Amazfit confirms Helio Strap 2 for 2026

Zepp Amazfit confirms many new products and increased profitability Watch out Garmin Zepp Health, the Chinese parent company of the Amazfit smartwatch brand, confirmed a full slate of new products for 2026, including Helio 2, with some price increases, supporting a deliberate shift toward premium hardware. After years of competing primarily on value, Amazfit is making a credible case that it is becoming a different kind of company. A full range for 2026, from $169 entry-level to a $550 flagship Zepp Health confirmed a product launch cadence for 2026 broadly matching the nine devices it released in 2025 — a year in which it brought to market the Active 2 series in three configurations, the Balance 2, the Bip 6, the Helio Strap, the T-Rex 3 Pro in two sizes, and the Active MAX. CFO Leon Deng said the 2026 slate would be "around a similar quantity, maybe slightly more." The portfolio spans the full price range. At the entry level, the Active 3 Premium targets new and casual runners at around $169. At the top, the T-Rex Ultra 2, launched in February and currently under review on this site, sits at approximately $550 and is built from Grade 5 titanium for high-performance outdoor use. That price point is the highest Amazfit has ever set for a single device, placing the watch in direct competition with Garmin's Fenix series for the first time. Further additions to the T-Rex family are already confirmed for later in the year - possibly a next gen T-Rex 4. [caption id="attachment_101163" align="aligncenter" width="1110"] Helio[/caption] Amazfit confirms next-gen Helio Strap On wearable accessories, the picture is more nuanced. The Helio Strap — a slim, arm-based fitness tracker competing with Whoop and Ultrahuman in the recovery-tracking segment — was described by management as one of the standout performers of 2025. Supply constraints and logistics delays limited availability through Q3 and Q4 of last year, leaving demand unmet. More units will react to the market in 2026 as those supply issues are resolved. Separately, a next-generation Helio Strap is in development and is expected to be released in the second half of this year. Helio Strap...has been the most popular...in our portfolio...we didn't manufacture enough...we are also working on the next generation of those as we speak. So stay tuned for the second half of this year. [Deng, CFO Zepp] Chasing runners and HYROX athletes The clearest signal of where Amazfit wants to position itself lies in its choice of partners. In March, the company announced a sponsorship agreement with Josh Kerr, the British middle-distance runner who holds Olympic gold and a world championship title. Kerr joins a roster that already includes American distance runners Grant Fisher and Tyler Andrews, and trail runner Ruth Croft. All are described as active users of Amazfit hardware rather than conventional brand ambassadors. The strategic logic is straightforward. Running is one of the largest participation sports in the world, with demographics skewing younger than much of the broader fitness equipment market - the ideal market to capture customers for life while they are young. Running And HYROX - Great Places To Capture The New Youth Markets HYROX, the hybrid fitness race format combining running and functional exercises, has grown rapidly into a global competition series. Amazfit holds an official partnership with HYROX, and its branding appears directly on the results screens that athletes photograph and share at the end of races. In cities including Phoenix and Las Vegas, that exposure generates organic social reach at no incremental cost. When a competitive athlete posts their finish time, Amazfit is in the frame. From hardware maker to complete training platform The product and marketing strategy fall within a broader repositioning that management explicitly describes. Zepp Health no longer characterises itself as a hardware company. The stated ambition is to build what CEO Wang Huang calls a hybrid training platform integrating endurance, strength and recovery through a combination of devices, software and data. In practice, this means expanding the reach of Zepp OS, the proprietary operating system running across the Amazfit range, and pushing features such as Zepp Coach — an AI-driven training guidance tool — and BioCharge, a continuous recovery metric comparable to Garmin's Body Battery, to more devices in the portfolio. The broader industry has moved firmly in this direction. Continuous biometric monitoring and AI-generated coaching recommendations have become expected features at the mid-market tier, and Garmin's Body Battery has established the consumer reference point. Amazfit is competing directly in that space. A Focus On Retention Through Better Technology Management was deliberate in using the language of switching costs and lifetime value — terms more familiar from software businesses than consumer electronics. The argument is that as more training history, personalised coaching data and recovery baselines accumulate inside the Zepp ecosystem, the cost to a user of switching to a different platform increases. It is the same logic Apple applies to the Apple Watch, and Garmin applies to its Connect platform. Whether Amazfit's ecosystem is sufficiently deep to generate genuine lock-in remains to be demonstrated, but the intent is clear. Margins moving toward Garmin, some way to go The financial results provide the clearest evidence that the premiumisation strategy is working. Amazfit's branded product revenue grew 51 per cent for the full year and 45 per cent in the fourth quarter. Gross margin reached 40.4 per cent in Q4, a record for the company and 3.6 percentage points higher than the same period in 2024. Management attributed the improvement specifically to product mix rather than pricing discipline: in part because the company chose not to discount heavily during the Black Friday and Christmas sales periods. For context, Garmin reported a Q4 2025 gross margin of 59.2 per cent and a full-year gross margin of 58.7 per cent. The gap between the two companies remains substantial. Garmin operates a highly diversified business spanning aviation, marine, and automotive, as well as fitness, which gives it structural margin advantages that Amazfit cannot replicate. But the direction of travel for Amazfit is unambiguous, and the gap is narrowing. The finances: strong growth, loss-making, and a solid cash position Improving Financials Fourth quarter revenue reached $85.2 million, up 43 per cent year-over-year and at the top end of guidance. Full-year revenue was $259 million, up 41.8 per cent from $183 million in 2024. The company remains loss-making: the full-year adjusted net loss was $31.5 million, a significant improvement from $56.7 million in 2024. Cash stood at $113 million at the end of December, up from $103 million at the end of Q3. 2026 A Pivotal Year The sports wearable market has a steady, predictable new-product cadence driven by multiple next-generation components, such as optical sensors and GPS chips. However, the competitive landscape varies, with success driven by many factors, ranging from app usability to aesthetics and peer-group opinions. Garmin's apparent stranglehold on the sports-wearable market reflects its competence or excellence across the board. Most competitors can't say the same, but that is changing. Coros has demonstrated strong products, a sensible app, and an understanding of the drivers of youth and niche markets. Huawei has returned to the market late, but with potentially excellent hardware and highly usable watch software. Amazfit has the critical mass of a high-cost-conscious customer base and a generally easy-to-use ecosystem; its hardware is good, but it needs to go the extra mile to make Garmin worry. The Market Is Closing In On Garmin At Both Ends - Will Fenix 9 Be Enough to continue Its Fortunes for another Product Cycle? (A: Yes!) The low-cost Chinese competitors are getting tired of being low-cost. They are coming for Garmin. At the upper end of the market, Apple has staked its claim as a premier smartwatch and is slowly and surely becoming recognised as a good-enough sports and adventure watch for most iPhone owners.