Fitbit Inspire 3 vs. Amazon Halo View

It’s amazing to think how far we have come in fitness tracking, with models that boast premium features available for under $100. Amazon and Fitbit have models that fit the bill, and when comparing the Fitbit Inspire 3 vs. Amazon Halo Band View, they have some similarities but distinct differences. Deciding between the two might seem difficult since both, by and large, require a subscription to truly get the most out of them. So, it’s important to look at both what you get with each without a subscription, what you get with one, and what the comparison truly is when you factor in that added cost.

Fitbit Inspire 3 vs. Amazon Halo View: What they look like

Both the Fitbit Inspire 3 and Amazon Halo Band View sport the traditional slim, rectangular face style with interchangeable bands. With the Fitbit Inspire 3, you can also opt for a clip that allows you to wear it on a shirt, pocket, or bra to keep your hands free. This might be useful during sports like boxing or even weightlifting. 

Both also allow you to change the watch face: it’s super simple with the Amazon Halo View as you can go to settings on the device itself, select “watch face,” then scroll through the various options. With the Fitbit Inspire 3, you’d have to use the Fitbit app to choose a desired new face layout. 

The Fitbit Inspire 3 comes in three color options: Midnight Zen, Lilac Bliss, or Morning Glow. In his detailed review, Android Central’s Andrew Myrick described the Inspire 3 as being “extremely lightweight and comfortable.” He said he even often forgot it was on his wrist at times. The Fitbit Inspire 3 is indeed slightly smaller and slimmer than the Amazon Halo View, most notably in terms of length, which could contribute to it being more comfortable to wear over long periods of time. 

Get a crisp, clear view of pertinent stats from the Fitbit Inspire 3’s always-on color touchscreen that features an ambient light sensor. The sensor allows for easily seeing the watch face both in the dark and bright sunlight, ideal for runners who might go out in the wee hours of the morning or late at night. In addition to the touchscreen, the Fitbit Inspire 3 has a small side button for navigating menus.

The Amazon Halo View, which launched in December 2021, also has a 0.95-inch AMOLED touchscreen but no button beyond the capacitive one under the display. It comes in Active Black, Lavender Dream, and Sage Green and in S/M or M/L band sizes. But in her review, Android Central’s Courtney Lynch said she found it frustrating that a slight bit of force could accidentally remove the tracker from the band while the pin-and-tuck closure was not as comfortable as others nor as intuitive to clasp. She also found swiping on the screen to be frustrating, as an up/down swipe was often mistaken from a right/left and vice versa. 

Both have decent battery life, but the Fitbit Inspire 3 is better in this respect, with an impressive 10-day rated battery life compared to seven for the Amazon Halo View. With that said, in her review, Lynch said the Amazon Halo View indeed lives up to the one-week battery life promise, as well as claims that the tracker will fully recharge in under two hours.

Fitbit Inspire 3 vs. Amazon Halo View: The bare bones

There are some differences when it comes down to the core specs of these two entry-level fitness trackers. Let’s explore.

Based on specs along, there are a lot of similarities between these two trackers. But it’s when you drill down to the available features, both with and without a subscription, that the differences truly come to light.

Fitbit Inspire 3 vs. Amazon Halo View: The core fitness features

If you’re buying either of these fitness trackers to, well, track fitness and activity along with other health and wellness stats, you’ll want to pay close attention to how they both work in this respect and what they can do. 

Both can track basic steps, activities, calories burned, heart rate, and more. But the tracking is very limited with the Amazon Halo View without a subscription, which is $3.99/mo.: you get basic tracking, limited access to workouts, heart rate, calorie burn, time awake and asleep (without details), and sleep time. 

With the Fitbit Inspire 3, by contrast, you get all of this and more, including Sp02, stress tracking, access to tons of exercises for tracking, AutoTrack that will automatically track common exercises if you don’t set a workout to begin, detailed sleep tracking, mindful breathing, and more, even without a subscription. The Fitbit Premium subscription, which is $9.99/mo., provides enhanced data and analysis, as well as access to more content, but many features still come without it. 

