The world of wearables has been enriched in recent years with an avalanche of brands. And now, e-commerce giant Amazon enters the smart band market and challenges Apple and FitBit with new fitness tracker bracelets.
Amazon’s first wearable device has officially launched in the US. It is called Halo, and what is different from the others on the market is that it has a simple design with no display, a status LED, and just one button.
It includes the usual sensors for smart bands, such as an accelerometer, a heart rate sensor, and a temperature sensor and supports Bluetooth 5.0 to connect to a smartphone.
It offers up to 7 days of battery life depending on the activity and can be charged with a USB charging clip. It is water-resistant to depths of 50 meters that enable it for swimming and other activities. It has dual microphones for voice analysis functions, which can be deactivated at any time using the single button on the side of the device.
Unlike the Fitbit bracelets or the Apple Watch, the Amazon Halo Band has no display. It is not designed to provide step counts or other sports activity statistics. Due to its design, it totally depends on a dedicated app for synchronization with a smartphone.
Halo will be a tracker devoted more to the moods and, therefore, to the user’s psychology. The company not only wants to monitor moods, but also analyzes heart activity, sleep, the tone of voice, and body fat.
And immediately, the controversy over the lack of privacy arises. Yes, to work properly, Halo needs a series of photos of your body practically in your underwear, as well as will continually listen to the voice for the calculation of moods.
But Amazon ensures that once the three-dimensional body design is processed using original photographs, the photos sent by the user will be permanently deleted from the company’s servers in the complete respect for privacy. And in the case of listening voice, Amazon has confirmed that listening to the user’s voice will not be uploaded to the servers, but the voice fragments will be sent to the phone via Bluetooth and then deleted from the application.
Amazon Halo offers basic functions as default, but users who want more need to subscribe to a premium program that will offer advanced functions.
Amazon Halo costs $64.99 and a free six-month subscription to the Halo program. After the promotional period, the bracelet will cost $99 and $3.99 per month for Halo program.
