Amazfit Helio Strap Fitness Tracker Wristband, 24/7 Activity & Sleep Tracker with Heart Rate, 10 Days Battery, 50+ Sports Modes, Strength Training, Hyrox Race, Subscription Free for Android & iPhone

The Helio Strap has slipped onto my admittedly bony Mancunian wrist without any fuss. It is a slim, screen-free band that spends every hour quietly funnelling heart rate, SpO₂, stress and sleep figures into the Zepp app. When I remember to fasten my creaking old Amazfit watch as well, the two pieces of kit swap numbers without complaint; when I forget the watch in the scramble to find nursery shoes, the strap behaves perfectly well on its own. Amazfit reckons the battery will last ten days. In real life I have been getting a shade over eight, which feels fair enough considering it is logging every heartbeat and enduring a couple of sweat-drenched gym sessions each week. I like the Strength mode: it counts reps and rest periods more accurately than I manage with my fogged-up glasses. There is even a HYROX setting for proper athletes, although my ambitions rarely stretch beyond Parkrun. Automatic workout detection can be a touch jumpy, once awarding me five active minutes for waddling from sofa to fridge, but a quick dive into the settings soon calms it down. No subscription fees, a feather-light build, reliable sensors and neat links to Strava and TrainingPeaks make the Helio good value. Just remember you are stuck with a single strap colour, and be prepared for the occasional false alarm when you wander round the kitchen. For steady training in soggy Manchester it gives me plenty of data without weighing me down or draining my bank account.

I'm geeky enough that I like to know things such as how far I've walked today, and whether my sleep was good enough or not. But I really don't want to wear a screen on my wrist* - I have enough screens in my life that I don't need another one on my wrist repeating all the information that the others can give me. For a long time, I wore a Whoop, because it was the only screen-less tracker out there - but, brilliant as Whoop is, it's also expensive for the mortals among us. It's designed more for the pro-athlete, the uber-healthy, and the uber-wealthy. Then, last year, Amazfit decided to release a direct Whoop-competitor - the Helio Strap. It's £99 (one-off fee) versus Whoop's £199-£350 per year subscription costs (price varies based on which level of app access you want) and, in my opinion, the Helio Strap is every bit of a match for the Whoop in terms of comfort, fit, and data presented. All fitness apps have a variation of the same theme - they give you a score for your sleep, a score for your exertion, and a score for how you're feeling today. For Amazfit (confusingly, their app is called the Zepp app) your overall score is wrapped up in what they call Biocharge. (Garmin call it Biobattery, Whoop call it Recovery and so on.) Biocharge is an amalgamation of all your other scores and you start the day with a score out of 100 and it depletes as the day goes on, depending on how energetic you are; it is also affected by Heart Rate Value (HRV affects quality of sleep) and can also be an indicator of if you're starting to come down with a bug. (Sidenote, it's also really obvious to tell if you were drinking the night before because boy, does that hammer your HRV and therefore your Biocharge.) You can use the Zepp app and your Helio strap to track exercise and other activities - I run, swim, and cycle and you just use the app to start tracking and the phone does the GPS work while the strap feeds back your exertion, heart rate, and so on. Or, you can pair it with one of Amazfit's brilliant watches for when you are doing exercise (which is what I do - I know, *I don't wear a screen on my wrist other than when I'm running or cycling...) and the watch and the strap will work in sync and then update the Zepp app afterwards. You don't even have to have your phone with you, if you're crazy and like to go running without it. It tracks your sleep well too and, while there's no subscription needed for the Helio Strap, you can opt to subscribe to their Aura package for more detailed sleep analysis for £79 a year. This is still cheaper than Whoop's basic annual subscription. When I bought my Helio, Amazfit offered me the Aura sub for £29 so I gave it a go - I cannot quite see what it's giving me over the basic stats it gives me anyway so I probably won't renew if they choose to charge £79 at the end of the year. Overall, if you - like me - don't like wearing a screen-based device on your wrist but do want some form of tracking, I think this product is fantastic. It does everything you need from a fitness tracker without being intrusive; the black strap is stylish enough to not look silly on your wrist and, while Amazfit have not yet got round to offering alternative strap colours on their online shop, there are plenty of other choices available online.

Okay, here are my two cents. I will start with the pros. - overall pretty comfy and battery lasts around 7 days. - First thing is it's a good tracker. I think sleep tracking has been accurate. Heart rate is good, blood oxygen level, HRV, so you get a lot of the stuff, and I think it's been pretty good. - The food tracking is quite good. You can take pictures and scan labels. That's been very good for tracking your calories. - I quite enjoy tracking workouts as well, so it has loads of different modes where you can track your activity and exertion levels, so that's good. - Overall, that exertion mode gives you a realistic, good idea of how you are exercising and performing. Cons - Bio charge scores and sleep scores are not that helpful. Apple health could give me 100 but helio would be 80. Bio charge also a bit pointless imo. The optimal standard set is a bit too lofty. - You have to start and end workouts. Automatic detection is not good apart from walking or running. Once you do start the workout, the data is much better. - Insights are not as good, it can give you a crap score but not much of an explanation If you are looking to explore wearables, this is a great place to start. I’ve improved consumption and sleep from this device. And for the price, it is really good

