Amazon unveils ‘Halo’ health and fitness bracelet for $ 99.99 to compete with Apple Watch

Amazon today announced “Halo”, a new wear with health and fitness tracking capabilities, reports The edge.

The Amazon Halo wrist strap consists of a sensor module and a strap that attaches to the top of it. The sensor includes an accelerometer, a temperature sensor, a heart rate monitor, two microphones, an LED light, and a button to turn the microphone on or off. The Halo offers a week-long battery life and a “swim-resistant” water resistance up to 5ATM. The device is compatible with both iOS and Android, but it will not be compatible with other health apps like Apple Health.

Unlike the Apple Watch as Fitbits, the Amazon Halo band has no screen. It is instead relying on an accompanying app, without the ability to control the time, steps, or other information directly from your wrist. It also has no GPS, Wi-Fi, cellular connection, or Amazon Alexa voice control.

The more advanced features of Halo are unlocked through an ongoing subscription, separate from Amazon Prime. The subscription will offer a selection of “labs” developed by Amazon partners. The labs are effectively short-term challenges designed to improve specific health areas and encourage routines.

Halo has two unique features that are not present on ‘Apple Watch’. The first of these is using a user’s phone camera via the Halo app for full body 3D scans to determine body fat percentage. The second is the ability to listen to emotion in the voice and mood of a user.

Body scans take four photos of different sides of a user’s body, and then upload them to Amazon’s servers where they are combined into a 3D body scan that can calculate body fat.

Halo’s microphone listens throughout the day to the tone of a user’s voice and reports back on their emotional state. It detects the pitch, intensity, rhythm and tempo of a voice and then categorizes the cases into “remarkable moments” that users can recall and rate. Users can mute the microphone at any time by holding down the side button until a red flashing LED appears.

The wristband can also monitor sleep, steps and cardiovascular health, similar to the similar Apple Watch the. Unlike ‘Apple Watch‌’, however, it only records cardiofitness on a weekly basis instead of daily. The app then provides an abstract weekly activity score of all this information.

The Halo band can automatically detect activities such as walking and jogging, but any other type of exercise must be entered manually in the app. The Halo band also has no ability to detect falls, offer stand-up prompts, or proactively warn users of heart conditions such as atrial fibrillation. Strikingly, Amazon said The edge that it has not submitted the device to the FDA for any kind of approval, including the less stringent “FDA clearance” classification that is common on many other fitness bands.

It seems that Amazon has taken a more relaxed approach with a more general focus on following lifestyle, instead of actively following sports and exercising. Halo’s low cost, lack of screen, and emphasis on unique features make it an interesting competitor to the ‌Apple Watch‌.

The Halo Band will cost $ 99.99, with an optional subscription for $ 3.99 per month for access to advanced features. Amazon will also be selling a large variety of band styles in a variety of colors. Sports bands will cost $ 15.99 and dust bands will cost $ 19.99. The Amazon Halo launches today as an invite-only program for early access for an introductory price of $ 64.99.