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Verdict
Xiaomi has refined the design to enhance each the look and performance of the Good Band 8, and it’s a transfer that pays dividends. It nonetheless has loads of imperfections as a tracker, however it’s very onerous to argue with the worth for cash right here.
Professionals
- Pebble Mode is superb for runners
- Extra premium-feeling than predecessors
- Very strong battery life
Cons
- Lack of GPS
- Health monitoring accuracy isn’t nice
- International version misses out on good options
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Pebble ModeNow you can detach the tracker from its strap, and fasten to your foot for larger operating insights. -
All-day coronary heart price monitoringHas a built-in coronary heart tracker to maintain updated together with your health knowledge. -
As much as 16-day battery lifeCan last as long as 16 days with sure options deactivated.
Introduction
Xiaomi could also be closing in on a decade of dominance within the price range health tracker panorama with its Good Band line, however the eighth try is on no account a minor do-over from the earlier technology.
With a renewed emphasis on design – leading to a few novel attachments and extra insights – and an improved show, the artist previously referred to as ‘Mi Band’ remains to be evolving.
However with a extra superior Professional version now cramping its type, and loads of exterior competitors from the likes of Huawei and Fitbit, does it proceed to carry onto its crown as one of the best reasonably priced tracker? I’ve been testing the Good Band 8 with the intention to discover out.
Design and display screen
- Bands at the moment are detachable
- Brighter display screen than earlier mannequin
- Upgraded to 60Hz refresh price
Xiaomi has all the time stored issues easy with its Good Band designs, however it’s truly undergone a fairly radical change for the eighth technology. The unibody design of the tracker itself has now been ditched, with it now together with the extra conventional particular person band connectors on every finish.
It could sound like a easy change – and it’s, actually – however it’s additionally one that actually helps elevate the look right here. Now you can truly see that premium-looking steel case, moderately than it being hidden behind an affordable, plastic all-in-one strap, and the pendant and operating clip equipment imply that it’s now a lot better at dealing with life away out of your wrist
There’s been no actual compromises with the intention to obtain it, both. The scale of the case stay virtually similar to the earlier technology, with the Good Band 8 merely being a bit longer and wider, whereas additionally shrinking from entrance to again.
The show additionally disguises some main upgrades, regardless of being the identical 1.62-inch dimension and pumping out the identical 192 x 490 pixel decision.
Not solely is it now brighter – in a position to attain 600 nits of brightness, up from 500 nits – however the refresh price has additionally been bumped from 30Hz to 60Hz.
This makes a world of distinction when viewing notifications, swiping by way of glances, and navigating menus; it feels extra akin to the responsive suggestions you’ll count on from a contemporary AMOLED smartwatch, not a price range health tracker.
Options
- Lacking out on quite a few good options
- Xiaomi OS feels clean
- Paltry quantity of storage
Historically, these craving good options haven’t been properly catered for with the Good Band – and never a lot has modified on this entrance for the eighth version.
The fundamentals are all nonetheless right here, although, and they’re not less than offered about in addition to you possibly can count on on a 1.62-inch show.
Climate forecasts, calendar occasions, and music management are all simply customisable by way of the Mi Health app – obtainable on iOS and Android – and these widgets make interacting with the tracker quite simple and intuitive.
It’s one thing that’s additionally massively aided by that improved refresh price. Xiaomi’s proprietary OS feels very clean right here, and there’s little or no on-screen textual content that bogs it down. Provided that notifications can look fairly cramped even after you develop them, that is definitely for one of the best.
These into their watch faces may also discover a number of neat choices pre-loaded onto the machine, however a paltry quantity of storage implies that you’ll in a short time refill the machine when you obtain any extra.
The equation remains to be the identical right here, then. And it means anyone requiring assist for a sensible assistant, contactless funds, or third-party apps should look elsewhere, and virtually positively up their price range.
