Should You Buy Amazon Halo or Amazon Halo View Activity Tracker?

When it comes to wearables, Amazon may not initially come to mind. While the company has a ton of great products in various tech categories, Amazon Halo is still relatively new. Like other fitness and health trackers, the band is a simple wrist-worn device that measures everything from your activity to sleep. However, when looking at Amazon Halo vs Halo View, there are some notable differences.

	Amazon Halo	Amazon Halo View
Screen	No	Yes
connectivity	Bluetooth 5.0	Bluetooth 5.0
microphone	2 built-in for tone analysis	not any
Anti-swimming	50 meters	50 meters
Membership Options	Yes	Yes
color	Black/Onyx, Winter/Silver, Blush/Rose Gold	Vibrant Black, Dreamy Lavender, Sage Green
Band size	small, large, large	trumpet, m
strap material	Blended fabric, sports silicone	High-performance TPU
Interchangeable strap	Yes	Yes
Battery Life	Up to 7 days (2 days with tone enabled)	up to 7 days
phone request	Android 7.0+, iOS 12.0+	Android 8.0+, iOS 13.0+

The two trackers are similar, but have several key notable differences. First, the Halo View has a touchscreen, which Halo doesn’t. But not only that: Halo also added a microphone to access the interesting pitch analysis component, which Halo View removed. A similar thing, however, is that you need a subscription to use many of their most compelling features.

Amazon Halo and Halo View: How do they look?

The main difference in the appearance of the two trackers is that there is no screen in Amazon Halo. Instead, it’s just a strap that’s completely covered in fabric. The material is a blend of woven polyester, nylon and spandex, while the sports strap is made of high-performance silicone. The fabric version is available in small, medium and large, and the sport version is available in small/medium or medium/large.

In contrast, the Halo View has a small color touchscreen that provides at-a-glance information, including notifications from Bluetooth connectivity and compatible smartphones, as well as daily stats and time and date. Its straps are made of high-performance TPU and are available in small/medium and medium/large sizes.

Halo is available in three color combinations: Black/Onyx, Winter/Silver and Blush/Rose Gold, while the Halo View comes with Active Black, Lavender Dream or Sage Green. With both, you can swap out the straps for other styles if you want, and the Amazon Halo View already has some great strap options.

Both can swim at 50 meters (5 atmospheres), but the Halo comes with a pair of built-in microphones for tone analysis (more on that later). In addition to the sensor and wrist strap, each comes with a USB charger or clip and a quick start guide.

As mentioned, the main difference here is the screen. While the price difference between the two is nominal, the main reason you might want to choose Halo over Halo View is if you’re intentionally avoiding distractions. Halo looks more like a bracelet on your wrist and requires you to log into the app to see where you are in terms of steps, sleep, heart rate and more for the day. Otherwise, it will quietly do the work in the background during your day’s work. If you prefer to see everything on your wrist, including notifications like incoming text messages, the Halo View is the best option between the two.

Amazon Halo and Halo View: Salient features

Both trackers can log steps, heart rate, sleep time, activity and exercise. Halo provides access to a library of workouts from sources like Lifesum and SWEAT (via subscription – more on that later) and intensity-based activity tracking. With Halo View, you can access programs such as HIIT and strength, yoga, barbell, walking, and low-intensity workouts, ranging from 5 minutes to 1 hour, but again, subscribe.

Since Halo View has a screen, you can follow live workouts and get reminders from your wrist and other phone notifications. You also have access to a host of on-demand activities as well as meditation, sleep and nutritional support. You can even take body composition measurements with both devices, assessing your body fat percentage using your phone’s camera and app.

Halo View adds exercise assessment through the app to help you create a personalized exercise plan. It also provides on-demand blood oxygen level measurement, not included in the original Halo.

Both offer a neat feature called pitch analysis, which can tell you how you sound to others, such as your children, significant other, or colleagues. It is designed to help you strengthen your communication. Halo has two built-in microphones to measure this, and Halo View uses your phone and app. There has been some criticism of the privacy and security implications of having a microphone in Halo, which may have prompted Amazon to remove the microphone from the Halo View.

There are also neat value-added features, including measuring the quantity and quality of sleep, daily meditations from experts like Headspace, and access to over 450 recipes from experts through Whole Foods.

Both work with Alexa and have 7 days of battery life, but when you activate tone analysis on the Halo, the battery life drops to 2 days because it uses the built-in microphone for calculations.

If you’re looking for a budget tracker for serious workouts that you can also use to stay in top shape for the day, the Halo View is a better choice. If you just want to track your daily activities and odd workouts, runs, walks, or even bike rides, Halo does it too. But unless you really want to avoid distractions, you’ll get more value out of the Halo View’s screen. Remember that without a screen, you’ll need to use your phone anyway to view data in apps, which may encourage you to pick up your phone more often.

Amazon Halo and Halo View: What do you get without a subscription?

Many of the features discussed here require a Halo subscription, which costs $3.99 per month for a nominal fee, but still needs to be added to the list. Halo offers a 6-month free trial and a 12-month free trial for Halo View, both of which automatically renew at the end of the term unless you cancel. But chances are, once you have it, you decide to keep it.

If you don’t subscribe to either, you’ll get basic tracking, including limited workout access, heart rate tracking, calories burned, time awake and asleep, and sleep temperature. However, if you want features like body composition measurement, activity tracking, detailed sleep analysis, tone analysis, exercise fitness, and a personalized improvement plan, you’ll need to sign up.

So both trackers are great and affordable entry points into the fitness and health tracking space, but to get the most out of them you’ll need to factor the recurring cost of the subscription into the price after the free trial period expires .

Amazon Halo and Halo View: Which should you buy?

Given the nominal cost difference between the two, both are often sold, and the Halo View is the latest model, which makes more sense when deciding between Amazon’s Halo vs. Halo View. The only reason to choose Halo is to eliminate distractions on your wrist. But if that makes it easier for you to pick up your phone to check things rather than tap your wrist, it could have the opposite effect. But if you think you can go through the app once a day to check in and get work done, the simple screen-free design might appeal to you.

That being said, being able to queue up a workout directly from the wrist, or even follow it through a live workout, makes the Halo View an even more compelling option. Coupled with blood oxygen level measurement, this is a valuable feature, especially for those with breathing problems or sleep apnea, a worthwhile upgrade.

While the included mic for tone analysis in Halo is neat, the feature is likely more gimmicky than any other, used a few times and then dropped. Also, if you’re concerned about your privacy and security, you might prefer not to use the built-in microphone at all. Note, however, that Amazon says your personally identifiable health data is safe and you can delete or download your data at any time.

No matter which model you decide to go with, a subscription makes sense. But if you don’t like adding another recurring subscription fee to the list, you’ll find there are plenty of other affordable fitness trackers out there that cost a little more or even less and don’t require a subscription.

listen

Amazon Halo

No distractions, built-in microphone

Amazon $50 Best Buy $50 Target $50

The only reason to choose Amazon Halo over Halo View is to avoid distractions because it doesn’t have a screen. But the built-in microphone for tone analysis might surprise you, and the Halo View adds a compelling upgrade without increasing the price.

Worthy entry-level fitness tracking

Amazon Halo View

solid fitness tracker

Amazon $60 Best Buy $60 Target $60

It’s even better with Amazon Halo View, which offers compelling upgrades like blood oximetry, a color touchscreen, and an additional six-month trial period for a Halo subscription. Plus, it does away with the built-in microphone.