Xiaomi has launched the Redmi Smart Band in India marking the Redmi brand’s entry into the wearable fitness category. The foray is a part of the expansion of the Redmi brand to more product categories after the company decided to push Redmi as a separate brand at the start of this year.
At the moment though, the product portfolio is getting confusing. The Redmi Smart Band is the same fitness tracker available as Mi Smart Band 4C in other markets. In India, it sits between two Mi Band products – the more expensive Mi Smart Band 4 and the cheaper Mi Smart Band 3i.
Redmi Smart Band Specifications
- 2.7 cm (1.08-inch) color display
- 50+ personalized dials
- 24-hr Heart Rate Monitor
- 5ATM waterproof
- Weight: 13g
- Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.0 BLE
- Supports Android 4.4 or above | iOS 9.0 or above
Design
Right on the first glance, the Redmi Smart Band looks chunky. It sports a large-ish 1.08-inch color LCD touch display with a 120 x 220 pixels resolution. That size may make it look overwhelming on some tiny wrists but it’s super light weighing just 13 grams. The soft silicone band looks decent and feels just fine on the skin.
Of course, the large display means that it’s easy to look at the information and to swipe through the options and notifications. The touch input response is middling though. Often, a tap didn’t work to wake up the screen. The display is sharp although not as vibrant as some others in the market, even at maximum brightness.
There are no buttons on the side which gives it a clean look – there’s only a single touch button at the bottom of the screen. There’s also 5ATM water resistance so you don’t have to sweat about, well, sweating (and some random splashes).
The straps on the Redmi Smart Band can be changed easily, and since they are available in several colors, you could buy more than one and change to match with your clothes or mood.
Performance
The Redmi Smart Band is a stripped-down Mi Smart Band and that is most evident when it comes to the available fitness and workout options. The Band comes with only five modes of tracking - running, treadmill, cycling, walking, and freestyle exercise. For many, these would suffice but a few common ones like swimming are the major omissions.
It also offers continuous heart rate monitoring as well as built-in sleep tracking. If you swipe left on the band, you'll get the music controls to control the playback on your phone. You can also enable call alerts and notification alerts - you can, of course, choose from which apps you want notifications from using the companion app.
One of the highlights of the Redmi Smart Band is the huge collection of watch faces it offers. There are a bunch of well-designed, colorful options to choose from, but some custom watch faces do dent the battery life, so take that into account.
Battery Life
Xiaomi claims that the Redmi Smart Band offers up to 14-day battery life. Even if it is lesser than that considering your preferences when it comes to brightness, wake-up display, or heart-rate monitoring, over a week is good enough. It takes about two hours to charge the band from 0 to 100%.
The best thing about the Redmi Smart Band is that it features USB direct charging which allows the band to be charged directly from any USB Type-A port. This eliminates the need to carry a proprietary external charger. Just pull out the strap and put it to charge on any power adapter or a power bank. It’s not the first time that it has been done but it is always good to see this convenient implementation.
Xiaomi Wear app
For some strange reason, the Redmi Smart Band works with the Xiaomi Wear app instead of the Mi Fit app that all other fitness products from Xiaomi have worked with all this while. After the Mi Home and Mi Fit app, it's the third Xiaomi companion app on my phone.
It’s neat and minimalist, but also very barebones. That said, it’s functional and one can hardly complain.
Pricing & Availability
The Redmi Smart Band is priced at ₹1,599 ($22). At this price, it’s a pretty good value for what it offers and would work for anyone who wants to get started with fitness tracking or even keen fitness enthusiasts, as long as their workouts are limited to the options available. The build quality is great and there are four fine color options to choose from - Green, Black, Blue, and Orange.
If you have a liberal budget, you might want to consider the Mi Smart Band 4 which retails at ₹ 2,299 or if you aren’t in a hurry, maybe wait considering the Mi Band 5 might be on its way soon. Else, just pick this one up. You really can't go wrong with the Redmi Smart Band.
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