Distinctions - Amazon’s proprietary health app subscription is included with the Halo View’s purchase and includes a fair few video workouts as supplementary content.

Criticisms - The Halo View suffers on almost every level from poor instrument precision and shoddy programming. Out of the box, every model we tested had trouble pairing with a variety of smartphones, often requiring setup tactics that went against what the lackluster tutorial stated as the intended experience. When it came to actual fitness metrics, the Halo View was slow on the uptake across all workouts where competitors were also worn, but extremely generous when at rest, to the extent that it would passively add calories to the total even when it was not being worn. The low resolution screen often struggled with latency issues despite the lack of complex features at play, while the inset button’s lack of a tactile interface often resulted in numerous unregistered presses before a response. While Amazon does provide a host of workouts, none are actually integrated into the Halo View’s programming, leaving the app a glorified set of workout videos saturated with a tremendous amount of ads for other Amazon services.

Criticisms - Remarkably, the Halo View is entirely devoid of distinctions in design quality. Terrible screen resolution as well as pitiful raise-to-wake awareness makes the Halo View a bad watch fundamentally, while abysmal material choice makes it barely viable as an outdoor accessory. On all models we tested the band broke before it saw rigorous usage, as the ‘sport material’ ripped under even minor duress. Despite the increased thickness of the Halo View, Amazon provides no upgraded materials to warrant the increased real estate on your wrist, leaving the consumer with a protruding lump that, due to an overly flexible band, slides up and down the wrist unless tightened until the point of discomfort. Additionally, the Halo View is only chargeable with a bespoke clip charger, made of even more brittle plastic with moving pieces. This proved to be the downfall across two of the devices tested, as with repeated use parts of the clip snapped or were broken when stored for travel.

Distinctions - Amazon offers the Halo View in multiple colors, allowing for some customization, with interchangeable bands with different materials and patterns also available for purchase.

Criticisms - All materials are lackluster in appearance. Band material attracts dirt, lint and grime with prototypical success. Screen is extremely low resolution with poor backlighting and plastic ‘crystal’ mono-piece. Cheap plastic on the case gives it a greasy sheen, but no gloss. Rather than appearing matte, as some of its competitors do, the band on the Halo View appears reflectively greasy. While not quite obtrusive, the Halo View does not appear high quality or blend professionally.

Criticisms - Poor material quality comes heavily into play when considering the sustainability via longevity of the Halo View. With every tested model breaking in some manner, the disposability of the Halo View went from a theoretical to a reality quickly, giving rise to many concerns regarding the ecosystem Amazon attempted to create around it. While unique in design, the clip charger has no usage with any products other than the Halo View afterwards impossible. Similarly, by using a unique points system in their app, Amazon makes the data generated by the Halo View only useful through continued subscription the Halo app and use of the Halo line of products. There is no integration with external fitness apps, as seen with many other fitness trackers. Summatively, the Halo View perpetuates a need for the Halo View by breaking often and requiring a subscription that plays into a subconscious sunk-cost fallacy with its users. If there is already an investment in the Halo ecosystem, it makes it harder to leave, leading to greater waste, financially and environmentally.

Distinctions - The Amazon Halo View is cheaper than the vast majority of fitness trackers that offer the same amount of promised features.

Criticisms - Halo View fails to deliver on the promised features with any level of comparable accuracy. All of its peers deliver better on accuracy with heart rate, caloric expenditure and other features like blood oxygen level that are not provided by the Halo View. While all of these faults are intrinsically bad for a fitness tracker, offering a budget option in the space would be a noble idea, however, clear cost-cutting around the design and build result in a budget option that offers less proportional to the cost than higher priced fitness trackers.