2015 seems to have been the year when wearables finally began to enjoy commercial success. Of course, they have been around for years, and fitness trackers in particular, but they either lacked something, or for most, they just seemed too expensive. A little earlier, Xiaomi wowed everyone with its Mi Band product, which featured many popular features like step counting and sleep time, but lacked design flair and a heart rate monitor, although it's hard to complain about such shortcomings when the thing costs only 13 $. This time, the manufacturer, following the naming scheme of budget but feature-packed smartphones, offered the Xiaomi Mi Band 1S Pulse sports bracelet, which significantly improved the functionality and kept the incredibly low price of $15. In addition, the company's global distribution system has improved a lot, and impatient customers are likely to be able to purchase a device at this price, no matter what country they live in. So what has improved compared to the previous model, and willnew generation as popular as the previous one?
Design
One glance is enough to identify the manufacturer of this gadget. Inside the usual simple square cardboard box with the Mi logo is a fitness tracker capsule, a silicone wristband and a small adapter for charging from a USB port. While the packaging hasn't changed much from the original version, the contents have been upgraded significantly, promising more for the money spent and showing it off in a pretty cute way. The fitness tracker is a sub-miniature ellipse measuring 37mm wide, 13.6mm high, and 9.9mm thick. The plastic “washer” of Xiaomi Mi Band 1S Pulse is black. In the upper part of it there is a brushed aluminum plate, under which 3 LEDs are hidden, shining through microscopic holes, completing a beautiful and harmonious design. On the side there are 2 contacts for charging the battery, and at the bottom there is a heartbeat monitor.
The tracker capsule weighs only 5.5g and meets the IP67 water and dust resistance standard, so that the user does not have to worry about the safety of the device while leading a normal life. The included bracelet weighs 14g and is 225mm long. It is adjustable at the wrist with a simple push pin in the range of 157-205mm in circumference. The strap comes in 6 different color options including black, blue, orange, teal, green and pink. The tracker is equipped with military-grade Bluetooth 4.0 chips andaccelerometer, and the all-new Photo Plethyamo Graphy (PPG) heart rate monitor. Those with larger or smaller wrists will need to purchase a different strap or type of accessory (such as a pendant) for the tracker to function properly. According to the owners, the Xiaomi Mi Band Pulse 1S fitness bracelet is incredibly comfortable and so light and flexible that most of the time they don’t notice it at all. It is remembered when washing hands or when it is removed.
Wristband and charger
The true beauty of the Xiaomi Mi Band Pulse 1S fitness bracelet design lies not only in the small size of the tracker itself, but in how Xiaomi accessories fit with it. The capsule fits inside any of the many accessories, and while a snug-fitting regular silicone hypoallergenic strap is included, users can optionally purchase all sorts of design options, including those made in the form of a pendant. To charge the tracker, simply insert it into the supplied docking station, which connects to a USB cable about 15 cm long. There is no separate AC adapter, but it is likely that each new owner already has more than one such charger, or at least a free USB connector. The battery is fully charged in just a couple of minutes as it only has a capacity of 45 mAh.
Software
What is a smart bracelet without software,made especially for him? Not much, of course, since in this case it will be difficult to access all the data it collects. Fortunately, Xiaomi offers quite decent software - the Mi Fit application, which was also used in the previous model. This time, the Xiaomi Mi Band 1S Pulse program, of course, supports the heart rate sensor and all the additional indicators that it tracks. Steps are recorded throughout the day and counted at the end of the week so the user knows how good or bad their result was this time. A comparison of a fitness tracker with Google Fit and Android Ware suggests that the readings of the devices are very close. For example, wearing them for a week resulted in 106,000 steps for Google and 99,000 for Mi. In addition to this, the app estimates the distance traveled and the calories burned during the selected period of time.
Working with Mit Fit
Data can be presented in a number of ways, although navigation in Mi Fit can be quite confusing in general. The main screen shows the number of steps or sleep time for the previous night, depending on when the application is opened. The program and the fitness tracker automatically switch between sleep and pedometer modes, and there is no way to set the required mode. A large pie chart is displayed at the top of the screen, which looks the same as in most other Xiaomi apps. It shows steps, distance traveled and calories burned, as well asa radial scale showing the percentage of the daily norm. A swipe brings up a window that shows the time of sleep in general, as well as the duration of the deep, and, of course, a circular graph for achieving the target. The presentation is very pretty and features a colored status bar and navigation bar if the phone has soft buttons. Screen transitions are beautiful with subtle 3D effects throughout the app featuring a nice and sophisticated design.
