Amazfit Cheetah Pro – review of a watch for runners

Running watches are one of the most popular categories of these devices, and manufacturers prepare various proposals for every type of exerciser. However, my interest in Cheetah Pro was not only due to Amazfit’s announcements regarding sports functions, but also due to its design and appearance. I was also fed up with daily charging of a smartwatch, the most prominent element of which is the glass screen, so I tested Cheetah Pro for a long time with great pleasure. After the initial delight, I began to notice some flaws and shortcomings, but are they important enough to overshadow the key advantages of this smartwatch?

Amazfit Cheetah Pro – review

Let’s start with the mentioned design, because Amazfit Cheetah Pro has a 1.45-inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 480×480 pixels, hidden behind a titanium bezel. The case with a diameter of 47 mm is made of glass fiber-reinforced polymer, which ensures the device’s low weight, but also quite high resistance and durability – the smartwatch has had close encounters with harder surfaces several times and so far there is no sign of it. The watch is slim and light – a thickness of 11.4 mm and a weight of 34 g (without strap) make me sometimes forget about its presence on my wrist.

The display surprised me with vivid colors and good readability in almost all conditions. The only difficulty was full sunlight (we didn’t complain about it last holiday) and although the manufacturer declares a maximum brightness of up to 1000 nits, sometimes I had to block the sun’s rays with my body to be able to read the information on the screen. Probably no other smartwatch could handle this either, but it needed to be mentioned. The nylon strap included in the set is comfortable to wear – the Velcro fastener holds it firmly and securely, the whole thing is durable and ventilated, so it works really well both on a daily basis and during (longer) sports activities. The only problem may be swimming as the strap needs to be dried afterwards.

I quickly fell in love with this watch

Inside Amazfit Cheetah Pro there is everything training needs. The manufacturer packed BioTracker 4.0 PPG (measuring heart rate, SpO2, stress), accelerometer, gyroscope, compass, barometer and ambient light sensor. When it comes to connectivity, we have Bluetooth 5.3, Wi-Fi 2.4 GHz, dual-band GPS and NFC. The 440 mAh battery, according to the manufacturer, is to ensure up to two weeks of normal use and up to 7 days of intensive use of the smartwatch – after a long time spent with Amazfit Cheetah Pro, I can say that such performance is possible. A week-long trip with almost daily use of GPS for walking and running was completed without charging the watch, which was a nice change from most typical smartwatches. Of course, this comes at some cost, but we’ll get to that later.

Amazfit equips its smartwatches with a whole set of fitness tools and functions – the list of sports modes reaches 150 items, the watch supports importing routes and offline maps, there is also sleep monitoring, stress measurement, and breathing exercises. We manage everything from the watch or application (for iOS and Android), where we also have a broader view of statistics and analyses. Amazfit even offers AI functions, not only those analyzing performance, but also a chat that allows you to generate sets of exercises, etc. according to our preferences. I don’t know if I would be ready to fully submit to the regime generated on the smartphone screen, but at first glance everything looks quite good. Of course, the manufacturer locks some functions behind a paywall and subscription, which is probably no surprise to anyone, but for me this is not an area worth investing in, at least not at this stage of development of this market in general. Dual-band GPS allows you to accurately monitor your routes (in various ways), so the results are very close or equal to reality, while downloading maps in advance allows you to avoid feeling blindly in unfamiliar terrain.

Measurements from the watch should, of course, be treated with a pinch of salt, because it is not a medical device, but in general, the insight into extensive statistics thanks to 24/7 monitoring of heart rate, blood saturation combined with sleep and stress analysis allows you to draw certain conclusions about your health. everyday life and how we conduct ourselves. Navigating the interface is rather convenient, although the rotating crown isn’t always as helpful as you might expect. Its precision is not at the level of, for example, the Apple Watch, which means that it is sometimes easy to scroll too much or too little. So I used the touch screen much more often, which causes no problems, as well as the side button to go back or activate the selected function. Amazfit offers a certain amount of customization, but I would expect more freedom in customizing what the buttons do.

There are several default watch faces available on the smartwatch, some of which offer the ability to customize their appearance or shortcuts. However, this is quite little compared to some manufacturers, but the store’s resources (it is best to browse inside the Zepp application) can be overwhelming. The selection is huge, but the vast majority of dials are paid. Prices are rather mundane, so you can increase usability and appearance at a low cost home screen. Cheetah Pro offers a mode that is very important to me always-on displaywhich noticeably reduces the working time without charging, but in most situations I cannot do without it. It’s a pity that the way the time is displayed in this mode is usually so unattractive and/or legible. You can adjust it, but dials that work well in active mode don’t always look as good with the screen always active.

Among the sea of ​​​​advantages, starting from the design, through sports functions and the mobile application, there are several advantages of this smartwatch. Limited notification options that can only be read may be very disturbing to some people. The system itself does not offer so many third-party applications, including multimedia, which may be a significant lack for some users. Controlling playback is possible, but today it may not be enough. This model also does not offer contactless payments (no NFC module), there is no version with cellular network support, and the pin charger can be unruly and not very pleasant to use.

Amazfit Cheetah Pro will work well not only during sports activities, but also for everyday use. It can be used as a watch (always-on display mode is, in my opinion, mandatory so that a smartwatch can simply be a watch), it is well made and pleasing to the eye, and the strap included is comfortable to wear. Basic notification support (for selected applications, we decide ourselves), the option to search for a smartphone using a remote alarm and a package of sports functions make it a versatile proposition for most people. It is clear, however, that the lack of payments or LTE will be a hard no for some users.