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DAY 00
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Shortly after the Mi Band went on sale in China, I managed to get my paws on one. Within a week of ordering, a box arrived. As I was expecting the Mi Band, I literally tore the box apart in my excitment.
After removing the shrink wrap on the box, I removed the cover and there it was, sitting tightly in the box, waiting for my wrist.
The Mi Band is shipped with a charging cable and a quick start manual. Yes, that’s all in the box. In fact if I were to be given the task of designing the box, it would be much smaller. The box is kinda big for the little Mi Band. In fact, the Mi Band probably fits into something smaller than the Xiaomi Powerbank box.
I quickly hooked it up for a charge as the first thing I would like to test is the famed 30 day battery life. So a full charge is a must as I do not intend to remove my Mi Band until the battery runs out. Upon hooking it up, I was pleasantly surpised to note that the battery still held at least 66% charge. “Shouldn’t take me long to top it off,” I mumbled to myself.
While it was charging, I decided to spend sometime getting familar with the Mi Band app. So away to the Market I went! A quick search for 小米手环 yielded the app.
After the installation, I launched the app, logged in, bound my Mi account to the app and very quickly set it up.
Other than being a fitness tracker, the Mi Band also serves as a key to unlock my phone (Mi 3). It’s really cool. The pairing action was fuss free and done quickly. Once paired, a tap of the 2 devices together instantly unlocks the phone. The only down side being that Bluetooth must be turned on the phone. I’ve never have had a bluetooth device so bluetooth on all my phones are off. I wonder how turning it on 24×7 would affect battery consumption.
Ok, now that the initial set-up is complete, I will start my 30 day (hopefully) blog of the journey of my Mi Band. As it is getting late, I shall wait till tomorrow to explore the alarm function. Anyway, I have 30 days to talk about the Mi Band. So no hurry!
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DAY 01
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Just before bedtime last night, I put on the Mi Band. After a day of wearing it, here are some thoughts.
- It is light, very light. You will not notice the presence of the Band on your wrist.
- I usually wear a watch, so in place of the watch is my Mi Band. I kept on forgetting and glanced at the Mi band everytime I wanted to know the time.
- Yes, it is waterproof. But I’m not sure of the long term durability of the Mi Band, especially when water does get in between the band and the device and it does not dry easily. I had to pop the device out a few times after washing my hands to dry the water on the inside of the band.
- I don’t think it is very accurate, but hey who cares. Never expected it to be, as I’m treating it more like a toy at the moment. Let me explain why. I walked to the kitchen from my bedroom and back and it logged 95 steps. Then I walked to the toilet and it logged 51 steps. Hehe… My home is just a humble little apartment, so not really big.
- Wearing this band has made me more aware of the need to exercise more. Haha! After a whole day of wearing it, I can’t even reach the recommended target set by the app of 8000 steps.
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DAY 02
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Today I want to talk about the unlocking feature of the Mi Band. It is AWESOME!!! Pardon me for shouting. I have my Mi 3 set-up to unlock by pattern. So when there is no Mi Band, it functions as per normal. With the Mi Band, all you need to do is press the sleep/wake button and the phone instantly unlocks (see photo).
The range is roughly half arm’s length. So if I have the phone in my right hand and it is not stretched out all the way, pressing the sleep/wake button also unlocks instantly. The only downside being that the bluetooth on my Mi 3 is kinda flaky. Yesterday, it got switched off when I did my Nightly update. After the mandatory reboot, the bluetooth got turned off. Then today, for some unknown reason, the bluetooth also got turned off without any warning. Of course it was quickly discovered, because it did not unlock when I pressed the sleep/wake button on the phone. Other than this minor hiccup, I’m loving this particular feature of the Mi Band.
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DAY 03
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Many people have wondered if the Mi Band will work on any other version of Android. So despite Xiaomi saying that only Mi 3 and 4 on Android 4.4 (and above) are supported, I decided to give it a try. Why? Don’t trust Xiaomi’s words? Nope, I did it just for the heck of it.
