Amazfit Makes Great Fitness Trackers, but I Was Disappointed With Their Running Watches.
If you’ve been browsing fitness trackers lately, you’ve probably noticed the name Amazfit popping up more and more often. Before you ask, Amazfit has nothing to do with Amazon—it’s a brand produced by the Chinese company Zepp Health (formerly Huami).
Amazfit aims to be an affordable alternative to major players in the wearables market, such as Garmin, Coros, and even Apple. Amazfit watches are generally cheaper than their competitors, yet boast a surprising number of premium-feeling features, such as AMOLED displays, long battery life, dual-band GPS in some models, and health tracking features typically found in watches costing two to three times as much.
I’ve spent a lot of time testing the Amazfit lineup, including the Balance 3 ( $369.99 ) and Cheetah 2 Pro ( $449.99 ), and I’m currently testing and reviewing the Amazfit Cheetah 2 Ultra, the brand’s most advanced running watch, which costs $599.99 . My goal is to find out whether this brand is truly a worthy competitor to established players in the market, or if it’s simply a cheaper, lower-quality watch that looks the part. And here’s what I can say so far: for hybrid athletes, Amazfit is a great choice. I think the brand’s official partnership with Hyrox speaks volumes about who this watch is designed for. But when it comes to serious running watches, Amazfit isn’t quite at the top.
What you need to know about the Amazfit running watch
The Cheetah line is Amazfit’s answer to the Garmin Forerunner series, the running-focused Coros watches, and so on. On paper, the Cheetah watches look like pretty compelling contenders. You get dual-band GPS, running power metrics, offline maps, artificial intelligence for creating training plans tailored to specific races, and much more, all for half the price of similar Garmin Forerunner watches, while retaining all the same features.
The problem I encountered is that the specs on paper don’t always match the watches, which I believe were designed by people who actually run. Here’s a quick example: the Cheetah watches label their heart rate zones as “fat burning.” No serious runner training for a race wants to see that kind of wording on their watch—it’s a holdover from the concept of regular fitness trackers, not something you’ll find in Garmin or Coros, which are specifically designed for training zones and performance enhancement.
Amazfit positions the Cheetah 2 Pro not only as a device “designed for runners,” but also as a marathon training tool. Marathon runners are generally a demanding but well-off audience. There are many excellent options, and the Cheetah 2 Pro didn’t hold up in my tests. It’s not just one big issue, but a multitude of minor flaws that combine to create certain difficulties:
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My lactate threshold estimate was off by almost 40 seconds per mile.
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GPS distance tracking was a little worse than my Garmin Forerunner 970.
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After finishing a run, the workout summary screen disappears almost immediately, forcing you to search for stats in the menu again. (This may seem like a small thing, but every runner I know wants to see their results and pace immediately after stopping, rather than wasting time searching through their workout history.)
Amazfit watches are great, but there are better options for runners.
If you’re serious about training for a marathon and want detailed and reliable training analytics, I’d recommend checking out the Garmin Forerunner:
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At a comparable price to the Cheetah 2 Pro, the Garmin Forerunner 570 offers more robust advanced metrics and access to Garmin’s much larger training ecosystem.
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For just a few hundred dollars more, you can get the Garmin Forerunner 970, which offers more features and has a longer history of use among serious athletes.
All this assumes you’re planning to spend hundreds of dollars, so it’s probably best to go with the best of the best. It’s also worth mentioning that even the world’s most elite marathon runners wear the cheapest running watches .
To be clear, many Amazfit watches are still excellent options. I’m particularly disappointed with the Cheetah line. If you’re not aiming for marathon PRs and just want a good-looking, affordable watch with reliable health tracking, I’d recommend the Amazfit Balance line. But at this point, I can’t imagine you using the Cheetah line instead of a dedicated running watch if you’re truly serious about running. And if you’re not serious about running, I can’t imagine you spending more than $400 on a running watch.