• Amazfit has launched the Cheetah 2 Ultra smartwatch
• It’s made for trail runners and ultra-running enthusiasts
• It arrives just one day after the new budget wearables from Garmin

Amazfit has managed to carve out a role for itself as a popular budget-friendly wearables brand, and its devices often find a spot on our list of the best cheap smartwatches money can buy.

Now, the company has launched a brand-new offering, and it’s hot on the heels of a new cut-price Garmin watch that is gunning for the exact same buyers.

Amazfit’s new product is dubbed the Cheetah 2 Ultra, and the company describes it as “a specialized instrument for trail runners who measure success in elevation, unpredictable terrain, and hours spent on the move.”

It comes with a Grade 5 titanium bezel, frame, and back cover; a 1.5-inch AMOLED display that goes up to 3,000 nits of peak brightness and features a scratch-resistant sapphire glass panel; up to 33 hours of battery life in Trail Running Mode and up to 30 days of juice in regular mode; and dual-frequency six-satellite positioning for accurate GPS tracking.

If you’re going off-road and need directions, you’ll find full-color route planning that Amazfit says comes with “rendering speeds 2.5 times faster and refresh speeds 12 times faster than before.” There are also improved training and performance metrics, expanded third-party integrations, and more.

And the Cheetah 2 Ultra is not the only news from Amazfit. The firm has also recently updated the firmware for its T-Rex Ultra 2 watch to offer heart rate zones and waypoint data, better aiding you when you’re training, racing, or just out for a leisurely run.

A whole range of new watches

Amazfit typically positions its devices at the more affordable end of the market, but with the Cheetah 2 Ultra’s $599.99 price tag, the company is showing it’s not afraid to compete with more mid-range rivals.

Funnily enough, the announcement comes just one day after Garmin revealed a new array of affordable smartwatches, including the Forerunner 70, the Forerunner 170, and the Forerunner 170 Music. The former clocks in at £219.99 / AU$399 (about $300), and with the most expensive (the Forerunner 170 Music) priced at £299.99 / AU$549 (around $400), Garmin seems keen to show it can still make excellent budget smartwatches of the kind Amazfit’s customers might be used to.

It’s also interesting to note that while the Amazfit Cheetah 2 Ultra is aimed squarely at long-distance runners and ultra-marathon competitors, the Garmin Forerunner 70’s predecessor — the Forerunner 55 — was worn by Sabastian Sawe as he broke the sub-two-hour London Marathon record in April this year.

So if distance running is your bag, both of these watches should be on your radar. It’s just up to you to decide which one best fits your budget.

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Alex Blake has been fooling around with computers since the early 1990s, and since that time he's learned a thing or two about tech. No more than two things, though. That's all his brain can hold. As well as TechRadar, Alex writes for iMore, Digital Trends and Creative Bloq, among others. He was previously commissioning editor at MacFormat magazine. That means he mostly covers the world of Apple and its latest products, but also Windows, computer peripherals, mobile apps, and much more beyond. When not writing, you can find him hiking the English countryside and gaming on his PC.