So, I took out my Redmi Note, running MIUI V5 and Android 4.2.2. Fired up the Market and installed 小米手环 app. OK, I meant tried to install, because I didn’t even get past that. The moment I hit install, this popped up. The English is less than stellar, but I got the message loud and clear. BTW, it does not work with the Mi Pad running MIUI 6 too. It was one of the first thing I tested after upgrading my Mi Pad to MIUI 6.
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DAY 04
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Another useful feature that Xiaomi has built into the Mi Band is the Alarm. Let’s take a look. YOu access Alarm through the settings page. It is the … symbol at the top tight hand corner. Remember, this is Kitkat, no more left capacitive key for menu. 🙂 Yes, you can only set a maximum of 3 alarms. You can’t delete any alarms too. So if you don’t need 3 alarms, just turn off the extras.
Tapping on any of the alarm entry allows you to customise the alarm. It is straightforward. You set how often you want the alarm to activate via Repeat (the options for Repeat are shown below on the right) and then the time for the alarm. Tap on Confirm and you are done. When the alarm activates, your Mi Band will vibrate and pause, five times. There are no other settings available, just a simple and straightforward vibration alarm.
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DAY 05
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Sleep, a very important part of our lives. In recent years, due to my job nature, I have only been able to get nice 8 hour shut eyes on weekends. Every weekday, I have to get by on 4 to 5 hours of sleep. {:m022:} The Mi Band tracks your sleep quite accurately. Swipe to the right in the Mi Band app to get into the sleep screen. It will show you the number of hours you slept the night before. If you wish to see the historical number of hours you slept, tap the graph icon in the top left hand corner. A bar chart will slide in from right to left. Other than the number of hours slept, you get figures like Deep sleep duration, Light sleep duration, time you slept and time you woke and if you were interrupted during sleep, the Awake duration.
If you had tapped inside the circle, a more detailed breakdown of your sleep the night before. Touching and holding any bar would show you the information of that bar, as in the screenshot on the right.
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DAY 06
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Yesterday, we talked about the Sleep function of the Mi Band. So lets talk about the Mi Band’s primary function today! The pedometer. Since it is the primary function, when youopen the Mi Band app, this is the screen that you see first. It shows you the number of steps taken since 12 midnight. On the lower half of the screen, you get text information like duration of workout, walk or run. I’m not sure if there are other types, like for example, what if I’m cycling or riding on a motorcycle? For starters, when I’m in the car, it does not record me as doing anything. Then again, this is a pedometer. So is it only steps? If been trying to find out but no luck. Xiaomi’s documentation in the box is merely a quick set-up guide. To check your daily walking history, tap on the bar graph icon on the top left hand corner. It shows your daily number of steps, Total distance, Total calories, Total daily workout duration, breakdown of workout duration into Walk or Run. By tapping on each bar, you see the corresponding day’s statistics.
To see your current day’s workout, tap on the circle. You will get a bar graph that shows your workout by the hour. Tapping and holding on any bar will show you the corresponding steps, duration and distance for that hour.
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DAY 07
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Today marks the 1 week anniversary of my Mi Band. As mentioned at the start of this blog, I will keep it going until the battery runs out. Hopefully it will last 30 days or longer. So I guess this is a good time to check on the status of the battery. Go into the Settings (…) of the Mi Band app and tap on Mi Band Settings.
So after 1 week of continuous operation and having the alarm (vibrate once a day), the battery is at a healthy 80%. Looks like the Mi Band is on track to exceed Xiaomi’s claim of 30 days of operation. However, I’m a tad confused by the reading “27 days from last charge“. While I certainly did not have the Mi Band 27 days ago, how then did this reading come about? Any of you readers out there can drop me your thoughts on this by replying. Thanks.
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DAY 08
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I accidentally found an easter egg. While messing around with the Mi Band app today, I realised that you can turn on and off debug mode in the app. All you need to do is to navigate to Settings in the app, tap on About and tap on the MI logo 6 times in quick succession. It is a toggle. So tap 6 times, ON and another 6 times OFF and so on.
