Deeply digging for health in the smart wearable industry is just like making a mobile app in the smartphone industry. We mean the vertical depth of the value may not be smaller than that of a simple smartphone company.
Wang Huang (Founder, Chairman and CEO of Huami Technology)
At the end of 2019, Huang Wang, founder, chairman, and CEO of Huami Technology used the above paragraph to express his understanding of the wearable device industry. Since then, ‘health’ has become the core role of Huami’s future development.
At CES 2020 earlier this year, Huami held a grand conference in Las Vegas to demonstrate the above vision.
Also Read: Huami Launches The Huami Amazfit HomeStudio Treadmill
At this press conference, Huami officially announced the wireless headset – Amafit PowerBuds based on a high-fidelity sound system, equipped with a PPG heart rate sensor, which can monitor exercise heart rate, real-time voice broadcast heart rate, pace, time and other sports data. Also, it can feedback exercise status and remind exercise risk such as high heart rate.
Along with Amafit PowerBuds, Huami also brought the Amazfit ZenBuds smart earphones specifically designed for sleep to help users sleep status.
In particular, in addition to wireless headphones and smart earphones, Huami also launched a home treadmill Amazfit AirRun. It is a large treadmill with a minimalist and modern design, JBL custom speakers, smart wearable device linkage, and other functions. It supports wave-shaped rubber column vibration reduction and noise reduction. The most convenient is that it can complete the whole machine folding in 5 seconds.
There is no doubt that starting from this product, the scope of Huami products has extended to smart wearable devices. But at the same time, this treadmill is still in the ‘health’ field.
Today, this treadmill is also the protagonist of our review. Let’s take a closer look at it through actual experience.
Appearance: free installation to use
The home treadmill is a device placed in the home environment. So its design must be thoughtful.
The Amazfit AirRun adopts the installation-free design. The process of unfolding and closing is very convenient. After being folded, it can be erected against the wall and placed in corners, storage rooms, and other places. It will not occupy the daily use space of the user and is suitable for ordinary household users with small storage space.
The bottom of the treadmill is equipped with silicone rollers. You don’t need to worry about the movement of the treadmill. When you find that you need to transfer the treadmill, you only need to lift the tail. You can use the rotation of the two silicone rollers at the bottom to move the entire machine.
Of course, in daily use, there are firm foot pads to fix. The weight is 63kg plus the weight of the user. The whole machine is stable and very reliable.
He Amazfit AirRun is painted with a metallic effect as a whole, and almost no exposed parts can be seen on the surface of the fuselage. It looks quite stable with a wide running platform and can be easily integrated into various home environments.
Above the running platform, we can see a display screen, which takes up a lot of space. Of course, it can also make the displayed numeric characters larger: The screen can display information such as heart rate, time, distance, speed, and APP tips.
Above the center console, there is a phone holder, which has a certain stickiness and high friction.
The Amazfit AirRun is a simple-to-use home treadmill. The control button layout is very streamlined. It eliminates all the redundant control design, and all rely on plus and minus buttons and a rounded rectangular button to achieve all interactions.
The oiler and maintenance tools are built into the rear corner, making it easy to access and store.
Running experience
Software operation
In fact, the Amazfit AirRun can be used normally without the software. But in order to expand and enrich the playability, we still connect the software here.
Users of Huami Watches / Bracelets should be very familiar with this Amazfit client. Yes, the Amazfit AirRun treadmill is also connected to smartphones and interacts with other Huami wearable devices through this app.
The Amazfit AirRun can display real-time heart rate data of Amazfit series smart wearables and Xiaomi bracelets simultaneously. The currently supported devices include Amazfit Mi Watch Youth Edition, Mi Band, GTR, GTS and other products. Other subsequent devices that support heart rate monitoring will also keep up.
Before starting the exercise, first, open the Amazfit app to ensure that the watch/band and the treadmill are connected. Then start ‘indoor running’ in the app to use the wrist device to record the heart rate and display the heart rate data on the treadmill in real-time.
If you want to leave the treadmill to display the exercise heart rate, you can first open the Amazfit app and open the ‘Sports Heart Rate Radio’ in the watch/band device page. Before each exercise, first, turn on ‘Indoor Running’ on the watch/band, and then start running on the treadmill. The heart rate recorded by the wrist device will be sent to the treadmill via Bluetooth broadcast and displayed in real-time.
It is worth mentioning that the Amazfit AirRun has two built-in JBL custom full-range speakers. They have a fast transient response and ultra-low distortion.
The speaker of the treadmill is an independent Bluetooth device. And it can be paired with the phone by Bluetooth before use.
A half-meter wide running belt
The Amazfit AirRun’s running belt is very kind, both in terms of publicity and actual materials.
In the past, when some treadmills on the market advertised their running belt width, they would also calculate their own edge running platform width to confuse audiovisual.
And the Amazfit AirRun that we reviewed experienced honestly emphasized that its pure running belt width is 500mm. This specification is almost close to the level of commercial treadmills, and it will not run out of control. It should be known that many treadmills on the market are still about 400mm wide.
The length of the walking belt is 1300mm. At the same time, the sunken motor design is used to reduce the space occupation, which makes the effective running range larger and simulates the open feeling of outdoor running.
