Amazfit Cheetah 2 Ultra Smartwatch Review (2026): Solid Off-Road Performer

Strong suite of sports and mapping features. Good artillery life. Useful elevation changes information screen.

ZeppOS bundle remains a spot excessively busy. Smartwatch features don’t lucifer up to competition. Not arsenic affordable arsenic astir different Amazfit smartwatches.

Zepp Health, the institution down the Amazfit brand, has made immoderate omniscient decisions with its propulsion into smartwatches—like getting successful aboriginal with the hybrid fittingness crowd. It remains 1 of the fewer smartwatch brands to connection dedicated modes for Hyrox grooming and racing. Zepp Health's main draw, though, is offering desirable features for a batch little than the competition.

Even arsenic the marque dips a toed into the premium extremity of the smartwatch marketplace with the Amazfit Cheetah 2 Ultra, its astir costly exemplary yet, it inactive manages to undercut Garmin, Suunto, and Apple.

The Cheetah 2 Ultra is simply a ticker pitched astatine way runners, with the capableness to show overmuch much than pace, time, and distance. It includes multi-band GPS (which the marque calls dual-band) to way movements with accrued precision. You tin glimpse down astatine elaborate colour maps and trail-running-centric data, and it offers 80 hours of artillery beingness successful ultra-trail-running mode, much than capable to screen the mean decorativeness clip astatine Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc.

It does outgo conscionable shy of $600, and that’s not the pricing norm for Amazfit smartwatches. The adjacent priciest exemplary aft the Cheetah 2 Ultra is the T-Rex 3, which is astir $200 cheaper but has little artillery beingness and retention space. The Amazfit scope is already extensive, and the T-Rex meets akin needs for way runners and outdoor lovers. So bash we truly request the Cheetah 2 Ultra?

Slim Profile

While I don’t deliberation you’d mistake the Cheetah 2 Ultra arsenic a Garmin Fenix clone, it’s intelligibly playing from a akin plan playbook.

There’s a grade-5 titanium lawsuit to springiness it a hardy metallic assemblage without the added heft you get from stainless steel. There are some silicone and nylon straps included, with sapphire solid laid connected apical of an AMOLED show for optimal scratch protection.

It’s a ticker that doesn’t shriek outdoors successful the aforesaid mode that a Fenix oregon Suunto Vertical 2 does. That seems to beryllium a deliberate play to springiness the Cheetah 2 Ultra a illustration overmuch person to a roadworthy moving ticker than a hiking oregon climbing behemoth. As a runner, I tin accidental I appreciated the much streamlined look. That's not to accidental it can't grip tough, off-road conditions, though. The Cheetah 2 Ultra passed subject people durability investigating for aspects specified arsenic vibration and impact, and it tin beryllium operated successful precocious and debased temperatures.

Talking astir surface brightness is precise on-trend, and Zepp Health delivers present too. The Cheetah 2 Ultra has a highest brightness of 3,000 nits, matching the Apple Watch Ultra 3 for luminosity. I did find the screens connected Apple’s Watch Ultra and Garmin’s Fenix 8 Pro’s punchier successful examination erstwhile utilized successful overmuch sunnier outdoor light, adjacent with the Cheetah 2 Ultra's surface acceptable to its maximum brightness.

Another inclination connected smartwatches is flashlights. This 1 sits astatine the apical of the ticker lawsuit and is bully and bright, with scope to set the brightness and power to a red-light mode. That’s been perfect erstwhile I’ve wanted a little intrusive yet inactive penetrative root of light. I recovered it peculiarly utile connected nighttime runs and portion rummaging astir my flat looking for the charging cablegram without turning the main airy on.

Fit for Trails

While this is simply a smartwatch that tin way activities similar play and open-water swims and besides has profiles for different outdoor sports similar upland biking, Zepp Health wants this chiefly to beryllium connected the wrists of way runners. Specifically, way runners who similar to tackle large climbs and enactment retired for days successful unpredictable upwind conditions.

As good arsenic utilizing it connected my section trails and regular moving routes I besides had the accidental to trial the Cheetah 2 Ultra retired astir Snowdon successful North Wales. This is wherever you’ll find 1 of the highest mountains successful the United Kingdom. I did a substance of moving and hiking up immoderate steep climbs, taking successful immoderate of the people of the UTMB Snowdonia race. The elevation summation connected the people ranges from 3,400 to 9,200 meters.

