Thoughts on Mi Band 5

I recently purchased a Mi Band 5 for fitness and tracking and here is a summary of my experience with using it for ~2 months. I only used the device for fitness and tracking and didn’t use other things like notifications, alarms, etc… so this blog post covers only that and it is not a full review.

Pros

• It is a low cost device and is a good value for the money.
• The tracking in the Band is really good. Both the sleep tracking and steps tracking are accurate.
• There has been a lot of complaints about the MiFit app online but I find it a lot similar to Google Fit and equally usable.
• It is water proof.
• The battery life is good even with Heart Rate monitoring.
• There is some level of customization to hide workouts, hide apps, etc…

Cons

• It has no GPS and will require the presence of a smartphone to track workouts like Cycling.
• Goal tracking is awful. You can set a goal for steps & weight. You cannot set goals for calories or PAIs.

Reg Google Fit integration:

• The syncing(pushing) to Google Fit is there. But it won’t sync your workouts like Cycling. It will sync your steps, heartrate, weight, sleep, etc…
• The sync is one way and data will not be pulled from Google Fit.
• You will also need to keep the MiFit app in the foreground for sometime for it to push the data to Google Fit.
• You cannot delete or edit a activity inserted into the Google Fit by MiFit.