GeekDoing Mall - Mi Band 4 Link
AliExpress Trusted Store - Mi Band 4 Link
The Box:
From the start the experience is premium. The box looks great and the attention to detail comes from the shiny coloured detailing on the 4 and the feature labels at the sides.
Inside you immediately find the band, pre-installed into the strap this time. The charger is tucked under the top enclosure of the internal packaging and the manual is found in the bottom section.
First look and charging:
My band came with some charge on it, but only 15% and it went below 10% during the first firmware updates so I had to charge it before I could use it. Still that is better than the Mi Band 3 which I received with no charge so at least I knew my band was working. It will display a message to “pair first” before you can use the band.
The charging method is new. Some people have complained about charger quality but I have no complaints about any of it. The clip system to put the band into the charger is much better than the sliding version from before. On my Mi Band 3 it would slide out while charging so at least I am assured that the 4 is secured in place. I like that a lot.
Battery Life:
Considering I have been testing the band as much as possible for review I am more than satisfied with the claims of 20 days battery life. I have only managed to drain 10% in the first 2 days and that includes a lot of vibrations from running functions, pushing notifications, syncing watch faces and having the brightness at 80-100% most of the time for photos. So for the majority of people you will not be recharging very often.
To get the best of the band though I recommend not stressing over the battery life and try to utilise the full potential of the display because it really is beautiful and just enjoy the device as much as possible. It will still last plenty long enough between charges.
Mi Fit:
The standard Mi Fit app is used for the Mi Band 4. The only new section is the “Band display settings” page which takes you to the list of customisable watch faces. This is a massive highlight of this smart band.
Everything else is pretty much the same in-app options as the previous Mi Band 3 and the newer features are all accessible on the band itself. It even uses your current settings when you first pair rather than using any defaults if you had a different Mi Band.
Straps and Customisation:
This is where the Mi Band 4 is really standing out compared to older models. The screen is of phenomenal quality in colours and brightness so the new watch faces really stand out.
The plastic straps from the Mi Band 3 and 4 are the same so you can use them interchangeably if you already have them. No need to buy all the same colours again. However, the metal type straps do not fit the Mi Band 4 so you might need to wait for a new version of those to come out to fit. I felt that the strap that came with the 4 is of higher quality than the strap from the Band 3 but they are mostly the same.
What I enjoyed the most was changing the colour of the strap to match my chosen watch face. This allowed me to unify the full look of the band or mix up nice colour choices. Just in general the level of customisation has improved 100x and paired with the new colour screen the band has massively improved on aesthetics and premium feeling.
Display and Brightness:
Well this is just one of the best parts. You can see the screen in the sun now!
When the sun is directly on the screen you can just set the brightness to 100% and it is very visible. I didn’t struggle with reading anything in sunlight. Unfortunately the photo here is less clear than it is in real life (I think due to HDR+), but you can still see the screen is bright enough to read. To the eye it is much clearer.
In the shade or inside you can set the brightness to 80% or lower and have a nice clear view and reduce the battery consumption. Overall a fantastic feature to go with the new colour display. No more cupping the screen with your hand to see the time!
Notifications look much nicer on the new display since the resolution is very high for the size of the screen. The full touch display means you can scroll the notification text upwards to read the message rather than cycling through separate pages so each message is easier to distinguish and read.
Music Control:
A big new feature of the Mi Band 4 is the ability to control music from the band. You just swipe left or right from the watch face to open the music controls and it will show the current song title and allow you to play, pause, or navigate tracks. Not only that but it also lets you raise or lower the volume from the top of the screen too. The feature set of the Mi Band 4 is now widening a lot.
Notable features:
The Mi Band 4 is obviously waterproof and now has a swimming function under the workout monitoring tab. So you can track your swim in the pool measuring the distance and strokes of the session. I still don’t think taking it into salt water is a good idea.
Alarms can be set from the app and enabled and disabled from the band. This is really convenient if you need to disable or enable an alarm without access to your phone and faster than going through Bluetooth every time.
The status screen is scrollable now and shows steps, distance, calories and idle alert total.
The same is on the weather screen which shows the next 4 days weather in a list view.
As mentioned before the screen brightness can be changed on the band under settings and this makes viewing the screen much nicer during different periods of ambient lighting, especially viewing in the sun as shown before.
There is even a new function to lock the band with a passcode when it detects that you have removed it from your wrist. This can prevent someone picking up the band and reading messages or changing settings. So a nice option for some users found under the labs section of the Mi Fit app.
Conclusion:
Overall I give my full recommendation for the Mi Band 4 as it is such a premium level device with a crazy low price. My expectations were beaten on every level, especially in the screen colours and customisation levels that you get. Hopefully they continue to publish new watch faces to keep the feeling fresh. The band has been a really welcome upgrade and for anyone who is leaning more towards buying one I would say get it now rather than later because nothing else will beat it at this price range.
A Note on Language support:
Right now I am not certain on the language support since English is my first language, but the Mi Band 3 has a wide number of languages so we can expect support to grow with time. Eventually these languages will be supported on the Mi Band 4:
★ Arabic.
★ Chinese.
★ English.
★ Dutch.
★ French.
★ German.
★ Indonesian.
★ Italian.
★ Japanese.
★ Korean.
★ Polish.
★ Portuguese.
★ Spanish.
★ Russian.
★ Thai.
★ Turkish.
★ Ukrainian.
★ Vietnamese.
So I hope that international users will get their native language supported soon! GeekDoing is always working hard on bringing more support to the Mi Band series so any support you can give will be appreciated.
