At their Shenzhen press event, Xiaomi has unveiled a brand new fitness band alongside many other products such as the Mi 8 smartphone. The Mi band 3 is set to be a cheap yet reliable fitness band with a 20-day battery and up to 50-meter water resistance.
Xiaomi is known for providing high quality yet cheap devices and its fitness band has been a constant in that category. The Mi Band 2 was great, at around $25 it had a ton of features and was a reliable workout companion. Given its price, the fitness band didn’t have all the extensive features that more expensive options such as the Fitbit would provide, but the Mi band always provided the essentials, which is enough for an average user.
The Mi Band 3 looks to continue from where its predecessor left off as it comes with significantly improved battery, water resistance, and much more. As far as the look of the band is concerned, it’s more or less similar to the previous one but according to Xiaomi, they’ve improved the design to make the band feel more comfortable and secure on your wrist.
The fitness band also comes with an interchangeable strap so you can get a strap according to your liking. Currently, we only know of three color options i.e. graphite black, hot orange and deep blue. However, as the band hits the international market, expect more colors to come out. The band’s 17.9 x 46.9 x 12mm dimensions make it extremely thin and extremely light, at just 20 grams.
Specs and Features
There isn’t a lot of information available regarding the specs such as the processing power behind the device but given the performance of Mi’s previous fitness bands, it should be enough to help the newer one perform all the tasks required from it.
The band has a 110 mAh battery, which, according to Xiaomi will be able to keep the band working for up to 20 days. It depends on what basis this claim was made, if one is not an average user and a heavy user of the fitness band, it may not live up to its 20-day reputation, we’ll see. It also has much better waterproofing this time around with up to 50-meters of water resistance, some of the best waterproofing you’ll get in a fitness band in the price Xiaomi sells it.
The superb waterproofing of the Mi Band 3 means that you’ll be able to take the band with you to swimming and track your swimming sessions as well which is great news for swimming enthusiasts. Apart from that, it has the standard Bluetooth features and an additional NFC chip which will be making its debut to the Mi fitness band. However, the NFC chip will be included in a separate version of the fitness band because it’ll make the band slightly more expensive.
As far as the fitness features are concerned, the band will have more or less all the features of the Mi Band 2 such as pulse monitoring, heart rate monitoring etc. You can also track your workouts in real time and log them by connecting to the Mi-Fit app. One key thing missing from the fitness band is a GPS, which means that although you’ll get real-time workout stats, distance and all, the distance may not be fully accurate due to the lack of GPS.
If you require extra motivation for workouts, the Mi Band 3 lets you set goals and reminders if you’re not meeting your goals for the day. There’s also a sleep monitor which gives you your basic sleeping statistics and sleep quality. There are some other utility features in there too such as the current time, you can also get calls, text messages etc. through the fitness band as well as reminders, alarms and weather forecasts.
Xiaomi also looks to add more features over time regarding notifications, so the tracker is set to get even better later. The fitness band has a lot of features with great waterproofing and battery life, yet it’s worth only 169 Chinese Yuan ($26). The NFC version is a bit more expensive at around 199 Yuan or $33. It’s currently only available in China, but it’s likely going to get an international release as well.