Feed aggregator

Amazfit Helio Strap: One minute review

The Amazfit Helio Strap is a good lower-cost alternative to a Whoop band or even some of the best fitness trackers like Fitbit, as long as you enter with the right expectations. The hardware itself is substantially cheaper, and no subscription is required for day-to-day use of a Helio Strap.

In return, you get all-day health and fitness tracking, with more of a focus on active forms of exercise than some lifestyle wearables. Amazfit doesn’t provide quite as explicit training readiness insights as a Whoop band, but with stats that focus on your training load and overall condition, it doesn’t take a degree in sports science to join the dots for yourself and get most of the benefits.

This is a less upmarket band than some of the competition. Its central part is plastic, with no metal parts, but this is a win for comfort as it further lowers weight.

Amazfit Helio Strap: Specifications

(Image credit: Future / Andrew Williams)

Component

Amazfit Helio Strap

Price

$99.99 / £99.00 / $179.00AU

Dimensions

33.97 x 24.3 x 10.59mm

Weight

20g with band

Case/bezel

Fiber-reinforced polymer

Display

N/A

GPS

N/A

Battery life

Up to 10 days

Connection

Bluetooth

Water resistant

Yes, 5ATM

Amazfit Helio Strap: Price and availability

• It costs $99.99 / £99.00 / $179.00AU
• Less than the Polar Loop
• Much less than the ongoing Whoop subscription

Despite having less tech inside than a more traditional fitness tracking wearable, the pricing of these screenless wearables (other than the Whoop MG) is less aggressive than some other categories. It’s because they’re a lifestyle buy as much as anything

The Amazfit Helio Strap is one of the better-priced options, though. It costs $99.99 / £99.00 / $179.00AU, far less than a Whoop band or the Polar Loop.

There’s no need for an ongoing subscription here either, although one is of course offered. It’s called Aura (not to be confused with Oura). This adds an AI-based wellness advisor and lots of audio-based relaxation content, costing $69.99 (around £52 / AU$100) a year, although during testing we were offered a year’s worth for £19.99. There’s a 14-day free trial too.

• Value score: 4/5

Amazfit Helio Strap: Design

(Image credit: Future / Andrew Williams)

• Screen-free
• Does not feel premium, no metal
• Extremely light – set and forget

The Amazfit Helio Strap is a screen-free wearable, and an exceptionally light one. It weighs just 20g, strap included. You can thank the relatively low-frills style of the central unit for this, which is just a puck of plastic. All you see when wearing the Hello Strap is the fabric of the strap itself, which hooks up to the tracker’s block using traditional watch fastenings. Amazfit also offers an arm strap, should you prefer to wear it off the wrist.

I have at times had to check whether the watch was actually still attached, which is just not something that happens with the GPS running watches I tend to wear daily. There is one important caveat to note on the design, though; the Amazfit Helio Strap is not as slimline as you might guess. It sticks out a way from your wrist and its sides don’t fully hug its surface either. In person it’s thicker than the Coros Pace 4 watch I was using at the same time, which is at odds with the vibe most of these screenless wearables try to give out.

That said, Amazfit doesn’t sell the Helio Strap as a casual step and sleep tracker. It apparently has the keener exerciser in mind, as you can see from the Hyrox-themed strap attached here. Hyrox and Amazfit have entered a partnership (Amazfit is now the official timekeeper for the event), but the standard version of the strap is plain two-tone dark grey.

This watch isn’t a friend to those tight-fit long-sleeved base layers that hug the wrist, but actually wearing the Hello Strap has been an entirely discomfort-free experience. Of course, you will still need to make the strap reasonably tight for the most accurate heart rate results so the little sensor mount on the back will leave an imprint in your wrist. It comes with the territory.

Amazfit rates the watch’s water resistance at 5ATM, so you won’t have to take it off too often. The official guidance is the Helio Strap is “suitable for splashes, snow, showering, swimming” but shouldn’t be worn in the sauna or for a “hot shower” as the steam can damage the internal seals.

