Amazon Halo View vs. Fitbit Inspire 2: Which one should you buy?
As of April 2023, Amazon’s Halo fitness trackers are no longer on sale and the company plans to stop support for the wearables in August 2023. The following article is left in its original form, but we no longer recommend purchasing Amazon Halo products.
If you’ve bought a Halo fitness tracker after April 2022, you may be eligible for a refund. You can find out more details aboutAmazon’s refund policy and the whole shutdown of Halo here.
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Amazon Halo View
Fitbit Inspire 2
0.95-inch,240 x 120, color OLED
1.4-inch, 128 x 72, monochrome OLED
Fitness tracking
SpO2, body composition, voice tone scanning, 10 exercise modes, heart rate and steps monitoring, sleep stages and score
Connected GPS, 20+ exercise modes, female health tracking, automatic exercise tracking, heart rate and steps monitoring, sleep stages and score
Other features
5ATM water resistance,Alexa compatibility
5ATM water resistance,Google Fast Pair, find with Tile
Subscription
$4/month, 1-year trial included
$10/month, 1-year trial included
Up to 7 days
Up to 10 days
Strap sizes
Optional small and large sizes
Both small and large straps included in the box
Compatibility
Android and iOS
Color or monochrome display
Many people prefer fitness bands for their compact, unintrusive design that doesn’t get in your way while exercising, and you can wear them even with other wrist accessories or while sleeping, as opposed to chunkiersmartwatches. But brands have found a way to add tiny screens to these fitness trackers that get the job of showing the time, notifications, and basic stats, though they aren’t winning any awards for display quality.
Between the Amazon Halo View and the Fitbit Inspire 2, you’ll have to pick either a colored but smaller screen or a larger monochrome one (both OLEDs). Halo’s sharper, colorful display definitely looks more appealing and is better suited for notifications and fun, festive watch faces.
Compared to that, Inspire 2’s grayscale screen looks dated—something Fitbit only recently fixed with theCharge 5. However, the monochrome display has its own perks, like it’s pretty discreet and wouldn’t look odd with any of your outfits. There are some battery gains as well, but more on that later. What’s common between them is that neither of the two offers particularly good visibility under the sun.
Health and fitness features
Fitbit has been around for a while, and it shows in its polished user experience. The Inspire 2 does its primary job pretty well, offering more than double the exercise modes and more reliable tracking, be it for simple things like walking orHIIT. Fitbit also includes things like connected GPS, automatic workout tracking, andmenstrual health tracking—all of which the Halo lacks.
The Halo View gets the basics right with sleep monitoring and step count, but surprisingly, itcan’t measure distances for walks and runs. Without this additional data and GPS, the Halo View comes off as a more casual band for people who just want to be more active and not for those already on their fitness training journey.
The Amazon band does get you blood oxygen tracking, which is good to have (but shouldn’t be entirely relied on). Its companion Halo app wants you to create a 3D body scan by taking four photos of yourself in minimal clothing to give you a body composition estimate. It can also monitor your voice tonality to determine how others might perceive it. While their usability is debatable, both features largely sound creepy and privacy-invasive. Thankfully, they’re optional.
Amazon and Fitbit bundle their trackers with a year of complimentary subscription to their fitness services. After the first year, Amazon expects you to pay $4 a month, while Fitbit asks for $10. But a big difference lies in how they balance their free and paid tiers.Amazon’s Halo membershipcosts less, but it puts many essential features like sleep score behind the paywall, while Fitbit is much more generous in its approach. Fitbit Premium isn’t needed for most basic functionalities and is only required for premium workout tours or detailed sleep analysis.
Are they smart enough?
Sure, their tiny screens can’t rival smartwatches, but these fitness trackers can still help you with stuff like setting timers or getting notifications for text messages. The Halo View can’t show call and calendar notifications, which is a bummer considering it’s got a sharper screen to show the caller details clearly. But neither of them can handle replies to your texts, which is a given with small fitness bands.
Both Fitbit and Amazon offer their companion apps on Android and iOS, so they are platform-neutral. The Inspire 2 works with Google Fast Pair to quickly connect to your phones, which naturally only works on Android handsets. On the other hand, the Halo takes advantage of the Amazon ecosystem and syncs your health metrics with Alexa so that you can simply ask the voice bot about your weekly progress on anyEcho speaker in your home.
Battery life
As mentioned previously, a less power-hungry monochrome display gives the Fitbit band a solid edge over the Halo View. Fitbit claims a 10-day battery life, and you can easily get away with a full week of use, even when wearing it to the bed and charging it only once every Sunday.
The color display of the Halo View sucks more power, giving it a claimed battery life of 7 days. The real-world figures average around 4-5 days, which is still decent and much better than smartwatches that need daily recharges.
Amazon Halo vs. Fitbit Inspire 2: Which one should you buy?
Even at their full MSRPs, the Amazon Halo View is quite a bit cheaper at $80 versus the Fitbit Inspire 2’s $100 price tag. While both see frequent discounts, there’s a good chance that Amazon will offer a better deal on its own fitness tracker during theupcoming Prime Day sale.
The Halo View will seem much more enticing at its discounted price, but that won’t show you the full picture. This Amazon tracker isn’t all that helpful without a monthly subscription to the Halo membership. Even though the subscription price is quite reasonable compared to a gym membership, it’s still worth factoring into the overall cost of the band.
Meanwhile, with the Fitbit Inspire 2, you’ll be paying slightly more upfront, but you don’t necessarily need Fitbit’s Premium subscription to use the band properly. You will have to make do with an inferior monochrome display and the lack of SpO2 monitoring, though Fitbit makes up for that with a better-designed app and a more mature overall user experience.
But if the Halo View’s unique features are tempting enough, you can pick one up without breaking the bank. It won’t disappoint you, thanks to its solid basics and better display usability. For those looking for the absolute best bang for their buck, theMi Band 6is just unbeatable at its price.
Buy the Fitbit Inspire 2
See at AmazonSee at Best Buy
Buy the Amazon Halo View
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