The best budget fitness tracker – the Xiaomi Mi Band 4 review

I got the Xiaomi Mi Band 4 about two months ago and never let it off my wrist except for washing and charging it. And I mean it when I say it: for about 40$, this is probably the best fitness band.

I’ll keep this short, with what I like and don’t like about it and what can it do.

What you get with the Xiaomi Mi Band 4

• Its battery is great! Got it to work 10 days with heart monitoring and sleep monitoring active;
• Waterproof up to 5ATM;
• Pretty good heart monitor;
• Workout tracking (it even has a general workout program, that does a pretty good job even with weight training it can tell the intensity);
• Some hate it, but I love the Mi Fit app that comes along. A lot of cool statistics about your activity;
• Color 0.95 LED touchscreen with pretty good brightness. Did not have any issues in sunlight;
• Great sleep tracking – it can show you how much deep sleep you had and everything. Neat!
• You can read text messages, emails and call notifications on it. You cannot respond though… but at this price point you can’t really blame it;
• You can set an alarm on it and it vibrates. A timer too!
• A decent amount of faces for it. Some are kind of awkward and too childish, but some are pretty cool;

How I used it. The good and the bad.

I do HIIT a couple of times a week and walk the dogs (we have two huskies) almost daily for a couple of miles. And I just went on with my daily activities like nothing special.

It did update the firmware about 3 times since I have it. I can’t really tell what’s new but I guess it’s all good since I could not find any bug or problem with it.

I use it with the Mi Fit app on a Xiaomi Mi 9. Apart from that, I have Google Fit installed, which is paired with the MyFitnessPal app. Additionally, in the Mi Fit app, I hooked up the Xiaomi Mi Body Composition Scale 2. I must say that it’s kind of trippy monitoring everything but it’s awesome at the same time. Just like in the tech field, you can only see the progress you’re making if you monitor it.

The Good

• It never failed to monitor stuff. And the sleep monitor is quite interesting. It told me a couple of times that I had less than 30 minutes of deep sleep. I was indeed wrecked those days.
• I love not having to worry about battery life.
• It has a night mode and a DND mode (do not disturb). Very handy.
• As far as I read, heart rate monitoring and calorie burn calculations are pretty accurate. So that’s a plus!

The bad

• It has limited types of exercises tracked. And a general Exercise program. I use that one a lot in my HIIT training.
• During exercise, I would love it if it could update the heart rate faster – it takes it 3-5 seconds (or have a setting for this even if it burns through the battery).
• Most of the watch faces are quite fugly. Some are decent but still kind of ‘too out there’ I’d love some sober-looking faces, that still show the clock, steps, and the heart rate.

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Bottom line

I love it! Cheap, packed with features and reliable. I can’t think of anything better on the market at this price point.

If you never used a fitness tracker (this is my first one), give this Xiaomi Mi Band 4 a try. Even if you don’t like having one, it’s so cheap you won’t have any regrets.

And if you have an older Mi Band, you should upgrade. I looked around at the Mi Band 2 and 3, and this one is just so much better (after reading countless reviews and asking everyone).