Amazfit Cheetah 2 Professional Assessment | Why Pay $1000 When This Watch Does It All for Underneath $500

The Amazfit Cheetah 2 Professional is a high-end GPS working watch designed for customers who care about efficiency, coaching, and monitoring long run health and well being information at a lower cost level than rivals.

This watch is pretty simple to make use of, extremely customizable, and packed to the brim with exercise studies and evaluation. Runners can benefit from a big library of preprogrammed coaching plans, or construct customized exercises of their very own.

Engaging highlights embody lengthy battery life, twin band GPS monitoring, superior working metrics, offline maps with flip by flip navigation, restoration steerage, massive cupboard space, and a shiny AMOLED display screen.

This watch, and companion Zepp app, is full of information evaluation and private health developments. Crammed with options runners may discover on a comparable high-end Garmin system, the Amazfit Cheetah 2 Professional is available in at a lower cost level.

It’s constructed with premium supplies like titanium and sapphire crystal, is comfy to put on, and is visually interesting.

Should you’re an information pushed runner who appreciates planning, gathering stats, and assessing restoration wants, this simply could be an awesome possibility for you

Amazfit Cheetah 2 Professional Overview

The Amazfit Cheetah 2 Professional is constructed from prime quality supplies. The case and body are crafted from grade 5 titanium, and the watch face is made with sapphire crystal.

This makes the watch face extremely powerful, it’s essentially the most scratch-resistant kind on the market on a watch. (Sadly for me, I put this to the take a look at after I fell throughout a path run whereas carrying it. The Cheetah 2 Professional pulled by way of with out a single mark… which I can’t say about my hip or the large bruise left there. Ouch!)

The watch comes with a 20mm detachable strap, which I discovered to be very comfy and breathable.

The band wasn’t rubbery or too slick, it was sturdy however not rigid, simple to regulate, stayed in place, and wasn’t annoying in any respect to sleep in. I don’t discover myself craving a extra comfy band substitute.

I discovered that the Cheetah 2 Professional felt fairly light-weight on my wrist, weighing in at about 60g together with the strap. The watch is 48mm in diameter, 13.2mm thick, and has a 1.32 inch contact display screen show.

Viewing the display screen in shiny daylight wasn’t an issue as a result of the display screen reaches as much as 3,000 nits. I did uncover that I didn’t all the time ‘agree’ with the auto brightness settings although, and I most popular to set the brightness stage of the display screen manually.

Utilizing the Cheetah 2 Professional

This watch has a 4 button setup, two buttons on the left and two on the suitable. The buttons have a cluster of barely raised bumps alongside them, which I appreciated as a result of the feel made it simple to find them by contact after I needed to press one.

It could be laborious to press a button by chance. As a Garmin consumer, I discovered myself initially lacking the middle button on the left facet, however I used to be capable of shortly modify to this new button structure.

The touchscreen was very responsive, and the consumer interface was often simple to make use of and navigate. I discovered the UI barely extra intuitive than the one on my Garmin was after I first began utilizing it.

Nevertheless, having mentioned that, there’s a LOT to navigate by way of! There’s a massive studying curve in determining entry every little thing this watch has to supply! I spent a great deal of time merely exploring the menus and making an attempt to find what was out there. We’ve discovered this to be true in our earlier AmazFit testing as nicely on the AmazFit Steadiness 2 and AmazFit Energetic 3 Premium.

I wouldn’t say that the menus or buttons had been “troublesome” to make use of, however the sheer amount of menus and buttons and choices was loads to initially digest. Investing on this watch additionally contains investing time into changing into conversant in getting essentially the most out of it.

Nevertheless, when you solely need primary monitoring and information, these are simple to make use of and discover. However I’m guessing that anybody prepared to pay for the next finish watch shall be keen to seek out out extra about what it could possibly do.

The watch face appears good and enormous, however not all of that actual property house is definitely used within the lively watch show. The curved/beveled edges on the entrance function a border to the viewable space, making the precise show house considerably smaller than what I first assumed it could be.

Not a giant deal total, however I did discover myself wishing the usable show space prolonged all the way in which to the watch face edges after I was utilizing the mapping options.

Amazfit Cheetah 2 Professional Options

Let’s dive in to extra of the main points round completely different options and what I discovered in testing.

Battery Life

The Cheetah 2 Professional has an impressively lengthy battery life. With typical use, the watch can last as long as 20 days earlier than needing to be recharged.

Heavy customers could count on to get about 10 days earlier than needing a recharge. Amazfit claims the battery lasts as much as 31 hours in correct GPS mode and 69 hours in energy saving GPS mode.

