Xiaomi Mi Band 4 Review: All The Basic Smartwatch’s Functionalities At A Competitive Price

Xiaomi Mi Band 3 was great, but Xiaomi Mi Band 4 is even more so.

For the price of Rs. 2,300, you will have GPS connection, heart rate monitor, swim tracking, and a color display. A jump over its predecessor is the legibility when wearers are both indoors and outdoors.

With this year’s updates, we also see a flat and bigger screen and a more powerful battery to sustain the extra brightness and colors. With the Mi Band 4, users now have around 21 days with one single charge.

Design And Display

At first look, the band is clean and simple, until you activate it and all the color power comes to life.

With the weight of 21g, the Mi Band 4 is so light that wearers may not even notice it is there on their wrist.

To interact with the band, users must use a combination of taps and swipes on the touch screen and the capacitive button below. The undercarriage houses the heart monitor and a pogo pin connector.

The strap is made from thermoplastic polyurethane and is comfortable and secure. The only available color for the strap is black, for more options, you might want to shop around for those for Mi Band 3.

Another difference compared to its predecessor is the bigger screen of the Mi Band 4, measuring 0.95 inches. The resolution and interaction have also got a boost for fewer missed swipes and taps.

Since the brightness for this year’s band is 400 nits, viewability has also been improved. Users will have no difficulty seeing the content even when they are outdoors or in. This, coupled with smart gestures, makes the Mi Band 4 the first of its kind that comes close to being a smartwatch’s replacement.

Just like Mi Band 3, Mi Band 4 is water-resistant to up to 50 meters, so you will have no problem taking it with you to the shower or the pool.

Fitness Tracking

Mi Band 4’s step tracking is always on and works seamlessly with other trackers. The heart rate sensor is right on your skin but it is not on constantly. When you want to track your heart beats, you will have to manually activate the sensor so that the data is gathered and stored in the Mi Fit app.

Another way to turn it on is to start working out and the function will be on during the course of the session and shows how you are doing on the screen.

The tracker can even show data on the distance when you run, with connection to GPS. However, this method of tracking your progress is only handy for casual runners who do not mind taking their phones with them. Those who engage in more hardcore training might want to look elsewhere for a more comprehensive device.

With the Mi Band 3, users need a smartphone with them to fire up activities, but this is no more on its successor. They can now do all that from the band itself. A small but thoughtful touch is the fact that the band will congratulate you when you reach a certain milestone.

A significant downer is that timer and stopwatch are inaccessible when users work out. During monitoring, the screen is locked, which is a shame as users may want to do more with the band.

Specs And Other Features

The motion-to-wake gesture and step-tracking are made possible thanks to a 3-axis gyroscope and a 3-axis accelerometer.

The weight, slenderness, and the sleep tracking function make the Mi Band 4 an ideal company to bring to bed. While the sleep times are comparable, the Xiaomi’s band is capable of measuring less deep sleep than smartwatches like Samsung Galaxy Watch.

Given the competitive price, the Mi Band 4 does not come with premium features like REM sleep details.

The time can be made out nicely and clearly with the band. Other information on display is the date, battery percentage, and activity loop.

The band can notify you when you have texts, calls, reminders, alarms, and app notifications. These are customizable via the band’s app.

App And Compatibility

Mi Band 4 has Bluetooth 5 and it is compatible with iOS 9.0 and Android 4.4 and above. Download the Mi Fit app from Google Play Store and users can connect and sync the band with smartphones.

With the app on your phone, you can do all sorts of things like loading fun watch faces to setting reminders and alarms.

The data can be categorized by days with your step count, sleep pattern, weight, and heart rate. The interface looks pleasant but it can be tricky sometimes to find the button to press.

Battery Life

With the 135mAh battery, Xiaomi Mi Band 4 can live through a week with a few training sessions and burn through just over 30% of the power. It seems like what Xiaomi said about the 20-day capacity of the cell is true.

Charging the MI Band 4 is no easy task. First, you have to take the tracker out and fit it into a proprietary charger. While the band will not work with USB-C cable, the charging happens quickly and if the 21-day claim of the company holds during the life span of the band, users only need to plug it in a power source 18 times a year.

Verdict

Mi Band 4 rights what its predecessor did wrong. The viewability works when you are indoors and out, and you can activate activities right from your wrist without reaching for the smartphone.

Coming equipped with GPS, sleep tracking, and 5ATM waterproofing, it offers more than other models at a higher price.

All of these advantages, the screen’s colors, and the competitive price can definitely make up for the app’s UI and the absence of multitasking.

Who's This For?

Mi Band 4 is ideal for those who are in the market for a wearable device with most of smartwatch’s basic functionalities without breaking the bank.