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Amazfit Cheetah 2 Ultra Smartwatch Review (2026): Solid Off-Road Performer
Zepp Health, the company behind the Amazfit brand, has made some wise decisions with its push into smartwatches—like getting in early with the hybrid fitness crowd. It remains one of the few smartwatch brands to offer dedicated modes for Hyrox training and racing. Zepp Health's main draw, though, is offering desirable features for a lot less than the competition.
Even as the brand dips a toe into the premium end of the smartwatch market with the Amazfit Cheetah 2 Ultra, its most expensive model yet, it still manages to undercut Garmin, Suunto, and Apple.
The Cheetah 2 Ultra is a watch pitched at trail runners, with the capability to monitor much more than pace, time, and distance. It includes multi-band GPS (which the brand calls dual-band) to track movements with increased precision. You can glance down at detailed color maps and trail-running-centric data, and it offers 80 hours of battery life in ultra-trail-running mode, more than enough to cover the average finish time at Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc.
It does cost just shy of $600, and that’s not the pricing norm for Amazfit smartwatches. The next priciest model after the Cheetah 2 Ultra is the T-Rex 3, which is roughly $200 cheaper but has less battery life and storage space. The Amazfit range is already extensive, and the T-Rex meets similar needs for trail runners and outdoor lovers. So do we really need the Cheetah 2 Ultra?
While I don’t think you’d mistake the Cheetah 2 Ultra as a Garmin Fenix clone, it’s clearly playing from a similar design playbook.
There’s a grade-5 titanium case to give it a hardy metal body without the added heft you get from stainless steel. There are both silicone and nylon straps included, with sapphire glass laid on top of an AMOLED display for optimal scratch protection.
It’s a watch that doesn’t scream outdoors in the same way that a Fenix or Suunto Vertical 2 does. That seems to be a deliberate play to give the Cheetah 2 Ultra a profile much closer to a road running watch than a hiking or climbing behemoth. As a runner, I can say I appreciated the more streamlined look. That's not to say it can't handle tough, off-road conditions, though. The Cheetah 2 Ultra passed military grade durability testing for aspects such as vibration and impact, and it can be operated in high and low temperatures.
Talking about screen brightness is very on-trend, and Zepp Health delivers here too. The Cheetah 2 Ultra has a peak brightness of 3,000 nits, matching the Apple Watch Ultra 3 for luminosity. I did find the screens on Apple’s Watch Ultra and Garmin’s Fenix 8 Pro’s punchier in comparison when used in much sunnier outdoor light, even with the Cheetah 2 Ultra's screen set to its maximum brightness.
Another trend on smartwatches is flashlights. This one sits at the top of the watch case and is nice and bright, with scope to adjust the brightness and switch to a red-light mode. That’s been ideal when I’ve wanted a less intrusive yet still penetrative source of light. I found it particularly useful on nighttime runs and while rummaging around my apartment looking for the charging cable without turning the main light on.
While this is a smartwatch that can track activities like golf and open-water swims and also has profiles for other outdoor sports like mountain biking, Zepp Health wants this mainly to be on the wrists of trail runners. Specifically, trail runners who like to tackle big climbs and stay out for days in unpredictable weather conditions.