Amazfit Band 5 at ~Six Months

About six months ago, I gave up on the el cheapo discount store "fitness trackers" and purchased (not an affiliate link) the Amazfit Band 5. Here's my early "quick and dirty" review.

Thoughts after about six months:

1. I dodged a bullet by going with the Amazfit rather than the Amazon Halo. Amazon announced earlier this week that it's shutting the whole Halo operation down, refunding hardware purchases and cutting off the associated proprietary services at the end of July.
2. I never got the Amazfit Band 5 to properly interact with Amazon's Alexa service in the way I thought it was supposed to -- that is, let me say the word "Alexa" into the band and/or press the "Alexa" selection on the band and be able to query Alexa. But I think that I was just misunderstanding what it was supposed to do. The band does pass on alerts and reminders that I've set up using Alexa, which is nice.
3. Another nice feature of the band is that it interacts well with my phone. If my phone rings, my wrist vibrates, which is nice when the phone is silenced, or in another room where I might not hear it. It also displays incoming text messages, as well as alerts for the apps I tell it to do so with.
4. Items (2) and (3) are things I've come to not like living without. Any future fitness band I buy will need to offer them. One cool feature that I hadn't used until last week was Strava inter-operability. When I get ready to take a bike ride, I can just tell the watch, which will keep track of my distance, average speed, etc., pause the recording when I stop and re-start it when I get moving again (very nice for trips to the nearest convenience store!), and put the ride data into the Strava app when the ride ends.
5. I can't recall having any functionality problems with the band at all. It's still holding a charge for a week or more and charging up in an hour or so. The app gives me what seems to be good data on my sleep patterns, and its pulse rate and pulse oxygen readings seem to be reasonably correct when I bother to use the band to check them.
6. The only thing I didn't really like about the Amazfit Band 5 was the silicone band it came in. But no biggie -- there are aftermarket cloth and metal bands. The cheap pair of cloth bands I bought aren't the best (one of the two broke after a month or so); I may spend a little more money on something nicer next time.

I expect that when the Amazfit Band 5 goes, I'll return to the Amazfit brand for a replacement. They offer a band (the 7) with a slightly larger screen and claiming even longer battery life, as well as a line of "smart watches" that are bigger and offer some or all of the same health/fitness monitor functions.

I'd say I'm a fairly satisfied customer.