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DAY 09
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Today, I took the Band off. Wait! Am I tired of my Mi Band? Nope, as I was dressing to go to work today, I felt that the Mi Band did not quite fit in with my look today. So I took it off and put on a wrist watch. Then, how did I still measure my exercise rate? Well, I put the Mi Band into my pocket. Worried that it would not measure my footsteps propely, I opened my Mi Band app and looked at it while I walked. The numbers were skipping along happily. So I figured, pocket or wrist, the Mi Band measures my steps just fine. Question time. So if it measures my steps just fine whether in pocket or on wrist, why does the Mi Band app still requires me to tell it which wrist I’m wearing the band on? If it’s in my pocket, should I select left or right wrist? (see screen capture below)
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DAY 10
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I’ve done further testing with the Mi Band worn on other parts of the body. They are not equal! For example, when it’s in my chest pocket, I can be walking, but the Mi band will not count. In the pants pocket, the Mi Band is quite sensitive. I’ve also held it in my hand and shaken it and it counts too. LOL!
Modern pedometers are part electronic and part mechanical. There is a metal pendulum (a hammer with a weight on one end) wired into an electronic counting circuit by a thin spring. Normally the circuit is open and no electric current flows through it. As you take a step, the hammer swings across and touches a metal contact in the center, completing the circuit and allowing current to flow. The flow of current energizes the circuit and adds one to your step count. As you complete the step, the hammer swings back again (helped by the spring) and the circuit is broken, effectively resetting the pedometer ready for the next step.
So the conclusion is, if you are going to wear it on your body other than your wrist, wear it near your legs or waist. It should be more accurate.
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DAY 11
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The topic of water resistance / waterproofing came up in a discussion with a friend the day before. Thank’s Zardmi3 for pointing it out that the Mi Band is not waterproof. Dutifully, I did some Google and looked for IP67. Here’s what I found. http://aceeca.com/handhelds/ip67 The 6 signifies dustproofing, while the 7 states that the Mi Band can be immersed in water up to 1m deep. Thankfully, I think I have not been abusing my Mi Band by taking it into the shower. Still, if you have the Mi Band, just to play safe, keep it away from unnecessary water immersions. It’s small and kinda fragile looking.
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DAY 12
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I realised today that you can actually check how much of your target you have covered by looking at the 3 little lights on your Mi Band. According to the manual, you simply lift up your hand and look at the LEDs on the Mi Band.
How to read your Mi Band LEDs
- 1 blinking = reached 1/3 of objective
- 1 lit 1 blinking = exceeded 1/3 of objective
- 2 lit 1 blinking = exceeded 2/3 of objective
- 3 lit = reached objective
However, the Mi band is very fussy. It does not always work when you lift up your wrist to look it. Or maybe, I’m doing it wrong, since 9 out of 10 times, when I lift my hand up nothing happens. After many tires, I realised that you have to like kinda jerk your hand up for it to activate. But if it needs such a big motion to activate, it’s not acceptable. At least for me…
Imagine the amount of trouble I had to go through to get this photo. LOL!
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DAY 13
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As I mentioned, wearing the Mi Band has made me more aware of the need to exercise. So everyday, I try to walk a little bit more. For example, I stand and talk on the phone. (I tend to walk when I’m standing.) I walk up the stairs instead of taking the lift. Then when I need to bring the trash out, I make 2 trips instead of the the usual 1 trip. A few more steps here and there do add up, because today, I finally broke the 10000 steps barrier! Let’s see if I can do better before the battery runs out.
