Category: Wearables and other gadgets

Well, this is something unexpected based on my personal usage of wearables and reviews of them. Almost all of my reviews are long-term, lasting at least one year or even longer (ok, some were shorter, but those reviews were delayed and finalized from a draft).

This review officially started on January 22nd, right after I purchased the Xiaomi Watch 2 on January 21st with super quick delivery from a Croatian IT shop for €220 (excluding special shipping). The reason for the upgrade? My now-old Amazfit GTS 3 had started getting totally buggy—not just with the software but also with the battery life. The battery would drop to 0% from about 35% or even 40% after charging in about two days. Before switching watches, I tried the standard troubleshooting methods like a factory reset, rebooting it a few times, and charging it twice during that period, but the problems stuck around. This led me to research which Xiaomi watch to get, and I had to choose between the Watch S3, which has a HyperOS custom ROM, and the Watch 2/2 Pro, which are based on WearOS—a better option, in my opinion.

So, I pulled the trigger and bought the Xiaomi Watch 2. After setting it up with my current phone, the Poco F5, using the Mi Fitness app, it immediately updated from WearOS 3.5 to WearOS 4.0.

In short, here are a few important specifications of the Watch 2: it has a Qualcomm Snapdragon® W5+ Gen 1 processor, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of ROM, GPS with L1+L5 GNSS, WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity, a small but solid speaker, NFC, 5ATM water resistance, a SpO2 and heart rate monitor, a 1.43″ AMOLED display, and a 495mAh battery. For more detailed specifications, you can check Xiaomi’s website.

Now, let’s talk about the upgrades from my old Amazfit GTS 3. The biggest game-changer is Google WearOS. It allows sideloading APK files, mods, custom watch faces (you can even buy them), and apps as needed, eh? 😉 For example, the watch face I’m currently using was sideloaded onto the watch since it wasn’t available on the Google Play Store. I found it on the XDA-Developers forums—it’s a port from either the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra or Galaxy Watch 7 (I forgot which one). It works flawlessly with my Xiaomi Watch 2 running WearOS 4.0. Design-wise, it’s the closest match to the watch face I used most of the time on my old Amazfit GTS 3. I love it because it combines sports monitoring features like a pedometer, heart rate monitoring, battery life, SpO2 tracking, a digital clock, the day and day of the week, and even shows sunrise and sunset times. The level of customization is way beyond what Zepp OS offered on my Amazfit GTS 3. And that was the old Zepp OS 1.0—it wasn’t eligible for an upgrade to version 2.0 or even the back then current 3.0, which is annoying.

Another upgrade is the ease of finding replacement straps. I found more 22mm watch straps, and as you can see in the cover photo, it’s already on its first replacement, bought from AliExpress with fast shipping (a metal strap).

Now, onto my personal experience over the last month: it’s awesome, finally. With my regular usage, which includes heart rate monitoring all day, lots of notifications (mostly WhatsApp, which also has an app for WearOS and lets me open messages to read them and even reply quickly using Gboard on WearOS—o.O), a constant connection to my phone, and even my earbuds (Redmi Buds 5 Pro in multi-device connection mode, so they’re connected to both the phone and the watch at the same time). Don’t forget the Always-On Display and basic sports tracking, which includes in-house indoor cycling, spinning sessions, and some freestyle training.

This usage gets me an average of two days of standard use. I haven’t been heavily using the watch lately, but if I were, it’d probably last about a day to a day and a half before needing a charge. As for charging speed, it’s perfect for me. In about 30 to 45 minutes, it can go from less than 20% to full. But in just 20 minutes of charging while I’m taking a standard shower, it can recharge enough for the next day and a half—or even more, depending on how many notifications I get.

Now, onto the software: on the new Watch 2, I can have more apps and even more specialized things like Google Keep, for example. I can use the watch to take calls while connected via Bluetooth to my phone and answer them—plus, the speaker is decent enough for quick, informal calls. Otherwise, the phone is still a must for proper calls. And YouTube Music—oh my! Now I can listen to music I’ve downloaded on the watch with the headset I mentioned earlier, even when my phone is charging. For example, if I’m in a different room, there’s no Bluetooth lag, and it’s connected to my home WiFi.