• Design score: 4/5

Amazfit Helio Strap: Features

(Image credit: Future / Andrew Williams)

• Relatively slight on features
• Transmit HR data to gym machines and fitness watches
• Set up to 10 haptic alarms

Wearables like the Amazfit Hello Strap are not out to wow us with their expansive feature lists (after all, they’re designed not to be interacted with) but it does do more than you might guess.

It has a temperature sensor, for example, used to check for variations from the norm overnight. Such a change could be an indicator of illness. You can set up to 10 alarms too, which use the Helio Strap’s vibration motor to alert you. It’s not a massively powerful buzz, though, so you might not want to rely on it to wake you up for work each day.

A little unusual for a screenless wearable, Amazfit also stresses its active fitness tracking skills. You can manually start a specific tracked exercise in the app on your phone, and the Helio Strap can also be set to automatically detect workouts and log them as such. When you start a tracked session in the app, the Helio Strap can transmit live heart rate data to another device. Some more advanced gym machines support this, as do cycling computers and some fitness watches. It uses Bluetooth for this, not ANT+, which was the classic technology of heart rate chest straps.

What else is there to note? The Hello Strap uses a tiny little charge puck that connects to a pair of metal contacts on the back. Easy to lose, but also easy to transport in a pocket.

• Features score: 4/5

Amazfit Helio Strap: Performance

(Image credit: Future / Andrew Williams)

• Battery life as described
• Solid heart rate accuracy
• Plenty of metrics provided in-app

Low upkeep is one of the best parts of the Amazfit Hello Strap. Despite weighing next-to-nothing, Amazfit still says it delivers “up to 10 days” of battery life. And that is entirely consistent with our experience. After using it for a week, the Helio Strap had 35% charge left. While two-week battery watches with screens are common enough, they weigh a lot more than the Helio Strap.

A lot of this wearable’s metrics rely on heart rate data. The Hello Strap’s is mostly solid with some small issues that may not dull its appeal too much, especially at this price point. Throughout the day, passive tracking is decent and there are no wild spikes as you walk around your home or office. This can happen when a tracker takes any sign of walking as a suggestion your HR is likely rising fast.

You don’t manually start tracked activities on the watch, but when comparing the results of long runs on the Helio Strap with those of a chest strap, though, the Amazfit Hello Strap occasionally overestimates heart rate by around 10bpm. Not a hugely meaningful difference to most, and certainly good enough for an indication of heart rate zones, but still not quite as accurate as the best Apple Watches. Amazfit does talk about the Helio Strap as a wearable to pair with another fitness watch, to fill in stat gaps throughout the day and night, and during other workouts the results were (relatively) bang-on accurate. But there’s definitely scope for tracking accuracy to improve in a firmware update.

As for tracking steps, the Amazon Helio Strap recorded slightly lower counts over a five day period, apart from one day when they were almost identical just 3000 steps apart. Over the five day period the Helio Strap recorded 94% of the steps of the Garmin Forerunner 970. It’s also worth noting the Garmin was worn on my dominant arm (the Helio Strap was not) so that could have a part to play here.

Sleep tracking performance is solid. A couple of nights during testing I wore the Amazfit Helio Strap alongside three other wearables to see how great the disparities would be: the Garmin Forerunner 970, Polar Loop and Coros Pace 4. All four of these watches failed to pick up on any of the moment you briefly wake up and wonder why the alarm clock reads 4:55am. But those times you actually have to get up to go to the toilet? It picks them up. The Amazfit Helio Strap also did consistently note a change in sleep state and heart rate during those missed moments of wakefulness, though – the next best thing.

It’s also important not to underrate the quality of the Amazfit Helio Strap app. It’s Zepp, shared with other Amazfit wearables. And its layout is kinda great for the purposes of a wearable like this. On the front page you get a handy summary of stats you likely want to see daily, with a traffic light system too show which (if any) are a bit dodgy. These include resting heart rate, sleep duration, Skin temperature, exertion load and more.

This layout returns in a separate Sleep tab, where we get stats like heart rate variability, Deep Sleep duration and skin temperature, again with the traffic light system.

