Activity Bracelets – Part 3
Xiaomi Mi Band 3
The Mi Band
3 is the second most expensive of the bracelets, but the feeling is that Xiaomi
used those few euros well.
The
wristband has a secure clasp and feels good on the wrist, easy to adjust. Replacement
wristbands in different colors and materials are available from Xiaomi and
others.
The display unit is not as thick as the BFH-16 and more rounded. The display is a real touch display and aside from pressing it also uses swipe gestures in its interface.
This
bracelet is more aimed towards exercise than the previous three and can track
different training activities besides walking.
The phone
app is required to get started with the Mi Band 3, but after initial setup it
works well without connection. The app tracks sleep and training statistics and
contains configuration for the user and for which app-notifications to show on
the band, you can choose from all apps installed on your phone. The app looks
nice and have real functionality (unlike the Denver bands which is more of a
configuration and data display) but at least the Swedish translation is so bad
it sometimes is hilarious.
Of the
rechargeable bands this has the absolute best battery lifetime, up to a month
on a single charge.
It is marked waterproof (IP67) and like the BFH-16 it cannot withstand pool water, after a swim we noted some condensation on the inside of the screen. It vanished after a day and the functionality was never affected.
Scores:
- Wrist band – 5 (fits well and feels secure, replaceable)
- Display unit – 4 (waterproof to minimum standard, color display, intuitive touch UI)
- Battery – 5 (up to 30 days between charges)
- Features – 3
Samsung Fit-e
Samsung maybe
made the Fit-e to ride on the name of the more expensive Samsung Fit but is in
no way comparable feature wise. The Fit-e is the same type of relatively cheap
activity bracelet as all the others tested.
The band requires a paired phone to activate and complains (vibrates every five minutes) whenever the phone is outside of Bluetooth reach, which is quite annoying. The app is primarily used for configuration of the band, and the data is then used in the Samsung Health app, which is a high-end training app with lots of functionality.
Even though Samsung states that the band works equally well with non-Samsung phones and iPhone we were unable to pair it with a Huawei Y6 phone. Googling shows that this isn’t uncommon with Samsung wearables.
The wristband is nice and feels secure even though it is light and thin. It is marked as waterproof and the product images shows its usage in swimming pools, and we haven’t seen any problems with that either.
The display has no buttons and no touchscreen, instead is uses the accelerometer to sense tapping on the display. This makes the user interface quite sparse, you can activate the screen, and move among the configured sub screens, nothing more.
You can configure which sub screens to show in the app, for example the heart rate monitor or weather. If the heart rate monitoring screen is setup, it checks your heartrate almost continuously which uses a large amount of battery.
The Fit-e can receive notifications from all apps on your mobile (configurable which) but if you miss the notification you cannot look at it again on the bracelet which is possible on the Mi Band and the BFH-16.
Scores:
- Wrist band – 4 (fits well and feels secure)
- Display unit – 3 (waterproof, also in the pool, black/white display, simple UI)
- Battery – 3 (up to 5 days between charges, heart rate monitor drains battery)
- Features – 2
Conclusion
Besides
testing the bracelets one at a time we also did some parallel testing by
wearing two different bracelets on the same arm for a period. The tests showed
clearly that different activities were recorded differently regarding the
counting of steps.
The Fit-e compared to the Mi Band showed that the Mi Band didn’t count single steps or very short walks while the Fit-e recorded even some shakings that wasn’t real steps.
The Viviofit Jr compared to the Fit-e showed that the direction of movement mattered also, where the Vivofit Jr. measured more steps when jumping on a trampoline and fewer on walking longer stretches them the Fit-e.
The Fit-e compared to the Mi Band showed that the Mi Band didn’t count single steps or very short walks while the Fit-e recorded even some shakings that wasn’t real steps.
The Viviofit Jr compared to the Fit-e showed that the direction of movement mattered also, where the Vivofit Jr. measured more steps when jumping on a trampoline and fewer on walking longer stretches them the Fit-e.
The recommendation from me is to buy the Mi Band 3 for everyone with enough wrist size and the Vivofit Jr. to smaller children. If you are looking for the cheapest alternative, or specifically needs the blood pressure measurement, go for the BFH-16.
