Amazfit Helio Good Ring assessment: cut price bin bust

Good rings are in the midst of a renaissance. That’s nice as a result of we lastly have far more choices than simply an Oura Ring. The draw back is most of Oura’s would-be rivals are launching their first, possibly second-gen sensible rings. Which means, in order for you an Oura Ring different, there’s probability you’ll should put up with quirks and a definite lack of polish. The $199.99 Amazfit Helio sensible ring is not any exception.

Amazfit isn’t a family identify however is well-known amongst wearable cut price hunters. It’s a compelling model as a result of its devices get you a whole lot of bang to your buck. That’s the case with the Helio ring, the model’s first foray into sensible rings. It’s primarily a sleep tracker, but it surely comes with an AI chatbot known as Zepp Move, an AI teaching function, and it has an electrodermal exercise (EDA) sensor for monitoring stress, a blood oxygen sensor, a temperature sensor, and interval monitoring. It additionally syncs with well-liked third-party health apps like Adidas Operating, Strava, and Komoot, in addition to Apple Well being and Google Match. Just like the Samsung Galaxy Ring, it really works with Amazfit’s different smartwatches so you’ll be able to double up on information sources — or change between the 2 relying on the exercise or remaining battery life.

That’s so much packed into a wise ring, and since launching, Zepp completely cut the price by $100 and offered free lifetime subscriptions to its Aura and Health companies. On paper, this has the makings of a stellar deal. In actuality, there’s at all times a catch.

Within the Helio ring’s case, it’s battery life and restricted sizing.

Proper now, the perfect sensible rings get you round 4-7 days on a single cost, relying on the dimensions. (Greater rings, larger batteries.) The Helio ring is rated for roughly 4 days on a single cost, however I by no means managed that. At finest, I received round three. That’s not nice, Bob. Particularly when that is meant to primarily monitor sleep. I wore it concurrently with the Oura Ring 4 and needed to cost it two to a few occasions as usually. I additionally didn’t discover any discernable battery advantages when worn with two separate Amazfit watches. At the least with the Galaxy Ring, utilizing it with the Galaxy Watch meant significantly better battery life as a result of Samsung optimizes which sensors are getting used throughout each units.

Including to my battery woes, I don’t love that the ring depends on a dock. My cats enjoyment of knocking these puck-like chargers round once they get the night-time zoomies. I a lot desire charging circumstances, like those utilized by the Galaxy Ring, RingConn, and the Evie Ring.

The opposite factor about wearables is that they should be, nicely, wearable. Whereas Oura and Samsung have expanded their dimension ranges and supply a number of finishes, Amazfit solely provides the Helio sensible ring in a single colour and three sizes: 8, 10, and 12. That’s swell if that’s your dimension — it’s fairly light-weight and comfy, and it hasn’t gotten scratched up like a few of my different sensible rings. The slim dimension number of leaves out many individuals with smaller fingers, notably girls. I occur to suit the dimensions 8, however for a few of my associates, this isn’t one thing they’ll put on.

One other annoyance: there’s no sizing package. Getting the precise dimension issues with sensible rings, each for accuracy and luxury. Fingers swell and shrink with temperature modifications, and whereas sizing kits might be tedious, they’re helpful within the sense you’ll be able to completely vet which dimension will work finest for twenty-four/7 put on. With the Helio ring, it’s a must to use both a string or a chunk of tape to measure the circumference of your finger after which select primarily based on that measurement. Simply, no.

But when you may get previous all that, the sleep and well being monitoring is alright, although it’s finest for a big-picture have a look at your total tendencies. As an example, one night time throughout my Christmas holidays, I slept for a wonderful 9 hours, 47 minutes per my Oura Ring 4 and 10 hours, 34 minutes per my Eight Sleep mattress. The Helio ring logged that as 11 hours and 23 minutes. It’s true I spent round 12 hours that night doing my finest impression of an inert log, however I additionally spent two hours doomscrolling, consumed by the Blake Energetic / Justin Baldoni drama on TikTok. I wouldn’t name that one night time correct, but it surely appropriately logged that I used to be irregular with my sleep schedule and well-rested that total week. Different metrics, like blood oxygen, HRV, and stress, have been broadly on par with my Oura Ring and Eight Sleep mattress.

It’s not an excellent health tracker, although. The actions you’ll be able to select from are restricted, you’ll want your telephone in your for GPS, and it doesn’t routinely monitor actions both. And, if like me, you sometimes overlook to finish an train, there’s no solution to edit the info after the very fact. I hope that is one thing that will get added over time.

The Zepp app can also be a combined bag. The app’s been redesigned since I examined the wonderful GTR 4, and I just like the cleaner look and simple interface. My predominant beef is it’s tough to view long-term historic information, which was extremely annoying when reviewing metrics for this assessment. Nonetheless, Zepp Move is among the higher implementations for an AI chatbot I’ve seen in a health monitoring app. You’ll see weekly insights pop up, and a handful of prompts the place you’ll be able to dig in additional with the chatbot. The AI insights are, how let’s say, Captain Apparent ranges of fundamental frequent sense, however no less than it’s speedy, simple to make use of, and simply ignored if that’s not your factor. It’s neat you may get sleep sounds and guided respiratory totally free through the Zepp Aura tab, however I didn’t use it a lot. I’ve discovered I go to sleep finest to true crime podcasts. Likelihood is, you’ve additionally received an honest thought of what works for you and the Aura stuff isn’t going to trump that until you’re searching for one thing new.

I don’t dislike the Helio sensible ring. However apart from the worth, it’s not a very compelling choice until you have already got an Amazfit watch. At the least then, all of your information syncs to the identical app. And even then, your Amazfit watch will in all probability outlast the ring after which what are we actually doing right here? Possibly a second-gen model or future software program will handle points like battery life and produce extra sizes. However till then, it’s arduous to name this a real cut price.