Overall, one month later, I’ve quickly become more selective about buying devices that have better support from the start. Sadly, my Amazfit GTS 3 can only stay on the charger now—if it’s not on the charger, it’s turned off and, well, dead 😅. Shoot, I thought it would somehow survive two years, and I’d buy a new one then. But now, with this one (Xiaomi Watch 2), I’m hoping it’ll survive two years of my daily usage and hopefully get the WearOS 5.0 update.

All photos were taken with my Poco F5.

The text was proofread and edited with the assistance of AI tools (Google Gemini Advanced AI, ChatGPT, and DeepSeek-V3), with final touch-ups and polishing done by me.

Well, it’s been a whole year since I swapped my old tracker for the Amazfit GTS 3. And what a year it’s been! This little beauty was a definite upgrade, and it’s held its own in the ever-growing world of wearables.

First impressions? This thing is sleek. Seriously, I’ve lost count of how many times people have asked if I’m sporting an Apple Watch. Not bad for a watch paired with my trusty Android phone, eh?

But the GTS 3 isn’t just a pretty face. It’s got the brains to match:

• Health nut’s dream: Heart rate, SpO2, sleep tracking, stress levels… you name it, this watch monitors it.
• Fitness fanatic? Over 150 sports modes, from the usual running and cycling to, believe it or not, hula hooping!
• Everyday essentials: Music control, notifications, weather… it’s all here.

And the best part? It all actually works. Reliable data, day in, day out. The Zepp app? Surprisingly decent! Easy to use, reliable syncing, no fuss. A world away from some of the clunky software I’ve encountered (cough, Redmi Smart Band Pro, cough).

Battery life? Let’s just say it goes the distance. With the always-on display and a minimalist watch face, this thing easily powers through 5-7 days of my usual shenanigans: 30-60 notifications a day, walks, sleep tracking, 24/7 heart rate monitoring… the works! Okay, sometimes it dips to 5 days with a WhatsApp notification overload, but still, miles ahead of the competition.

This watch has been my trusty sidekick. Swims in the Adriatic? No problem. Sweaty runs? Piece of cake. GPS tracking for those early summer jogs? Fast and accurate. Plus, finding replacement bands and watch faces is a breeze!

Of course, no tech gadget is perfect. The battery life, once a solid 7 days, is now closer to 5. Guess that’s the price of constant use! And the screen has picked up a few battle scars (thankfully hidden by a screen protector from AliExpress).

Overall, I’m still smitten with the Amazfit GTS 3. It’s a stylish, reliable, and feature-packed smartwatch that punches above its weight.

But… that Xiaomi smartwatch with HyperOS is looking mighty tempting. Maybe it’s time for a change next autumn when this one hits the two-year mark!

P.S. All images were shot using my trusty Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 Pro and Poco F5. And yes, Gemini AI Advanced gave this text a once-over (just to be sure).

Editor’s Note: This review was too long in drafts and never finished, which is a sad reflection on a device that made me question for the first time in my life: was it a mistake to buy it when a newer version of a similar device was about to be just a few days later?

So, after a year of usage on my left hand, it must be said: thank you for all your sports monitoring, sleep, and heart rate tracking, but you are now going to join the other battery-powered devices in storage.

Yes, it’s time (no pun intended) to share my experiences and review the Redmi Smart Band Pro, one of Xiaomi’s smart band models released in late 2021 in India and globally in early 2022. As someone who, at that time, already owned an older model of the Mi Band 5, while the version 6 was on its way and even version 7 was “coming soon™,” I felt it was time to upgrade to a bigger screen.

To briefly summarize the specifications of the Redmi Smart Band Pro: it features a 1.47-inch AMOLED screen with excellent SPo2 and blood pressure sensors, a solid 200mAh battery, and all the other shenanigans most devices of the same caliber already had. For more details, always refer to Xiaomi’s product website, but for now, let’s start with the review.

