Although I never advocate blindly trusting any machine metrics and always taking them with a grain of salt, should we take Helio’s metrics in as much consideration as the seasoned health trackers on the market? Is it really that accurate? Let’s find out.
But there’s a catch. The ring sadly only came in 2 sizes (10 and 12) at the launch, both of which slid off my hand like Cinderella’s glass slipper. There is another size (8) added to the lineup since then, but we haven’t gotten our hands on it yet.
Since there was no way to determine the accuracy of these metrics myself, I made my coworker my guinea pig.
Helio Ring Sensors
Helio Ring has a lineup of impressive sensors that I’ve mentioned below –
- PPG heart rate sensor (1 dual-color LED + 2PD)
- Temperature sensor
- EDA sensor
- 3-Axis Acceleration Sensor
- 3-Axis gyroscope
The sensors used on a device help it capture various signals from our body, and it looks like Helio has all the sensors that the market veterans possess.
The LEDs and PDs for blood oxygen and heart rate, body temperature, a dedicated EDA sensor for stress, and movement sensors for activity, steps, calories burned, and gestures.
The Accuracy of the Helio Ring
For the purpose of determining how accurate the Helio Ring is, we (my coworker and I) tested out the parameters I would use the most with a smart ring.
Sleep Tracking
Sleep being the top feature why people buy a smart ring, is supposed to be damn good. If a smart ring gets its sleep tracking right, I can let it slide if the other metrics fall short.
The Helio Ring gives a sleep score (1-100) every day based on the sleep from the night before. In addition to this score, time, sleep stages, heart rate, HRV, RHR, and breathing quality are also displayed.
My coworker reported the time of sleep to often be overcalculated, resulting in a very enthusiastic sleep score even when he was feeling groggy after waking up. Since the sleep stages are something that can never be calculated accurately, I never pay attention to this metric.
His sleep duration, though, was often within an hour of what was calculated on his Whoop band. Although, there were a few times when it was so completely off that it sadly didn’t live up to our expectations.
Now, the problem lies in the fact that sleep tracking and the metrics calculated during sleep form the basis for a lot more advanced health insights. So this feature, not being as great as advertised, made me disappointed in the Helio Ring’s potential as a smart tracker.
AI Insights
The app offers Zepp Aura, the ring’s AI feature, which is supposed to guide you on your off-track metrics. The chat with the AI feels like talking to a toddler. It’s basically repeating what you’re feeding it with no valuable output.
I do like the feature of the breathing quality, which, in combination with other metrics and AI, can determine if there are signs of sleep disorders, such as sleep apnea, restless leg syndrome, daytime sleepiness, and insomnia.
Stress Tracking
While I never found stress tracking on the Oura ring to be accurate, I did have more expectations from the Helio Ring only because it has a dedicated sensor for stress tracking.
That didn’t last long. The app was sending notifications of a spike in stress when my coworker was watching Netflix. It was rarely aligned with how he was feeling.
Health Metrics
The Resting Heart Rate calculated by the Helio Ring was often very close to his Whoop band but sometimes twice as high. The HRV was in line with the Whoop.
Since the Helio ring doesn’t track workouts automatically, my coworker often wore it out on his runs, which repeatedly tracked his heart rate significantly lower than how he felt.
Wrap Up
I know I’ve portrayed the ring to not be accurate, but the metrics are not all that bad; they’re just inconsistent and need a lot of refinement. The Amazfit Helio has serious potential, it just needs to be seasoned well.
Amazfit keeps some of its metrics behind a paywall, such as the AI sleep insights on Zepp Aura and personalized fitness tools on Zepp Fitness. I didn’t find it to be refined enough to be dropping any additional bucks, so my advice– try the free access, and if you also don’t find it useful, skip it.
