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Journalism of Courage
Over the past year, you may have noticed numerous celebrities worldwide sporting the Whoop smart band. I wondered why people were choosing a band without a display when top-tier smartwatches were available. This curiosity led me to try the Amazfit Helio Strap, which, like the Whoop, is a smart band without a screen.
The Amazfit Helio Strap is as simple as it gets. A fabric strap with a case inside to hold the detachable smart pod with sensors. You have a small dock to charge the pod, which does not need to be pulled out of the frame for this purpose. The strap is made of breathable fabric with Velcro fasteners.
Since there is no screen here, the app becomes pivotal. The Amazfit Helio Strap connects seamlessly with the Zepp app, and this is where it gets better than most other smart bands. The Zepp app gives a lot of actionable data from deep sleep readings to heart rate fluctuations. There is also an Aura tab with premium features that let you take control of your sleep and build a habit around it, around the time you wind down to how long you are in bed daily.
I have been wearing smartwatches and bands for well over 10 years. But I have always found it awkward to wear them to bed. This is where, over the past ten days, I have felt the Amazfit Helio Strap is different. I have worn it to sleep every night and not felt a thing. The biggest feature of this strap is the fact that you don’t feel like you are wearing a smart device. Because of the fabric strap and the lightweight pod, this is unlike wearing a smartwatch or a smart band. Even in high humidity and sweaty conditions, you don’t get irritated with the strap. However, maybe because of the friction on the Velcro, there is a small sound that comes from the strap, reminding you of its presence.
The Amazfit Helio Strap tracks your steps throughout the day and monitors heart rate variations to automatically detect when you are working out. This works reasonably well, though I could find a lot of false positives. A few days when I had a high temperature and a higher heart rate, the Gentler Streak app started showing it as workouts and asked me to slow down. Thankfully, this was not showing in the Apple Health app. But this is something you have to be mindful of till Amazfit rolls out an update to reduce false positives.
The sleep data impressed me the most. It shows all the regular data points, but also tells you if your duration was good as well as your ‘BioCharge’ level. On days I sleep early and get 7-8 hours of restful sleep, this score is high. But when I sleep late or if I am tossing and turning on the bed, this score dips. Now I know I do well if I manage to hit the bed by 11 and get at least 7 hours of sleep. Also, the app tells you if there were Hypopnea instances during sleep, critical for someone like me who is already diagnosed with Mild Sleep Apnea.
For workouts, while the device can, without any nudge, start recording activity, you need to go to the app in case you want to start a specific workout. The app has all the popular workouts listed, even the new sensation Hyrox. But you will have to remember and switch off the workout once you are done.
The battery life is another great advantage, and you need to charge this only twice a month. This is another good thing about not having a screen. Plus, it takes just about 30 minutes to fully charge the pod. However, the charging dock is really small, and you need to ensure you don’t lose it after a while.
The Amazfit Helio Strap is a very convenient activity and sleep tracker, though not yet a perfect one. I found real value in the strap, especially given that it is there on your hand, recording all your vitals and activities without trying to get your attention for even a second. I now know why a lot of people are moving to these seemingly faceless smart straps. At Rs 8,999, a fraction of the Whoop Band, this is real value for money for those who just need more data on their quantified lives.