The watch comes with a magnetic charging puck which connects with any USB-C cost twine. It contains 32 GB of inner storage (plenty of house for downloaded maps, saved routes, customized exercises, music, and apps) and it’s waterproof as much as 50 meters.

Exercise Monitoring & Navigation

Once I was able to run, I discovered that the satellite tv for pc sign locked in simply as quick, if not sooner, than on my Garmin system. No complaints there, the sign popped up shortly and was able to go.

Identify an exercise, this watch can in all probability observe it. You’ll discover over 170 trackable actions on the Cheetah 2 Professional! Widespread health actions like working, strolling, climbing, swimming, and biking are included.

However another much less widespread actions additionally jumped out at me. Equivalent to Frisbee, hula hooping, handball, bowling, pole dancing, chess, snow shoveling, kayaking, driving, shuffleboard, indoor mountain climbing, and even board video games. If you wish to observe what you spend your time doing, this watch has you lined.

When monitoring a working exercise, the Cheetah 2 Professional covers all the core statistics you’ll count on on a high-end working watch.

• Distance
• time
• pace, lap tempo, splits
• your GPS route
• coronary heart fee
• energy burned
• cadence
• elevation loss/achieve
• working energy
• floor contact time, stride size, vertical oscillation,
• lactate threshold estimates, VO2 max estimates
• coaching load, restoration time, coaching impact
• your race time predictions

Fatigue Monitoring

One distinctive factor the Cheetah 2 Professional displays is your fatigue stage. A notification popped up as a shock to me as soon as throughout a run and gave me giggle. Throughout a very powerful run, I used to be struggling alongside and considering, “Wow, I’m actually drained proper now.”

Proper after considering that, the watch popped up a message telling me I “was fatigued.” (It was nearly just like the watch was studying my thoughts!) It decided my fatigue stage by taking a look at issues like my coronary heart fee and the way laborious I used to be working in comparison with my regular runs and so forth. No matter metrics it was analyzing, it was proper that day. 

Maps and Routes

The Amazfit Cheetah 2 Professional has the potential of utilizing offline maps and offering flip by flip navigation. Downloading offline maps was easy sufficient to do utilizing the Zepp app, and sending working routes to my watch downloaded from Strava or different apps like Footpath was additionally simple. The 32 GB of inner cupboard space ensures which you can retailer loads of routes in your system! 

One other characteristic I preferred making an attempt out was the flexibility to permit the watch to generate a steered route based mostly on the gap I needed to run.

You merely enter your required distance proper in your watch, and it generates a route that will get as near that mileage as attainable. It’s also possible to select a course, (north, south, east, or west), or let the watch resolve the course for you.

The factor I discovered bothersome concerning the auto generated routes was that they appeared to require a minimal distance of three miles. 

I loved testing the navigation options of the Cheetah 2 Professional. Though having the offline maps is a superb characteristic, I didn’t discover the vibration alerts on their very own very useful for flip by flip navigation. When the watch buzzed, I needed to look all the way down to see why, and the map was a little bit too small to learn shortly whereas working.

The audio cues labored splendidly although since they gave me advance discover of turns and let me keep on tempo with out taking a look at my watch. The maps labored nicely on neighborhood streets in addition to path routes. If I deviated from my route, the watch would alert me and assist me get again on observe. 

Zooming out and in and panning across the map didn’t all the time work easily. I discovered it a bit clunky and irritating at occasions. If I left the map alone, it labored simply advantageous, however I couldn’t all the time see avenue names or different particulars that I often needed. The map element was too small. I discovered myself wishing the default zoom stage on the navigation map was a little bit bigger in measurement when an exercise first began. 

GPS monitoring was nearly an identical to the outcomes I obtained on my Garmin. Nothing considerably completely different to report there. The knowledge appeared correct and dependable.

Coronary heart Fee Monitoring

I’ve been repeatedly carrying two watches on the identical time over the previous few  weeks, and I discovered the guts fee monitoring from the Cheetah 2 Professional and my Garmin lined up very carefully.

The Cheetah 2 Professional makes use of the BioTracker 6.0 PPG biometric sensor. It makes use of coronary heart fee information to trace health metrics similar to coaching zones, restoration, coronary heart fee variability (HRV), stress, sleep, and total exercise efficiency.

The Cheetah 2 Professional doesn’t have the potential of taking ECG readings, however you continue to get a substantial amount of helpful data based mostly on the guts fee information. This watch can connect with exterior coronary heart fee displays, similar to chest straps or arm bands, that are thought of much more correct than the watch’s wrist-based coronary heart fee sensor. 

