Review of Xiaomi Mi Smart Band 4 NFC - fitness bracelet with support for contactless payment

A fitness bracelet Xiaomi Mi Smart Band 4 NFC arrived in Russia - the first model in the line with support for contactless payments. Together with him, the company launched the Mi Pay payment system on the Russian market. Let's talk about this and other features of the new product.

Table of contents

• Specifications
• Design
• Application and features
• Mi Pay contactless payment
• Autonomy
• Outcome

Specifications

Design

Outwardly before us is the same Mi Band 4 - all the differences from the standard version come down to NFC support and a 10 mAh battery.

The bracelet is made in the form of a capsule, which is attached to a polyurethane strap. There are no design delights here, everything is extremely utilitarian. However, those who like to stand out can find a third-party strap to their taste, since the choice is quite large. The model is also compatible with accessories from Mi Band 3.

The case is made of plastic and is IP68 water resistant, which means the bracelet will survive swimming in a pool or heavy rain. However, you should not subject him to more serious tests, such as jumping into water.

On the back are a heart rate sensor and magnetic charging contacts. The bracelet comes with a USB charging station. To recharge the bracelet, you have to remove the strap - not very convenient.

On the front, there is a 0.95-inch AMOLED touchscreen. The resolution is 240 × 120 pixels, the matrix is ​​capable of displaying 16 million colors. But the main thing is excellent readability in the sun due to high brightness and glass with anti-glare coated.

Under the display there is a touch button "Home", pressing it returns the user to the main screen with a dial. The rest of the control is carried out from the touch screen.

Application and features

As befits a companion device, Mi Band 4 NFC is able to display notifications from a smartphone. The screen is large enough to display up to 10 lines of text. However, you won't be able to reply to the message directly from the tracker.

Most of the bracelet's functions are available in the Mi Fit proprietary program. In fact, this is the main way of interacting with the device - connecting it to a smartphone without Mi Fit will not work. Owners of Huawei and Honor gadgets should remember this, since there is no application in the AppGallery store.

In Mi Fit, you can enable screen activation by raising your hand, constant monitoring of heart rate and quality sleep, night mode with brightness adjustment and unlocking the smartphone using the bracelet.

The program also offers statistics on activities with visual infographics, a rich set of watch faces, notification settings, updating and searching for a device. The bracelet itself provides access to training modes, weather, notifications and activity briefs.

In addition to running, walking and cycling, the bracelet supports swimming and free training modes. During the exercise, heart rate, calories burned, distance, steps and route are measured.

There is an inconspicuous detail in the body - a hole for a microphone. However, do not flatter yourself: there is no support for voice input. Meanwhile, the Chinese version of the bracelet works with the XiaoAI voice assistant. Whether something similar will appear in the Russian version is still unknown.

Rear sensors not only measure pulse, but also monitor the quality of sleep and its phases. There is also a smart alarm clock that goes off in the REM sleep phase - that's when it's easiest for the owner to wake up. However, the vibration motor response is not very pleasant.

Mi Pay contactless payment

The main features of the novelty are support for NFC and the Mi Pay payment system. The bracelet works only with MasterCard cards of Tinkoff, Raiffeisen, VTB, Otkritie, Russian Standard, Moscow Credit Bank, RosselkhozBank, CreditEuropaBank and Yandex. Money". Sberbank and Alfa-Bank are also working on integration with Mi Pay.

It was not possible to add a map in the application the first time due to an incomprehensible error. After some agony, the service sent an SMS activation code, and everything finally worked. To pay for your purchase, just go to the "Cards" section, select the one you need and bring the bracelet to the terminal within a minute.

It is convenient to pay for purchases from a bracelet: you can not take your smartphone when going to the nearest store. However, there are questions about security. The only way to protect yourself is a four-digit unlock code of numbers 1-4. It can be compiled in the "Laboratory" section of Mi Fit.

The tracker is automatically locked when removed from your hand. But the number of unlocking attempts is not limited, and choosing the right combination from 256 possible ones is not so difficult. So if you lose the bracelet, it is better to immediately reset the data on maps in the Mi Fit app.

Autonomy

A 125 mAh battery is installed inside the tracker. The claimed battery life is 15 days in a sparing usage scenario. With constant monitoring of heart rate and sleep, the bracelet consumes 9-10% of the charge daily. It takes 1.5 hours to fully recharge the battery.

Outcome

Should you switch to a new product from the standard Mi Band 4? Depends on how much you need Mi Pay. The contactless payment function has long been asking for wearable electronics - now it is not necessary to get a smartphone at the checkout. However, Xiaomi is well worth working on to protect against hacking.

In official retail, Xiaomi Mi Smart Band 4 NFC can be bought for 3,990 rubles, on AliExpress - a thousand cheaper.

Buy

The author thanks Xiaomi for the device provided. The company had no way to influence the test result.