This was the second part of the bundle from banggood I purchased. However this one was to replace the Vidonn X6 which was getting wrecked from my life of running and its lasted me on a night out you know. But with new plans, I had to have a smarter one that was more durable, Xiaomi was the answer and for almost the same price (cheaper since it was from Banggood) then Why should I say no. Amazon also have it as well. The video is below:
The Packaging.
Xiaomi really make it simple here with a White box and simplistic designs and a photo of the product. Which for this is no harder to understand than a billboard for a shop. The Mi logo is more fitting to the box than the logo they use mostly and the back has a lot of small print. Since this is technically not a global edition, it is mostly in Chinese which makes it off putting for some people but if you buy from Asia, you will get this happen to you. But Enough said.
The bundle if your wondering
The top of the box
The stock barcode Bangood
The mi logo on the top
The back of the box with the details on the band
A Lift inside
Now the presentation of the Mi band inside is spot on, very similar to the Redmi with the tab to pull it which makes it easier to get to underneath the band for the accessories The mi band is hard to get out of the box in all honesty but its only cardboard, lets not be too petty about it. Then we can get to the starp which the manual is showing underneath as a fold out booklet. Then we have the very short charging cable which one of those petty people will say "its too short" which these days can be solved with a power bank or a USB extension Cable. Then we have the nice strap which is a decent black and also gives a better fitting to the wrist.
The Mi Band in the box
Lift the tab open and this is what you see
The strap itself
The very short charging lead
How the bottom of the strap looks
Part of the Manual
The manual in further
We now get to the last part of the manual
The Setup
Now we cry, this is usually hard, well if you don't charge it first, then yes it is. Since it was shipped with only 1% battery which stressed me out (not the thing itself, more time to get this done quicker) so I had to charge it while walking rosie which defeats the point of Smart Band like this. But once that was done, I installed the Mi Health App from Play Store (its not actually in the Redmi 4 China rom either if you really do care) and then let the app set up, Its the usual sign up for a Mi Account then put in your health details, you know height in cm and weight (its in kg so don't guess like i did else it means a 30lbs weight gain for normies is a nightmare for the feabie life, well don't get wet). then you can sync it and the Band will update firmware first then once thats is done, you should be able to use the app and get it going with syncing it to google fit, starting intense workouts and more.
How the connector looks
When you can't change the weight
This is the nomal screen you will have
This will be appearing from time to time, from firmware to fonts
You can see here how Google Fit integrates with the Mi Band
Testing some heartrates to see how it feels
Conclusion.
Now from the testing i've done which is my normal life, it really does have a better accuracy to the band life which for me is ideal, I can know when i'm pushing myself and also know when I need to push myself more. Which for the half marathon coming up in April (its actually a shorter distance than the time it took me to run to Tavi Morrisons from Mutley Plain/Goodbodies) then i need to see what my best is without doing more than I already do. That and the Vidonn had a misleading app which means it never recorded my sleep properly. But from an easy purchase to much more information about myself shown to me, I'm impressed.
omracer's Rating: 8/10
The Good Points:
Good Value for Money
Google fit works with the app
Easy to change strap since it detaches
Heart Rate Monitor
Easy design and setup in App
Clear screen.
Strap looks stronger material than Vidonn
No issues with Tile for Bluetooth
The Bad Points:
This isn't the global edition (for people who really care about English writing on the boxes)
The USB Cable to charge it could be longer
And thats that, now I have to wait for Xiaomi to unlock the Bootloader for the Redmi 4 before you can get a decent review of that phone. But for now, i'll might fill in some short reviews if they take their time,
Another review, this time this was a review my mum actually inspired me to do since she was intrested in smart bands and fitness wrists, now since i do cycle and run everywhere, this was to keep an accurateish trail of how i actually perform since mytracks is not as easy.
Only costing me £25 from Banggood. This seemed like too good to be true, but my mum got hers, and 2 weeks later, I ordered mine and my sister's (christmas present). Its a nice concept and from what my mum has with hers, it actually works nicely.
The video Review is below:
The packaging:
I'll admit. the size of the box is smaller than what most would expect, but its a decent modern design, white background, simple text on the front. But the back is actually nicely laid out if you can understand Traditional Chinese. Showing off the band, the product features and also the requirements to use the product, But sadly it is NOT compatible with my phone, since thats android 4.1 not 4.4.4. My mum had the same problem but flashing CM11 onto her phone did the trick.
