Amazfit Cheetah 2 Ultra Review: GPS, Heart Rate, Battery Tested

The Amazfit Cheetah 2 Ultra is a serious trail watch at £599.90, and it earns that price tag more convincingly than its predecessor. GPS accuracy jumped from 73% to 85% compared to the Cheetah Pro, five out of six heart rate sessions rated Excellent, and battery life projects to 55 hours in GPS mode. That puts it squarely against the Garmin Forerunner 970 at the same price point, and the fight is closer than most people expected.

GPS and Sensor Accuracy

The GPS improvement is the headline number here. Going from 73% to 85% accuracy is not a minor firmware tweak, that is a meaningful hardware and algorithm step forward. For trail runners doing technical switchbacks or dense forest loops, that gap between 73% and 85% is the difference between a route that looks right and one that cuts corners. The Forerunner 970 still edges ahead in multi-band GPS consistency across our test routes, but the gap has narrowed to the point where most athletes will not feel it in practice. Coros Vertix 3 sits in the same accuracy bracket, so Amazfit is now competing in real company.

Heart rate accuracy via the wrist optical PPG sensor is the other big story. Five Excellent results from six sessions is a strong showing. The wrist sensor uses reflected light to measure blood volume changes, and Amazfit has clearly refined the processing algorithm since the Pro. For comparison, the Garmin Forerunner 970 consistently scores in that same Excellent range across steady-state efforts, but drops more at high intensity intervals. The Cheetah 2 Ultra holds up well during tempo work. If you want ground truth during a race, pair any watch with a chest strap using electrical impulse detection for heart rate, but for training the wrist sensor here is genuinely reliable.

Battery Life and Trail-Specific Features

Fifty-five hours of projected GPS battery is the number that matters for ultra runners and Hyrox athletes doing longer events. The original Cheetah Pro already had solid endurance credentials, and this extends the use case further. Garmin Fenix 8 Solar pushes past 100 hours in certain GPS modes, so Amazfit is not winning the battery arms race outright. But 55 hours covers everything short of a serious mountain ultra, and the watch does it while running a more feature-complete sensor stack than many competitors at this price.

The trail-specific features work. Route navigation, trail hazard alerts, and the barometric altimeter using air pressure to track real-time elevation changes all performed accurately across steep ascents in testing. The altimeter data synced correctly with known elevation profiles on familiar routes. For cyclists doing hilly gran fondos, the altitude tracking is equally useful. Swim tracking uses the optical PPG sensor for heart rate in open water, though pool swimmers will get cleaner data with a chest strap or a dedicated optical arm sensor.

Telegram now runs natively on Wear OS and Apple Watch, so the smart connectivity gap between Amazfit and those platforms is worth mentioning. Amazfit uses its own OS, and third-party app support remains thinner. You get the core athlete notifications, but the wrist app ecosystem is not comparable to Wear OS or watchOS. Speaking of watchOS, Apple Watch Ultra 1 owners just lost their upgrade path after Apple confirmed the S8 chip will not support watchOS 27. If you are considering moving from an Ultra 1, you can find the full breakdown of [what watchOS 27 brings to endurance athletes here](/en/articles/watchos-27-sport-and-health-features-everything-endurance-athletes-need-to-know-2026-06-19).

What Is Missing

The gaps are real. Recovery metrics are functional but not deep. Whoop 5.0 and Garmin's body battery system give more nuanced strain and recovery data for athletes tracking daily readiness across a full training block. The Cheetah 2 Ultra gives you HRV and sleep data, but the actionable coaching layer around those numbers is thin. Music storage and playback is limited compared to the Forerunner 970. And while the GPS accuracy at 85% is good, it is not flawless on the most technical terrain. You can get more detail on the raw GPS and heart rate numbers in our dedicated [Amazfit Cheetah 2 Ultra accuracy breakdown](/en/articles/amazfit-cheetah-2-ultra-gps-and-heart-rate-accuracy-real-numbers-2026-06-18).

The Amazfit Cheetah 2 Ultra is the right buy for trail runners and cyclists who want accurate GPS, reliable wrist-based optical heart rate, and a 55-hour battery without paying Garmin Fenix prices. At £599.90 it is not cheap, but it delivers where it counts. The Garmin Forerunner 970 at the same price wins on ecosystem, software depth, and recovery analytics. If those matter most to you, pay for the Garmin. If raw sensor performance and battery are your priorities, the Cheetah 2 Ultra is a genuine contender.