I5 Fitness Band: The band that wants to imitate the Xiaomi Mi Band
True, we can not expect great things from a fitness tracker that does not even cost 30 euros, but we can not forgive any flaws when we compare Xiaomi Mi Band 1,1s and 2 series.
Hardware
The I5 Fitness Band is for those looking for a simple system, almost banal, for the receipt of notifications and calls, without the need to interact with them, and to keep an account summary of the steps carried out throughout the day, with semi-statistic data on distance traveled, burned calories, and why not even keep track of hours of nocturnal rest.
In the I5 Fitness Band we find a type display OLED from 0,91 inches so you always have time to look up and eventually synchronize your data via Bluetooth later.
The screen turns on with the wrist rotation, although this gesture seems to work 8 times on 10, but it can not interact with it in any way except with the triangular key on the side, as the display is not touch, a button that also performs the function of reset the band as well as the possibility of sleep monitors in manual.
The readability under the sunlight is almost nil and it is necessary to shade with the other hand to view the information. I would also have liked given the shape of the device that the writings were vertical and not horizontal as each time to view the time and / or other you need to tilt the arm to which the I5 Fitness Band is brought.
The materials in general are certainly not Premium, and the construction in general is in plastic and even if apparently the display is resistant to shocks, in reality it is scratched easily.
The I5 Fitness Band strap is very much elegant on the wrist and the two metal hooks make the closure very firm on the wrist, and even with particularly pronounced sweating during fitness activities I had no problems with any kind of reddening of the skin.
In the package we find only the device and the manual in English but easy to understand. No power cable because the I5 Fitness Band recharges comfortably by inserting the core of the band, sliding it off the strap in the PC's USB port or any battery charger with a USB socket. It takes about 2 hours for full charge for total autonomy equal to 5 consecutive days, even if the manufacturer declares it to 7.
As information in addition to the time we find the paths (measured by two in two), distance traveled, calories burned. We also find the battery charging status and the connection to smartphones via Bluetooth at the time of the clock.
The I5 Fitness Band is available in the online store Amazon a poco less than 30 € and is compatible with Android systems from 4.3 onwards and with iOS systems from 8 onwards, with Bluetooth 4.0 version.
Software
The application that allows you to synchronize the I5 Fitness Band to your device is called ZERONER downloadable from Play Store or from ourApp Store. Once registered to the app by entering your email and password you can enter our personal data such as photos, age, weight, height, sex and a nickname. At each start it will not be enough to have activated the Bluetooth but it will be necessary from the side menu of the app to click on the item "Device Connection" and this is annoying in the long run especially if we often look at the application to sync the data.
From the “Device Setting” menu we find the possibility to set a daily step goal, at which the I5 Fitness Band will begin to vibrate for about 5 seconds. There is also the sedentary reminder function but there is no possibility to set after how long to be notified; it is only possible to set a time band within which to monitor activity and days. You can set an alarm (vibrating only) which in my case never worked. Choose whether to display the time in 12 or 24 hour format, set the automatic suspension, ie automatically detect the band when we sleep. It is also possible to enable or disable the wrist gesture to reactivate the screen.
In the "Push Message" menu we find the possibility of displaying the ID of the number that is calling us on the screen of our I5 Fitness band, and enabling notifications for Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp, Skype, SMS or as an alternative to the SMS app you can choose another application like Gmail or Telegram etc .. All notifications are performed by vibration as no loudspeaker is present.
The Zeroner application is very basic but provides all the information you need at a glance. In fact, in the main panel we find the summary of the steps taken, calories burned, distance traveled and how many minutes we have been moving; in addition to the information in textual form, we find for each of the items also a practical chartOn the same screen by taping on the "History" tag we also have a split report for days and months.
Same basis for data collection also for sleep monitoring that I always found precise in detecting the time in which he granted me in the good graces of Orpheus. In particular, in the data we find how many hours we have carried out of deep sleep and how many of light sleep, rest start time and awakening time. For sure the application could improve, but it has a good foundation.
Conclusions
The I5 Fitness Band does its dirty work even if it underestimates the steps by about 15%, while the rest measurement remains very accurate. Perhaps the around 30 euros is excessive for the real functions that the band offers. In fact we do not have a touch display nor a cardio recording but I recommend the band to those who want to try low-priced products but have an Italian guarantee perhaps with the supervision of Amazon, otherwise at the same price our beloved Xiaomi Miband 2 must definitely be tried.
