Xiaomi Mi Band 3 Bluetooth Activity Tracker, Waterproof Fitness Watch with Heart Rate Monitor, Pedometer & Messaging Notifications, Android & iOS – Graphite Black

I'm going to compare this to the Mi Band 2 that I previously had.This immediately put a smile on my face coming from the Mi Band 2.It's faster, curvier and overall is an excellent upgrade for a £27 price tag, next day delivery.I'd rather much prefer it from Amazon than a few couriers throwing them about in a plane and few transit vans.There are some noticeable differences but not a MAJOR overhaul. It seems to me that it's more of a refresh.There's nothing wrong with my Mi Band 2 but I've now switched to this because, why use the 2 if I've got the 3 now :DYou will get about 2 updates out of the box once paired with Mi Fit, keep the band CLOSE to your phone.Advantages--------------------- Fulfilled and Sold by Amazon (that's a surprise in itself), it's only £26.99.Could be worse?- Just as easy to setup, in my scenario, unpair Mi Band 2, pair the Mi Band 3. (IT DOES NOT CARRY YOUR STEPS OVER, THAT'S IN THE BAND'S MEMORY)- The display is brighter than the Mi Band 2 and visibly crispier in sunlight and other situations. It's not the BRIGHTEST though.- The battery life is considerably the same or better (in my experience), I've set it to continuous heart rate and a whole load of functions and it stays alive for more than 10 days at the least- The bigger screen now means a lot more content can be viewed on the band itself, let's say you receive a text, the message content can be viewed or scrolled across the screen dependent on how long the message is.- No physical extruded button, in my opinion, this looks aesthetically pleasing. I did like the button on my Mi Band 2 but this has a more MODERN look and feel- The band it comes with, has more holes which is useful in my opinion. The Mi Band 2 had a few less.- You can now find your phone with the band itself, that comes default with the Mi Band 3- Syncing seems noticeably faster, that could be a new device thing though (not used much)- I like them curves.- Weather?Disadvantages--------------------- It would be useful to have a toggle that will allow functions to be used without having to hold the button down for x amount of seconds (e.g. heart rate now needs you to hold the button down to read heart rate..). This can easily be done by a Mi Fit update but that's my assumption. Maybe I haven't figured it out yet?I can't really think of any more disadvantages but clearly the advantages outweigh the cons enough to say that it's a worthy upgrade if you're a Mi Band 1/2 user.If you like the form factor of the Mi Band 2 or 1, by all means stick to it, this isn't a massive jump from them but it isn't too uncomfortable or large either. More holes on the band compensate for the size difference of the MI Band 3.It's really worth the money. Pair this with a screen protector and a metal black watch band (from Amazon) and you're good to go. I also tend to buy spare chargers for my devices, which I have for this Band as I tend to use the third party and not the original chargers as they're useful to keep in case.

Just to give you an idea of the battery life of the mi band, I bought it around a month and a half ago, and have charged it a total of three times (including when it first arrived). It does pretty much everything I need, including telling the time, counting steps, tracking heart rate, tracking sleep, relaying notifications and weather information, and has a stopwatch on top of that. For the price, I can't complain.On first opening the packaging (which is fairly simple, but I can't complain for the price), the watch appeared to be dead. It would not turn on and pair with the phone, nor did it seem to be charging. However, after leaving it on charge for a few hours, it seemed to come back to life, and I have had no problems with its functionality since. The battery inside had probably simply drained, and it required some time to replenish the charge.I'm not too much of a fitness fanatic, so I can't speak much to its capabilities as a full fledged fitness tracker, but I can say that the heart rate and step tracking seem to be in line with what my Galaxy S9+ reports. I don't have another fitness tracker to compare it against, however, so YMMV.The display is simple and the watch interface and app are easy to use. There is a small amount of customisability in watch faces, but I'm sure much more can be done with 3rd party software. The screen is legible enough in daylight, but I have yet to try it in the summer sun, which may make things more difficult to read. The strap is comfortable and has enough adjustability to make it suitable for most wrist sizes.The only gripes I have are the apparent lack of a countdown timer, and the slightly erratic nature of the lift-to-wake functionality. The watch face remains off to conserve power, unless you lift the watch to view it or press the single capacitive button. This lift-to-wake function works well enough if you jerk your wrist up, but if you raise your wrist more gently it only seems to work half the time. This is by no means a deal breaker, and simply requires a bit of getting used to - once you figure out the type of movements the band registers, you can get it to work right most of the time.

Great product and has a feature set which can compete with activity trackers which are 3x the price. It is even safe to wear in the shower or whilst swimming. Admittedly it isn't the most accurate tracker, but offers a good ballpark figure, with the heart rate monitor often displaying 5-10BPM off my actual heart rate when exercising and step count often a couple of hundred out over the course of a day when compared to other pedometers.The area where this band excels the most is it's battery life. I have it connected to my phone permanently via bluetooth and the battery still lasts up to 10 days before needing a charge. The GPS functions do drain the battery a bit quicker but I don't use them all that often.The only problem I've come across are when setting the device to display notifications. The screen is quite small so reading text from emails and text messages can be a pain, and WhatsApp messages display as foreign characters (maybe due to encryptions).Overall a great product for the price and as an entry level activity tracker I would highly recommend it, although if you're looking for something which more closely resembles a smart watch with added activity tracking capabilities, I would suggest looking elsewhere.