Xiaomi Mi Band Review – One Month Later

It has been a month now since my wife and I started wearing our Mi Bands and we have yet to take them off.

As a reminder, the Xiaomi Mi Band is a fitness and sleep tracker that costs a fraction of its competitors. For the same price as a simple clip-on pedometer, the Mi Band counts steps, tells you the quality of your sleep, and can give you notifications on your wrist.

Since I’ve put it on, I’ve been impressed with how comfortable wearing the Mi Band has been. I haven’t worn a watch in years and anything tight on my wrist makes me itch and ultimately go nuts. But, the Mi Band is very light and the rubber is soft and smooth.

I have worn it to play hockey many times without any issue. I only play adult rec league, which doesn’t have any contact, so I haven’t put it under a lot of stress, but I doubt anyone still playing competitively will need to know how many calories they burnt while playing.

On a related note, I’ve been astounded by the range of the Bluetooth. During one on my games, I was lining up for a face-off at the far end of the ice with my phone in my pants hanging in the dressing room at least 250 feet away. Suddenly, my wrist vibrated twice to let me know I just received an email.

I’ve set my Mi Band to notify me for phone calls, emails, calendar alerts and text, BBM and Kik messages. I also allow it to vibrate to gently wake me up in the morning before my regular alarm. Despite me using it for more than Xiaomi anticipated, after a month of continuous use I still have a third of the battery life left. Considering its average competitor needs to be charged weekly and doesn’t offer notifications, this aspect of the Mi Band is amazing.

The app hasn’t been updated since I’ve had the Mi Band, but I haven’t felt it need it. Mi Fit is simple and intuitive to use. I usually check it once in the morning to see how many hours of deep sleep I got, and right before I go to bed to see how many steps I’ve taken.

For me, using an Android phone, the app always syncs quickly and the info appears accurate. My wife has a Blackberry that we had to sideload Mi Fit on to.

The first time she logged in, it told her that her version of Android was out of date, but it still worked. It is less stable and she often needs to restart the app to get it to sync, but ultimately she can see her stats.

Also, the notification version of the app was not compatible, but she still has her Mi Band set to vibrate for phone calls. She has found this helpful when she’s in a meeting or when she’s left her office for a minute and her phone is still on her desk.

At the end of the day, both of us are very happy with our Xiaomi Mi Bands. And when we think about how much we paid for them, we couldn’t be more pleased.

What do you think about the Xiaomi Mi Band? Does our experience help you make a decision?