Xiaomi Mi Band Hands on & First Impressions

In the wildest of our dreams, we didn’t think that there would be a wearable device, which can synchronize with the companion app in real-time. We are talking about the ultra affordable fitness band named, Mi Band, which Xiaomi announced in August this year for $13 or 79 Yuan in China. The first wearable tech from the Chinese manufacturer, Xiaomi, has been in the news for its price, but now we find out if the device is a catch for even this cost.

Xiaomi Mi Band is not designed to provide you so many details about your health activities, but within its cost the device is a worth to give it a shot. And if you have been in the search for a wearable device that can just track enough activities to give enough details of your health, then, it is worth the price. We have been testing all the popular fitness trackers in market including the likes of FitBit, GOQii, Jawbone UP, Sony Smartband, as well as smartwatches with features to track the fitness activities like LG G Watch and Samsung Gear Live. Though, all they come up with a bunch of data that will be complex for laymen to understand.

It is the only fitness tracker available in the market that doesn’t put a hole in your pocket considering how cheap it is to produce these small wearable devices. Taking advantage of the situation, the Chinese electronics manufacturer has made a device, which is in par with the other top performing fitness trackers like Fitbit, Nike Fuel Band, GOQii and the Jawbone Up.

While the device looks sleeker than its competitor, there is no display available on the Mi Band. Though, it does boasts a LED light functionality, which we couldn’t able to activate when tapping the device two-three times. But it would not create an issue for your device as the LED light functionality does not have any specific purpose.

We did like how fast the device synchronizes with app, which we have already pointed out as the most important feature of this device. But considering the companion apps of the other fitness trackers in this wearable space, Mi Band’s app is clearly a winner, as it show you the real-time steps taken, calories burned and has a detailed analytics about the sleep patterns over the period, Since you first activated the device.

The device has incredibly accurate automatic sleep measurement feature, and we were satisfied with if we compare it with manual mode mostly available in the devices like FitBit as well as the GOQii fitness tracker.

It is like an Android One smartphone, designed to be affordable and have few functionalities, which can be easily understood, once the setup is done. Since, we had the Chinese variant to test, it was difficult to setup it for the first time. As we were not able to find the APK file in English version and the Mi Band app is not released on the Google Play Store. Because the manufacturer has restricted the app compatibility to a Mi phone only, which means the other smartphone owners won’t be able to use this device if they don’t have a Xiaomi Smartphone with them. While Xiaomi is still expanding its reach to different countries, which is recently expanded into the markets like Malaysia, Philippines, and the Indian market. Wherever, this Tech start-up goes, you should expect a flash sale whenever the Mi products go on sale in those countries.

Coming to the availability of the Mi Band in India, the device is expected to go sale in the country for around INR 700, sometime in December this year. Keep it here, for the detailed review of this super-affordable fitness band, coming soon, as the device is going under microscope.