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DAY 19
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As the days pile up, I have less to write about the Mi Band. Well, that’s pretty normal, since I’ve covered almost every aspect of the Mi Band. Lately, I’ve noticed that the Mi Band’s rubber strap getting a little grubby looking. The black strap being worn day in day out looks old. Plus, I hardly take it off, so sweat and whatever dirty stuff I come in contact with everyday gets onto the strap and the Mi Band pill. Fortunately, the pill is IP67 and the strap, without doubt is waterproof, since it is rubber. So once everyday, I will put the whole thing under clean running water and flush it. Then I’ll use a clean soft cloth to wipe it dry, before putting it back on again. Hopefully this daily routine will extend the lifespan of the Mi Band, especially the rubber strap, as it is starting to look old, less than 3 weeks since the unboxing…
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DAY 27
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DAY 28
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Actually yesterday at Day 27, I had already discovered that a new firmware was available for the Mi Band. Guess I should tap on the check for updates more often. I was tipped off by a reader because he was asking me about the “Phone ringing” functionality of the Mi Band. I was like scratching my head, is there such a function on the band? Well, there is, after the firmware update.
An Incoming Call feature that triggers when your paired phone rings. You can set the notification timing by tapping on Incoming call. Any time between 3 – 30 seconds in 1 second increments. I’ve got it set at the lowest. So 3 seconds after the phone starts ringing, the Mi Band will also vibrate (in 3 short bursts). The middle LED on the Mi Band will light up while doing so, in case you are the visual type.
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DAY 31
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So, we have arrived at the historic day. My 30 days with the Mi Band is up and this little thing is still going strong. To say that the Mi Band has outperformed its stated lifespan is an understatement. The battery status as of today is still a healthy 41%!
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DAY 36
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This morning, I opened my Mi Band app and there was a firmware update again. Anyway, I updated and faced the first problem I had with my Mi Band. It reset my sleep record last night.
Hi there! REALLY appreciate your day-to-day experiences with the Mi Band!!
Please keep it going, I will be reading every update 🙂
Also, is it managing to wake you up every morning so far..? I’m a bit concerned as I’ve read that [1] it will only attempt to wake you up ONCE (vibrate 3-5 only and [2] you cannot snooze the alarm..
This is one of the most important functionalities for me, so really hope you can help me out on this one 😉
Thanks again!
You are right, there is no snooze function. The Mi Band vibrates at the set time and that’s it. Initially, I would always not be able to wake upon the (very) mild vibration from the Mi Band. After wearing it for sometime, I’m more sensitive to the vibration and is able to get up when it vibrates. I guess to get the phenomenal battery life, there has to be compromises. I’m past 20 days since last charge and I still have 54% on my battery meter.
Hi. Thanks for the review. I want to know more about alarm repetition options. Can you make an alarm repeat every hour? Every three hours? I was just about to buy this thing but I think the three alarms limit will annoy me.
Currently, there’s no multi alarm option. However, Xiaomi merely needs to address this by improving the miband app and then updating the firmware. Like how they did it recently, when they gave the miband incoming call alert functionality. I wouldn’t put it past them putting in the alarm you require, if there are enough users requesting for it.
Bought mine never gave it a second thought I’d need to have my mobile running along side it 🙂 total Muppet – mine connected fine with mipad with miui 6 – best hope it works with nexus 5 when its charged up or nice draw technology
Works with any phone that’s running 4.4 and above. Just install Mi Band app.
cheers I’ve since found that out cheersy 🙂
The new Android Lollipop may even support the Mi Band’s unlock by Bluetooth functionality. Can’t wait for 3 Nov to arrive. Will install my Nexus 7 with Android Lollipop and try. 🙂
it works nicely with the MiPad (bit hit a miss but 80% it works)
not overly fussed with using it on the phone as really don’t want bluetooth on all day killing the battery
I have it activated on my Mi 3. The hit to the battery is minimal. 🙂
What can you do with debug mode?
To be honest, I have no idea. Will try to find out more.
Hi,
I have the same problem with my band. In the night during time changing to winter time last Sunday (26.10) No further recording is possible, the battery is now only at 5 – 7% and can not be charged further. It charging to 7% only and is empty in 30 min or so.
Do anybody else have the same issue.
If it can’t be charged further than 7% then there’s something wrong with it isn’t it?
Hi there, excellent site!
Just a question about the pairing. Does the MiBand record the activity even when not paired with the phone/tablet so that I can download all the data just once in the day?
