Xiaomi brought it’s Mi Band 3 to India just a few weeks ago, and cleared out my confusion whether import it from China or not.
Is it was available on Amazon India, I immediately bought it and the product was received the next day.
I have been using it since then, I have even done the unboxing video on our YouTube channel. I had promised to do a review after I have used it enough.
So I think I have now used it enough and here is my review of the Xiaomi MI band 3.
What’s in the box
Since we have already done the unboxing check out this video to know what is in the box.
If you want to read it out, there is a Xioami Mi Band, the Silicon Wrist Band to house the Mi Band, the charging cable, along with some user manual.
Let’s talk about Build Quality and Design
The MI band 3 looks pretty much similar to previous year’s Mi Band 2 with the only difference being the bigger OLED screen and a new strap.
There were a lot of complaints regarding the MI band 2 not fitting properly into the strap and falling off, which has been fixed in the Mi Band 3 as it fits in perfectly.
So much that it is pretty tough sometimes to get it out to charge. The newer strap for the Mi Band 3 is quite comfortable and made up of thermostatic Elastometer.
The Strap is adjustable up to 21.6 centimetres and can fit in the hands of all sizes. The Mi Band actually comes with the black strap but you can pick different colours from the Mi website.
The MI Band 3 has IP rating of 5 ATM, so the device is both water and dust resistant, you can take it up to 50 Meters underwater, and it is going to have no issues wearing it while it is raining or you inside a Swimming pool.
The Glass on the Mi Band 3, however, is not durable and needs a bit of protection because it can get easily scratched.
The Trackers weighs around 8 grams alone and around 20 grams when it is inside the strap.
It is quite comfortable to wear, I have been wearing it constantly from last week and I sometimes forget that there is something on my wrist.
Let’s talk about the display
As we mentioned above the display on Mi Band 3 is slightly bigger than the Mi band 2, it has 1.3 cm of an OLED display.
The entire OLED screen is touchscreen and quite easy to navigate through various options, though, the touch can be unresponsive at times, but you will get used to after a few trials.
The Mi Band 3 does not have an Always On Display (AOD) and probably this is why the company claims it to have a battery life of 20 days, which is an overstatement because I have got 8 days of battery life.
Xiaomi has included the feature of twisting your wrist to light up the display and show the time, however, it does not always work and you may have to twist your wrist a few times before it gets to light up, a better way to lit up the screen is by touching the button (a small Dimple on the MI band 3 screen).
The Mi Band 3 offers three different type of watch faces, out of which one watch face shows you time, along with the date and day of the month, and also the number of steps taken.
Let’s talk about the features
Along with showing the time, it also has got a Pedometer to track the number of steps you take throughout the day, since it’s the fitness band, there is also a Heart rate monitor, which is quite accurate, but several users have complained that if you use the heart rate monitor constantly, the battery drains pretty quickly.
I actually used the Mi Band to track my cycle ride, the Mi Band was also monitoring my Heart rate, and in the 45 Minute cycling session, the battery of the Mi Band drained almost 30% from 96& to 64%.
So if you want to get a better life battery life on the MI Band 3, I suppose you should keep the Heart rate monitor turned off and only monitor Heart rate manually, which can easily be done by going to the Heart rate monitor feature and long pressing that Dimple button of the Mi Band 3.
Along with the Pedometer, and Heart rate monitor, it also helps you track your sleep, the feature that I find really useful.
It shows you how much deep sleep you had and how much light sleep there was, along with the time you slept and the time you woke up, which I think is quite helpful in knowing whether you are taking a proper sleep or not.
Apart from all the three features, the Mi Band 3 also got exercise mode, but it does not classify the type of exercise you do. It would only track time and the calories you have burned during exercise, which is useless to know.
If you want to track your exercises more precisely, the Mi-Fit App actually offers a number of options that you will have to choose and keep your smartphone in your pocket for the MI Band to track it.
Along with all this, you can make good use of the Mi Band 3 by enabling call and app notifications from the Mi-Fit App, the Mi Band 3 requires to be connected to a smartphone via bluetooth consistently in order to get the Call and App notifications.
For the app notifications, we can select the apps you want to get the notifications for, but it is pointless since you are not going to read the message clearly on the small screen of the Mi Band 3. Also, it will drain out the battery pretty quickly.
You can also set up idle alerts, which will notify you to get up if you have been sitting in one place for an hour or so.
You can also make the Mi Band 3 vibrate for the Alarm clocks and you can also choose a smart alarm, which will only go off when you are in a light sleep
You can get more done with the Mi Band 3 by doing some work around, check out this video by Tech wiser, which mentions few hacks for the Mi Band.
The Mi Band 3 is actually a pretty great fitness band for its price of Rs 2000/-.
With the number of features it provides, its definite value for money fitness band tracker, it is available on Amazon India as well as on Amazon.com I will put the link below for you to order one for yourself.
Buying from the links below will ensure that we can come up with more honest reviews like this.
