Trying to Like the Xiaomi Smart Band 8
Most people will automatically get an Apple watch because it can track fitness and do other things. Others may go for a Garmin watch, a Suunto or a Fitbit but if they do then this is for step counting, run tracking, cycling and more. For 30 CHF, at the time I’m writing this blog post you can get the Xiaomi Smart Band 8. It’s cheap, it’s affordable, but it’s mediocre.
Paradoxically what makes it mediocre is not the device itself but rather how Apple iPhones throttle GPS and other feature access from mobile devices. Yesterday I went for a 27km ride but the device counted 600m of travel. It’s missing 26.3 kilometres.
No GPS
Part of the reason for this device being so cheap is that it doesn’t include a GPS. It offboards that to the user’s mobile phone, which is both great, and frustrating. It’s great because it means that what you have on your wrist is smaller, but it’s a shame because for people that don’t want to run with a phone, they have no choice, unless they don’t care about distance. It still counts steps.
Heart Tracking
Although it didn’t track the course I did it did track heart rate quite well. For the one hour ride it counts that the average HR was 138 BMP with a peak at 166 BPM, with 6 minutes at an intense level, 33 minutes at an aerobic level, 20 minutes at an anaerobic level and 33 seconds at VO2 max. It tells you about the training effect and training load, as well as recovery time. If you run and walk the same routes every day this is useful data.
Long Battery Life and Sleep
Two key features of this band, and the 7, is that battery life is measured in days, rather than hours. You can charge it once per week for an hour or two, and forget about it. The fact that it doesn’t need to be charged daily makes it ideal as a sleep tracker. It’s small. It’s light. It’s cheap
Vitality And Training Load
Vitality measures whether you have been as active as you should be, over the last seven days. Paradoxically a one hour bike ride didn’t make my vitality go up as much as a Via Ferrata did over a period of several hours. After yesterday’s bike ride my training load is seen as optimal according to the smart band.
And Finally
They are at their 9th iteration of the smart band as I write this. The point of this post is to remind us to look at the lowest cost options, every so often. The Garmin Instinct watch and Apple Watch SE are both old by now but they still work well. When you walk the same loop day after day, after day, you don’t need to map the effort. You need to see how your health is progressing or regressing, and for 30 CHF you can.