Customer Ratings & Reviews

This new rival to the fitbit type of watch is pretty comfortable. The silicone rubber type material has to grip your wrist fairly tightly to be accurate for things like blood pressure, heart rate and blood oxygen. A user like me is more interested in those features and the mini sleep study available through the Halo phone app than the features for fitness and exercise. There are the usuals like a tiny little manual and tiny little icons on the touch-screen, which is fairly responsive and colorful. Lots of settings and options to explore of course, not only on the face of the watch itself, but in the app. The charger is a magnetic clamping device that can be a bit tricky to put on the outside of the watch in just the right place to start the charging cycle. It did last a few days before needing a charge, which was good. The brightness of the display at night needs a tweak which I hadn't found at the time of this review. A product like this has a lot of less expensive competition, but I did find the quality of it good and the vital signs measurements pretty accurate for a small wrist-mounted device.

This is a well rounded device offering plenty of features like step tracking, heart rate, calories, sleep tracking, and activity tracking. For the price, this device offers a lot but the data that it provides may not be as accurate as higher-end health trackers. The device itself is a small, unobtrusive strap with a small but easy to read, full color touchscreen. The touchscreen works well and it’s responsive to swipes and taps. The interface is easy to use and understand and it’s broken out into 4 easy areas for your activity and health data, an activity tracking widget, tools like alarms and a stopwatch, and settings. Super easy to use. Step tracking and daily activity tracking works well including stuff like automatic detection for walking which just automatically shows up in the Halo app. I liked that I didn't have to manually start an activity to track my walks. Calorie calculations seem to be a little overzealous. I’ve been tracking my calories for years and have experience with other health and fitness trackers and the Halo estimates about 10-15% higher than what I think is expected. However, heart rate accuracy seems to be pretty good compared to an external heart rate monitor for both daily tracking as well as activities like running. Sleep tracking is good for the most part. It seems top track the total sleep time, time too fall asleep once in bed, and time awake well along with sleep stages but the sleep scores that it gives I’d say are a bit overly encouraging. For instance, a good night of sleep produced a sleep score of 88 whereas a terrible night of sleep for me produced a score of 71. Battery life is pretty good for a device this small lasting about 3-4 days. Overall, this device offers a lot for the initial price tag which includes a year subscription to the Halo app but after that it costs $4/month. I don’t like subscriptions just like anyone else but $4/month really isn’t that bad in the whole scheme of things. Could be nice if you are already an Amazon Prime member to just toss that in for free though. Just a thought.

I'm done with smartwatches. They are way too big, heavy, and the charges on most barely last a day or two. Having never had a fitness wearable, I was intrigued by the Halo View. The features that drew me in were the battery life, the lighter weight and size, and the minimalist aspect. As of this writing, I've had the band on for a 7 full days. That is, Wednesday night I opened the box and charged it to 100% (which didn't take very long), and it is currently Wednesday afternoon 7 days later, and the 20% battery indicator just turned on. That is amazing in comparison to the WearOS watches that I'm used to that barely lasted til I got home from work. The charger itself is sort of awkward, shaped like a thicc chip clip. I wasn't really sure if it was on properly, since the main part of the band is convex while the clip charger is flat, the band doesn't really fit flush centered in the groove but is supposed to be a little bit off-set. The soft TPU band that comes with the device is a little awkward to put on one-handed, but once on it's a nice fit and doesn't move back and forth much on my wrist unless I purposely adjust it. The touch screen display is bright enough to see in the daytime, and can be adjusted to your preference. It's simple enough to access the different functions, though on the device itself those are limited to timers, alarms, and viewing some biometric data. There's the option to allow text and movement break notifications, but you won't get any other notifications from your phone, which is honestly a blessing. Having my wrist buzz every 5 minutes was giving me an RSI. Other than that, your standard step counter, heart rate monitor, and oxygen meter are present and the data is easily accessible and readable. To allay privacy concerns, there is no GPS tracking or microphone on the watch. In fact, it's one of the few Amazon branded smart products that *doesn’t* allow you to ask Alexa anything. Of course, you can connect the app itself to Alexa, so that you can ask her to read off the same info you can find in the app in her soothing monotone robot voice. The included app has tons of information. For those interested in sleep tracking, there is an informative breakdown of your sleep cycle as well as suggestions on improving your sleep if it finds you lacking. Apparently, I don't get nearly as much as I should, and now I can quantify just how burnt out I am. There's also a bunch of health and fitness helper articles and features, some of which are kind of out there. For example, there's something called "Tone" that you can turn on for your phone, and when you speak it judges how you talk and lets you know if you are being friendly or hostile. While I'm at work fielding help desk calls, the app tells me I am condescending, annoyed, and bored, which is mostly true. There's also some sort of body fat measurement that requires you to take mostly exposed selfies, which I am not about to do. Overall, I have really enjoyed my Halo View. I like that I don't have to worry about the battery all the time. I prefer not having so many distractions. For some reason, however, whenever I get a text, I also get a very old text pop up. I'm talking, a text from a buddy I haven't seen in a few years asking when my wife was due with our first child. For reference, my daughter is now 7, and I have switched phones 3 times since then. How or why this old text keeps showing up has been annoying enough for me to turn off text notifications entirely. No big loss, since all I wanted was a tech'd up cheapo-watch that could get wet. And for that purpose, it's perfect.

