Xiaomi Mi Band 4 Review | 171 Data compared

The Xiaomi Mi Band 4 is an affordable, feature-packed alternative to higher-priced fitness trackers, retailing for under $50. It delivers standout features like a bright, colorful 0.95-inch AMOLED screen and an exceptional battery life that easily lasts between 14 and 20 days depending on your settings. Fitness enthusiasts will appreciate the vastly expanded exercise tracking options, which now include outdoor running, cycling, treadmill, walking, and pool swimming. Additionally, the interface introduces useful software enhancements, such as direct music playback controls (pause, skip, and volume adjustment), a countdown timer, and automatic phone notifications when charging is complete. However, the reviewer noted several hardware and software drawbacks. The redesigned charger requires removing the core device, and its downward-facing pins raise concerns about potential long-term damage from skin oils and sweat. The physical home button from the previous generation has also been replaced by a flat, barely visible circle, making orientation difficult when inserting the tracker into its band. On the software side, the device lacks multitasking; you cannot exit active screens to skip music tracks or check step counts while simultaneously running...

The Xiaomi Mi Band 4 is deemed an untouchable budget fitness tracker, featuring a vibrant AMOLED color touchscreen and improved smartwatch features like music control. It provides reliable daily activity tracking that competes with more expensive alternatives, acting as a significant upgrade in the low-cost wearable market. However, the review notes cons regarding subpar swimming tracking accuracy and general software quirks within the companion app. Despite these issues, it is considered the best choice in its price tier for users accepting minor software limitations. Wareable

The Xiaomi Mi Band 4 delivers exceptional value for a budget fitness tracker, introducing a larger 0.95-inch color OLED touch display with up to 400 nits of brightness that greatly improves visibility both indoors and outdoors. The slim, lightweight 21g tracker fits into older Mi Band 3 straps and maintains a user-friendly navigation interface utilizing swipes and taps. It is waterproof up to 50 meters, supports swim tracking, and features a larger battery capacity that boasts an impressive 21-day runtime on a single charge. The device is highly recommended as a straightforward fitness tracker that seamlessly handles all baseline tracking requirements. Primary advantages of the tracker include its highly affordable $39.99 price point, an integrated heart rate monitor, and a comfortable, slimline design. However, the device has notable trade-offs, as it lacks built-in GPS—relying instead on a connected phone for GPS tracking—and cannot automatically stop tracking workouts. Furthermore, it does not support multitasking apps, and the global version lacks the functional NFC payment options available on the Chinese model.

The Root Nation review characterizes the Xiaomi Mi Smart Band 4 as a significant upgrade, highlighting the vibrant 0.95-inch color AMOLED display and 2.5D tempered glass as major pros. Key functionalities praised include built-in music controls, a 6-axis accelerometer for detailed activity tracking, and a long-lasting, 20-day battery life. Conversely, the review notes drawbacks, specifically that the new charging cradle makes it incompatible with older chargers. Other limitations mentioned include the lack of a "smart" alarm for sleep tracking, the inability to reply to notifications, and a sometimes confusing companion app interface.

The Galaxus review of the Xiaomi Mi Smart Band 4 highlights the device as a remarkably low-priced wearable featuring a significantly upgraded, sunlight-readable AMOLED display that handles core health-tracking tasks like sleep and heart rate monitoring. It is praised for its long battery life, secure strap, and ability to track six specific sports, including pool swimming, making it a reliable, affordable daily tracker. However, the review notes that the tracker module does not conform comfortably to the wrist's natural curvature, and the small, underutilized display renders text too tiny for quick, actionable reading during exercise. While functional, these design limitations hinder its usability compared to higher-end, more ergonomic fitness trackers.

This study evaluates the Xiaomi Mi Band 4 (MB4) as a reasonable and valid low-cost fitness tracker (~25 EUR) for tracking health metrics. The research monitored 46 adult participants (averaging 38.65 years old) across both controlled laboratory and free-living conditions, comparing the device against video recordings, Firstbeat monitors, and Sense Wear monitors. The primary pros identified are its strong accuracy and convergent validity for measuring step counts at both slow and fast walking speeds, eliminating the step underestimation flaws of older versions like the Mi Band 2. Additionally, it exhibits high convergent validity for tracking heart rate during rest and active walking when measured against clinical-grade devices, making it a highly accessible tool with an impressive 21-day battery life for broad public health monitoring. National Institutes of Health (.gov) Conversely, the study outlines notable cons regarding the tracker's raw precision in completely unconstrained environments. In open, free-living protocols, the device shows an inherent drop in data precision during chaotic daily activities. The researchers highlighted that there is currently no universal gold-standard accelerometry protocol to reliably benchmark consumer wearables against erratic...