App Options & Integration

The companion Zepp app was helpful in analyzing exercise information. I usually discovered it fascinating and enjoyable to discover.

You should utilize the Zepp coach to offer you structured coaching plans, or you’ll be able to craft customized exercises of your personal. I discovered it simple to create personalised exercises within the Zepp app, after which ship them to my watch.

Sure issues are simpler to view within the app than on the watch. Examples embody graphs (like for tempo, coronary heart fee, or working energy), developments (in coaching load or restoration), historical past (for issues like VO2 max, actions tracked, and your working routes), exercise modifying, and route creation. 

Sleep high quality and sleep length are additionally recorded by the Cheetah 2 Professional (when you put on the watch once you sleep) and outcomes are analyzed in depth contained in the app.

I used to be additionally capable of view information about issues like my HRV, my respiration patterns, and sleep phases. It was fascinating to see what number of occasions I wakened in the course of the night time, how deep my sleep was, and whether or not or not the app thought I obtained sufficient relaxation.

There’s a lot to discover within the Zepp app. It was a bit overwhelming at first. Count on to spend a substantial amount of time sifting by way of all of it. Nevertheless, in case you have the persistence and curiosity to dig into all the options, it’s enjoyable to find what’s there.

You’ll additionally get a breakdown of your each day and weekly biocharge, displaying how issues like your runs, exercises, sleep, and restoration affected your vitality ranges over time.  The app additionally offers you a variety of suggestions about your coaching, together with your health stage, fatigue, coronary heart fee zones, and whether or not you’re coaching too laborious, too simple, or proper on observe. 

The app is the place I downloaded maps and working routes. (It’s also possible to obtain golf programs when you’re a golfer. Which I decidedly am not.) It’s also possible to view your coaching calendar and construct coaching plans.

The coaching plan library contains preprogrammed guides for coaching to run numerous distances at completely different expertise ranges. Premade coaching templates are in there as nicely, or you may make your personal. And the app provides a Zepp coach that you need to use to customise a coaching plan to your targets and private circumstances.

Exercise badges are awarded and picked up contained in the app. They had been a enjoyable solution to view my health milestones based mostly on actions I recorded whereas carrying the Cheetah 2 Professional. 

The Zepp app can also be the place you’ll be able to browse and customise watch faces, in addition to obtain extra apps and options for the watch. One free characteristic I stumbled upon and ended up utilizing loads was the digital camera distant. It helps you to press a button on the watch to take an image along with your cellphone. I actually preferred it for these occasions after I needed to set my cellphone down and get a photograph from farther away as a substitute of making an attempt to carry it out and take a selfie. 

Miscellaneous Options

The Cheetah 2 Professional has a flashlight with 3 completely different brightness settings in addition to a pink mild mode. The flashlight may also be set to blink (it’s known as the ‘security mild’), which is a very cool characteristic to extend runner visibility. 

Music could be downloaded and saved straight on the watch, however solely in mp3 format. Aside from that, you’ll be able to solely use the Cheetah 2 Professional as a controller for the music streaming apps you will have in your cellphone. 

The watch has an AI assistant (like Siri on an iPhone) known as Zepp Move. I’ve to confess, I wasn’t a giant fan and didn’t use it usually.

If I wanted to regulate one thing on my watch, it was sooner for me to look by way of the watch menus than activate the assistant. And the primary issues I wanted throughout a run had been already simple to entry with a button or swipe.

For issues not pertaining to observe controls, I discovered Siri to be smoother and extra correct than the Zepp AI. That’s not precisely a glowing endorsement, since Siri could be clunky and get issues fallacious too, however it nonetheless labored higher for me than Zepp Move. I suppose I discovered the Zepp Move Assistant to be a enjoyable novelty, however I personally didn’t discover it very helpful throughout a run usually.

The Cheetah 2 Professional allowed me to learn and obtain texts, however I couldn’t reply to them straight on my watch. The SMS characteristic is at present solely out there on Android units, and I personal an iPhone.

I used to be in a position, nevertheless, to reply calls and speak straight on my watch. (So long as my cellphone was inside Bluetooth vary). The watch has a built-in speaker and in addition a microphone.

I used to be notified a handful of occasions when the watch thought I used to be displaying indicators of elevated stress. When that occurred, it could supply solutions on decrease my stress ranges. 

Would I like to recommend the Cheetah 2 Professional to different runners? Completely! Unquestionably, it’s an awesome watch.The Amazfit Cheetah 2 Professional delivers a shocking quantity of efficiency for the worth.

Purchase Amazfit Cheetah 2 Professional

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