This fitness tracker is a beautifully built little device that has lasted me over 7 days between charges. I especially like the brilliant AMOLED display and smooth transissions between displays. However, I am interested in a device that can give me steps and heart rate, but I am not training aggressively for any fitness goal. I have explored some of the content included with Halo membership, such as training videos, recipes, training strategies and the like, and I do not think that I will find them useful at this time. So I will probably not extend my Halo membership after the first year trial. I still like this device for the basic functions that it provides.

I've been an Apple Watch user ever since the first one came out. So it's been more than six years. Needless to say, that watch has set my expectations very high. My wife has used Fitbit in the past and I set it up for her, so I've had little experience of that as well. I figured this Halo View would be either comparable or maybe even a modest step up; it was...not. Easy to set up. Easy to read. Love how well the app and the Halo work together. Very easy lifting. But accuracy is way off. I've got 140 steps after it got set up, while at my desk. It doesn’t use a GPS to count steps, so it’s wildly inaccurate. For instance, I have turned on the notification to remind me to move after an hour. On the first day I used it, I had been outside, went to work, walking up and down the steps, along the driveway etc. plenty of normal movement. I sat down at my computer desk for about 10 minutes and was notified that I needed to move as I hadn’t moved in almost an hour. The band is almost impossible to actually put on and is irritating to fit. These bands are a pain to get on, you really need 3 hands. Frankly, the wrist band is the worst designed consumer electronic product I have ever used. I have to plug the peg under the band, and then loop it next to my wrist through a hole. There is no physical support. I don't know if the designers of this device ever actually tried to use it. I hope that replacement bands will be available for purchase. The main reason I got the Halo was for the sleep tracking function. While it does track your time asleep and levels of sleep (light, deep, REM), that information is only available on the app, not on the Halo itself. Also, you can see "last night" but no specific days other than that. The next options are this week and this month. I found this to be quite frustrating. I did know about the membership but ignored it because my wife had used fitbit without membership just fine but it turned out the sleep analysis will be just about nothing without the membership! Showing only sleep hours without the scores and analysis? Are you kidding me? I can look at the clock myself. Disappointing. The screen is legible and clear. I really liked the ease of accessing data with swiping (up, down, across depending on what I wanted to see). Always responsive. easy to see and understand. The calorie estimate is just that, an estimate not to be relied on 100%. Overall, I’m disappointed. There’s just far too much inconsistencies with the Halo. Although I do like the watch face itself. You sacrifice why you’re actually wearing a fit tracker to begin with.

PROS: * Long battery life * Blood oxygen sensor * Sleep tracking * Good display * Water resistant CONS: * Subscription required * Only text notifications * No menstrual tracking * No speaker * No GPS * VERY reliant on app == SETUP == Shouldn't come as a surprise, but in order to setup the Halo View, you NEED to have an Amazon account. If you don't like Amazon, I'm not sure why you're even bothering to read this. The setup is pretty easy and simple: just install the app on your phone, log in to your Amazon account, and follow along in the video guide. You have an option during the setup (and can always come back to it later) to use a new Amazon feature that will use your weight and multiple pictures of your body to help with tracking your BMI. This feels super creepy to me, and while Amazon claims the photos are deleted, I'm not going use this "feature". You also receive a free year of Amazon's Halo membership, which is required to use the Halo View. Halo has a lot of good stuff, primarily the various workouts offered, but it will be up to you to decide if it's worth it after your first year. == METRICS == This is a very simple and basic fitness tracker with minimal smartwatch features, I think it would make a great "first" fitness band. It keeps track of all the basics: step count, workout duration, heart-rate, sleep tracking, and can even measure your blood oxygen. One issue with some of the tracking is that everything is done in the app. For example, there is no GPS on the band itself, so you NEED to have your phone with you if you want/need GPS tracking. The band itself is nice and simple, but all of the heavy lifting is done in the app. Unlike other fitness bands, the Halo View does not support menstrual tracking. This may not be a deal-breaker for some, but it feels really odd to not be supported when so many older fitness bands could do this YEARS ago. == NON-FITNESS USAGE == The Halo View is a "fitness first" device, but does support some smartwatch features, such as being able to view text messages. The problem is that you can't respond from the Halo View, and it's only text messages that you can receive (no emails or other app notifications). It doesn't have a microphone or speaker, so there's no way to use it for calls. The only other non-fitness related feature that you can use is alarms. I prefer my watch buzzing to wake me up over a ringtone, so that's nice to have. == BATTERY LIFE == Amazon claims that you can get up to a week on a single charge. This is really going to depend on how you're using the Halo View, but I was able to go a full week. If I had to guess, Amazon is able to get such impressive battery life out of the Halo View by making the app do all the work. == BOTTOM LINE == This is a bit of a mixed bag. There are plenty of things that I like about the Halo View (the battery life is a HUGE perk), but there's also plenty of things I dislike about it too (text message only notifications and very reliant on the app). I would recommend this to anyone looking to try their first fitness tracking band, but if you need smartwatch features beyond text notifications, I would pass on it.

