Mi Band 4 review
What is it?
The latest iteration of the most popular budget smart band.
Design & Build
- The Mi Band 4 looks very identical to the Mi Bands of the past. It has got a flat black coloured front with the display on top and a dimpled capacitive button at the bottom for UI navigation.
- The straps, as always, are interchangeable. The black strap which comes bundled with the band is made of silicone and is very durable.
- The Mi Band 4 is reasonably comfortable on the wrist, however, it is a bit thick, and it will surely stick out on skinny wrists.
- The device has 5ATM of water-resistance. Also, the overall build is pretty tough so you can abuse the band quite a bit and it’ll take it without breaking a sweat.
Display
- The new 0.95-inch AMOLED display on the Xiaomi Mi Band 4 is the first-ever coloured display on a Mi Band.
- Taking the price into consideration, the screen is very good. Two most important things – viewing angles and sunlight legibility – are excellent. You can even adjust the brightness of the display.
- Interacting with the band is quite a pleasant affair was well because the UI design & colours are minimalist and the touch response is quite satisfactory.
- You now choose a watch face of your choice, or even make a custom one, via the Mi Fit app.
Fitness features
- The Mi Band 4 has got 6 activity tracking modes – outdoor running, treadmill, cycling, exercise, walking and swimming.
- While the device has no inbuilt GPS, it can connect to your phone’s GPS via the Mi Fit app and track you on the go.
- Step tracking is pretty accurate most of the times. However, the Mi Band 4 will very often also count travelling in a vehicle as steps. It happens usually when you are driving/ sitting in a car for more than 30 minutes or so.
- The heart rate monitoring feature is spot-on. We often cross-checked the band’s heart rate reading to those from a portable blood pressure monitoring machine and the results were quite even.
What else?
- You can control the music on your connected smartphone via the Mi Band 4. However, this feature can be a bit buggy. In our tests, this feature did not work with the Vivo V15 Pro but did a decent job with the iPhone X.
- The Band can now lock itself when you take it off your wrist. You can then unlock it via a 4-digit pin which can be set through the Mi Fit app.
- The band has a DND feature as well which is useful if you wear the device while sleeping.
- You can silence or reject incoming calls from the band itself. But since there is no inbuilt mic here, receiving calls is not possible.
Battery life
- Xiaomi claims 20 hours of battery life on this device on a single charge, and it’s achievable if the constant heart-rate monitoring is disabled.
- We got 13-14 hours of battery life from the Mi Band 4 during our test. It’s worth noting that the heart rate monitoring setting was set to once every 10 minutes.
- You have to remove the tracker from the strap to charge it, and doing so is quite a task. The charging dock is proprietary as well.
Verdict
- At Rs 2,299, the Mi Band 4 is an excellent value-for-money proposition. It combines all the basic fitness features you can ask for in a durable and easy-to-use package.
- So, whether your goal is fitness tracking, or you just want an affordable little gadget for your wrist, the Xiaomi Mi Band 4 is worth taking a look at.
Watch our Mi Band 4 video review below
Xiaomi Mi Band 4
Rs 2,299 (as tested)
8.6
Pros
- Good colour AMOLED display
- All basic fitness features
- Fantasic value
Cons
- Steps tracking can be a bit inaccurate
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