CHEETAH Mens Watches Fashion Stainless Steel Chronograph Watch Analog Quartz Waterproof Casual Wrist Watch with Date

Product Information

We also found both the touchscreen and the buttons (which include a rotating bevel, oddly similar to much of the Coros line) to be slightly inconsistent—functioning most of the time, but not always. And after only a few ocean swims (with the recommended fresh water flushing), we had some rough play in the rotating bevel, though it still worked. But rewinding even further, some history first: Amazfit is a Chinese brand established in 2015 with very very limited presence in North America. Most of their smartwatches are a little more “lifestyle” focused. Think: cheaper Fitbit.

It’s not unusual to find a sports watch at this price that can offer breadcrumb-style navigation or the ability to upload routes like you can on the Cheetah Pro. It is rare to also find the ability to sync and follow offline maps.

On paper, the Cheetah Pro is Amazfit’s most complete offering, but does the AMOLED-screened, multi-band GPS watch deliver on its promises?

There are some additional battery-saver modes to boost things from anywhere to 24-45 days, but that does mean living a more primitive smartwatch life. Something we did experience with the Cheetah Pro echoes our experiences with the Cheetah Square where it would regularly display on the watch that the A-GPS file was out of date. In terms of training features, you can create workouts that can be synced to the watch and then there are more advanced features like Zepp Coach and the AI-powered Zepp Coach Chat. If you care about continuously monitoring heart rate for more general well-being insights, the Cheetah Pro is much better equipped to do that. We wore it alongside a Garmin watch, which delivers very reliable continuous heart rate readings, and even during sleep, the data felt a lot more reliable in comparison. GPS accuracy

Ultimately, there’s something very likable about the Cheetah Pro. It’s good to see Amazfit hasn’t entirely tried to copy what the competition is doing and the result is a watch that looks good, feels comfortable to wear for long periods and doesn’t feel like you’re getting short-changed overall in the design department. Battery life The plans are at least well designed and the sessions weren’t out of the ordinary of other plans we’ve followed in the past and are well built for those new to running or training for their first race. VO2 Max on the Cheetah Pro was 53 compared to 56 on our Garmin watch, so there are some good training insights available here. Heart rate accuracySo while the feature list is impressive, and on paper the hardware totally outperforms at this pricepoint, there are a few lingering issues that still make the Cheetah Pro a little more “beta” than a finished product that you might see from the brands in the last paragraph. Starting at the top, the multi-band GPS is somehow pretty inconsistent, when compared with other multi-band GPS smartwatches. On-land distance consistency wasn’t too bad, except in deep canyons, but in the open water we found variances of 10-20% both relative to the Cheetah Pro (same route, multiple laps, below) and in the absolute when compared to traditionally excellent open-water smartwatches like the Garmin Enduro 2/Fenix 7-series, for instance. While these variances might not seem like a lot, if you’re doing 500-meter intervals in the open water, for instance, with your laps set to go off every 500, you could be doing a 400, you could be doing a 600 from lap to lap. That’s quite a bit. Same buoyed open-water course, two laps, one watch on each wrist. Cheetah Pro (L) and Garmin Enduro 2 (R). Unlike the Cheetah, the Cheetah Pro only comes in a round-case option. That’s a 47mm-sized case, so you can expect something similar in stature to a watch like the Garmin Forerunner 965. It’s a polymer case with a titanium alloy bezel surrounding a 1.45-inch, 480x480 resolution AMOLED and that is a screen you can keep on 24/7. The good news is that there is a solution to improve that accuracy thanks to the support to pair external heart rate monitors. We’d say that with regular use of features like GPS and all of the advanced health monitoring features on offer, the Pro is good for a week with the capacity to go longer. It’s reminiscent of the level of battery performance you get from something like the Huawei Watch GT Runner.

The Zepp Coach is a lot like we’ve seen from Garmin and Huawei where you can build a plan for a particular distance or race you want to train for and after a few questions to shape that training will build you a plan you can sync and follow on the watch. Amazfit doesn’t entirely get away without grabbing a feature from a rival with its morning report, a clear rip-off of Garmin’s Morning Report feature. So we decided to build a plan for a half marathon race and the first issue was that the app didn’t believe the time from when we wanted to start and finish training wasn’t enough time. Typically, most half-marathon training plans suggest around 8 weeks of training and we had over two months to train.

Amazfit Cheetah Pro Review: The Good

Heading out the door? Read this article on the new Outside+ app available now on iOS devices for members! It was a similar story during a 5K race where average and maximum heart rate readings were well off the readings of a chest strap. Things did get better for steady-paced runs, so you can get some good data here and there.

We used it alongside the impressive multi-band mode on Garmin’s latest Forerunner watches and found the GPS performed well, but wasn't immaculate. There's significant wandering in the example above, but the distance came out correct in the end – so it's workable for those less fussy about their data.

Pros

As such, their limited traction in the U.S., coupled with limited interest in endurance sports—especially triathlon, with open-water swim/tri/multisport/etc. features—means it probably isn’t on a lot of triathletes’ radars. But with the release of the mostly capable Cheetah Pro, Amazfit is worth another look (with a few caveats, below). RELATED: The Best Triathlon Smartwatches of 2023, Reviewed Section divider Amazfit Cheetah Pro Review: The Basics