Amazon Halo View is available for preorder now at $30 off

Amazon had recently announced a new fitness tracker and expanded its Halo ecosystem offering. Unlike its first attempt, the $80 Halo View comes packing a display. The overall design, however, is rather uninspiring. The device is up for re-order now at $30 off ahead of the December 9th release.

This seems to be the retail giant’s answer to the likes of Fitbit activity devices. Something for the masses, that dishes out basic health and fitness data and doesn’t break the bank.

Standard fitness sensors plus SpO2 & skin temperature

Amazon View has most of what you expect from a run-of-the-mill activity device. Users can expect to get 24/7 activity and sleep data, along with sports tracking. No built-in GPS, though, which is reflected in the low price.

There are also some more exotic health monitoring features. These come in the form of an SpO2 sensor for blood oxygen tracking and a skin temperature sensor. Both useful to have considering the pandemic.

The one important difference, though, between this and the original Amazon Halo is that View comes with an AMOLED display which makes it a good upgrade. The original has no screen and comes across as a simplified version of the Whoop activity band. Therefore you do get support for notifications this time around.

Amazon Halo view packs an uninspiring boxy design

Despite the addition of the screen, the overall design of the 5 ATM rated device is pretty dull. It reminds very much of Fitbit Charge 5 – something that we’ve seen many times before. The three body colors that are available are Active Black, Sage Green and Lavender Dream.

Essential reading: Top fitness trackers and health gadgets

Below the touchscreen is a large single physical button. The body of the device is attached to a sporty strap that is available in 15 different colors. These come in a small / medium band size for wrists between 130-195 mm and a medium / large for wrists between 160 and 225 mm.

Additional sport straps can be purchased starting at $14.99. More pricey options starting at $29.99 can be bought in one of eight fabric ribbons, along with tan band black leather options and a metal ribbon iteration.

7 day battery life

As far as battery life, you can expect to squeeze out about seven days between charges. That is pretty much what you get with other fitness trackers that pack similar technical specs. A full refuel takes about an hour and a half.

One-year Halo ecosystem membership

When you purchase the tracker, you also get a free one-year Halo ecosystem membership. This currently includes things such as body composition and monitoring tone and weight. But the ecosystem will soon be upgraded with two additional services: Halo Fitness and Halo Nutrition.

Halo Fitness is something akin to the Apple Fitness+ offering. It gives users access to a plethora of instructional workout videos. The range is wide and covers cardio, yoga, strength, mobility classes and more. These are curated by professional trainers such as Michael Hildebrand, Elena Cheung and Elizabeth Andrews. Users will be able to keep tabs on heart rate and intensity zones on the tracker display while they are doing the workouts.

Halo Nutrition is something entirely different. This is Amazon’s attempt to mimic the plethora of smartphone food tracking apps and meal planners that are out there. Amazon says Halo Nutrition will offer personalized, time-saving tools to help members build healthy habits.

Users will be able to easily plan health meals and choose from 500 recipes from partner organizations such as WW, LifeSum and Whole Foods Market. They’ll even be able to link their healthy Halo shopping list to Alexa Shopping for a seamless ordering experience. The Halo Nutrition service is expected to go live in January 2022.

Amazon Halo View: Price & release date

It is difficult to know what to make of Amazon’s latest attempt at an activity tracker. There is nothing really that makes it stand out from the crowd apart from, perhaps, the nutritional part of the Halo membership. One would have hoped, with immense financial resources behind it, the company would come out with something with realistic potential to garner lots of interest.

The original does have some innovative features which we do get once again. But it is questionable how useful these are in real life. Perhaps that is why the first device did not pick up much traction. In our view, Amazon Halo View will find it difficult going to capture a significant share of the activity tracker market. There really is very little to make Halo View a more attractive purchase over already established devices.

Amazon had stayed true to its word that Halo View will be available “in time for the holidays”. You can pre-order it now at $300 off the $79.99 price (check current price on Amazon). As far as the Halo membership, this currently runs at $3.99 per month. Amazon did not mention whether this cost will be going up once the expanded service is up and running. Actual availability starts on December 8th.

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