Amazfit Helio Strap PRO - I'm Confused! (First Impressions)
In a Nutshell
The Amazfit Helio Strap Pro is essentially the same heart rate pod as the standard Helio Strap, with the main addition being a second waist-worn motion sensor that only works fully with the Balance 3 or Balance Ultra watch and appears targeted at Hyrox training. The Pro version adds a 9-axis motion sensor and includes both wrist and biceps bands, but offers no major upgrades to heart rate or sleep tracking. The creator finds the "Pro" branding misleading given the narrow use case and limited compatibility.
These notes were generated by AI and may contain inaccuracies.
This is the Amazfit Helio Strap Pro. This is one of the most confusing wearable launches in a while. So far, mostly confused and somewhat disappointed with what has been learned. Through firmware updates, a lot of this could potentially be solved.
When ordering this device, or actually a set of devices, it was seen as the pro version of one of the favorite devices, the Amazfit Helio Strap, but now at double the price. It seemed to come with some extra accessories. It was thought this could be a slam dunk for Amazfit if they can improve on the normal Amazfit Helio Strap and provide a bunch of extra measurements and sensors. Back then, there was no time to take a deep dive into what this device actually was. It was decided just to order it and to wait until it arrived and to see what this thing would be capable of.
What was received comes in several parts. One part is the pod that looks very much the same to the pod that also comes with the Amazfit Helio Strap. They have the same size, so they will fit in the same accessories. Same heart rate sensor. There are some minor differences, but they are quite minor. There's also this second part which has the exact same size and shape, but this one does not have a heart rate sensor. This is actually a device that is worn on the waist in addition to wearing the other on the biceps when doing sport. However, it seems that this waist part can only be used if you also buy either the Amazfit Balance 3 or the Balance Ultra, which are smart watches from Amazfit. All these smart watches from Amazfit will not work with the new Helio Strap Pro. You need to get either the Balance 3 or the Balance Ultra. Now, that might change in the future, but that's what it's like right now. In addition, it seems that all the extra functionalities of this waist sensor are basically just useful if you do Hyrox. There was surprise both with the seemingly limited improvements, also the requirements of having one of these watches to get all the functionalities and the lack of usability.
Much of this is down to the weird lack of clarity and branding around this device because the name as a pro version of the Amazfit Helio Strap might not be the right way to go. If the website had just said only suitable for Hyrox users or mostly made for Hyrox users for other athletes get the normal version or maybe they should have just called it the Amazfit Helio Strap Hyrox. That would have been very clear. There was sort of a Hyrox edition of the Amazfit Helio Strap before, so that would be confusing as well, but it wasn't known it would be so Hyrox focused based on the title and the first description.
The creator is Rob, a post-doctoral scientist specializing in biological data analysis. That would normally be the focus of videos, data and data science. However, given how surprised it was when receiving the Helio Strap Pro, initial impressions are shared, also just because of being so confused and because it was wanted to make sure that people know what they are likely buying. This was bought with own money and still waiting for a few answers to some questions from the Amazfit rep and most of the information shared today is based on research done on Amazfit. There might be some mistakes in how what was read online or what Amazfit wrote on the website was interpreted. If there are any mistakes that need to be fixed, they will be added to the pinned comment on top. A deep dive and a full review of this set of devices will be done as well.
First of all, you get what looks like a normal Amazfit Helio Strap pod, and it is mostly the same, though not exactly the same. It has the same Bio Tracker 6.0 PPG heart rate sensor, same battery size, same water resistance, same look, same size, same shape, same most things. The major reported internal change is that the original Amazfit Helio Strap uses a six-axis movement system. So 3-axis accelerometer plus 3-axis gyroscope. Now the Helio Core Motion HR which is what this is called now adds a 3-axis geomagnetic sensor producing a 9-axis motion sensing system. How important that actually is for most people is not sure. It could also potentially be used to improve heart rate tracking during running for instance to get rid of that lock onto your cadence. So basically it should give better information about orientation and movement direction but it doesn't necessarily mean any better performance for heart rate though it could be so but that has to be seen. Also even though the battery is the same in terms of size is reported. They do report 11 days of battery life on the pro to up to 10 days on the non-pro Helio Strap. At least what it said on the website. So this might just be a calculation difference because such a difference cannot be imagined between the two if they have the same battery and basically the same internals more or less. When comparing the Amazfit Pro to the non-pro, a few more sports profiles are gotten with the Pro version. Though again this could easily be introduced also on the non-pro with just a firmware update. So, the main heart rate and sports unit is essentially the same between the Pro and non-pro version.
The main addition of the Pro is what Amazfit calls the Helio Core Motion Waist. This is the separate waist motion sensor. So, it can pop into this thing and then it is worn on the waist. It also again has the exact same size and shape as the normal Helio pod. It even has a cutout for the heart rate sensor. Though, it seems that they just wanted to give it the exact same size and shape, and this is just filled in with a back plate of glass or something and not used at all. But it does mean it can be popped into any accessory that was already made for the Pro or non-pro version, which is a smart move. The naming conventions are kind of funny. What was previously the Helio Strap pod or whatever is now called the Helio Core Motion HR. And this new sensor that is worn on the waist is called the Helio Core Motion Waist. The original one was actually a Helio Core and now they added some things like motion waist and motion HR because of course now there's these extra motion sensors in there. This works for internal use at Amazfit. For outside use, it is kind of confusing, but it is what it is.
The waist unit is a motion sensor so not another physiological sensor. It doesn't independently measure heart rate and it sits near the body center of mass and measures core body movement. So orientation, positioning and stability. Amazfit combines that information then with the arm sensor and the watch data. If you have a watch as well that's what they recommend. So you have a three independent measurement system. But as understood this seems mostly Hyrox specific. So that makes it less useful for someone not doing regular Hyrox sessions. Testing will be done to see if this can be gotten to work also during other workouts like running or cycling. But this is how it is understood as it is written on the website. So it's not as useful for a normal athlete who's not doing Hyrox.
An additional thing that changed is that now in the box which is a good thing. There is both a biceps band and a wristband for the normal heart rate sensor pod with the heart rate sensor included. Amazfit actually recommends a system where during the night it is worn on the wrist and it says it needs to be worn on the wrist to get the best sleep stage tracking and sleep tracking. And then during sport they recommend it is worn on the biceps to get the best heart rate tracking accuracy. This makes a lot of sense. This is how it is recommended many people would do it. Though it's not always convenient to change it between the two positions and it is generally recommended then just keeping it on the biceps all of the time because in testing the Amazfit Helio Strap on the biceps still was a good sleep stage tracker and did about as well as any of these watches on the wrist. No significant difference was seen there. It is curious to see if following that protocol will get improved sleep stage tracking even. Improvement is not expected but that will be tested.
Overall, mostly surprised that they marketed this as the Pro version of the Helio Strap, whereas given how specific the use case seems to be, it seems more like a Hyrox Helio Strap extended edition or something like this. That being said, no matter what, based on previous testing of this heart rate sensor on the biceps, really good heart rate tracking is expected from this device, especially with the now included biceps band and also pretty okay sleep stage tracking sort of second tier. Almost with those best devices not quite there yet given testing done with the normal Helio Strap but also based on experience testing wrist-based watches with the new sleep stage tracking algorithm of Amazfit. That will be found out in the detailed in-depth review of the Amazfit Helio Strap Pro. Amazfit was asked if they could send a Balance 3 or Balance Ultra for the full setup. This one was bought with own money. One of these watches might end up being bought. But for now, testing will start without a watch and see what it can do.
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