It was a premier accidental to spot if features similar GPS, mapping, navigation, and artillery beingness were up to the task. I wore Garmin’s Fenix 8 Pro connected my different wrist to comparison information and spot whether a $600 ticker could lucifer up to a $1,200 one. I’m blessed to corroborate the Cheetah 2 Ultra much than held its own.

The Cheetah 2 Ultra grabbed a GPS awesome swiftly, and the 2 watches produced akin information for basal information specified arsenic full region traveled. Zepp Health uses multi-band GPS exertion similar galore different watches to supply reliable tracking successful much challenging GPS awesome environments. As I’ve discovered, not each multi-band GPS watches are adjacent successful presumption of performance. However, I’d surely enactment the Cheetah 2 Ultra’s accuracy not acold disconnected the champion I’ve tried.

Following maps and utilizing the navigation features was a bully acquisition too. Maps request to beryllium downloaded archetypal successful the Zepp Health app earlier you tin sync them implicit to the watch. There isn’t unspeakable lag erstwhile the representation needs to refresh arsenic you scroll to different location. This is thing I person experienced connected different watches from Garmin and Polar.

I besides uploaded immoderate routes to travel connected the watch, which is done utilizing the fashionable GPX record format. When I veered disconnected course, the ticker emitted a beauteous hard-to-ignore beep with prompts connected surface telling maine however overmuch I’d deviated from my route.

I truly liked the color-coded presumption of the elevation changes connected the course. It meant I could mentally hole myself for the large climbs and look guardant to the sections that were going to beryllium overmuch kinder to my legs. It’s akin to Garmin’s large ClimbPro mode, but without the quality to configure the further information you spot connected screen.

Then we get to artillery life. Amazfit smartwatches successful wide station up immoderate awesome artillery numbers. The 1 Zepp Health wants to absorption connected present is erstwhile you’re utilizing it successful trail-running mode. That’s wherever it tin past up to 33 hours. You bash person much artillery to play with if you’re consenting to sacrifice GPS accuracy. By ditching multi-band GPS, switching from sampling GPS information each 2nd to erstwhile per minute, reducing surface brightness, and disabling the always-on show mode, you tin get a maximum of 228 hours of artillery life.

I didn’t tally thing adjacent to the region of a UTMB race. I did negociate to walk implicit 3 hours with it wherever the artillery dropped by 13 percent. That would really equate to astir 25 hours. So, abbreviated of the 33 hours stated. This is wherever surface brightness oregon keeping the surface connected during tracking tin wounded artillery performance. A Garmin Fenix 8 Pro successful the aforesaid mode dropped by 17 percent, pointing to a 16-hour artillery life.

Overall, I’ve been blessed with however the Cheetah 2 Ultra has performed erstwhile worn for runs, swims, and adjacent gym workouts. Where it’s lacking is the ecosystem that ties everything together. Zepp OS has travel leaps and bounds implicit the years, but there’s inactive immoderate elements that I don’t love.

If you’re hoping it’ll run arsenic slickly arsenic an Apple Watch oregon Garmin erstwhile you’re not tracking exercise, that’s conscionable not the world of what it’s similar to usage an Amazfit watch. The euphony subordinate isn’t compatible with streaming services specified arsenic Spotify, which you would get with Apple and Garmin, and the Zepp Health app storefront lacks large third-party apps. It besides doesn't person LTE oregon the newest outer connectivity recovered connected rival watches.

What I person much of a occupation with is that an Amazfit smartwatch already exists that tin bash a batch of what the Cheetah 2 Ultra tin bash for little money. The T-Rex is simply a much overtly rugged-looking ticker but not 1 I deliberation astir way runners would beryllium opposed to. It delivers a beardown GPS performance, offers akin mapping and navigation features, and has capable artillery beingness to past for astir ultra races. The Cheetah 2 Ultra has added disorder to the Amazfit lineup. This is not a atrocious smartwatch. I’m conscionable not convinced it’s different Amazfit smartwatch that needs to exist.