There’s a plethora of fitness trackers out on the market, but none came even close to the bargain priced Xiaomi’s Mi Band, when it launched in 2014 when it came down to bang for buck. Just a year after the release of the original Mi Band, Xiaomi announced its upgraded version, Mi Band 1S, adding on a heartbeat sensor. One the biggest sell points of the Mi Band and the Mi Band 1S was the quote 30 day battery life, even though I got more than 45 days out of mine, which meant that you didn’t have to charge it on a daily or weekly basis.
Fast forward another year, and with as much anticipation as its previous 2 iterations, Xiaomi announced the Mi Band 2, this time sporting an OLED screen to display the time and an actual physical button. Still priced at a bargain RMB149!
Time, steps, heart rate
The new version of Mi Band 2 has an OLED-display and a touch panel, which will make more information available to you. You can find out the detailed information about the covered distance, time, heart rate, body temperature and many other useful data with just one touch of a finger. Smart technology responds to your movements. As soon as you raise your hand, the bracelet will display the current time — easily and conveniently. Fitness tracker and watch — two in one.
So will the extra OLED display which will display time, number of steps, calories burned and heart rate drain the battery and decrease the original Mi Band’s selling point of have a long battery life?
Specifications
| Size |  |
| Battery | 70 mAh, Lithium polymer 20 days battery life |
| Weight | 7.0 g |
| Water Resistant | IP67 Standards |
| Intenral Config. | 0.42″ OLED Display 2nd Gen Bluetooth 4.0 ADI ultra-low power acceleration sensors & Photoelectric sensors |
| Strap Size | 235 mm total length 155 – 210 mm adjustable length Made of Thermoplastic elastomers, aluminium |
| Compatibility | Requires Bluetooth 4.0
Android 4.4 or iOS 7.0 and above: Mi 2 / 2S / 2A, Mi 3, Mi 4, Mi Note, Mi 4c, Mi 4i, Mi 5, Mi 4S, Mi Max, iOS 7.0 or later: For Smart Unlocking feature support: Smartphones with Android 5.0 or above & Bluetooth 4.0 |
So first off you can see that Xiaomi has decreased the stated battery life down from 30 days to 20 days, but thats still nothing to be shirked at, and if the original model is anything to go by, the battery might just stretch to 30 days with real life usage for me.
2 comments
The MI band 2 is much cheaper than the competition and a fantastic value for money. Plus Xiaomi is constantly updating it. The low cost makes it easy to overlook some of its bigger issues like the heart rate sensor. I think even if you look at it just as a tracker without a heart rate sensor, its still hard to argue with that price tag.
I might get this band as well, at geekbuying it dropped to $27.