In terms of exercises, with the Fitbit Inspire 3, you get a limited number of common ones like walking, running, weightlifting, and swimming. The device will track Active Zone Minutes, advising when you reach fat burn, cardio, and peak levels so you can tweak your workout accordingly to maintain the right zones as well as achieve a set number of Active Zone Minutes per day.

You can also access a variety of workouts from the app that you can follow along with from your phone or by casting to a TV, which include workouts from Fitbit as well as other partners, including celebrities like Will Smith. With the subscription, you unlock tons more workouts and workout programs in a variety of styles and durations. You also get mindfulness and meditation exercises from sources like Deepak Chopra, nutrition information and advice, and more. 

With a subscription to Fitbit Premium, you also get a Daily Readiness Score, which will advise what shape your body is in: should you proceed with an intense workout, or does your body need some recovery time? The Fitbit Inspire 3 comes with a six-month free trial to Fitbit Premium, which should be enough time to assess the added features and if you think it’s worth the cost. 

With a 5ATM water-resistant rating, you can swim, shower, and more with the Fitbit Inspire 3. Additional features include cardio fitness score, reminders to move, and the ability to join challenges and in the app with friends, family members, and other like-minded individuals within the Fitbit community. You get 24/7 blood oxygen monitoring, which is useful for those with breathing issues or conditions like sleep apnea.

With the Amazon Halo View, you only get very basic tracking without a subscription, as noted. With a subscription, you’ll unlock plenty of workouts ranging from HIIT to strength, yoga, barre, walking, and low-impact workouts that range anywhere from five minutes up to an hour long. These come from sources like Lifesum and SWEAT, as well as Halo Fitness and Halle Berry’s re-spin. You can follow live workouts from the Halo View itself, which is a nice touch, or cast to the TV for a big-screen experience. 

Similar to Active Zone Minutes, you can track the intensity of your activities using the Amazon Halo View, including sedentary, light, moderate, and intense. You can review the stats after a workout and work towards reaching a goal of a certain amount of at least moderate activity per day. But you need a subscription, whereas Active Zone Minutes is free with the Inspire 3. 

There are on-demand activities along with meditation exercises from sources like Headspace, sleep advice, and nutrition support with more than 450 recipes from Whole Foods (which Amazon owns) and WW, formerly Weight Watchers – again, all only with a subscription. Lynch loves being able to even select from pre-curated menus that follow various popular types of diets, like keto, vegan, and paleo. 

A neat additional feature with the Amazon Halo View is movements assessments, which will use the app to develop personalized exercise programs based on your mobility, stability, and posture, which Lynch found really useful. Body composition measurements is also another interesting feature that assesses your body fat percentage using the phone’s camera and app. You also get on-demand blood oxygen level measurement, but it isn’t tracked 24/7 like with the Fitbit Inspire 3. 

The bottom line here is that both offer some standout features in the fitness and health space. But while the Amazon Halo View’s unique features are enticing, you won’t get access to them without a subscription. By contrast, the Fitbit Premium subscription offers some nice features over and above what you get as a standard. Still, you get by far more with an Inspire 3 without a subscription than you do with the Amazon Halo View without a subscription. This bleeds into other features, which we’ll talk about next.

Fitbit Inspire 3 vs. Amazon Halo View: Everything else you need to know

Fitness trackers are about more than tracking workouts and heart rate as well as mindfulness exercises. We want to track it all. 

Both track sleep, but once again, whether you have a subscription or not plays into how much detail you get. With the Fitbit Inspire 3, you get detailed sleep analysis even without a subscription, including light, deep, and REM sleep, sleep stages, Sleep Score, and advice. With the Amazon Halo View, you need a subscription to get anything beyond basic time awake and sleep along with sleep temperature. 

