QALO launches a screenless fitness band built to work alongside its smart ring

QALO has launched the SL-1 Smart Band, giving its smart ring owners a wrist-worn option for workouts and other times when a ring gets in the way.

We had a feeling this was coming. In August, we found an FCC filing for a QALO device called the Sport Loop 1, with the model number SL-1. Now QALO has dropped the longer name and put the SL-1 Smart Band on sale in the US.

At nearly $200, it is not the cheap band we thought QALO might be preparing. But the price makes more sense when you look at what the company wants people to do with it.

A ring for some days, a band for others

The idea is straightforward. Wear the ring for sleep and everyday tracking, then switch to the band for strength training, manual work or anything else where a ring feels awkward. QALO says both devices feed into the same app and maintain one continuous health profile.

QALO’s launch announcement says the SL-1 tracks heart rate, HRV, blood oxygen, skin temperature, stress, movement and sleep. There is also cycle tracking and a daily Q Score that pulls together sleep, HRV, movement and stress. During a workout, the app can show live heart rate, elapsed time and steps.

There’s no screen or subscription, and at a claimed 18 grams, the SL-1 is pretty light. You can swap between silicone and woven straps.

Battery life is a bit less clear: QALO’s announcement says more than 12 days, while its product page says up to 12. So around 12 days is the safer figure for now.

QALO built its name selling silicone wedding rings to people who work with their hands or play sports where a metal ring gets in the way. For those customers, the SL-1 comes from a brand they already know, which may make it more appealing than a screenless band from a company they have never heard of.

Also, the ring connection is another reason to pay attention to this launch. Plenty of screenless trackers promise sleep and recovery data, as our comparison of screenless fitness bands shows. Fewer give existing smart ring owners a way to change where they wear the sensor.

So what happened to ECG?

There is a question left over from the FCC filing. The SL-1 user manual submitted with that filing describes an ECG measurement started in the app, with a 30-second reading and an exportable waveform. Our August report also noted references to blood pressure, blood glucose and sleep apnea monitoring in the manual.

None of those features appears in QALO’s launch announcement or the main feature list on its current product page. It is possible the filing is describing capabilities that are unavailable at launch.

But it does make the advertised feature set much narrower than the one suggested by the pre-launch paperwork. For now, the SL-1’s clearest pitch is a subscription-free band that can share an app and health history with QALO’s ring.