Why I’m Excited About Amazfit’s New Helio Strap Fitness Tracker
Amazfit recently released the Helio Strap , the third of three once-rumored Whoop-style trackers to be officially announced. It’s the only one you can buy right now , and its specs and price (just $99.99) look pretty sweet.
Quick history lesson: The first of the three Whoop-like trackers announced was one from Polar. That’s all we know — there’s no name for the device, or even a photo, though a blurry image from the press release looks a lot like the Polar 360 , a device that was never sold directly to consumers. No price was announced, but it will be “subscription-free.” The second was Garmin’s Index sleep monitor, which retails for $169.99, is also subscription-free, and is only for sleep, not sports. ( I found the product description underwhelming , though I haven’t received the unit yet to review.) Finally, we have Amazfit’s $99 Helio band , which was previously teased by pro athletes at Hyrox and just became available to the rest of us last week. My review band is on its way, but based on the specs, this is the band I’m most looking forward to. This is what Garmin should have released, and it sets the standard that Polar will have to live up to.
A price that is hard to beat
It’s hard to imagine paying more than $100 for a band without a screen. After all, the idea is that it does half of what a watch does (it collects data, but doesn’t have a screen to display it). I try to overlook Whoop’s lack of a screen because its app is so thoughtfully designed and does a ton of analysis and planning—with Whoop, you’re really paying more for the service than the hardware. But if you’re going to buy a device for a flat fee, I have a hard time stomaching Garmin’s $169 price tag when you’d likely be wearing it in addition to a Garmin watch that costs anywhere from $200 to maybe over $1,000. Plus, Garmin’s device is only for sleep. The Helio band is for sleep and workouts, so you’re probably getting twice the value for just over half the price.
You can use it for both exercise and sleep.
Garmin’s is just for sleep, and Polar’s is probably for 24/7 wear (we don’t know yet), but the Amazfit is clearly designed for exercise in addition to sleep wear. The company boasts that it has 27 exercise modes, which doesn’t sound like much, but I’m intrigued by the “smart strength training” and Hyrox race mode. (Hyrox isa fitness racing sport in which competitions involve running between exercise stations, doing things like burpees and pushing a sled. Several Amazfit watches have a mode that can track different segments of this competition.)
Amazfit plans to sell a wristband for the Helio strap, though their website says it’s not available yet. Personally, I like it when trackers have a wristband option for strength or functional fitness, since weights and wristbands tend to get in the way of anything wrist-related.
It’s Garmin, not Whoop, that should be afraid
According to press materials, the Helio band has a 10-day battery life. The band feeds data into the Zepp app, just like other Amazfit watches, so you can switch between the Helio band and any Amazfit watch you might own, like the T-Rex 3 or Bip 6 — or the new Balance 2 , which somehow manages to squeeze dual-band GPS, offline maps, and a sapphire crystal screen into a $299 package. This is what Garmin watch users have been asking for: something that lets people take off their watch while still uploading data to the same app as their regular watch. Something that has good battery life and is relatively affordable. Something you can wear while exercising, not just for sleeping.
The Helio band even has a BioCharge feature that’s very similar to Garmin’s “Body Battery.” Body Battery is a number that increases as you sleep or recover, and decreases as you exercise or get stressed. Personally, I ignore it, but I know a lot of people like to keep track of the numerical metaphor for how energized they can feel throughout the day.
The only thing I’m not sure about is the GPS. It’s not mentioned in any of the Helio band’s specs, and the note on battery life mentions that they assume outdoor workouts are done with the band connected to your phone’s GPS. This is similar to what Whoop is doing, allowing them to keep the device small and power-efficient while removing location tracking technology entirely. But this has its downsides: your phone’s GPS may not be as accurate as the watch’s (depending on your phone, of course), and it eats up your phone’s battery rather than the device’s. That said, if you’re tracking an outdoor run, you’ll probably want to wear your watch anyway – bringing us back to the two-device setup that Amazfit is probably hoping you’ll buy into.