Xiaomi Mi Band 4C Review - The economic fitness tracker but with great potential
Here on the channel we have followed the evolution of the Mi Band series, reached the fifth generation (without considering the variants presented over time) of which we have brought you our personal reviews and impressions. Arrived on the market almost on the sly, Xiaomi Mi Smart Band 4C has been underestimated by many and poco appreciated, but we still wanted to make his acquaintance and now we tell you why many were wrong not to take it into account.
On offer on Amazon
Xiaomi's fitness tracker represents the global version of the wearable presented poco some time ago from the spin-off company Redmi, or the Redmi Band and it is understood that it is aimed at a completely different user from the one approaching the Mi Band series, precisely to equip itself with its own companion app. In fact, to associate Mi Band 4C with your smartphone you will not have to download the famous Mi Fit but you will have to turn to the Xiaomi Wear app for Android systems or Xiaomi Wear Lite for iOS systems. We will talk about the app later and we begin to talk immediately about the design of the cheap wearable, also skipping the unboxing chapter, as in the package you will simply find the smart bracelet and the manuals.
No power cable, this is because the battery charging system integrated in the capsule has been directly inserted into the body of the band, a sort of USB key that will allow you to take advantage of any input, such as that of the PC, of a PowerBank and why not even the one present on a car radio etc ..
We can consider it an advantage, because if we need to charge our wearable on the fly while we are away from home and therefore in the absence of cables, we can do it without having to resort to cables, because we will almost always have a USB port available, even at McDonald's. Mi Band 4C integrates a 130 mAh battery that takes about 2 hours to reach 100%, while the autonomy settles on a minimum of 7/8 days by performing at least about 30 minutes of physical activity a day, monitoring the heart rate H24 and receiving tons of notifications as well as taking advantage of the powerful vibration of the band as an alarm clock. If, on the other hand, you will make a less intensive use, the battery life will reach at least 14 days without problems on a single charge.
Xiaomi Mi Band 4C weighs only 13 grams and this translates into an excellent fit thanks also to the strap, whose only defect lies in the closure system, not so much for the solidity or for the effective yield of the closure, but for the fact that this is a bit difficult, ie the pin struggles to enter the hole in the strap. We are talking about a completely removable bracelet made of thermoplastic polyurethane, resistant to thermal shocks, whose peculiarity lies precisely in the fact that at the internal ends it integrates slots to accommodate the protrusions of the capsule, one of which is used for USB charging. Anyway, if you don't like basic coloring, on stores like Amazon a poco price you can find spare parts, in many colors that also offer films for the protection of the display.
A display that for Mi Band 4C is identified with a 1,08-inch diagonal with color TFT LCD technology and 128 x 220 pixel resolution. Single touch panel that also offers a soft touch control button in the lower part with which to confirm the actions proposed in the menus of the band. The definition does not scream a miracle but compared to a Mi Band 4, the size is more generous allowing you to see the information better as well as enjoy excellent readability even under sunlight, thanks to a peak brightness of 200 nits. Too bad not to have an automatic sensor for adjusting the backlight which instead can be manually set on 5 different levels, but the intermediate level will satisfy all the needs of daily use.
The capsule construction is completely made of plastic and the front, or where we find the display, is flat and rectangular in shape but slightly recessed with respect to the frame of the construction and this leads us to considerable advantages such as being less subject to shocks but also that of adhering better to any protective films than for example the curved displays of the Mi Band 4/5 older sisters.
On the back we find, slightly protruding, the PPG sensor for detecting cardiac activity, with H24 monitoring with intervals up to 1 minute. Its accuracy is on a par with what can be appreciated with Mi Band 4/5 as well as the 3-axis accelerometer for counting steps and related calories burned. Nothing professional, so for greater accuracy you will have to rely on the GPS of our smartphone, connecting the Mi Band 4C with the Bluetooth 5.0 module, which guarantees greater connection stability as well as not missing even a notification.
In fact, just like the older sisters, Xiaomi Mi Smart Band 4C allows you to receive notifications from any application on your smartphone as well as any calls with relative caller ID. And just like the older sisters, we cannot answer notifications or display any emojis, while for calls we can only silence the notification or reject the call. The rest of the functions do not differ from what was seen on the Mi Band series, thus having the possibility to view the weather data, control the music from our smartphone with the possibility of management from each player, so ok Spotify and YouTube for example, set a timer , take advantage of the stopwatch and set an alarm, even if the time must be selected from the Xiaomi Wear app and monitor your sleep, whose accuracy of detection of the start and end time is truly astounding, as well as the recognition of any night rises .
And the app also allows us to set a different watchface, being able to access over 70 skins, all free and all very beautiful and colorful. Despite a decidedly cheap price, however, Xiaomi's small wearable does not miss a certification for resistance to immersion in water up to 5 ATM, although the possibility of monitoring sports such as swimming is absent. In fact, sports activities are limited to 5, namely Outdoor Running, Walking, Treadmill, Outdoor Cycling and Freestyle, a sort of "wild card" with which to monitor all the other activities we need to obtain only data relating to time, calories and heart rate.
In general Mi Band 4C is not to be defined as a professional product, but on the other hand for poco less than 20 euros it would be stupid to expect this and the reliability of the data collected is on a par with the big sisters Mi Band 4/5. What changes is mainly the companion app with which to synchronize data, which responds to the name of Xiaomi Wear. With this app we can take advantage of our Xiaomi account or create others with other accesses, such as Facebook / Google and this already represents a first point in favor, as everything will remain synchronized in the cloud, therefore even changing devices we will not lose our data.
The application has just been born but in its simplicity it allows us to use everything we need, thus analyzing the collected data of sleep, heart rate, sports activity, calories, steps but also period of activity, or view each how long we have not been sedentary, thus being able to also receive an alert on the band.
Finally, there is the possibility of setting the various settings of the Mi Band 4C, such as which apps to be notified by, set an alarm relating to the exceeding of a certain heartbeat threshold but also receive updates from the fitness tracker.
On offer on Amazon
But let's come to the conclusions, because many will be wondering the meaning of a Mi Band 4 and I reply to them that Mi band 4C does not want to replace any of the Mi Band already on the market in any way. Rather, it is aimed at a new market niche and is designed for all those users who are satisfied with an inexpensive device that performs basic functions but with perfect reliability. In fact, we find all the typical functions of products in this category and at the selling price we find many other rival bands, but the difference is that behind this Mi Band 4C we have a giant like Xiaomi, which offers support, updates and above all an application that works well and is dedicated exclusively to this product, unlike the many Chinese and Chinese products on the market. So why spend around 20 euros for an unknown Chinese girl, without support when you can spend it on Mi Band 4C? And at this price it is difficult, indeed impossible to find a real rival.
Hi, can you tell me if the Xiaomi Wear app can be downloaded and used from an Android tablet? Or just on your smartphone? Thanks.
Yes, of course you can also use it with a tablet, as well as with iOS devices
Eu acabei de receber minha 4C. It's working perfectly and you're enjoying it a lot. When eu puder, vou comprar a mi band 5.
This product is an absolute trash! Mine just arrived dead, it's not working at all, doesn't want to charge and it's just sitting there dead without any use. Seems like most Xiaomi products are absolute trash and are not worth it! Do not buy this.
Every new product is charged first then used dont say this without any proof and if you r not charging it its your fault not companies fault dont say others to not buy this i have also bought it it was dead but now it is working great