Read this post to find out if this is the Fitness Tracker of your dreams.
Intro
Over the past 10 years or so I have owned 4 or 5 Fitness Tracker watches and most of them were from Samsung. Every couple of years or so I get the idea in my head that I need/want a fitness watch. I don’t know why, but if I had to guess, it probably coincides with my on again/off again relationship with the Gym.
After being without a Smart Watch for a while I decided to take a look at what was out there. I eventually came across the Xiaomi Mi Band 4 Fitness Tracker on Amazon. Coming in at $35 USD I was shocked. I had seen some other reviews on this smart band that it could hold a charge for 4 to 5 weeks. That has to be too good to be true. It took me a few days to pull the trigger because I just could not believe it was real. Who knew what I was going to get when I placed that order with Amazon?
My Impressions
I really wish I had kept the box to show you how this thing made it to my house. There was not a whole lot to it, Just a cardboard sleeve with the fitness censor, a band, a Charging Cable, and a 2 inch book that had the same instructions written in 10 languages. There was no power button or anything telling me how to turn it on, so I decided to plug in the sensor and charge it up (usually that will turn on an electronic enough to figure out how to work the darn thing).
After about 30 minutes or so the Sensor was charged, powered on and I was off to the races. I downloaded the Mi App from the Android App Store and began to pair it to my phone. I found the interface of the app to be very intuitive and the band had a very minimalist design and pleasing to the eye. The band itself is very light on the wrist, sometimes you forget that it is even there.
On to the good stuff!!
As for a step tracker it does a great job, and it even pairs with Google Fit which has been my app of choice for a few years now. It even uses location services to track your walks so you can share it on Social Media (if you are into that sort of thing). As for the battery life, I have owned it since March and I have only charged it 3 times. Seriously 3 Freaking times.
It also offers some protection from water, but I didn’t trust it half the time. It did survive a dip in my pool. I also had the opportunity to wear the the Fitness Tracker on the beach, and I have to say it was the best experience I have ever had with a fitness tracker. Due to the way the Xiaomi Mi Band 4 Fitness Tracker is designed there is no creases or crevices for sand (AKA the bane of my existence) to get into and plague you for months on end.
The Down side
During the course my my use of this watch, I somehow cracked the screen. In spite of that still works and the display is not messed up which means the LCD panel is fine, however it is not a durable as I would like. Also the sleep tracker stopped working completely, and the heart rate monitor and step tracker seemed to randomly stop sharing data with Google Fit. However if you are fine using the Mi App then it works great.
Final Thoughts…
Personally I think that this is a great budget option for a fitness tracker even with it’s faults listed above. If I didn’t move on to a different smart watch I would have continued to use this until it died. I think that this would be a great option for teenagers, beginners, or people who are prone to losing or breaking your device.
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