View statistics
Clicking on the big wheel on the main page brings up day or night stats broken down throughout the night or day with a full graph and markers for easy visualization. Touching any line in the graph will display more detailed information above it, with averages of all activity below. A small button at the bottom of the screen allows you to switch between day and night statistics for the last 24 hours. Difficulties begin when you need to find the rest of the statistics and historical data. To do this, the user must return to the main screen and touch the area in the upper left corner of the graph. This will bring up another daily tracking page, which this time shows the average data for each day instead of the detailed minute by minute. The plus and minus buttons at the bottom of the display allow you to average the day, week, and month, displaying information in both numerical and graphical form, as well as totals for each category. The night mode button lets you switch between fitness and sleep tracking, which have similar display options.
Xiaomi Mi Band 1S Pulse: Getting started guide
The user manual is written in Chinese, so it will be difficult to understand it. The first thing to do is download the Mi Fit program from the Google Play store (or the App Store, since the fitness bracelet is compatible with iPhone running iOS 7.0). Next, connect the tracker to your phone wirelessly via Bluetooth and create an account if you don't already have one. The tracker can sync with Google Fit. However, there are problems here, since the downloaded application does not support the heart rate measurement functionality. The solution is to download and install software from the manufacturer's website, for which you will first need to change the smartphone's security settings, giving permission to launch applications from other web pages.
Further use of the device does not cause difficulties. It automatically connects and syncs data when you open the application, and the rest of the time it records user activity offline, without draining the battery of the phone with an always-on wireless connection.
Battery capacity and settings
If you open the app's settings, you'll see another big pie chart, this time for displaying battery statistics and durationdevice operation. According to user reviews, the battery life of a fitness tracker should be at least 20 days on a single charge, which any SmartWatch can only dream of.
Search function and other settings
Using the search function, you can find the Xiaomi Mi Band Pulse 1S fitness bracelet in case it gets lost, forcing it to vibrate silently twice. This means that if the fitness tracker is placed on a soft surface (such as a couch) that will not resonate when the vibrator vibrates, then this feature will be pretty useless.
You can also set the place of wearing the capsule - on the right or left hand, or on the neck. This slightly modifies the statistics tracking algorithm to achieve maximum accuracy. As with any paired Android Bluetooth device, you can use the fitness tracker to prevent your phone from being locked while they are connected. This option is available in the application or in the system settings of the smartphone.
In addition, you can set the alarm time for Xiaomi Mi Band 1S Pulse, as well as receive notifications from smartphone programs. True, this function is limited to only 3 programs, which is probably for the best, as otherwise the device would vibrate constantly without giving any visual information. Incoming calls can also activate the bracelet, but this use of the Xiaomi Mi Band 1S Pulse fitness tracker will result in a slight decrease in the battery life of the phone and the fitness tracker.
Data availability
Wearers who need to track their night's rest as accurately as possible will find that the monitor monitors the heart rate to check if the user is actually sleeping, as well as compare the data to better identify deep and light sleep phases. Unfortunately, this information is not stored or accessible outside of the heart rate monitor, which only contains a history of manual heart rate scans. In addition, the device automatically notifies the number of steps taken during the day at 21:30, and sleep duration data is offered after the owner of the Xiaomi Mi Band Pulse 1S fitness bracelet wakes up and gets out of bed.
Pros and cons
Xiaomi Mi Band 1S Pulse is praised by users for its unbeatable price, lightness and convenience, multiple placement options for the capsule, including the ability to wear around the neck, long battery life, automatic counting of steps and sleep duration, a large number of statistical data in graphical and numerical representation, integration with Google Fit. At the same time, navigation in the Mi Fit app is cumbersome and heart rate data is not automatically saved along with other information.
Conclusion
The manufacturer, when creating the Xiaomi Mi Band 1S Pulse fitness tracker, did a great job and really improved the previous model thanks to more reliable microcircuits and a completely new heart rate sensor. The capabilities of the monitor are not fully implemented, since the program does not save this data unless the user initiates such measurements. However, it's hard not to recommend a smartband to those looking for a device to measure their time spent exercising and sleeping, even if that data can't be integrated into other fitness apps. This last point may be the deciding factor for some users, as many users have invested their time and effort into My Fitness Pal, Fitbit, and countless others to track their nutrition, calories burned, etc.
Still, Mi Fit provides a great breakdown of your sleep cycle and other data that you can easily manually upload to your favorite fitness app, even if the need to do so is constantly annoying. For just $15, you can get an incredible set of well-built hardware that tracks metrics fairly accurately at a fraction of the cost of competing products.
