Which smart band is cheap and good? A comparison..

Recently, I started to consider getting a replacement for my Mi Band 1S. I wasn't planning on getting anything with a display since I've never bothered with watches but prices of some smart bands and their features have changed my mind. So I started to ask... Which is cheap and good?

This article from XDA actually helped a lot. Here's the summary:

Heart-rate monitoring
This section isn’t all too hard to write, as all three devices appear to be accurate to each other. All three devices are competent at heart rate tracking, and all three get more or less the same results in comparison to each other. I’ve been wearing both the Honor Band 5 and the Mi Band 4 for the last couple of days, and they’re pretty much exactly the same at each interval of testing. Whichever one you get, I wouldn’t worry – they seem to be just as accurate as each other, for the most part.

Odds and ends
Honor Band 5 – SpO2 reader and step counting

The Honor Band 5 has one feature that the others don’t, despite its incredibly low price tag – and that’s an SpO2 reader. Sadly, there’s no way of telling its exact level of accuracy as we don’t have anything to compare it to. It does seem to work as intended though, as after exercise my blood oxygen levels are measured consistently lower than when I’m just sitting down not doing anything.

However, on the step-counting front, I feel that the Honor Band 5 may have been overcounting my steps when compared to the Mi Band 4. I noticed on a few occasions that the steps had counted up on the Honor Band 5 when I had just been sitting down not doing anything, while the Mi Band 4 didn’t count anything or counted significantly less. I found myself on each day of testing having a couple of hundred more steps on the Honor Band 5 as a result.

Mi Band 4 – All-round contender

The Xiaomi Mi Band 4 is pretty great at everything that it does. It may not have the bells and whistles of the Fitbit app or an SpO2 reader, but it has a solid feature set, fantastic battery life and comes with pretty much everything you could need out of the box. There’s not much you can fault about the Mi Band 4, but that’s because it’s safe. There are no fancy or new features, it’s just an iterative improvement over the Mi Band 3. The Mi Band 4 also allows you to buy different straps, which the Honor Band 5 doesn’t allow.

Fitbit Inspire HR – Food tracking and more accurate calorie burn

One thing that got to me about the Mi Band 4 and the Honor Band 5’s calorie-burning is that neither seems to really take pace into consideration when counting the calories burned. It seems that when you’re not in an exercising mode, all steps are considered walking, even if you are walking fast or even running. I noticed that the Fitbit seemed to actively detect for pace, and would increase the calories burned as a result. One day I had 400 calories burned on the Fitbit Inspire HR from walking, while the Honor Band 5 only said around 200. I did some research and found that the Fitbit Inspire HR’s calorie counting is considered extremely accurate, so I’d be mindful of that if fitness and exercise is your prerogative.

Conclusion

From the get-go, I always knew that this was going to be a difficult comparison to make. The Fitbit Inspire HR, while costing roughly three times the price of both of these fitness bands, is probably my recommendation if fitness is your focus. It’s clearly not aimed at those who want an all-round integration with their smartphone, but I don’t think anybody ever thought that Fitbit as a brand was aimed at technology fans like ourselves. If you’re happy with more rudimentary tracking of exercise and want a more integrated experience with your smartphone, then you should look towards either the Honor Band 5 or the Mi Band 4.

Of those two, it’s extremely hard to call which is better. I prefer the Mi Fit app over the Huawei Health app, and the Mi Band 4’s battery life is incredible. Not only that, but the Honor Band 5 still suffers from lag when scrolling up and down occasionally, and the battery life is poor. Having said that, the sleep tracking on the Honor Band 5 appears to be more accurate, and the heart rate monitor with an SpO2 sensor gives it the edge of the Mi Band. If you want to take a more active part in your lifestyle and are trying to get healthy and fit on a budget, the Honor Band 5 is a great compromise. The heart rate sensor is accurate, the SpO2 sensor gives you a little bit more information than competitors offer and it’s preloaded with lots of exercise modes as well.

However, if what you’re after is a jack of all trades, master of none type deal, then you can’t go wrong with the Mi Band 4 either. The main takeaway from this article that you should have is that both of these bands are great, and hopefully, this comparison has served to help you figure out which one is right for you.


Extra note 1: 
I noticed someone else also posted from the same XDA article.
Extra note 2:
This is another good sharing.