So, what do you get with regards to sleep with a Fitbit Premium subscription when it comes to the Fitbit Inspire 3? It offers additional sleep analysis via a Sleep Profile that delves deeper into sleeping patterns, even comparing you to a specific animal in terms of your sleep style. You can compare yourself to other Fitbit users and see where you fall in terms of the typical and ideal ranges. Fitbit has long been known as one of the best when it comes to sleep tracking, and the Fitbit Inspire 3 is no exception, both with a subscription and even without. 

The Fitbit Inspire 3 also offers additional benefits, like skin temperature variation, female menstrual health tracking, and, with a Premium subscription, a stress management score.

Over and above what’s previously noted, one of the only other stand-out features for the Amazon Halo View is something called Tone Analysis, which will analyze the tone of your voice using the app on your phone to tell you how you sound to others. Do you sound harsher than you intend to your kids, spouse, or even co-workers? The app can help you get your tone of voice in check. It’s a cool feature, but likely more gimmicky than anything else. 

The other stand-out feature for the Amazon Halo View is the inclusion of Amazon Alexa, which allows you to use voice prompts for things like asking for a health summary. However, without a mic itself, it means you need to pair the tracker with an Alexa-enabled device to get a response from said device, not on your wrist. It’s also worth noting that the Amazon Halo View can pair with compatible exercise equipment using Bluetooth, including Tonal, Echelon, and MayMyRun, which will be a plus for anyone who uses this gear. 

Both can deliver notifications from a connected smartphone but the Fitbit Inspire 3 adds the ability to use Quick Replies with a compatible Android device. 

One big difference is that the Fitbit Inspire 3 has connected GPS while the Amazon Halo View does not support GPS at all. While you’d still have to bring your phone with you on a run with the Fitbit Inspire 3, at least you can track your route through the Fitbit app.

Fitbit Inspire 3 vs. Amazon Halo View: Which should you buy?

It really comes down to the subscription when you are looking at the Fitbit Inspire 3 vs. Amazon Halo View. In both cases, you’ll get more out of the device with a subscription to the service. But you can make do much better with the Fitbit Inspire 3 without it, especially if you don’t need access to video workouts than you could with the Amazon Halo View. 

Let’s compare costs. The Fitbit Inspire 3 is slightly more expensive for the unit itself, and a subscription to Fitbit Premium is more than twice as much. You get a six-month trial with purchase, but then you’re on your own. By contrast, the Amazon Halo View subscription is a nominal fee that won’t cost you more than a cup of coffee each month. But it means paying this fee on a recurring basis for as long as you use the tracker. There is a 12-month trial, which is wonderful. But when you add it up, after that first year, you’re paying almost $50/yr for the service, a pretty hefty sum for a tracker that itself doesn’t even cost double that. 

The Amazon Halo View is a decent tracker as a first option, but you’re better off paying a bit more for the Fitbit Inspire 3 and being able to take advantage of tons of great features. You may find after six months that you can live without the added features that come with a Premium subscription. The great thing about keeping Premium, however, is that if you decide to upgrade to a more feature-rich Fitbit device down the line, like the Charge 5 or even a Fitbit smartwatch like the Fitbit Sense 2, the subscription will follow you in your account. 

Also, keep in mind that the Amazon Halo View is almost a year old, while the Fitbit Inspire 3 was just released and will continue to get new features. What’s more, given Lynch’s honest assessments about the fit and feel of the Amazon Halo View as well as the finicky screen, you might find that the money savings, both on the hardware and subscription, aren’t worth it. 

Bottom line: while it’s slightly more expensive, you’re better off opting for the Fitbit Inspire 3, which is already named among the best fitness trackers. You can assess the Fitbit Premium subscription over the six-month period (make sure to explore everything it has to offer) and decide then if it’s worth paying for. With the Amazon Halo View, if you decide you no longer want to pay, you’ll likely be disappointed with the bare-bones features you get without it. Indeed, Lynch says in her review that the Halo View “becomes a shell of itself without a paid membership.”