Amazfit Helio Smart Ring review: bargain bin bust Canada reviews

Smart rings are in the middle of a renaissance. That’s great because we finally have way more options than just an Oura Ring. The downside is most of Oura’s would-be rivals are launching their first, maybe second-gen smart rings. Meaning, if you want an Oura Ring alternative, there’s a good chance you’ll have to put up with quirks and a distinct lack of polish. The $199.99 Amazfit Helio smart ring is no exception.

Amazfit isn’t a household name but is well-known among wearable bargain hunters. It’s a compelling brand because its gadgets get you a lot of bang for your buck. That’s the case with the Helio ring, the brand’s first foray into smart rings. It’s primarily a sleep tracker, but it comes with an AI chatbot called Zepp Flow, an AI coaching feature, and it has an electrodermal activity (EDA) sensor for monitoring stress, a blood oxygen sensor, a temperature sensor, and period tracking. It also syncs with popular third-party fitness apps like Adidas Running, Strava, and Komoot, as well as Apple Health and Google Fit. Like the Samsung Galaxy Ring, it works with Amazfit’s other smartwatches so you can double up on data sources — or switch between the two depending on the activity or remaining battery life.

That’s a lot packed into a smart ring, and since launching, Zepp permanently cut the price by $100 and offered free lifetime subscriptions to its Aura and Fitness services. On paper, this has the makings of a stellar deal. In reality, there’s always a catch.

In the Helio ring’s case, it’s battery life and limited sizing.

Right now, the best smart rings get you around 4-7 days on a single charge, depending on the size. (Bigger rings, bigger batteries.) The Helio ring is rated for roughly four days on a single charge, but I never managed that. At best, I got around three. That’s not great, Bob. Especially when this is meant to primarily track sleep. I wore it concurrently with the Oura Ring 4 and had to charge it two to three times as often. I also didn’t notice any discernable battery benefits when worn with two separate Amazfit watches. At least with the Galaxy Ring, using it with the Galaxy Watch meant much better battery life because Samsung optimizes which sensors are being used across both devices.

Adding to my battery woes, I don’t love that the ring relies on a dock. My cats delight in knocking these puck-like chargers around when they get the night-time zoomies. I much prefer charging cases, like the ones used by the Galaxy Ring, RingConn, and the Evie Ring.

The other thing about wearables is they have to be, well, wearable. While Oura and Samsung have expanded their size ranges and offer multiple finishes, Amazfit only offers the Helio smart ring in one color and three sizes: 8, 10, and 12. That’s swell if that’s your size — it’s quite lightweight and comfortable, and it hasn’t gotten scratched up like some of my other smart rings. The slim size selection of leaves out many people with smaller hands, particularly women. I happen to fit the size 8, but for some of my friends, this isn’t something they can wear.

Another annoyance: there’s no sizing kit. Getting the right size matters with smart rings, both for accuracy and comfort. Fingers swell and shrink with temperature changes, and while sizing kits can be tedious, they’re useful in the sense you can thoroughly vet which size will work best for 24/7 wear. With the Helio ring, you have to use either a string or a piece of tape to measure the circumference of your finger and then choose based on that measurement. Just, no.

But if you can get past all that, the sleep and health tracking is alright, though it’s best for a big-picture look at your overall trends. For instance, one night during my Christmas holidays, I slept for a glorious 9 hours, 47 minutes per my Oura Ring 4 and 10 hours, 34 minutes per my Eight Sleep bed. The Helio ring logged that as 11 hours and 23 minutes. It’s true I spent around 12 hours that evening doing my best impression of an inert log, but I also spent two hours doomscrolling, consumed by the Blake Lively / Justin Baldoni drama on TikTok. I wouldn’t call that one night accurate, but it correctly logged that I was irregular with my sleep schedule and well-rested that entire week. Other metrics, like blood oxygen, HRV, and stress, were broadly on par with my Oura Ring and Eight Sleep bed.

It’s not a great fitness tracker, though. The activities you can choose from are limited, you’ll need your phone on your for GPS, and it doesn’t automatically track activities either. And, if like me, you occasionally forget to end an exercise, there’s no way to edit the data after the fact. I hope this is something that gets added over time.

The Zepp app is also a mixed bag. The app’s been redesigned since I tested the excellent GTR 4, and I like the cleaner look and straightforward interface. My main beef is it’s difficult to view long-term historical data, which was highly annoying when reviewing metrics for this review. Still, Zepp Flow is one of the better implementations for an AI chatbot I’ve seen in a fitness tracking app. You’ll see weekly insights pop up, and a handful of prompts where you can dig in further with the chatbot. The AI insights are, how shall we say, Captain Obvious levels of basic common sense, but at least it’s speedy, straightforward to use, and easily ignored if that’s not your thing. It’s neat you can get sleep sounds and guided breathing for free via the Zepp Aura tab, but I didn’t use it much. I’ve found I fall asleep best to true crime podcasts. Chances are, you’ve also got a decent idea of what works for you and the Aura stuff isn’t going to trump that unless you’re looking for something new.

I don’t dislike the Helio smart ring. But aside from the price, it’s not a particularly compelling option unless you already have an Amazfit watch. At least then, all your data syncs to the same app. And even then, your Amazfit watch will probably outlast the ring and then what are we really doing here? Maybe a second-gen version or future software will address issues like battery life and bring more sizes. But until then, it’s hard to call this a true bargain.