The packaging does explain the product nicely so i can't really complain.
The front of the box
The left and right side of the box
The bottom of the box with the shipping seal still on
Take the seal off and it sows the detail nicely.
Lets look inside...
The contents of the box was quite small, only the cable to charge it, the band itself and a manual, which actually it ideal from the getgo. The cable is a nice apple feel to it with the magnetic attaching by the battery. It does NEED a few HOURS to charge as the video didn't show turning it on easily but, thats like any eletronic gadget. Also the band looks very light and feels light but still solid and clear when lit.
The look into the box
A look at the usb charging cable
A Closer blurry look at the band
The bottom of the band with the logo is actually metal, if you have skin problems this might affect you
The Manual
From the video, I actually reviewed and read both the English and Chinese parts, at least when filming the raw footage, it got me thinking there was only an chinese section, but its quite useful to know, such as the charging for a few hours and also how to pair and setup the notifications. Pics are only for the English Side.
The first few pages of the Manual
The middle pages
The last pages
Getting it setup.
Now i had to delay myself a bit for this, well the battery was flat, but charging it is a breeze but NOT with a power bank, at least the solar one i had didn't get on with it. But using a normal mains charger did and after an hour and a half, it was up to 70% ish. It did feel light on my wrist eventually, its better than a normal watch, thats for sure.
Charging it through the power bank didn't work
After updating the Firmware after charging it to 65%
Then i connected it to the tablet, the onda's android is ideal for it. Since Vidonn do have a APK copy of it if the playstore isn't working for you. Which for me i actually just wifi transfered the apk from the playstore since i put it on my phone, which DOES NOT WORK WITH IT, which is because its android 4.2 which only 4.4 and BT 4.0 and higher work with it. I signed up a few days before so i skip the registration process for better use.
Once its setup, it tracked 14 steps before i updated the firmware
It can set alarms (which buzz on the thing)
I can set my sleeping times, i say 1:30 since i fap between 12 and 1:30
More details about the band
The testing of the steps
Ok so now it was testing the thing, which is actually quite easy, but one thing you can do, is track a route manually, so holding the diamond (its a button) on the band for 3 seconds and a timer appears, which lets you record that distance, Well i ended up going with my mum to Lidls by walking with Rosie. We took an hour due to me not thinking where the cooking chocolate was, But for that hour, I took 3000 steps, luckily i could logon to the website and check the stats. Which when i got back, it was about 5,000 total, so about 3700 steps and over 300 calories burned.
The website shows the stats nicer.
So it was even counting steps as i was walking, it was pretty cool. The only downside for me so far is the fact i have to use Android on the Onda v820w to sync the data. But later on i will have to check the other part of the app, the one that lets you measure the sleeping pattern you have and how the alarm feels. But that will be for tomorrow (this was done over 2 days).
The first full day
After a shave and haircut, i get to be about the 12:30 mark and then head off to sleep at 1ish, which was peacful, especially according to the chart, but i'l get to that later. Nearing the time though, I noticed my phone went off first and NOT the band, but the band had been 3 miutes out of sync compared with my phone, which means it wasn't the correct time from what devices I had with me, the buzzing was quite assertive, so it won't shock you but you will feel it in some way.
Eventually i got up and got running to work. The day went meh and after a nice end with a home visit, but running home did help boost steps.
checking the time before running home
4,385 steps before running home
248 calories burned
2,986 m travelled.
Then after getting home and food and things, it was time to upload the data and see how i performed today. it was quite less than i thought with only 6,000 steps. But the sleep data, was interesting.
This showed how well i slept over that night.
A better look of how it performed
Well the battery was quite weaker but i've not fully charged it yet. I'm proud of it and i might as well review the conclusion:
omracer's Rating: 8/10
The good:
Good value
pretty accurate,
nice design
works with android and ios
light on your wrist
The bad:
Requires Android 4.3 or IOS 7 and Bluetooth 4
The battery needs to be fully charged before using it.
There can be hard to fit if not fitted properly.
The app isn't that easy sometimes, also no PC support.