When I purchased this smart band, it was on sale for about 30 Euros (to note, back then Croatia still used our Kuna, so it was more like 240 Croatian Kuna). It was a no-brainer—upgrading from the old to the new. At that time, I switched from the old Zepp Lite to the Mi Fitness application in preparation for this new smart band, as even the old Mi Band 5 worked great with it.

Design-wise, it was perfect: the right size for my medium-sized wrist, not too heavy, and not too light—truly the best of both worlds. With the default strap size, it could be easily adjusted from smaller to larger sizes and even survived regular showers and a couple of swims in the sea.

The battery life, combining the AMOLED screen with the Always-On-Display option for the clock, continuous heart rate, and sleep monitoring, was decent. Most of the time, it lasted up to 8 days without charging, really. And the magnetic charging was fast enough that I could take a 10-minute shower, and the smart band would charge from less than 15% battery to at least 45%, giving me at least one or two more days of heavier usage with sports tracking and a bunch of WhatsApp notifications.

Now, after all the good has been said about this timepiece and sports tracker, it is time (again, no pun intended) to address the shortcomings.

Let me start with one major issue that became obvious later on: the lack of official and unofficial support for replacement bands and even watch faces. Yes, you heard me right. A not-so-great-selling device didn’t have good support even from its main brand, which is not shocking at all. One glaring example is having only 6 watch faces within the Mi Fitness application, and the only app that might have provided alternatives to the official application was a hoax and didn’t offer any alternative watch faces.

Another annoying aspect was the alternative watch bands and the methods of attaching them to the smart band, which were appalling. The plastic clips on my watch broke on one side of the band. I could overlook this for replacement bands, as within the first 4 months, I had to buy a new one when the short part of the strap broke. Thankfully, there was an official replacement strap available in just one webshop, which helped until even the replacement had the same issue. After that, I had to keep the smart band a bit looser on my hand just to avoid breaking this second alternative strap. Indeed, I had to replace two straps within 6 months. Eventually, the plastic clip on the band side broke, and there wasn’t a great connection, which was temporarily fixed with a bit of hot glue. This makeshift solution worked until it too broke one night.

After 10 months of using the Xiaomi Smart Band Pro on my hand, I reverted back to the Mi Band 5 until, a few months later, I upgraded to the Amazfit GTS 3.

In hindsight, this purchase was one of the poorer choices I’ve made with new devices. Thankfully, the Amazfit GTS 3 was a great buy, and I will review it after a year of usage.

All photos of the Smart Band Pro were taken with the Xiaomi Poco F5. The text was proofread with ChatGPT 4.0.

After using it for a year, it is finally time – time to review my current smart band Xiaomi Mi Band 5.

Now, you might ask one thing – hey, didn’t you had Xiaomi’s previous version Mi Band 4 and you told there that you didn’t bought it back then because of pricing, what gives now? Good question, might I say so, but here is reason why after about 6 months of using Mi Band 4 I switched to newer version – Mi Band 5.

Reason to migrate is good package from our mobile provider which gave us Xiaomi’s Redmi 9A in 3GB RAM/32GB ROM version with Xiaomi Mi Band 5 for price of a coffee in coffee shop (about 1.5€, give or take 25 cents to that price because of currency conversion for Croatian Kuna to Euro, for now, until Croatia get into European Monetary Fond in 2023, but for now it is conversion, still).

As first things go, I need to write some basic specs for Xiaomi Mi Band 5. Those are: stunning 1.1 inch 2.5D AMOLED color display with great color reproduction and brightness even for super bright days at summer at noon while sun in as full blast* (even with 450 nits it is great), 6 axis sensor with improved PPG sensor for heart rate monitoring, 125mAh battery which can survive up to 18 days without charging (even if Xiaomi claims about 14 days of usage, but I can say – 18 days is maximum that is reached) using way improved charging method then old Xiaomi Mi Band 4. Other important things are almost same as Mi Band 4, like all day tracking of hearth rate but with some improvements which now include feature Stress testing and even more Sports Tracking. Detailed specifications could be found on official Xiaomi’s Web Site.

And how it is to use Xiaomi Mi Band 5 for a year? It is great, and I really mean it. With improved heart rate tracking (pulse to be precise) it is very much helpful, especially for my health tracking.

