Sharing my 3 years’ user experience with the Altor smart helmet for all my city and highway rides.
Importance of a good helmet
The helmet is a primary safety gear for biking that protects our brains from damage during a crash. So Helmet manufacturers spend lots of hard work on research to give their customers a safe and reliable product.
Evaluation of technology in riding pieces of equipment
So, in the advanced era of technology, multiple helmet brands are providing smart helmets fully loaded with safety features, and the Altor helmet brand is one of them. which provides advanced safety features, and I’m using one from the last 2 years
The outstanding features of altor
Altor has provided an ample amount of smart features in this budget, which are explained below.
Advanced safety features of the Altor smart helmet
Talking about its advanced features, this helmet is connected to the phone after installing an official app from the Altor website. The helmet comes with crash detection technologies where it warns to saved contects in list where family members, police, ambulance and the emergency services can be saved.
Formation of the Altor brand
This startup was an idea formed by the four friends after losing their friend in an accident, and he couldn’t get any help on time due to poor emergency communication.
That was the time when these guys felt the lack of smart equipment in riding equipment, which can be tremendously useful to save Indian riders in case of any accident.
How I came to know about this product
I was searching for a budget helmet, and my first choice was the Axor, as this helmet provides a good amount of safety in this price range. Suddenly, I came across an advertisement for the newly launched Altor smart helmet.
I had priority to set up vlogging types of equipment for my YouTube channel, and it needed an external mic for better audio quality.
But the Altor helmet comes with an inbuilt microphone, headphones with a claimed long-lasting battery for continuous calls and nonstop music.
So, I had in my mind to save some money on the intercom and external mic for audio recording by merging my action camera.
My experience with the Altor smart helmet so far
There are equal advantages and disadvantages with owning this helmet. So, let’s start with the advantages first.
Positive feedback for this smart helmet
At the time of purchase, the brand offered a great deal for its customers, they asked for 1000 rupees as upfront money while placing the order and the rest of 3000 on delivery time.
Out of nowhere, they decided to refund 700 rupees after a month. So I got the first batch of their production.
Packaging
The packaging of the helmet was nice, There were 2 pouches in the box; the first small pouch had a manual guide and a warranty card, 2 extra sensors, 2 adhesive stickers, and a charging USB cable.
The helmet is wrapped in bubble wrap to prevent any kind of damage or scratch while transported in the second pouch.
https://youtu.be/08SbijxINY8?si=QC4TA–77C9jj2YR
Intercom features
The helmet comes with an inbuilt speaker, a mic to connect with a phone to perform it while riding and in an emergency, and it has a small battery to run all this equipment.
Battery backup is great for long rides as I listen to music continuously for 10 to 12 hours on one charge.
Mic has good output on calls that it delivers clear voice on calls and speaker is placed on one side only for safety purpose which is also loud enough to give you enough clear voice on calls and music.
Disadvantages
Price
Altor comes at a higher price in comparison to what it provides. This helmet is hyped as India’s first ever smart helmet in budget.
The quality of this helmet is not equivalent to what they charge for; it is basically Altor’s technology, which they place on third-party companies’ helmets.
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Quality
At this price, you can buy any other good, safe helmet like smk, axor or adding some money, Mt helmet can be purchased, which are gonna provide more safety and quality in this price range.
I was disappointed with my decision to buy this helmet because of the helmet’s quality. At the testing of this helmet, I could hear a big wind noise on my left ear at a speed of only 70 or 80.
Wind noise
There is a speaker on the right side; maybe that was the reason for less wind noise on the right ear. So if you have any naked bike and you planning to go on highway rides, then you are going to have a bad riding experience with this helmet.
https://youtu.be/OaUxl4FbjWU?si=GgvOTShMOu7FyEvP
Visor
Another big issue with this helmet is the low quality of the visor used for this product. I started getting scratches on the helmet visor after 3 4 rides in city only and now it turned out dull screen even for day tike ride.
At night, it is very hard to ride with the visor on due to glare and low visibility.
Same issue I face during winter or rain rides. It reduces visibility in such conditions and raises the risk of an accident.
Conclusion
Nowadays, feedback from its existing customers and new people who are looking to buy this helmet is not positive. The rating for this helmet brand is 3.9 on Google, where only those people are giving only 5 5-star ratings who have seen their episode on Shark Tank only and have not experienced their services or products so far.
Otherwise, those people who own this helmet or have booked this helmet are not satisfied with the quality of the Altor helmet or the customer care response for booked helmets.
So I would not recommend anyone to buy this helmet just because their concept is great. Execution for this initiative is very poor, and it’s doubtful if this helmet brand will even sustain for a long time.