Pros: -- Inexpensive -- Comprehensive exercise, sleep and health functionality -- long battery life, up to 7 days -- waterproof -- Lots of exercise, diet, meditation coaching with free 1 year Halo membership Cons: -- Finicky clip charger -- Finicky band is difficult to put on, take off -- Uncomfortable on small wrists -- Screen sometimes difficult to read in bright conditions -- Monthly "membership" fee required to keep band and app fully functional after one year The Halo View, Amazon's entry into the fit watch arena, is a virtual fitness trainer. When combined with the Halo app, it provides a staggering amount of information on your fitness, health, sleep habits, body fat level, flexibility -- and of course doubles as a watch. And at first glance it seems quite a a bargain, with lots of sensors to measure steps, calories burned, pulse, blood oxygen levels, sleep stages and even skin temperature changes during sleep. All for about $80 retail. Sadly that's just the beginning of what you pay, if you want to keep everything functioning as it was designed. Because Amazon being Amazon, everything is about the upsell. And here, that upsell is a "membership" that costs $4 a month. Stop paying and your fancy fit band and app becomes, well, mostly useless. (The first year of the membership is "free" at least) Oh sure, when it ends, it will still tell the time, count steps, measure total sleep time and measure pulse. But that's about it. No sleep analysis. No running tally of exercises, active time, or access to exercise routines....or anything else that might be considered useful in relation to the fitness band. Some may be OK with that. And if so, this band worth a look. It frankly does lot, given the low price . And while the accuracy of some of the data it gnerates is questionable (I found some wide discrpencies on some data points wearing different smart watch at the same time), it is a very capable device. You can have it keep tabs on a large variety of workouts, from a simple walk, to yoga, cycling and weight training, and lots of others. It tracks calories burned, heart rate, exertion level and elapsed time for each one. You can view the results on the watch or, more easily, within the app. Ditto for sleep tracking, which occurs automatically (exercise tracking is manual). Each morning you get a sleep score based on how much time you spent in rapid eye movement (REM), deep sleep, light sleep, or tossing and turning. It even tracks skin temperature change (3 days or more of data required for this), which also plays into the sleep score. It is all explained in the app. The Halo View also keeps a running tally of every move you make, calories burned,, how much you exert yourself, or if you just sit around -- and scores you on that as well, with a goal of encouraging you to become more active. When you decide that time has come, the app has an amazing variety of video exercise routines you can check out to get into better shape. And tracks how you do, and progress, on every one. Speaking of shape, the app even has a somewhat elaborate interactive module to determine your body fat. It requires you to strip down to you skivvies and allow the camera on your smart phone to take a bunch of pictures of your body so it can analyze them. Supposedly, this provides a more accurate measure than the mathmatical body mass index most of us are familiar with. Aside from the obvious privacy concerns here, this feature is likely to be a major turnoff to anyone not is top physical condition. One review I saw, written by a woman, said it left her totally traumatized. Fortunately, you get to decide which features you do and do not want to use so if you have body image issues, you might want to skip this feature. While the Halo View is a very capable device, it is not without some issues. The first problem is a not so great overall design built around cheap feeling all-plastic case and band that I found uncomfortable on my somewhat small wrists. The band is even worse, in my opinion, since Amazon ditched the tried and true buckle type system in favor an odd punch pin setup that I struggled with every time I took it on or off. Another issue is the charging system. Instead of a simple, wireless magnetic charging dock , commonly used on many smart/fitness watches, Amazon came up with an odd clothes pin type arrangment. There are tiny pins on the clip that must line up perfectly with the tiny contacts on the back of the watch. Very finicky. (There is no power brick either, just a USB cord, so you better have a brick if you want to keep your watch charged) Fortunately , the Halo View can go almost a week without a charge, a major plus. One other significant oversight by Amazon is a lack of GPS so the Halo View is incapable of telling you how far you walked, ran, biked, swam, etc. Which may be a dealbreaker for some. In the end, the Halo View is probably a good choice for those on a budget who want to keep closer tabs on their exercise routines, or who need to get more motivated to do more exercises. Despite some shortcomings, it does an pretty decent job across the board. Think of it as a health club membership. After a year, you can decide whether it is doing the job for you or you have a better use for the $4 a month you will need to spend to keep it going.