As ever, it’s nonetheless irritating that the Chinese language model of the machine possesses assist for issues like contactless funds whereas the worldwide version misses out, however this reveals no indicators of being rectified any time quickly.
Sports activities monitoring
- Step counting and energy burning are unreliable
- Pebble Mode improves monitoring expertise
- Respectable accuracy for coronary heart monitoring
The Xiaomi Good Band 8 could also be an entry-level machine, however Xiaomi on no account shortchanges customers with the quantity of health monitoring options. The one problem with this ambition, nevertheless, is that the information can usually miss the mark.
My testing towards premium gadgets just like the Garmin Epix Professional (Gen 2), Whoop 4.0, and OuraRing (Gen 3) discovered that step counts are regularly drastically underreported, whereas calorie burn estimates are unreliable, too.
It’s a theme that continues into the extra superior areas of health monitoring knowledge, such because the coaching load, restoration time, and VO2 Max estimates – ones that take a good bit of inspiration from Apple and Garmin of their presentation.
My coaching load for the week by no means managed to get above Xiaomi’s ‘Low’ score, regardless of together with round 30 miles of operating, three hours within the fitness center, and 5 hours of tracked strolling.
In the meantime, one among my five-mile runs carried out at a 154BPM common yielded a whopping restoration time of 63 hours, which, in fact, can be taking recuperation to the acute.
Fortunately, the exercise monitoring expertise is propped up massively by the addition of Pebble Mode. With the easy addition of an attachment, bought individually by Xiaomi, and a change over to the mode inside Mi Health, you possibly can flip the Good Band 8 into a real operating pod.
And in contrast to a lot of what’s tracked from the wrist, the information right here is mostly strong – not less than when in comparison with one thing like Garmin’s wrist-based Working Dynamics.
The footstrike sample is especially helpful, I discovered, displaying you a breakdown of your touchdown factors all through the session.
I’d wish to see this in a bit extra element, maybe displaying you while you deviated to a distinct strike, however it’s nonetheless useful for many who need a fundamental perception into their type.
Then there’s the tougher knowledge – issues like floor contact time, flight time, flight ratio, and impression power – that you just’ll must learn up on with the intention to actually get the profit from.
My solely actual drawback with Pebble Mode is the truth that you’ll have to be related to your telephone all through a exercise, provided that the machine can’t function domestically and likewise doesn’t function its personal built-in GPS.
And, in fact, you additionally don’t get any coronary heart price readings, which do fortunately show to be inside a good margin of accuracy when monitoring on the wrist.
Typically, I discovered that the Good Band 8’s most BPM readings from a session had been virtually all the time according to Whoop and Garmin, although it did constantly over-report the typical studying from a session.
It’s definitely not knowledge that it is best to depend on when you’re a critical or intermediate-level exerciser, however it’s positively sufficient for many who simply need a fundamental perception into their effort.
Well being monitoring
- Many options disabled by default
- Activating options will have an effect on battery life
- Lacking out on plenty of options
Whereas the Xiaomi Good Band 8 is on no account a health-tracking phenomenon, it does have a few options up its sleeve for these content material with the relative fundamentals.
The core well being options embody issues like blood oxygen saturation readings, resting heart-rate knowledge, and excessive/low heart-rate notifications, although frustratingly, lots of them are literally disabled by default.
Like me, when you realise that this knowledge isn’t being synced by way of to the Mi Health app, you possibly can undergo the settings and flick all this stuff on (at the price of some battery life), however it’s a little odd to begin with.
Fortunately, the information is not less than according to what you’ll count on. SpO2 readings remained inside my anticipated vary of 95-99% – as additionally tracked by our Oura and Garmin – whereas resting coronary heart price (taken out of your lowest HR throughout an awake, inactive state) figures had been additionally correct.
There are clearly omissions right here, reminiscent of respiration price, pores and skin temperature, heart-rate variability, and extra, however I think it could be one other couple of years earlier than they arrive on a Good Band machine. For now, you’ll have to have a look at extra premium trackers for richer well being insights.
