Updated at December 25, 2016:
Steps to Reset Mi Band Counters:
- In your paired mobile,navigate to settings, apps.
- Enable show system apps, look for ‘bluetooth share’.
- Select it and clear the storage data & cache.
- Voila your mi band counters are reset.
Mi Band Not Charging Solutions:
- Clean your Mi Band leads, check if charging resumes.
- Charge your Mi Band using Mi USB Wall Charger or any standard 5V USB wall charger, check if charging resumes.
- If neither procedures are working, contact your nearest Mi service center.
Our original story from Wednesday, December 28, 2016, follows:
The Mi Band 2 is the latest wearable fitness tracker by Xiaomi, that was recently launched in India. Most gadget enthusiasts might be owning one now. I did get one for myself and here is what I felt after a week of rigorous usage.
Let’s not forget that their first gen fitness trackers – Mi Band & Mi Band Pulse (1s) were also a hit, however, with Mi Band 2, they managed to include all features with added OLED display.
Setting up the Mi Band 2
As soon as I had hands on the new band I paired and managed to get most out of it. Pairing took some time with the Cyanogen OS and I couldn’t get it listed in trusted devices for enabling smart lock, however with a third party app, nRF connect for mobile, I was able to bond and enable the smart lock with Mi Band 2.
Look and feel
Look and feel wise, the band can be a style wrist wear with the choice of colours. The OLED display shows you time by default, but you can change the format to display day, month and date along with it. You can also choose the counters to be displayed. Lift wrist to view info on the display is a cool feature. The glossy display with the button is eye-catchy and intriguing.
App Support – Mi Fit & Third Party
Before starting to use the app, you need to set up your profile. Sign in with your mi account, I advise you to join the user experience program, also set your locale in Mi account. The Mi Fit app has a decent interface with step count, distance walked, calories burned, sleep tracking, HRM and more. The sleep tracking does a good job in measuring the time you spend on the bed and deep sleep duration. It even alerts you not to stay awake at night.
The fit app also provides a social medium, comparing your activities with other users on a global scale. You can connect with your friends via QR code sharing and even view their status or interact via nudge feature. With the app, you can also trigger a manual HR measurement.
Coming to other uses, the fit app can be set to alert us for alarms, app notifications, incoming calls and messages. The band gets our attention with a gentle vibration along with display notification.
The Mi Fit official app is available for both android and ios platforms. But windows phone users might need to try their luck with unofficial apps like Bind Mi Band, Mi Band Companion.
Third party apps like Mi band tools have some additional tweaks like continuous HR monitoring. Fitness app like Google Fit can be connected to share user activity. Band can also be added as HR sensor for apps like Runtastic.
Comfort and battery backup
The band is so light and comfortable to wear, however, strapping the band is not that easy for the first few tries. The battery backup is pretty acceptable, and without frequent HRM and alert notifications, it will go more than 2 weeks smooth. It is advised to charge the band once every week, so you won’t run out of juice.
Overall experience
Coming to Mi band 2 activity tracking, the pedometer is pretty sensitive to hand movements and bumpy rides. Sometimes it undercounts steps, esp with the change in pace and turns. The idle alert makes you move. HR measurement will fail if the band strap is worn too loose and on a sweaty or wet skin. We can expect the device’s accuracy to get better with future updates.
Within the Rs 2000 budget, this fitness tracker is bang for the buck. You can grab one from Amazon or Mi India. With the overall usage experience as of now, I would give it a four out of five rating. Hope you guys liked the review. If you have any issues regarding device usage reply here.