dual-band GPS, sapphire glass, titanium construction, and 10 ATM water resistance — specifications that match or exceed what Garmin sells at a significantly higher price. The T-Rex Ultra 2 pushed to $549 with Grade 5 titanium and additional sensor depth. Solar charging has been the one hardware capability that remained exclusively Garmin’s.
If the T-Rex Dual Solar ships with a solar architecture that delivers credible endurance gains — whether through the MIP hybrid or dual-zone approach — it erodes what is currently the last meaningful hardware-level differentiator between Garmin’s outdoor lineup and Amazfit’s. Zepp Health’s Q1 2026 revenue reached $51.5 million, up 33.8% year-over-year, with premium T-Rex models ($399 and $549) accounting for nearly half of all T-Rex unit sales in March and April, and average selling prices rising more than 20% year-over-year. The commercial momentum is already pointing toward the upper end of the outdoor market where Garmin’s solar products live.
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The T-Rex Dual Solar will collect location data through its dual-frequency GNSS receiver, workout history, heart rate and SpO₂ readings, sleep patterns, stress scores, and step counts. That is a substantial biometric and movement record. Before purchase, buyers should understand the fixed legal framework that governs how the hardware manufacturer handles that data.
Zepp Health Corporation is incorporated in the Cayman Islands as a holding company — with its principal executive offices in Gorinchem, the Netherlands — but the operative entity that designs, manufactures, and operates the hardware is Anhui Huami Information Technology Co., Ltd., headquartered in Hefei, Anhui, China. Under China’s National Intelligence Law (2017), Article 7, all organizations and citizens must support, assist, and cooperate with national intelligence work — an obligation that applies regardless of where a company is incorporated or where its servers are located. China’s Data Security Law (2021) and Cybersecurity Law (2017) add data localization and government-access provisions to the same framework.
Zepp Health’s own privacy policy explicitly acknowledges that “national security requests” can result in the disclosure of personal information. A Mozilla Foundation privacy audit of Amazfit devices found the company’s privacy documentation confusing and rated its overall privacy posture as a concern, specifically citing the national-security disclosure acknowledgment.
In June 2026, the US Senate Special Committee on Aging sent a Senate Aging Committee investigation letter requesting federal investigation into Chinese-manufactured wearable technology, naming Zepp Health and Amazfit specifically. The letter cited a peer-reviewed June 2025 study in the journal npj Digital Medicine that evaluated 17 wearable manufacturers across 24 privacy benchmarks and ranked Xiaomi — Zepp Health’s corporate ancestor — among the highest-risk vendors. The Senate letter is not a regulatory action and does not prohibit purchase; it signals that federal agencies are actively reviewing this category.
No independent security audit of Amazfit smartwatch firmware or data transmission practices has been published. That gap means buyers cannot verify independently whether the data the watch collects remains on their chosen regional server or is accessible to the parent entity under PRC law.
Practical steps that reduce — but cannot eliminate — the structural legal risk include placing Amazfit devices on a segregated IoT network that cannot reach primary home or work infrastructure, reviewing data minimization settings in the Zepp app, and understanding that app-level privacy settings do not modify the operative legal obligations of the hardware manufacturer. Network segmentation limits what a compromised or legally compelled device can access from your environment; it does not change the fact that the device’s data passes through systems subject to Chinese law.
Read more: Fitness Trackers Are a Subpoena Away: EFF Finds Only Apple Encrypts Health Data
The T-Rex Dual Solar fits inside a trajectory Zepp Health has publicly telegraphed. During its Q4 2025 earnings call, CFO Leon Deng confirmed nine new Amazfit products planned for 2026, with additional T-Rex family devices beyond the Ultra 2 explicitly mentioned. Q1 2026 revenue reached $51.5 million — up 33.8% year-over-year — with premium T-Rex models driving the growth.
Regulatory clearance across five jurisdictions simultaneously is a strong signal that hardware production is in its final stage. The standard lead time between this kind of certification sweep and an official announcement is four to six weeks. IFA 2026, running September 4 through 8 at Messe Berlin, falls within that window and has been Amazfit’s preferred venue for flagship outdoor watch debuts. Battery capacity, confirmed display configuration, solar charging specifications, and pricing will remain officially unknown until Zepp Health announces — but those details are unlikely to stay hidden for long.
The engineering question underneath the marketing name is the thing worth watching: whether “Dual Solar” delivers a hybrid AMOLED+MIP configuration that no production wearable has shipped, or a dual-zone collection architecture that expands solar harvesting to the rear case in a single-panel design. The answer will determine whether Amazfit has matched what Garmin spent six years building, or found a different route to the same destination.
The name is still ambiguous, and Zepp Health has not released specifications. Two hardware architectures are consistent with the name and the code evidence found in the Zepp app. The first is a hybrid display arrangement: an AMOLED primary panel combined with a low-power Memory-in-Pixel (MIP) secondary screen whose cells harvest solar energy during always-on states. The second is a dual-zone collection design: photovoltaic cells on both the watch face and the rear case, potentially benefiting off-wrist charging scenarios. Neither architecture has been confirmed. What is confirmed is that the app code referenced both watch_face_input_power and case_back_input_power — suggesting energy input from two distinct physical locations.
A MIP display draws power only when its pixels change state — a static watchface costs almost nothing to maintain, with total system consumption around 5 to 10 milliwatts. Photovoltaic cells on a wrist-worn device produce 1 to 10 milliwatts per square centimeter, which is enough to offset a meaningful share of MIP consumption and, under ideal conditions, prevent depletion entirely. An AMOLED display draws 50 to 100 milliwatts while active because each pixel generates its own light. The same solar input is effectively irrelevant against that sustained draw. This is why Garmin exclusively pairs solar with MIP panels in all production watches, and why Suunto removed solar from the Vertical 2 when it switched to AMOLED.
Five separate regulatory bodies — Indonesia, South Korea, Malaysia, the Eurasian Economic Union, and the US FCC — have cleared model A2570, which Malaysia’s SIRIM database named T-REX DUAL SOLAR. That level of simultaneous multi-territory regulatory clearance indicates hardware in final production readiness. Zepp Health has not issued an official announcement, price, or launch date. The IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin, running September 4 through 8, is the most probable announcement venue based on Zepp Health’s established pattern of using IFA for flagship outdoor watch debuts.
China’s National Intelligence Law (2017) requires all Chinese organizations to support, assist, and cooperate with national intelligence work on demand. This obligation applies to Anhui Huami Information Technology Co., Ltd. — the Chinese subsidiary that manufactures and operates Amazfit hardware — regardless of Zepp Health’s Cayman Islands incorporation or the Netherlands location of its principal offices, or the physical location of its servers. Zepp Health’s own privacy policy acknowledges that national security requests can result in disclosure of personal information. The US Senate Special Committee on Aging requested a federal investigation into Zepp Health and Amazfit specifically in June 2026. No independent security audit of Amazfit devices has been published. Buyers should weigh this fixed legal framework — not just app-level privacy settings — when deciding whether and how to use the device.
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