Thank you!
Yes, the Mi Band stores the data until it is synced. How long or how much is stored, I’m not to sure, as I connect to the app at least once a day.
Does the call vibration also works with other phones like HTC?
It should work with any phone as long as the Mi Band is paired with it.
Hi, how many time does it takes to recharge mi band? Thank you!
My iphone 4 can’t detect the mi-band. using it with Redmi 1s
http://en.miui.com/thread-53761-1-1.html (reply to it and download the teak app)
managed to pair with Iphone 6.
My MI Band is more fussy than yours. I still can’t figure it out how it works as I’ve tried jerking very hard many times. But it just randomly display progress…
So, today was my first day with my brand new Mi Band.
And at this moment it already counts 6000+ steps, while my Google Fit App, installed in mine nexus 5 counts 4000+.
I think that it’s not really accurate. And as far as I’ve tested, it still counts while I’m driving my car.
I receive messages saying that I’ve been working out, while I really was driving,
It’s still not perfect, but I’ll keep giving it a try..
Hi, my data has been resetting itself daily–do you know how this can be solved??
since today Mi Band is not being recognised after working for 50 days , Firmware update broke it or What ?
Hello, i have the problem that it is not possible for me to track sleeping. I always see “Not activated”. What can i do ? I use a iPhone 6.
Does anyone know how can i reset the data tied to my account and start anew?
hi,
did you find out anything what happend with the last firmware? Mine is broken as well. It only counts the steps, but not the sleep cycle.
Just in case i forgot to unpaired my mi band before i sell my android phone… It is still possible to pairing the paired mi band with other devices ?
Bro this mi band can also work for daytime sleep?
I just got mine as a gift. I have android 4.4 and it will not connect. It connects to my husbands phone just fine. They don’t tell you that you need Bluetooth 4.0 as well. My phone only have Bluetooth version 3.0 so it will not work. And my husband is not able to return it either so to me this is a rip off… Very disappointing.
Is it possible to use the English system as opposed to the metric system? I know the metric system is better but it’s not widely used here and I just purchased one of these as a gift for my mother. It hasn’t arrived yet but when it does is she doing to be stuck seeing things in metric?
the bluetooth need to be on all the time ?
if i dont turn on all the time , will it be auto update when i pair again ?
Hi! I just got my miband and went for a run with it yesterday. However, I did not get the calories breakdown like what you had in your images. Is it because I went to the “Activities” section and selected the running help? Please advise! Thanks! 🙂
Thank you for this work. My Mi Band works fine with my iPhone 6. I realized that the alarm repeats by itself every 10 Minutes (3 time in total) but I don’t know how to switch it off after I woke up. I also can’t see the current status (by moving my wrist up), it appears only when a goal or a third of it is reached.
The current status, by moving your wrist up is a touch and go thingy. Sometimes work, sometimes don’t.
Hello Martin, same here I am using it with an Iphone 6 and the alarms repeat and also I can’t get to to work to see my current status.
Hi! Right now you still using it? I have your same problem, after a FW update doesn’t count steps and sleeps 😦
PS: MiBand 1.2.9.22 – FW 1.0.9.0- Nexus 5 L 5.0.1
Yes, still using. It works fine after more updates. Now on ver 1.2.922
Hey thanks for this awesome review. It helped me a lot to geht startend with the mi Band.
And i ve a lil information 4 u ..
http://en.miui.com/thread-47994-1-1.html
Take a look at #9 … To activate status … Works 100% if u know how 🙂
hi, i would like to know that, for the alarm vibration , am i need to connect the mi band to my phone(via bluetooth) before and during i m sleeping ?
i realize the purpose of setting left or right wrist is so that it can easily recognize when you bring up your wrist to view the indicator. 🙂
Hi there, may I know how do you update the firmware for miband ?
Thanks and great day by day account of miband usage !
Hey, I’d also like to get more information about the alarm before I buy my own band. Do you have experience with the “please wake me up 30 min before thing? How does it work? Will it wake you up between your alarm time and 30 min before? Is it sensitive to when you move and thus are not sleeping deep and wakes you up then? If yes, did you experience this feature as good working and life-enhancing/easier to get up with it?
