It’s the same price as the Garmin Cirqa. Daniel Cooper for Engadget RATING : 6.8 / 10Pros Great battery life Subscription-free Works in tandem with Qalo smart rings Cons Magnetic strap is cool, but not secure Too expensive No automatic workout detection I've already made my feelings about screenless fitness trackers well known to everyone who'll listen. They're more about signaling to the in-crowd that you're a serious gym goer than a better alternative to a proper smartwatch. Still, that's a big enough market that plenty of companies are jostling for space alongside Whoop (and Fitbit, and Garmin). Take Qalo, a jewelry brand with a side hustle selling smart rings, which is now branching out with its own screenless band. The Qalo SL-1 is a subscription-free band which aggregates all of your vital signs into a single score. If you're unfamiliar, Qalo sells silicon rings for folks who, for many reasons, can't or won't wear a metal ring. If you work in heavy industry, it's wise to swap your wedding band for something that won't cause you to lose a finger in an accident. They're also a great option for the gym or other physical activities, as well as for folks who experience finger-swelling. Qalo has launched two generations of rings in the last few years, with some corners of the internet saying they're re-branded hardware from J-Style, a white-label wearables manufacturer. A representative of the company told me that the SL-1, however, is "built around QALO's own software, data and design."
It's worth understanding that if you own a Qalo smart ring, the SL-1 is complimentary with the rest of its ecosystem. So if you wear a ring during the day, but take it off for the gym, you can strap the band on your wrist or bicep and all of the data will aggregate to the same place. At $199.95, Qalo is asking for the same sort of money as Garmin wants for its own smart band, the Cirqa. Which means there's an easy benchmark to see if this generic, first-generation hardware is capable of outperforming a wearables specialist with decades of experience. Hardware Daniel Cooper for Engadget The Qalo SL-1 is a screenless fitness tracker which looks like someone described a Whoop over the phone. It's a little longer than a Whoop MG but, to my eye, has a more pronounced bend in its chassis, although that didn't seem to affect how it sat on my wrist. Take it out of the box and you'll first notice the silicon strap, which attaches to itself magnetically. In that initial moment, the idea of a magnetically-attached watch strap looks and sounds like the coolest idea imaginable. It'll take you all of 30 seconds to realize why other watchmakers don't do the same thing with their own products. Because, as elegant as the magnetic strap is, it will get easily dislodged if your sleeve slides along at the wrong angle. Qalo says the water-resistant band lasts for 12 days on a single charge, and will keep an eye on the usual set of vital signs. That includes activity, sleep, heart rate, Sp O2, HRV, stress, temperature and menstrual cycle tracking. It ships with a magnetic USB-C charging cradle which I would describe as heavy for what it is. In-use Daniel Cooper for Engadget Like the devices it's competing with, the SL-1 collects a trove of data about you, but knows it's too much for you to take in. Consequently, it produces a Q Score, a single 1-100 metric telling you how well you're looking after yourself and how much fuel is in your tank. As you can see from the screenshot, the score is joined by three other metrics: Sleep, Movement, and Vitality. The latter aggregates your resting heart rate, resting HRV, blood oxygenation level and skin temperature. Open the app each morning, and you'll get a pop-up telling you your Q Score for the previous day. Get enough sleep and exercise, and that figure will be high, and if you look after yourself for several days in a row, you'll get a streak encouraging you to keep it going.
Source: Engadget · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing