Amazfit Cheetah 2 Pro review: a premium running watch tested

Harriet L. Whitmore • September 5, 2026 14:52

Amazfit talks extensively about its involvement in Hyrox, yet the brand is also winning over runners, particularly with the Cheetah 2 Pro.

On 12 April, Italian athlete Yemaneberhan Crippa won the Paris Marathon after 2 hours, 5 minutes and 18 seconds of effort. On his wrist was a smartwatch from Amazfit: the Cheetah 2 Pro.

While I may not have his legs or his physical abilities, I did manage to copy one thing: his watch. After wearing the Cheetah 2 Pro for a month, here is my verdict on this Amazfit watch.

Is it as compelling on my wrist as it is on that of a champion? Could it become the favourite training partner for amateur runners such as us?

Watch our video here featuring Hyrox champions who use Amazfit watches.

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A watch designed for running

Even before I put the Cheetah 2 Pro on my wrist, it was obvious that this was a runner's watch. Amazfit has not created an outdoor or lifestyle model here: everything is geared towards running.

Despite its fairly substantial 43.8 mm case, it sits comfortably enough on my wrist. The watch is comparatively light at 45.6 g, while its large 1.5-inch AMOLED display delivers excellent readability at 3,000 nits. Navigation is particularly straightforward thanks to the four buttons positioned around the case.

Its aluminium bezel gives the watch a chrome-like finish. This more premium appearance helps explain the £449 price requested by the brand.

The Cheetah 2 Pro GPS is genuinely impressive

GPS quality is the feature every sports watch is keen to highlight. From a technical perspective, the Cheetah 2 Pro offers the best currently available, with dual-band positioning across six satellites.

In real-world use, the Cheetah 2 Pro impressed me. It connects within seconds, and tracking is close to flawless, even in challenging surroundings such as city streets between buildings or through small tunnels.

It would be wrong to assume that highly accurate GPS is of little value to an amateur. In fact, this is precisely where it matters most. As well as producing flawless routes for your Strava feed, accurate positioning also enables accurate pace calculations.

A professional athlete can easily tell whether they are running at the right speed: it is quite literally their job. For ordinary amateur runners, however, that is far more difficult. Reliable data makes it easier to manage both a training session and a race.

A watch for everyday runners?

As stated at the beginning of this review, the Cheetah 2 Pro was worn to victory at the latest Paris Marathon. That does not mean it is reserved for an ultra-high-performing elite; quite the opposite.

Naturally, with specifications like these and a £449 price tag, it is not aimed at beginners. Amazfit offers other, more affordable watches for those getting started on a smaller budget. However, for an experienced athlete looking to take a step up in their equipment, it is a genuinely strong option.

With the Cheetah 2 Pro on your wrist, you get a watch that can keep up with every training session and, more importantly, understand how your body is handling that workload.

Amazfit has put considerable work into this area, notably by offering an estimate of lactate threshold. The companion Zepp app, available on Android and iOS, provides a huge amount of data to help you better understand your training.

For those who are more ambitious, Zepp Coach can create personalised training plans based on your next goal. It is an effective way to bring together your training plan and your data in one place.

Reassuring battery life

The other major strength of this Amazfit watch is its stamina. Amazfit claims up to 20 days of battery life in normal use and around 30 hours with GPS enabled. Those figures naturally vary according to use, but during our test, we never encountered any battery problems, even with several sessions each week and sleep tracking switched on.

Having a watch that can run for days without needing to be charged is a real advantage. Once the battery is empty, simply place the watch on the supplied charging dock to begin charging. It takes only a few minutes.

Offline maps and other features

Although they are not true standout features, the rest of the specification is equally appealing. The watch allows maps to be downloaded for offline use. It also supports Zepp Pay, enabling you to save your bank card and make contactless payments directly from the watch.

Finally, the watch has a light on its front. This smartphone-like flash is very useful for lighting your way at night. New parents will particularly appreciate it when preparing a bottle at 3 am without having to switch on every light in the house.

A slightly inaccurate heart-rate monitor

Despite its many strengths, the Cheetah 2 Pro is not entirely flawless. In particular, it is held back by an unpredictable heart-rate sensor that can sometimes produce readings outside the normal range.

This is unlikely to disrupt an amateur's use of the watch, but these occasional inaccuracies are still worth noting, especially for a model positioned as high-end.

Another drawback of the Cheetah 2 Pro is its “exclusivity”. The watch seems designed for just one group of people: runners. Athletes who take part in other activities can of course use the Cheetah 2 Pro, which supports more than 170 sports, but it will never offer the same level of accuracy as it does for running.

For runners like me, that is ideal. You genuinely get a “personalised” smartwatch. It has been designed around your use case and responds to it extremely well. Step outside that context, though, and the watch feels less at home.

It can accompany you on a bike ride, in the swimming pool or during a game of padel, but it does not do so with the same ease. This is only an impression, but I found the watch very, perhaps too, focused solely on running to truly appeal to the wider public.

More broadly, Amazfit still lacks legitimacy in the eyes of the general public, as well as a broader product range. Many athletes do not choose the smartwatch that is best for them; instead, they choose the one that integrates most effectively with their existing ecosystem.

Garmin makes extensive use of its huge range, while other brands such as Coros and Suunto are beginning to do the same. They are launching complementary products - the Dura from Coros, a bike computer, and the Wing from Suunto, bone-conduction headphones. Amazfit has not yet taken this step, but it appears to be essential to the brand's development if it is to attract experienced athletes.

Is the Cheetah 2 Pro the right choice?

Even after a month with the Cheetah 2 Pro on my wrist, I have still not won a marathon, or even run 42 kilometres. The watch is not to blame for that, though. It is a very compelling product, one that I would strongly recommend to my runner friends.

Amazfit is not the best-known brand in the running world, but its products deserve greater recognition. The Cheetah 2 Pro is the perfect example. It is a high-end watch fully capable of competing with established market references such as Garmin, Coros and Suunto.

At £449.90, it offers one of the best value-for-money propositions in 2026. Buying it gives you a premium watch with a superb, ultra-bright AMOLED screen, accurate data and very good training monitoring.

Lactate-threshold calculation is a genuinely differentiating feature, provided, of course, that you use the data appropriately.