I like that the Halo came in with minimalist packaging, with no plastic. The View is feather light, with what appears to be a plain silicone band to go with it's rectangular face. Right out of the box it has half a charge, which I used to set it up with and connect to the Halo app through Amazon (optional). There isn't a battery power indicator on the face, you either scroll the settings or check it on the app, however so far the initial charge has lasted for 2 days with low to moderate usage. I really like that it's really light as I'm able to sleep with it on, unlike my Galaxy, which is a bit clunky. I tend to forget the Halo is on. BTW, the band fits onto a little node that is pretty rigid and seems to be very secure, then it goes through a small buckle for added security and esthetics. Again scrolling gives you lots of info, but I prefer going to the app which shows me my sleep, heart, activity and steps and a few more options all on 1 page. If you're wondering, no this is nothing like the Galaxy or Apple watch, it is more of a basic, think, Fitbit tracker. The only reason I gave 4 stars is thay after the free trial I'll have to pay Amazon for the app, I know its knit-picky..but hey!

The Amazon Halo fitness tracker is a really nice device for the money. The screen is bright, the watch is comfortable to wear and it has a tremendous feature set considering the low price. The watch is also "swim proof" meaning it is water resistant at reasonable depths. This watch, like many other higher priced fitness trackers, can read heart rate, steps, calculate calories and has a set of fitness and workout programs that can be used. The Halo View can also read blood oxygen levels as well as track your sleep. One of the best parts of this is that you can see all of this information on the Halo screen or you can use the app which works on both android and ios. Amazon claims a seven day battery life. I don't know if I can get seven days, but with constant use, the watch has easily given me over five days of battery life. Overall, this is a great device and well worth its price.

This is a very nice alternative for a Fitbit. Could definitely use more free apps. I understand it’s a device for Amazon to collect data and recommend products, but too much is hidden behind the paywall. That said, the $3 monthly membership does give you access to a plethora of health advice and info. This would make a great affordable gift for someone who had a healthier habits new year resolution. My biggest gripe about this product is it isn’t accurate as a step counter. Typing at my desk for two hours, it added 127 steps. It’s not a game changer, but I’d hope the motion tracker would be better on a device by Amazon. Oh well. It’s lightweight, has a ton of accessories available, and the display is fairly bright.

Finally a device that doesn’t punish you for working nights! The halo view will let you start a workout that ends after midnight. A boon for those of us who work nights and want to track activity at work. My personal experiences preclude the halo view from being a “do-everything” device. I use a watch regularly on the job, and I need to be able to watch seconds pass. The time display is small, so anything except a numeric display is really too difficult to read at a glance. This is aggravated by the inability to use 24-hour time. Makes one wonder why 3AM is represented as “0300”… There are many settings I would change if it were possible. I realize that this will never be an all-purpose solution, so I’m willing to cut it some slack. The halo view will never match all the customizations and ease-of-use of my Apple Watch, so it’s going to be an add-on, rather than a replacement. What the halo view excels at is tracking activity, which is why I was interested in it to begin with. It has even reliably monitored my sleep time. The only problem with that is that if you are blessed (?) with the BHLHE41 gene (which generally translates to requiring about 2 hours less sleep), it will insist that your sleep habits are lacking. The device is meant to be used with a free-to-download app, which worked well after an easy setup. It’s got an entire wellness program built in, but it’s easy to use only the features/aspects you’re interested in.

I really liked this fitness tracker, its very focused. As far as sizing, I would suggest checking and double checking your wrist size with a cloth measuring tape to make sure you get the right size or wrist band, I got the medium and it barely fits, using the last hole on the band. You HAVE to use the smartphone app to set it up. It is bluetooth only, no wifi. When you set it up to your Amazon account via the app, it will start a included one year subscription to the Halo service, which will auto renew at current price in you guessed it one year. Its pretty focused, only text notifications available from your phone, which I didn't use. The heart rate monitor provides good info, current HR, resting HR today, and maximum HR today, see app for trending data. The blood oxygen O2 sensor is on demand only, and data doesn't appear on the app. Sleep function gives some basic results on tracker, more details on the app, helps you see how you have been sleeping. The exercise guidance and options are pretty well thought out and useful for such a small screen on the tracker. I enjoyed several of them.