Thanks for your help
(and sry, english is not my first language 😉 )
How do you deal with the gadget being not in use. Example, while charging do you unpair it or smth?
Hi
Am using it on the iPhone and find when am walking with the pram it doesn’t count my step unless I hold the pram dodgy haha and was wondering how do I put it cycling mode for when am riding my bike or skipping mode?
Thanks for the infor on this page it made me pick this band
For you to read your progress you got to lift it up like how you would look at your watch.. and hold it there for like 1 to 2 sec… it always work for me
Hi, i am using mi3 as well and I am trying to set up the unlock screen with i band. But it keeps showing ‘searching…’ since forever and it’s not been set up yet. Do you know what’s the problem?
excellent review.
It seems they have again broken the sleep tracker after
16-march-2015 upgrade .
App Version- 1.3.412
Firmware – 1.0.9.14
OS- Android 4.4.4
Handset – One plus one
Anyone else facing same issue?
Sorry , It was false alarm. Everything works fine on onePlus . Actually it takes at least 2 days data to start tracking properly.
I panicked within 24 hours only after One night.
What i did is , for first time I edited sleep data manually and from next day onwards it’s tracking properly.
hi, i charged for like 3hours for the 1st charge but the battery seems to drain very fast??? cos the next day i woke up around noon the battery left 31%….. ;A;
Hi, thanks foe the post, very useful. I have a provlem with my band today. It asks for an update but as soon as I click on ok for the update the app shuts down and i cant make it work again. Any advice please? Im not good with tech but my ipad seems to ignore that i want the update, what can I do, please? Thanks a lot in advance!
Hi There! i just got my miband. do i need to turn on bluetooth ? since it’ll draining my phone’s battery (FYI im using samsung s 5)
thanks!
Thanks. This is very informative and will be most useful one I can get my phone and mi band to pair! I have the app and registered the first time, not to much problem, but although my Nexus 5 lollipop phone can see the band they won’t pair. What’s the trick to get them connected? I can’t go to the app to find help because eveytime I sign in, it just says no band associated with this app and signs me out again. Where do I go from there? Your help would be appreciated. M.
How does it know you went to sleep instead of just sitting watching a tv program? Same idea…how does it know you’re exercising?
The status things works well.
Look at the band for a second after lifting your hand as to check time.
Also the wrist that has to be picked in the app for the band to look for the status checking action.
I’m using the band on Lenovo A7000. Works well.
The band vibrates for incoming calls.
The band works on Android’s with 4.4 and above and with BLE.
BLE is mandatory.
Wash the strap once a week.
The band’s alarm vibrates 30 minutes before the set alarm time if you are not in deep sleep. Just to get you ready by the time alarm goes off and you don’t feel sleepy. That’s a good functionality.
Could the left/right wrist setting be there so it knows when to light up?
Hi! Anybody having issues of the Mi Band not recording your sleep patterns regularly? Recently in the past month, theres been gaps in the recording of sleep pattern. Not sure of my Mi Band is malfunction. But recording steps still functions fine. Just the sleep.
Anybody can help? Thanks!
Great article, make sure to try this app with your Mi Band: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=cz.zdenekhorak.mibandtools
Good review…
So, lots of review only focusing in Mi Band’s Battery (Of Course, that’s quite natural).. but tell me about the phone (yours)…
Do you think the Mi Band’s 24/7 Bluetooth really significantly drain out your phone’s battery….
I think the software wants to know what wrist you have the band on simply so the movement to check your current status works (the Day 12 blog entry above).
Hi there,
Just a small doubt, after pairing if i turn off the bluetooth of my phone, does the MI band still keep a record of our activity and show us the synced data when and turn on the bluetooth and open the app ??
Thank you! I was going nuts trying to figure out why the LEDs were not working on mine… It’s actually very strange how to let it show you’re goal level by lifting your hand.