So it’s now been 10 days using the Mi Band. The standout feature has to be the battery life. It is still on its first charge and it’s only lost 17% after 10 days. At this rate it will last nearly 60 days on a single and its first charge. This in turn means that I will only ever have to recharge it 6 or 7 times in a year.
Now it is possible to have a more frequent battery recharging if you start using all the notifications, sleep alarms and other third party apps that can integrate notifications and use the LEDs. This reduces apparently the battery life to a mere 30 days. 30 days at worst case scenario. Wow.
If there is one reason alone to get this, it is its stand out battery feature. My Fitbit Charge HR needs charging every 2-3 days. My LG Watch Urbane gets charge daily.
The Mi Band syncs with Google Fit if required and also WeChat. It doesn’t integrate with anything else. It tracks steps and sleep automatically. It has graphs showing you what steps you walked each day. And not much else. However, there are 2 versions of apps/firmware. If you use the Chinese app you will get a lot more functionality but no syncing to Google Fit. The Google Fit sync version gets updated regularly so hopefully in time the two apps will has less difference in features.
Price. Cheap. £20 maximum. Depends on currency and where you buy. Value. Bargain.
Negatives so far. On my first day wearing it, I was walking on Dartmoor and my rucksack straps caught the tracker module without me realising when I took my rucksack off and pulled it out of the band. I realised it was missing and spent 10 minutes trying to find it on Dartmoor. I did find it but I was lucky. I have had the band itself come off my wrist as well. So my advice is to be aware that it might de clasp itself or you could lose the module.
There is an optional leather band which is far securer as it uses 4 screws to lock the module in.
Overall, it’s ability to not need a recharge every few days is fantastic and it does what is says on the tin.
Gavin's Gadgets & Photography 