Having previously given up on Fitbit when google bought them over, then moved to Garmin in a smart-watch, briefly to Polar for swimming, I can safely say the Amazfit Helio is the best fit for tracking every day life. I have fatigue like symptoms - and the 'BIOCHARGE' score is invaluable to keep an eye on rest, recovery and not pushing my mental or physical activities too hard. When I do, they equally and efficiently track the correlation between the day before and how I'm feeling then recovering the next few days along with giving helpful insights into what to watch out for, and what activities my body is finding draining. If you have Fatigue, CFS, Fibromyalgia, POTS or long covid, this is the health and fitness tracker for you. Along with the already mentioned BIOCHARGE feature, it also gives an exertion score, workout and activity log and pretty in-depth sleep and nap tracking. The wristband itself is a lovely only very slightly stretchy fabric band with Velcro style stap which stays put but doesn't dig in or cause irritation like some of the silicone based ones can. It is rated to 5ATM, so whilst it is splash and swim proof, I choose not to take it into the shower, as it officially doesn't withstand 'direct water pressure' like from a shower, however they do note on the website that it is indeed showerproof too. Feels sturdy, and the band protects it from scratches and drops when it's off - the included magnetic charging mini attachment has pretty weak magnets so is a bit hard to sometimes position 'just right' however the battery lasts well over a week, so I have no complaints. Best of all? The Zepp app is totally free, and subscription free forever. And the only 'paid-for' add-ins which I despise in other products, when I've already shelled out for a device and/or subscription, is some silly meditation noise tracks AI tuned to you and your body! 😂

having previously used a whoop, wanted to get back into using it, but didn't want to pay the monthly fee, I was drawn to the helio. the first one that arrived wouldn't charge and had to be returned. the second one did charge. however it was was inconsistent in capturing data. i wondered if it was my tattoos so would move it around. but i don't think it was. I had some whoop boxer shorts so wore it in them, it was more consistent, but not consistent enough. so I returned it. the band was comfortable enough, but the whoop band was better. obviously I cant say much about how it functions. the software seems fine, and if it worked, it would have been a great whoop replacement. but it didn't work.

Outstanding fitness tracker! Excellent build quality, accurate health metrics, and impressive battery life. The 10-day battery is a huge plus. Syncs seamlessly with both iOS and Android. Highly comfortable to wear all day. Highly recommend to anyone looking for a reliable fitness tracker.

Not sure what to say about this really. It's OK for things like steps but the sleep tracking ( as mentioned in other reviews ) is ridiculously poor. Every night it seems to ignore sleep until about 4am and then tells me I only had 4 hours sleep and I need to change my life to improve my score - maybe if it noticed my sleeping from 11pm to 4am then the score would be a bit better. It's also a bit clunky and uncomfortable, especially on the strap it comes with but I replaced that with the Hexalider sport loop which is a lot more comfortable. Would I buy it again ? No, absolutely not.

I have recently bought into the Amazfit/Zepp system having been a Fitbit user for many years, and I have to say currently I am impressed. General wear : I couple this Helio band with a T-Rex 3 watch, depending on the activity I am doing. The Band is great for just day to day wear when you want something vaguely unobtrusive and don't need the screen or notifications continually buzzing. I am a bit of a watch lover, so being able to wear it as well as a normally watch is a huge bonus ( and it doesn't look like i am being weird and wearing 2 watches ). It is really light, but I would say that having reasonable sized wrists the band could be a bit longer as there isn't much overlap ( see picture, apologies for the quality ), but it still fits, does up and is really comfy. Performance : I ran this alongside my Fitbit for a week, so that I could judge what the differences were likely to be. First thing that struck me was how close the data was to each other, but I was super impressed with the extra info that this provides over and above the Fitbit. The Sleep data is comprehensive and covers all the relevant things you might need to know, steps seems to be pretty good, although is much better at filtering out the "white noise" that can be detected as steps by some other devices, heart rate is pretty much exactly right, blood oxygen readings are a bit more random, but I would expect that really and is only a guide ( having recently had Pneumonia this has been quite an important reading for me ). But the thing I am currently most impressed with is the general workout tracking. Both this and the T-Rex have similar set ups, and picking the right workout is key to getting the right information. There are a huge amount to choose from, and I would highly recommend choosing. The Auto function for me is too random, and picks up things that aren't workouts, so I have both devices set to manual selection rather than auto detect. Once selected the system runs throughout and records everything you would need to know accurately and comprehensively. The recovery info is great, and gives a real insight to how hard or not you are training. The battery life has surprised me. a week of full use dropped the battery to 65%. I guess that a large chunk of the life comes form the fact you aren't running a screen or GPS form the devices ( only through the app, which does work nicely ), but even with tracking on it doesn't seem to use a massive amount of battery compared to other devices. Overall then, subtle looks, loads of features and a seemingly supernatural battery life, for no subscription charges. Whats not to like ? The best part for me though is that all of this info comes at a low up front cost and zero monthly subscription.