Amazfit also goes big on a concept called BioCharge, which is an estimation of your overall energy level. The one missing next step is what you get with Whoop, where such data – and other bits – are used to more explicitly tell you whether you should work out on a specific day or not. And the paid-for Aura subscription is more about wellness and relaxation that that kind of athlete-focused experience.

• Performance score: 4/5

Amazfit Helio Strap: Scorecard

Category

Comment

Score

Value

Cheaper than most and with a no forced subscription? Typical of Amazfit, the Hello Strap is decent value.

4/5

Design

It may not be a luxury wearable but the super-low weight is fantastic for comfort.

4/5

Features

While screen-free wearables are never feature-packed, this one has a few neat extras including heart rate broadcasting.

4/5

Performance

You get good overall stat accuracy with just some missed wakeful moments during sleep tracking.

4/5

Amazfit Helio Strap: Should I buy?

(Image credit: Future / Andrew Williams)Buy it if...

You want a good-value screen-free wearable

While not Amazfit’s most aggressively-priced tracker, it beats the big-name competition and then some.

You value comfort highly

At just 20g, you can often forget the Amazfit Helio Strap is even on your wrist.

You want quick daily dose health stats

The Amazfit app does a good job of highlighting unusual health stats, with a colour highlight system.

Don't buy it if...

You want a wearable for run tracking

This band doesn’t have GPS (or a screen, obviously) so is not ideal for more hardcore run training.

If luxury style is a priority

A fabric strap and plastic housing are great for low weight, but there are no luxe touches here.

You want a direct Whoop replacer

The stats the Amazfit Helio Band are much more classic lifestyle fitness tracker fodder instead of Whoop’s hyper-detailed recovery focus.

Also consider

Whoop MG

The most premium version of the original screenless wellness wearable.

Read our full Whoop MG review

Polar Loop

A little more money, but a more premium stainless steel design.

Read our full Polar Loop reviewView Deal

First reviewed: January 2026

We tested the Amazfit Helio Strap in the wild, and found it every inch the Whoop competitor at a very reasonable price.

PcComponentes says it did not lose data in a breach, but through a credential stuffing attack.

The mighty air fryer can do many things, but it still struggles to toast a single slice of bread. Here's how we tested it.

Let leak detectors warn you when sinks or pipes develop watery problems. These smart detectors performed the best in our tests.

On the hunt for a cheap cell phone plan? Visible Wireless' latest deal gets new customers a seriously impressive discount over a generous 26-month period.

Windows 11 is becoming a crash-happy nightmare as two new bugs are now frustrating users.

One-tenth of UK orgs probably wouldn't survive after a cyberattack, and most agree risks have increased over the past 12 months.

As new AI sci-fi thriller Mercy hits theaters this week, Chris Pratt is one of the few Hollywood figures not scared of the 'harsh reality' of technology.

The Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake has been canceled as Ubisoft undergoes a massive restructuring. The company has also delayed several games.

This is exactly where you should put your bird feeder to get the most feathered customers.

A decades-old murder confession makes for bone-chilling viewing. Here's how to watch Confessions Of A Killer for FREE.

The first images for Invincible season 4 have revealed the new villains we'll meet in the Amazon TV Original.

Monitor your property with pin-sharp footage, great battery life, and even AI-powered facial recognition.

I've tested dozens of robot vacuums, but this is the one that has a permanent spot in my home – and it's never let me down.

A new focus group of Biden-to-Trump voters weighs in on immigration operations and Trump's foreign affairs leadership on Greenland and Venezuela.

(Image credit: Stephen Maturen)

The president has backed off his threat to take Greenland by force. But his highly inflammatory remarks in Switzerland rattled U.S. allies and threatened to tear down the pillars of the world order.

(Image credit: Evan Vucci)

Jack Smith's appearance before the House Judiciary Committee marks the first open testimony about his work after presiding over two federal criminal indictments of President Trump.

(Image credit: Chip Somodevilla)

NPR's Steve Inskeep speaks with longtime Democrat Rahm Emanuel about politics in the Trump era.

If you've been rinsing right after brushing your teeth, you're doing it wrong. Dentists explain why.