Amazon delivered both expected and unexpected products in the past years. The most surprising product is Halo, a $99 fitness tracker that can also assess your voice tone and assess your body fat, two very intimate data points that Apple Watches and Fitbit trackers do not study. It awards points for amounts of motion and sleep, which are typical of a fitness tracker. Even more intriguing, there is no screen and no vibrations.
This Amazon Halo tracker is intrusive. But if you can get beyond that, you might learn something about yourself that no other fitness can. It can also be an addition to your smart home as it easily helps monitor your being. Before we get into the highly personalized tone monitoring and photo-based body composition, let’s look at the tracker and how it functions as a basic fitness tracker.
Design and Comfort
Amazon’s Halo is a very understated device. The tracker is a piece of hardware in and of itself. There is no display to look at and no vibrating actuators to buzz your wrist. There is merely one button for input, and there are only two microphones. Because of an optical heart rate sensor and a series of charging ports, the bottom side of Halo is fascinating. When worn, this poses the lid of your wrist.
A woven fabric bend constructed of a durable mesh is included with the Halo. It clicks into two divots on the edges of Halo, producing a gentle click when attached and a pleasant popping sound when removed. The band is available in three sizes. Overall, it’s a straightforward experience, and the Halo is light and comfy.
You can choose from silver, onyx, or gold; the band is color-matched. Amazon also sells additional bands made of mesh or a rubber-like sports material. It’s identical to Apple’s approach with the Apple Watch, but it’s strictly restricted to just two bands.
A charging clip, identical to the way the Fitbit charges and less complex than an Apple Watch, is also contained in the box. You’ll open the clip and place the Halo on the appropriate charging pins. In terms of battery life, there are two scenarios. If you don’t utilize the tone monitoring feature, which needs the microphones to be turned on, the battery life can last up to seven days, based on your level of physical activity. It only survived about a day with Tone turned on, which could be better. The Halo band can be fully charged in around an hour and 30 minutes.
Finally, let’s talk about the setup. Similar to any fitness tracker or wearable, Halo requires pairing with an Android or iOS device. You’ll install the Halo app, which will pair with your tracker through Bluetooth. It does not, however, need to be constantly connected to your phone. It will sync several times to transfer data points for Sleep, Activity, and Tone.
Overall, the app and product are straightforward, but is it worthwhile to purchase? Can it also level up your smart home? Let’s dig deeper into its features.
Activity and Sleep Tracking
Halo will monitor your movements and sleep as any fitness tracker does. Let’s begin with activity, a key aspect of Amazon’s band and the Halo app. The optical heart rate sensor and a few sensors inside Halo track movement. Halo categorizes activities as intense, moderate, or light. A cycling session, for example, could be classified as moderate to intense. It makes use of your body’s exertion as well as your heart rate.
You earn points for mobility; the more you work and move, the more you earn. But the ironic part is that Halo deducts points when you are stationary. These are alluded to as inactive moments, and you will lose one point every eight hours of no movement. You can, however, sleep without punishment, and Halo will not deduct points.
As for Halo’s Sleep tracking, it is equally data – number-driven. The tracker will be worn at night and monitor your sleep – all sorts of sleep, from light to REM and profound, as well as those unlucky moments when you are awake. In the morning, you are shown a graph depicting your progress through the various cycles. Halo also displays the overall amount of time spent sleeping and awake and the duration it took you to drift off to sleep; this is more information than the Apple Watch offers, and many prefer this idea.
Ultimately, these features provide ways to be more aware of your health and well-being. The implementation is nice, and we like that it will push you to get that workout on or relaxation time in.
Tone and Body Scans
This item can also listen in and assess your Tone using the two microphones on board, indicating whether your speech is favorable or negative. With a body scan, you let your device and the Halo app scan your nearly-naked body to determine body fat. It employs the collected photos in conjunction with machine learning to distinguish between your body and the surroundings and AI for some analysis. It’s creepy and crosses the line for many, but it’s also completely voluntary. And thankfully, Amazon is extremely explicit regarding this during setup and when you want to examine the Tone or Body areas.
Tone audio recordings are all digested on the device and then erased. For example, you can’t even listen to Halo’s recordings. On the one hand, it would be interesting to attempt to figure out why you seemed happy or sad. However, it is also the correct step in terms of privacy.
Body Scan photos are saved on your device and, during processing, are securely sent to Amazon’s servers before being sent back down, keeping the only version on your device. By disabling this feature, you can avoid getting a practically nude scan sent out.
Final Thoughts
Amazon’s Halo, which costs $99.99, is a unique fitness and activity tracker. Tone analysis and body scanning are noticeable aspects that may put some people off immediately. However, keep in mind that they are turned off by default, as Amazon is pretty forthcoming about privacy on this gadget.
Halo is a precise and data-focused tracking device for movement or sleep. It competes with other prominent trackers like Apple and Fitbit.
Amazon’s Halo excels as a good fitness tracker while attempting to be comfortable and highly intimate – Fortunately, you can turn off tone tracking and body scanning to give it the side eye.