Amazfit T-Rex Ultra 2 Review: Designed for adventure

Design and screen

• Now larger case size 
• Larger AMOLED display
• Comes in one colour

If we’re comparing the Ultra 2 to the last Ultra and the T-Rex 3 Pro, this is a considerably larger watch to live with. You now have a 51mm case that measures in at 14.3mm thick.

It’s inevitably going to get compared to Garmin’s 51mm Fenix 8 model, which is thinner, though opting for a titanium bezel and buttons helps to ensure it’s not super heavy to wear. At just shy of 90g, it actually sits at around the same weight as Garmin’s 51mm Fenix. You can find lighter, smaller and still rugged watches, including in Zepp Health’s own Amazfit line.

It’s a watch dominated by its titanium bezel that surrounds a now larger 1.5-inch, 480 x 480 resolution AMOLED touchscreen. That’s a screen that can achieve a maximum brightness of 3,000 nits. I did find that in some brighter outdoor light, it can still be challenging to view the screen at some angles. The screen visibility and overall quality are good, but I think you’ll find better screens on rival watches. 

The strap attached to that big polymer case is unsurprisingly a pretty robust silicone one. At 26mm, it’s a sizable strap to whip on. The traditional watch clasp ensures it stays securely in place at all times, with a clippable design that makes it very easy to swap the strap out for a new one.

The visible screws are your indicator that Zepp Health has designed this watch to operate in extreme environments. Whether it’s the ability to handle recreational dives up to 45 metres or offer military-grade resistance to extreme heat and cold temperatures, this is a watch truly built for some serious rough and tumble.

There is room on that case exterior for an LED flashlight, which has become an on-trend feature for outdoor watches. This one shines nice and bright, making it a worthy addition. There are both white and green LED light modes along with a boost mode, when you need a bump in visibility.

Performance and software

• ZeppOS supports Android and iOS
• Zepp Pay, App Store and free offline maps
• Bluetooth calls supported

Zepp Health keeps the software all in-house. So the Ultra 2, like other Amazfit smartwatches, runs on ZeppOS, which is available for both Android and iOS users. The experience of using it across the two platforms is largely the same, bar a few missing features on either side. iPhone users can control their phone camera remotely, while Android users have the added ability to send quick replies to messages.

The big addition from the first Ultra is the built-in microphone and speaker. This allows you to handle calls, hear turn-by-turn directions during navigation mode, and it also brings the voice memo feature into play. The speaker goes pretty loud, if not the clearest when using it for calls. 

It can also be used with Zepp Flow, which means you can speak to the watch to ask about your fitness stats, switch on the do not disturb mode or just set a timer. While it is not as sophisticated a voice assistant as Google’s Gemini or Apple’s Siri, it works well enough to give you an alternative way to interact with the watch.

In terms of core features like viewing notifications, using music controls and loading audio, making contactless payments, and generally getting around on the watch, everything works well enough. If you’re looking for a watch you can download apps and watch faces, you can do that here – just don’t expect a storefront that matches the likes of Google Play in Wear OS in terms of variety and the number of available apps and watch faces.

ZeppOS still lags a little behind the likes of Garmin, Apple, and Wear OS watches when it comes to offering a polished smartwatch ecosystem. It doesn’t necessarily shortchange you in features; it just doesn’t quite match up to the competition.

Tracking and features

• Over 180 sports modes
• Works with Strava, Komoot and TrainingPeaks
• Promises pre-loaded maps and automatic re-routing

Whether you run, swim, bike, stay indoors or love Hyrox-style workouts, the Ultra 2 pretty much has you covered. This is a watch that can also track your daily step counts, monitor sleep time or continuously track heart rate. Those are likely not the main reasons you’re going to be looking at it, though.

You’re probably going to be sizing it up because of its abilities to accurately track your movements outside, offer maps you can view and follow on the watch and be able to quickly know when you’re about to hit higher-altitude terrain.

I’ll start with tracking accuracy: you get dual-band GPS, giving you the latest GPS technology available in smartwatches. Though as I’ve found, not all dual-band GPS watches deliver the same results. 

I’d say the T-Rex Ultra 2 delivers very strong GPS accuracy. The likes of Garmin, Apple and Suunto just shade it overall for the best showcase of dual-band, but for distance tracking and metrics like average pace, I was happy with what the Ultra 2 served up.

For mapping and navigation support, there is the promise of preloaded maps, but I ended up having to sync them over from the Zepp phone app as I’ve done with other map-supporting Amazfit smartwatches. 

Depending on how big the location or region you want to sync is, it can take anywhere from 20-30 minutes to transfer maps to the watch. Even with the option of doing that over Wi-Fi, I found things a bit slow going.

When the maps are loaded, you can use a mixture of the touchscreen and physical buttons to zoom and move around maps, pick from two different map viewing styles and make use of the onboard navigation features. 

You can upload a route to follow, explore nearby spots like coffee shops and create routes directly on the watch. Maps are nicely detailed and easy to view, and the navigation features work well to steer you in the right direction if you veer off course.

If you’re looking for a more traditional sports watch experience, the Ultra 2 can give you that as well. I’ve used it for a range of indoor workouts including pool swims and the tracking in general has been very good. 

Heart rate tracking accuracy is a mixed bag – though I do typically find this is the case with bigger watches. Given the size of the Ultra 2, I do think that contributes to some of the inaccurate readings I’ve seen during more high-intensity workouts. You can pair external heart rate monitors over Bluetooth, as well as various cycling sensors, if you want a more accurate read on your data. 

The training features and training insights available are a work in progress for Zepp Health. You can better understand your training volume, see recommended recovery times, and set up interval training sessions, with the watch capable of automatically recognising a range of strength training movements. While these features are well-built and the insights do feel mostly reliable, the presentation needs a bit of work. 

It’s good to see that you can link it to the likes of Strava, Runkeeper, Apple Health and Google Fit, which means you can pull in workout and training data from other sources if you’re not just a one-device person.

• Up to 30 days battery life
• Up to 10 days with always-on display mode
• 50-177 hours GPS battery life

The T-Rex Ultra 2 is built to be on your wrist for big adventures, which means it needs to deliver big battery life. 

There’s an 870mAh capacity battery inside of its hulking 51mm frame that can max out to a month with what Zepp Health deems typical use. That’s basically when you’re not regularly using GPS, the flashlight or using the most accurate continuous health monitoring support. 

When you start to add some of those features into the mix, those numbers drop. That said, it’s still designed to be a watch that can last over a week – even with the screen on at all times.

I found the battery life in general to be very good. On some heavier usage days, the battery drop was around 10%. Overnight, the drop can be as little as 2%. I never felt there was a noticeable battery drain. When you keep the screen on at all times, you can get up to 10 days of battery, depending on whether you’re using those more power-hungry features.

When you’re using the GPS, battery numbers range from 50 hours with its most accurate GPS mode to up to 177 hours with the GPS max battery life mode. In most cases, you’ll have to sacrifice the most accurate GPS tracking; I found that an hour of tracking in the most accurate GPS mode dropped the battery by around 5%. That doesn’t equate to the 50 hours promised.

If you compare those GPS battery numbers to the pricier 51mm Fenix 8 Pro, Garmin’s watch can go anywhere from 21 hours to 24 days. So it’s not quite the mammoth numbers promised by the watch it’s clearly trying to emulate.

Should you buy it?