I’ll start by saying that I was using the first version of the band by Xiaomi Mi Band until 2014. It still works okay, but I gave it to my mum, and bought the new one for myself.
I’ll start with a good thing - the price. Now it costs around $22, which is great, as for me, it’s absolutely unacceptable to pay more for the fitness tracker. Apple watch cost about $300-400, and I don’t see any great difference between them and don’t understand why someone would pay so much money for a fitness tracker (the functions are the same).
The next feature is the energy-conservative display. What does it mean? Now, it you want to know the time, steps walked, calories burned or anything, you don’t need a smartphone. The only thing that you’ll need to do is to turn your wrist and on the display you’ll see all the data. In five seconds the display turns off itself. You can also press the button on the band to get the same result.
- the next is the battery. Of course, in the new version it’s not 35 days as it was in the first one, but the battery lasts about 20 days.
It charges fully in 1.5 - 2 hours.
The next good thing is that the device is water resistant. Now, I don’t take the band off while having a shower.
-In general, I’m pretty delighted with the way the band looks, I can clearly see the Xiaomi design.
-For me, the most important is the gentle alarm clock (it should be as gentle as possible), every morning I’m woken up with a gentle vibration on my wrist
-Notification of an incoming call is also a very pleasant thing.
As for the right count of the steps, for me it’s just a conventional number of the steps done during the day. I simply put the goal of 10000 and try to accomplish it as possible as I can.
If there’s a choice to sit on a bus or walk 3 stops, I’ll definitely walk. I don’t expect some magic from the band to make me handsome and healthy, it’s just an accessory, which motivates and shows some statistics. And nothing more. But it’s so interesting to watch my personal statistics, though.
I read a lot of reviews that the first version doesn’t work long, but in my case it works since 2014 and there were no problems with it. I hope that the second version will be just the same.
A definite advantage of Xiaomi bands is that you can “make friends” and watch somebody else's statistics. If needed the band can be charged from the Xiaomi Power Bank pro.
Summing up, I can say that for me, that device is a very good accessory. I can imagine my life without it, of course, but it makes so many great functions which make my life much easier and you get used to that very quickly.
It’s a great device in terms of price / quality!