Buy the Mi Band 4 at the GeekDoing Mall or our Trusted AliExpress Store:
GeekDoing Mall - Mi Band 4 Link
AliExpress Trusted Store - Mi Band 4 Link
Video:
AliExpress Trusted Store - Mi Band 4 Link
The Box:
From the start the experience is premium. The box looks great and the attention to detail comes from the shiny coloured detailing on the 4 and the feature labels at the sides.
Inside you immediately find the band, pre-installed into the strap this time. The charger is tucked under the top enclosure of the internal packaging and the manual is found in the bottom section.
First look and charging:
My band came with some charge on it, but only 15% and it went below 10% during the first firmware updates so I had to charge it before I could use it. Still that is better than the Mi Band 3 which I received with no charge so at least I knew my band was working. It will display a message to “pair first” before you can use the band.
The charging method is new. Some people have complained about charger quality but I have no complaints about any of it. The clip system to put the band into the charger is much better than the sliding version from before. On my Mi Band 3 it would slide out while charging so at least I am assured that the 4 is secured in place. I like that a lot.
Battery Life:
Considering I have been testing the band as much as possible for review I am more than satisfied with the claims of 20 days battery life. I have only managed to drain 10% in the first 2 days and that includes a lot of vibrations from running functions, pushing notifications, syncing watch faces and having the brightness at 80-100% most of the time for photos. So for the majority of people you will not be recharging very often.
To get the best of the band though I recommend not stressing over the battery life and try to utilise the full potential of the display because it really is beautiful and just enjoy the device as much as possible. It will still last plenty long enough between charges.
Mi Fit:
The standard Mi Fit app is used for the Mi Band 4. The only new section is the “Band display settings” page which takes you to the list of customisable watch faces. This is a massive highlight of this smart band.
Everything else is pretty much the same in-app options as the previous Mi Band 3 and the newer features are all accessible on the band itself. It even uses your current settings when you first pair rather than using any defaults if you had a different Mi Band.
Straps and Customisation:
This is where the Mi Band 4 is really standing out compared to older models. The screen is of phenomenal quality in colours and brightness so the new watch faces really stand out.
The plastic straps from the Mi Band 3 and 4 are the same so you can use them interchangeably if you already have them. No need to buy all the same colours again. However, the metal type straps do not fit the Mi Band 4 so you might need to wait for a new version of those to come out to fit. I felt that the strap that came with the 4 is of higher quality than the strap from the Band 3 but they are mostly the same.
What I enjoyed the most was changing the colour of the strap to match my chosen watch face. This allowed me to unify the full look of the band or mix up nice colour choices. Just in general the level of customisation has improved 100x and paired with the new colour screen the band has massively improved on aesthetics and premium feeling.
Display and Brightness:
Well this is just one of the best parts. You can see the screen in the sun now!
When the sun is directly on the screen you can just set the brightness to 100% and it is very visible. I didn’t struggle with reading anything in sunlight. Unfortunately the photo here is less clear than it is in real life (I think due to HDR+), but you can still see the screen is bright enough to read. To the eye it is much clearer.
In the shade or inside you can set the brightness to 80% or lower and have a nice clear view and reduce the battery consumption. Overall a fantastic feature to go with the new colour display. No more cupping the screen with your hand to see the time!
Notifications look much nicer on the new display since the resolution is very high for the size of the screen. The full touch display means you can scroll the notification text upwards to read the message rather than cycling through separate pages so each message is easier to distinguish and read.
Music Control:
A big new feature of the Mi Band 4 is the ability to control music from the band. You just swipe left or right from the watch face to open the music controls and it will show the current song title and allow you to play, pause, or navigate tracks. Not only that but it also lets you raise or lower the volume from the top of the screen too. The feature set of the Mi Band 4 is now widening a lot.
Notable features:
The Mi Band 4 is obviously waterproof and now has a swimming function under the workout monitoring tab. So you can track your swim in the pool measuring the distance and strokes of the session. I still don’t think taking it into salt water is a good idea.
Alarms can be set from the app and enabled and disabled from the band. This is really convenient if you need to disable or enable an alarm without access to your phone and faster than going through Bluetooth every time.
The status screen is scrollable now and shows steps, distance, calories and idle alert total.
The same is on the weather screen which shows the next 4 days weather in a list view.
As mentioned before the screen brightness can be changed on the band under settings and this makes viewing the screen much nicer during different periods of ambient lighting, especially viewing in the sun as shown before.
There is even a new function to lock the band with a passcode when it detects that you have removed it from your wrist. This can prevent someone picking up the band and reading messages or changing settings. So a nice option for some users found under the labs section of the Mi Fit app.
Conclusion:
Overall I give my full recommendation for the Mi Band 4 as it is such a premium level device with a crazy low price. My expectations were beaten on every level, especially in the screen colours and customisation levels that you get. Hopefully they continue to publish new watch faces to keep the feeling fresh. The band has been a really welcome upgrade and for anyone who is leaning more towards buying one I would say get it now rather than later because nothing else will beat it at this price range.
A Note on Language support:
Right now I am not certain on the language support since English is my first language, but the Mi Band 3 has a wide number of languages so we can expect support to grow with time. Eventually these languages will be supported on the Mi Band 4:
★ Arabic.
★ Chinese.
★ English.
★ Dutch.
★ French.
★ German.
★ Indonesian.
★ Italian.
★ Japanese.
★ Korean.
★ Polish.
★ Portuguese.
★ Spanish.
★ Russian.
★ Thai.
★ Turkish.
★ Ukrainian.
★ Vietnamese.
So I hope that international users will get their native language supported soon! GeekDoing is always working hard on bringing more support to the Mi Band series so any support you can give will be appreciated.
Buy the Mi Band 4 at the GeekDoing Mall or our Trusted AliExpress Store:
GeekDoing Mall - Mi Band 4 Link
AliExpress Trusted Store - Mi Band 4 Link
Video:
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