Sports tracking is good, it is on par with Mi Band 4. It also needs to be connected to be phone with Zepp Life (ex. Mi Fit) application so it can track GPS while running, walking or biking. As previous version it is also great with water resistance, this model is tested in sea water and it survived long swimming sessions in Adriatic Sea. It tracked few times “50m lanes” decently at timings and it correctly monitored heart rate. With new Mi Band 5 it also have some new sports tracking methods which I don’t use, but also improves on previous version – now it have Indoor Cycling which is useful for us with Stationary Indoor Cycling equipment and for days when there is so cold outside for regular biking.

Other features include – Stress monitoring, which is, fine I guess as I use it rarely because sometimes it says Mild while I’m not stressed at all; Weather which is linked with my current location and now when I can see it on bands watch-face from cover photo. It is sort-of accurate as it syncs with phones Weather application which collects data from Accuweather every few hours or on manual sync. With that there are some basics like Stopwatch, Timer and Alarms (especially useful when synced with Phone so I can get it to stop whenever phone is on other side of room and bed).

There are few features which I use almost regularly whenever I need it – Music Playback and option to get track forwards, backwards especially when don’t want to get to Xiaomi Mi True Wireless Earbuds Basic 2 with cold hands to switch songs from YouTube Music or from small collection of songs on microSD card of Xiaomi’s Redmi Note 9 Pro and Remote Shutter which helped few times whenever I had to do some group shots with me in it.

Other notable feature is Smart Do Not Disturb Mode which is enabled when you go to Sleep or to Power Nap so smartband don’t buzz around with random e-mail, Telegram or WhatsApp notifications from some of bigger groups in which I’m, while still getting notified about calls (that is my setup on phone when turn on Do Not Disturb mode at night).

As for custom watch-faces – there are some in Zepp Life application, and few default ones already on watch but those aren’t my style so I searched trough Mi Band 5 WatchFaces application and found one which is my go-to created by Lamachin, screenshot of it is below.

Now to battery life – for my usage it can take up to 14 days of getting up to 100 notifications daily, regular viewing of time, all day hearth rate monitoring, sleep monitoring and walking tracking which is on par with Xiaomi’s claims about battery life. Only time when it survived almost 20 days, but those days I had you know, COVID-19 and didn’t moved lot and didn’t had lot of tracking for sports as I was so exhausted so quickly.

Here is bonus part before conclusion – there are official and unofficial replacement bands for it. As original one is silicone based it can destroy itself with usage, so that is one good thing, plus interoperability with Mi Band 4 bands, but narrowly as it is bit bigger than it, grip is weird for Mi Band 4 bands. By the matter of fact – 3 pack of official Xiaomi’s Replacement bands costed me about 10€ (again, conversion rates – check note at start) while latest pricing on same one is higher, damn you inflation.

For conclusion it will be pretty much same to old version – Xiaomi Mi Band 5 is still perfect Smart Sports Tracking Band for somebody who wants affordable and perfectly usable smart band with lot of customizations and great support from manufacturer.

All images are my own, shot on Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 Pro.

Side-note: you might see lot of mentioning other Xiaomi products that I own and use. Yes, it is true, migrating from mix of products to one “ecosystem” is great, but hey, for me it is perfect as I will keep supporting Xiaomi with new phone in Q4 of this year or Q1 next year when new contract for mobile provider get option to buy new devices, and it might be even Xiaomi 12 Lite (to be relased) or Xiaomi 12X (or something in that range, higher-end mid-range device or lower specifications of flagship). For now my current ecosystem from Xiaomi products include – smartphone(s), power bank(s), True Wireless Earbuds (used Mi True Wireless Earbuds Basic S prior to migrating to Mi True Wireless Earbuds Basic 2 and soon Redmi Buds 3 Lite) and lastly smart bands. There might be some other products like Mi Robot Vacuum Lite but those will be reviewed if I buy them this year.

So, this is my personal review of Xiaomi Mi Band 4 as someone who previously used clone of it (Chinese copy, something like this M4 Smart Band) and Smart Watch (to be precise Forever SW-100 which was premium looking but with custom firmware on it).