Sleep monitoring
- Reliably tracks sleeping instances
- Shallow stage of insights
- Graded sleep high quality
As with a few of the well being options mentioned above, you’ll must dive into the Mi Health app’s settings and allow ‘superior monitoring’ if you’d like something greater than very fundamental sleep monitoring on the Xiaomi Good Band 8.
This does have an effect on battery life, however in any other case you’ll be left together with your night time’s sleep being divided into solely ‘mild’ or ‘deep’ sleep, with no room for REM or steady heart-rate monitoring.
The excellent news right here is that the Good Band 8 is ready to very reliably register falling asleep and waking up instances, even with the extra superior settings turned off.
I discovered it was in a position to constantly match up with the likes of Oura and Garmin – two of the easiest at monitoring sleep – and sleep stage estimates had been by no means concerningly out of sync with these different take a look at gadgets.
The one factor that holds the Xiaomi Good Band 8 from being an elite sleep tracker, actually, is the extent of insights it’s in a position to glean from this monitoring.
There’s no effort to spotlight your sleeping SpO2 common, and probably beneficial metrics like heart-rate variability are nowhere to be seen.
Added extras like sleep scores are additionally disregarded except you activate the extra superior monitoring, although Xiaomi does not less than grade your sleep high quality with marks like ‘Honest’ or ‘Good’ when you don’t.
Battery life
- As much as 16-day battery life
- Activating core options lowers battery to five days
With so many options disabled by default, the Xiaomi Good Band 8’s battery life will fluctuate significantly relying on which of those you activate.
In my preliminary testing, with default settings intact, the battery drain per day was round 5-7%, which does truly line up with Xiaomi’s 16-day estimate.
Nevertheless, this does naturally start to tumble when you allow the likes of the always-on show, SpO2 monitoring, or superior sleep monitoring.
Once I turned all of those on, the battery drain was nearer to twenty% per day, which equates to round 5 days of battery life. It’s not dangerous by any stretch, however it’s value conserving in thoughts if you’re planning on having the complete package deal operating more often than not.
Fortunately, exercise monitoring isn’t an excessive amount of of a burden on this division. A Pebble Mode run will solely see the battery drain round 5% per hour, with this stretching to round 5-10% when you monitor from the wrist.
And for these in want of immediate juice, issues are a lot improved over the earlier technology. I used to be in a position to go from 10% to a full battery in simply 45 minutes, which suggests you’re simply in a position to allay any nervousness about operating flat.
Newest offers
Do you have to purchase it?
You can purchase it if you’d like a budget-friendly tracker
Among the many absolute best low cost health trackers in the marketplace, the Good Band 8’s design is great and it doesn’t skimp on options.
You shouldn’t purchase it when you require top-tier accuracy
You may’t have all of it at this worth, and the accuracy of some health monitoring options received’t be sufficient for extra critical customers. Verify our Finest Health Tracker information for extra choices.
Closing Ideas
Regardless of sometimes being a lineup that solely sees incremental modifications, I believe what Xiaomi has finished with the Good Band 8 gives real causes to get excited.
Particularly when you’re not eager on the look of older fashions – otherwise you’re a runner who needs superior insights with out the value tag of a devoted watch – this can be a excellent choice to contemplate.
How we take a look at
We completely take a look at each health tracker we evaluate. We use business commonplace testing to check options correctly and we use the watch as our important machine over the evaluate interval. We’ll all the time inform you what we discover and we by no means, ever, settle for cash to evaluate a product.
Worn as our important tracker through the testing interval
Coronary heart price knowledge in contrast towards devoted coronary heart price gadgets
FAQs
No, the Xiaomi Good Band 8 doesn’t have built-in GPS.
The Xiaomi Good Band 8 is priced at £39.99 on the official web site.
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