The Xiaomi Mi Band 4 stands out as a highly accurate and budget-friendly fitness tracker that significantly improves upon its predecessor with a vibrant, 0.95-inch RGB AMOLED touchscreen display that is easily readable in direct sunlight. It delivers robust and reliable tracking for core metrics like sleep, steps, and daily calories, while boasting an impressive 20-day battery life on a single 135mAh charge. The device is packed with versatile smartwatch conveniences, including on-wrist music and podcast controls, specialized swim tracking with a 5ATM water resistance rating, customizable notification vibration patterns, and seamless data synchronization with Google Fit. However, the device does have notable drawbacks, particularly its lack of built-in GPS, which forces users to carry a smartphone to utilize the connected GPS feature for precise outdoor distance and pace metrics. While the optical heart rate sensor performs adequately for routine health tracking, it struggles and occasionally glitches or flatlines during higher-intensity workouts. Furthermore, the accompanying short four-inch charging cable dangles awkwardly from USB ports, and the Mi Fit companion app features a clunky user interface that makes navigating and digging...

The Xiaomi Mi Band 4 is highlighted as a high-value budget fitness tracker featuring a bright 0.95-inch AMOLED color touchscreen and 20-day battery life. It includes functional features such as swim tracking, music controls, and effective notification mirroring. Conversely, the device lacks built-in GPS, requiring a smartphone connection for tracking outdoor workouts. The user experience is further limited by an unrefined vibration motor and an inconvenient charging mechanism that requires removing the tracker from its band.

Xiaomi Mi Band 4 Review Summary The Xiaomi Mi Band 4 is an exceptional budget-friendly fitness tracker that delivers unbeatable value at its low price point, acting as a strong competitor to pricier alternatives like Fitbit. The standout feature of this fifth-generation device is its new 0.95-inch customizable color AMOLED display, which is 40% larger than its predecessor and pushes up to 450 nits for crystal-clear outdoor visibility. Key strengths include its remarkably lightweight 22g design, outstanding 20-day battery life, and 5ATM waterproofing that enables dedicated swim-tracking capable of identifying strokes and measuring SWOLF scores. It also provides automated heart-rate monitoring during workouts, comprehensive light and deep sleep tracking, and a seamless companion app experience through Mi Fit, which easily syncs data and handles firmware updates. Despite its extensive utility, the tracker has several drawbacks that prevent it from fully replacing a true smartwatch. The display is too narrow for comfortable notification reading, restricting lines to roughly 10 characters with no option to increase the small font size. Furthermore, notification handling remains flawed, as receiving multiple consecutive messages (such as...

The Xiaomi Mi Smart Band 4 is an impressive, budget-friendly fitness tracker priced at £34.99 that excels at casual health tracking. Its standout feature is its phenomenal 20-day battery life, easily outpacing premium smartwatches and allowing users to wear it for weeks without a charge. The device features a vibrant, tough 0.95-inch AMOLED touchscreen display that offers excellent sunlight visibility and scratch resistance. It is also highly durable, boasting a 5 ATM water resistance rating that makes it completely safe for swimming and showering. Furthermore, its Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity ensures a fast, stable, and highly reliable connection with smartphones compared to more complex wearable operating systems.

The Xiaomi Mi Band 4 is a well-built and robust smart bracelet that offers a sleek design with a customizable 0.95-inch AMOLED color display. It is exceptionally comfortable for continuous all-day and all-night use, featuring a smooth, highly adjustable TPU band that dries quickly without causing skin irritation. The device boasts exceptional waterproof protection up to 5ATM, making it perfectly safe for showering and swimming. Its standout features include an impressive battery life that lasts up to 20 days on a single, sub-two-hour charge, seamless Bluetooth pairing with the free Mi Fit app, and a wide array of tracking tools. These tools allow users to easily monitor steps, distance, calories burned, heart rate, sleep quality, and specific exercise metrics, all while providing excellent value for money at its low price point. Despite its high marks, the smart tracker does come with a few notable drawbacks. The review highlights a frustrating initial language barrier, as the device, its packaging, and its instructions arrive entirely in Chinese. Users must independently figure out that they need to pair it with the mobile app...

The Xiaomi Mi Band 4 is an affordable, entry-level fitness tracker that offers great value for budget-conscious users but lacks advanced features and style. On the positive side, it features a highly accurate step counter and distance estimator during walks, alongside an impressive battery life that can last up to 20 days on default settings. The tracker is lightweight, low-profile, waterproof up to 50 meters, and utilizes a simple, fast-syncing companion app. Additionally, its responsive display wakes instantly when you raise your wrist and easily shows call, text, and app push notifications. However, the device falls short in several health and community aspects. Its heart rate sensor is notoriously inaccurate, averaging 15 bpm off a standard chest strap and trailing by up to 50 bpm during high-intensity workouts. Fitness tracking is limited to just a few profiles like running, cycling, and swimming, completely omitting a stair-climbing counter and built-in diet tracking. Furthermore, the automatic sleep tracking frequently misses middle-of-the-night wakeups, the weak display backlight makes the screen difficult to read in direct sunlight, and the app lacks robust social or...