Xiaomi Mi Band: Review

At the rate of $15, is the Xiaomi Mi Band the fitness band you need to buy

In these days after the smartphone wars, now all the brands are fighting for the most expensive real estate of your body and that is your wrist. And when you think about it do you think it is really possible to buy a competent, well-made, durable piece of wearable tech for a very low price such as $15? And, I'm sure you would be doubtful about the quality Consumer tech takes time to develop, time to test, and effort to put on sale. Except all that would be running through your mind Xiaomi has a fitness tracker named the Mi Band that is available in the market @ $15.

But the question here is that is a $15 fitness tracking wearable worth buying?

Design

The Mi Band has a soft touch elastic band which goes on your wrist, and it also comes in various colours. It does not feel uncomfortable or unpleasant to wear. It is a very simple looking band, it has a loop and a pressing stud to lock it into place. Though which the soft touch rubber band it feels extremely durable and rugged.

The Mi Band has a core unit which is snuggly fit into the band. The unit itself is made out of plastic and aluminium, and has an IP67 rating for water and dust resistance. The aluminium part is the part that you will see and use, it is very smooth to the touch as it has brushed metal finishing and also contains 3 LED lights, to check your progress towards your goals.

It does not have the cool factor or the style of all the big competitors in the market like FitBit, MisFit, Jawbone, etc. but it is also not unattractive. Whatsoever you want to say about the style is up to you but where all our team at Beetel Bite was impressed was the level of comfort that the Mi Band provided. Mi Band it designed to be worn all day so that it can track all of your activities, so the main point was will it be possible to wear 24 hours a day but i have to say that i was impressed with how comfortable it was. First of all it does not get hot and sweaty, being thin it does not catch on to things, it is so light that you forget it is even there.

Tracking Activity and Sleep

The band syncs with your device with a App namely MiFit using the technology of Bluetooth Low Energy, which is available for both Android and iOS. You only have to set a daily goal that is how many steps you want to take or something like that and the rest is automatic the band will work out for itself if you’re walking, running, or doing some other exercise, the same also goes for sleep tracking the band will automatically recognize when you are going to sleep and when you wake up.

The tracking though for me was fairly accurate but i have heard of people saying that the Mi Band is off by a bit, and due to tracking being automatic i did not have to set when i was running or walking since it knew the difference on it's own and i loved that. The same can't be said about sleep tracking as whenever you take the band of it thinks that you are sleeping and that might be a bit of bad news for some fitness freaks out there but i was okay with it as it would not make much of a difference.

Most of the trackers these days tell us about our light and deep sleep phases but all of the trackers do not have a smart alarm the vibrate alert is very subtle, and not overly jarring, plus to cancel it you just shake your wrist. If you don’t start moving around, it’ll start vibrating again after a few minutes.

Battery Life

The battery life the Mi Band provides is awesome, Xiaomi says the battery will go on for 30 days before needing a recharge. But with our heavy testing we found out that it lasts even more we could juice out more that two months of battery from this bad boy, so if you are like me and do not want another device to plug in and recharge at night then the Mi Band is for you.

Conclusion

The Mi Band is just $15 and the band does more than what most of the high priced devices in the wearable fitness industry do. The app is very polished and gives a very premium feel, the battery on this device is awesome as it almost lasts more than two months. There are question marks over the accuracy and attractiveness, and it doesn’t visually spur me on in a way I’d like, but these are almost inconsequential when it’s so cheap.

Leaving the price on the side, i have to commend the Mi Band on the comfortable fit that it provides and can be worn all day, every day. And that is a very huge deal that all the other bands should work towards but the other brands are too concerned with technical ability than comfort. The Microsoft Band is a shining example, and should be considered the complete opposite of the Mi Band.

So should you buy one? If you’re after a simple fitness tracker to help get you moving, and value simplicity and comfort over heart rate monitors and custom workout plans, then the answer is a resounding yes. In fact, if it cost four times as much, we’d still say yes.

Pros

• Comfortable
• lightweight
• Very Very Long-Lasting Battery
• Cheap
• Sleep tracking

Cons

• Limited visual encouragement
• Occasionally questionable accuracy