Now, one and two months of usage later I will provide my experience with Xiaomi’s Mi Band 4 which I got for a fair pricing at August of 2020. To be precise, pricing was about 33 Euros at day of purchase (conversion from Croatian Kuna’s to Euros so there might be conversion mismatch because I used information for conversion from European Central Bank on 4. October 2020. to see what was conversion ratio on day of purchase).

Why I chose Xiaomi Mi Band 4 over Xiaomi Mi Band 5 which was available to purchase? It is simple – pricing. Mi Band 4 was cheaper and also it was for my usage perfect Sports Tracker and Smart Bracelet.

For a quick rundown of specifications I will mention few things – 0.95 inches AMOLED display with 24bit color depth and max of 400 nits of brightness, 5 ATM Water Resistance Rating, 3-axis gyroscope and accelerometer, Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity with backwards versions of Bluetooth support and finally – capacitive 2.5D tempered glass for display to be useful. More detailed specifications can be found on Official Xiaomi Site or on GSMArena.

How it is to use Xiaomi Mi Band 4 for a two months. To put it simply, it is easy to use, I don’t mind to have it all day long on arm. It isn’t obtrusive as previous Smart Watch that I had and also it is way lighter than it. In comparison to Chinese Clone of it – it is way more responsive and it is in my honest opinion way better in battery department.

As I’m mostly using it to track my walking and heart rate (plus sometimes I might track sport activities like Outdoor Biking or Running/Jogging) it can do all things that I put to it. As mentioned I’m using it primarily as my pedometer and heart rate monitor with enabled features like Sleep Monitoring.

For sports monitoring it needs to be connected with phone and Mi Fit application. It is important to connect phone and Xiaomi Mi Band 4 trough Mi Fit as it uses them to get GPS data for walking, running or cycling distance and to be more precise with them. In General Training option in Workouts it tracks how long are you doing exercises and tracks heart rate with heart rate monitor. There is also Swimming tracking, but as I bought it bit late I couldn’t test this feature, but I can say that water resistance is perfect.

As for non sports features it have Weather connection trough Mi Fit application, Notification support for multiple of applications but without option to reply on them and some features which might be useful like Alarms directly on watch. Yup, I use that feature a lot, especially with regular Alarms on phone (needs to be activated trough Mi Fit) so it can wake me up when phone is on desk and I’m still in bed few meters away from phone. I can dismiss Alarms or get to to Snooze from Smart Band which helped me few times when I forgot to turn of daily alarm at 5:55 AM on weekend.

Other notable features are Smart Do Not Disturb Mode which is enabled when you go to Sleep or to Power Nap (which is useful not to vibrate with notifications when you just want a quick nap after hard working day).

There are also features like Music Playback controls (which I didn’t used as I’m mostly playing music using YouTube Music application), Stopwatch with Timer, Find device and Silent Mode.

Now, as it is Xiaomi’s product it is customizable with Watch Faces. You can create yourself one or just find one you like. In Mi Fit application there are few of them, but you can find more on Internet or just use application Mi Band 4 Watch faces from Google Play Store (there are more applications for that, but I found this one to be perfect in my opinion as it have lot of watch faces to choose with different styles and language compatibility.

In final topic let’s talk about battery life. What I can say is – it can take about 25 days (give or take few days depending of usage) from charge to charge. This is my average, and this average is higher then official rating of 20 days of usage. And yes, that average is from 2 mobile phones that it was connected in a first week – temporary iPhone 6 and my current device Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 Pro.

As for additional bands or protectors for screen – it have bunch of options on various sites like Aliexpress, Gearbest, eBay and others like them. For instance I bought 3 pack of screen protectors and they helped out on few occasions where I was working around metals and it saved me lot of money from scratching device. Now I’m on second protector as first one got scratched to be unusable one day while working around house for preparing wooden planks to be painted later on.

In conclusion – Xiaomi Mi Band 4 is still perfect Smart Sports Tracking Band for somebody who wants affordable and perfectly usable smart band with lot of customizability and great support from manufacturer.

All images shot for this review are my personal shots created with Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 Pro.