It is worth mentioning that Amazfit AirRun uses a non-slip, wear-resistant diamond-patterned running belt to increase friction, plus non-slip edges on each side to ensure safety and comfort during running.
We believe that as a home treadmill, the level of smoothness and noise reduction is very important. The smoothness is related to running feeling and running safety.
There are a total of 8 shock-absorbing devices between the Amazfit AirRun running board and the mainframe. When we run on the treadmill, we can feel the moment when we set foot.
This is because the impact force is released one by one after passing through 8 shock absorption devices, and the landing has been smooth. This can not only make the machine run smoothly and maintain stable running feedback but also slow rebound can also protect the knee from being damaged.
Those who often go to the gym for exercise may ignore one thing when choosing a home treadmill. Because the environment is relatively noisy in the gym, it is easy to ignore the noise of the treadmill in the home environment. So not only shock absorption but silence is also necessary.
However, the noise still exists. In a quiet home environment, it will be more obvious.
Operating experience: three buttons to handle all controls
Just now we have briefly introduced the appearance of the treadmill. The Amazfit AirRun uses a simple three-button control. One button is for controlling start and stop, and the rotation speed.
The treadmill also sports an LED display. The black screen is completely integrated when standing still. It can display four data and a status prompt during exercise, breaking the awkwardness of the old-fashioned treadmill.
First look at this rounded rectangular button:
- Press this key while the power is on – the system will enter a 3-second countdown, and the treadmill will start running at a speed of 1 km/h.
- Press this key to pause the running of the treadmill during running; press the button again to enter the 3-second countdown, and the running machine will gradually resume to the speedrunning before the pause.
- Press and hold this key during operation to stop operation.
Let’s talk about this “+” button:
As the name suggests, pressing this key will increase the running speed of the treadmill; its adjustment value is 0.1 km/time. If you continue to hold it for more than 0.5 seconds, it will automatically continue to increment.
Just after the “+” button is spoken, the role and usage of the “-” button is also clear: pressing this button will reduce the running speed of the treadmill; its adjustment range is 0.1 km/time.
From this, we can also see that when using the Amazfit AirRun, both acceleration and deceleration need to be increased or decreased step by step. Except for emergency stop and other situations, the gear cannot be shifted “over the gear” during use.
During use, we also noticed that the middle and lower part of the center console has a red button with a prominent note “STOP” and an integrated safety switch composed of a rope:
- Press the red “Stop” button during exercise, the running speed will decrease until it stops. To resume exercise, press the “Stop” button again to unlock, and then press the “Start” button again to resume exercise.
- Hold the clip of the safety rope to the clothes. If you pull the safety rope during running (such as accidentally falling down), the running machine will stop and lock the key operation. If you need to continue to move, pull the safety rope again to unlock it, and then press the “Start” button on the left side to resume the movement.
The difference between the two is that after the “STOP” button is triggered, the walking belt will gradually decelerate, that is, undergo a transition process; after pulling the safety rope, the walking belt will suddenly stop, then quickly lose power and stop running.
Five seconds to quickly store the measured experience
For home treadmills, the most critical point to consider is the space occupation rate and convenience after storage. After all, the houses of most families are not large now, and there are still many young people renting houses and living in small units. So they cannot afford to waste space.
As for the design of the storage space of the treadmill, the Amazfit AirRun does a pretty good job. Officially, it supports true full folding, saving about 80% of space in 5 seconds.
Specifically, the Amazfit AirRun uses a handrail and button linkage design without any tools. The switch device behind the armrest is folded down, and the whole machine can be folded with bare hands in only 5 seconds. It can be placed under the bedside table, saving quickly and effectively. The space inside the house is small enough.
That is to say, after daily running, you only need to pull the switch behind the armrest to complete the storage with your bare hands, eliminating the trouble of falling locks and using tools. Just like using a yoga mat, spread it out when you use it, and when not in use, just put it away. It doesn’t take up much space in daily life after storage.
Verdict
The Amazfit AirRun has a gym-level oversized running belt, a minimalist modern design, JBL custom speakers, and smart wearable device linkage. Among them, the function of smart wearable device linkage gives people a lot of imagination space – the Amazfit AirRun is not only a treadmill but also a stepping stone and starting line for Huami to extend to more areas of health and fitness equipment in the future.
Its outline design is simple and smooth. Almost the whole body is sprayed with metal spray paint, barely visible exposed parts, and can be harmoniously integrated into various home environments. Equipped with a 1300mm × 500mm oversized running belt, the diamond-shaped running belt and soft rubber edge strips are non-slip and wear-resistant. In addition, the sunken motor design leaves sufficient running space to simulate the feeling of outdoor running.
Without any tools, within three seconds, it can be folded, reducing storage space by about 80%.
It is worth noting that the Amazfit AirRun is also very thoughtful in terms of safety. The design of the emergency stop safety rope and the emergency slow-stop button guarantees basic safety, while the eight under the running board, on the one hand, dispel the impact force when falling. Shock-absorbing knee pads, on the other hand, can also achieve noise reduction effects to a certain extent.
The Amazfit AirRun has been officially launched for sale on March 31st, with an initial price of 2699 yuan ($380).