A year after launching its original exercise band, Halo, Amazon just dropped the follow up, Halo View. The company’s not quite ready to go full bore into the smartwatch category just yet, but it clearly has the Google-owned Fitbit brand directly in its sights with the newly announced Halo View.
The device doesn’t quite challenge the low end of the fitness band category currently monopolized by the likes of Huawei, but the $80 price point (which includes a year of the company’s Halo service) is certainly competitive in the mid-tier of the market – particularly among those with built in displays.
The product sports a color AMOLED touch screen, coupled with haptic feedback, designed to react to your activity in real-time. The wearable is waterproof for swimming and sports a week of battery life that can be charged to full in 90 minutes. Built in sensors monitor activity, live work out tracking, sleep and blood oxygen levels.
Along with the new device, comes a number of different content features. Halo Fitness takes on the likes of Apple’s Fitness+ with hundreds of built-in video courses from trainers like Michael Hildebrand, Elena Cheung and Elizabeth Andrews. Also new is Halo Nutrition, which is designed to help users create healthier eating habits. All of that is available as part of the Halo software offering. Like Fitness+, real-time fitness metrics captured with the device are displayed in real-time on the screen during Halo Fitness workouts.
The Halo view will be available in three band colors (with more bands sold separate), “in time for the holidays.” The original Halo notably drew privacy concerns, with Senator Amy Klobuchar noting, “recent reports have raised concerns about the Halo’s access to this extensive personal and private health information. Among publicly available consumer health devices, the Halo appears to collect an unprecedented level of personal information.”
