Xiaomi Mi Band Review – Highly Addictive, including the price!

Xiaomi Mi Band is probably the cheapest and an advanced fitness band available in the market. Xiaomi recently launched this fitness gadget in India for Rs. 999. The band will be available from Mi.com website for now.

Box Pack
Just like as seen with the other Xiaomi devices, the Mi Band box packing is also pretty immersive. Inside you will find the activity tracker, black colour band, user manual and USB charging module.

Design
The activity tracker is the main component. It’s aluminium alloy on the top with plastic body. Build quality is very good. The Mi Band is IP67 certified (water resistant). It’s light weight at about 14 grams and the tracker thickness is about 9.0mm.

The tracker will be the same but the band is available in different colour options. Since this fitness device is made to be worn most of the time, the band is made of TPSiV material that is anti UV, anti microbial and anti allergic –  perfect for sensitive skin. Use the stainless steel stud to secure the band as per your wrist size.

The band comes with 41mAh built in battery and supports Bluetooth 4.0.

Installation
The Mi Band work on any android 4.4 (and above) and iOS 7.0 (and above) devices. Installation process is pretty simple, follow the instructions as mentioned in the user guide. You will need to download and install the Mi Fit app. For pairing just tap the device several times.

Performance
Mi band is your 24/7 fitness tracker, all you need to do is wear it. The best thing about this band is the battery backup. On a full charge you can expect up to 30 days of battery backup and it takes just about 2 hours to fully charge the band.

This band is really smart. If you have used other fitness bands / smart watches you might be aware that to monitor your sleep, you need to enable the sleep mode. Well if you are using the Mi Band you don’t need to do anything, the device is smart enough, it knows when you are sleeping and when you are active.

The Mi Fit app keeps track of your fitness / sleep activities. You can set your goal i.e the number of steps you will complete each day. There is no screen on the activity tracker, however there are 3 LED lights. You can set the LED colour (Orange, Green, Red, Blue) using the app.

Twist your wrist as if you were checking the time and the LED will blink – with this you can get an idea about your performance (goal) for the day – 1 LED = Low, 2 LED = Medium, 3 LED=Goal completed.

The Band can also be used to get notifications (vibration) for incoming calls / from other apps. You can setup the location (left hand, right hand and neck). This device can be used to automatically unlock your smartphone. So for example if you are using password, PIN or pattern to unlock your smartphone, you can enable Mi Band as a trusted device and when the band is within the bluetooth range you can access the device without having to enter the pin, pattern or password.

The Mi Band can track your steps, distance travelled, calories burned and your sleep pattern (deep, light, when you fell asleep, when you woke up, number of hours in bed). There are two more options that you can manually active – jumping rope and sit-ups, when active the band will monitor these activities.

In the Mi Fit app you will find the alarm option, you can use it to setup the alarm on the Mi Band – the band will vibrate at the time that has been setup. There is early bird alarm option – this will start the wake-up process 30 minutes before the alarm setup time, gradually waking you up.

Battery
On a single charge the band will last for up to 30 days, even more if you disable notifications. It took less than 2 hours to charge the battery using Desktop PC USB point as power source.

Verdict
The Mi Band is amazing, it is smart, light weight and really tough. It is your perfect personal fitness assistant that keeps track of your daily activities including your sleep pattern. It is not just the band, even the price is just too tempting – Rs. 999.

I wish the Mi Band had a small display with the current the time, anyway it’s still awesome and really addictive.

Mi Band for Rs. 999 will be available on Mi.com. You can also buy this from gearbest.com for under $18.39.

Mi Band Image Gallery

Mi Band video review (if you like the video do hit the like button)