Fitness trackers are a great way to monitor your activity and health with little to no effort. Most of the best and newest devices on the market keep tabs on your workouts, heart rate, stress and everything in-between with pinpoint accuracy. So, it doesn’t matter if you are an athlete competing to become the NFL MVP of 2019 or just a simple casual jogger, the device is compatible with all kinds of sporty people.
The Xiaomi Mi Bands have always been on top of the best budget bands on the market. Does the new colored interface remain as a predilect option? Check out the review below.
We are very impressed with the subtle aesthetic changes. Most notably the fact that they have flattened out that front display area and they have made it slightly larger. Personally, we prefer the look of a more traditional watch face than a smart band.
As far as smart bands go, this very slim silicon band fits very easily onto the wrist and, due to its size, it’s great for all sorts of activities and sports. As for the strap, the simple buckle system is secure, comfortable, and is made from thermoplastic polyurethane. Available in black, but a range of styles and colors can be picked up if you shop around for old Mi Band 3 straps, which can also be incorporates to the newer version.
We firstly mentioned how the display is larger than last years. Well it’s actually 39,9% larger and brighter than ever before, according to the Mi website. 50 meters water-resistant, three axes accelerometer and three axes gyroscope. It’s obviously a touch screen and AMOLED display with 120 x 240 pixels, 0,95 inches.
Color depth is 24-bit, it’s got adjustable brightness maximum of 400 nits, which for a smart band, is pretty great. It’s got 2,5 D tempered glass with an anti-fingerprint coating. Single touch button to wake or go back, 512 kilobytes of RAM, 16 megabytes of storage, 135 mAh battery capacity with a charging time to full in about two hours. One of the main reasons why the Mi bands have been so popular in the past, is due to price and we can confirm again we’ve got a price of about 35€.
On the rear of the tracker is a heart rate sensor that sits directly on your skin. By contrast, it isn’t always-on, so it won’t continuously be recording your heart rate when you’re going about your day. Instead, you need to activate it to get a score through to your wrist and have it recorded in the Mi Fit app on your phone.
This can also be done by firing up a workout, which engages constant tracking for the duration of your session and shows you how you’re doing on the band’s display.
The Mi Band 4 features Bluetooth 5, and it works with phones running Android 4.4 and above, or iPhones running iOS 9.0 and above. To get it connected and synced, you just have to download the Mi Fit app to your phone from the App Store of Google Play Store.
Anyone looking for an affordable fitness tracker that has basic smartwatch functionality without breaking the bank, the Xiaomi Mi Band 4 fits just right. It’s thin, light and comfortable to wear, and even if you never use the smartphone app after setting it up, it can still add value to workouts and life as a timepiece, stopwatch, timer and heart rate monitor.
The Xiaomi Mi Band 4 delivers fantastic value and features. Upgrades over its predecessor include a color OLED display with significantly improved outdoor viewability and a higher resolution too. The band’s battery life is also exceptional, and it has improved tracking, making it an easy fitness gadget to recommend, covering the basics and delivering some flourishes as well – a marked improvement and a worthwhile upgrade.
Huawei has already launched the new Honor Band 5, at the same price range and is heavy competition regarding the smart bands market.
Written by: João Santos
