Update 09/09/2019 07:20 AM ET: Xiaomi India has begun teasing the launch of the Xiaomi Mi Band 4 in India, with an expected launch date of September 17, 2019. The article as published on June 11, 2019, is preserved as below.
Xiaomi's Mi Band is one of the most affordable and attractive fitness accessories out there. Building on the immense popularity of the last year's Mi Band 3, Xiaomi has now launched its successor – the Mi Band 4. The fitness band now comes with colored AMOLED display, an improved accelerometer for more effective motion tracking during physical activities, a built-in microphone for voice control, and without any compromise in terms of the promising battery of the Mi Band 3.
The first major highlight of the Mi Band 4 is the 0.95-inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 240x120. This comes as a notable upgrade over the 0.78-inch monochromatic OLED display on the Mi Band 3. The larger display, now enriched with colors, will allow users to easily view notifications from a bevy of apps alongside stats related to physical activities. The fitness band also comes with as many as 77 colorful watch faces.
The Mi Band 4 comes with a better, 6-axis accelerometer which can track activities such as walking, running, cycling, and other workout-related activities clubbed under exercise. Since the band is also water-resistant up to 5ATM or 50 meters, Xiaomi has added support for monitoring swimming activities. The accelerometer can detect different swimming styles including backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, freestyle, and mixed-style, and is capable of generating a SWOLF score to evaluate the skills of swimmers.
Another major addition in the Mi Band 4 is the inbuilt microphone which can be used for voice commands. These voice commands to the onboard Xiao smart assistant can be used to control a variety of smart products in Xiaomi's IoT ecosystem – including Xiaomi's robot cleaner, smart air conditioner, or connected table lamp. The Mi Band 4 can also be used to control music playback.
NFC on the Mi Band 4 supports Alipay and can be used for making paperless transactions. For users who may not need this, Xiaomi will also be selling another variant with just Bluetooth and without NFC. In terms of battery life, Xiaomi claims that the non-NFC variant can last for up to 20 days on a single charge while the version with NFC will last 15 days. The battery life may, however, decrease with the increase in the frequency of automatic heart rate tracking and sleep tracking.
This time, Xiaomi is also offering more colorful options for the bands and besides the usual black, orange, and purple colors, we also have burgundy and beige options. The Mi Band 4 is priced at CNY 169 (~$25) for the non-NFC variant and CNY 229 (~$33). Xiaomi has also launched special Avengers edition Bands with superhero watchfaces and this one is priced at CNY 329 (~$50).
The Mi Band 4 will be available in China starting June 14th for the non-NFC variant while the NFC variant will be available starting June 18th. Xiaomi has not made any claims about availability outside China but we expect the fitness band to arrive in India soon.
Update: Xiaomi Mi Band 4 is launching in India on September 17, 2019
Xiaomi India's official social media accounts have begun teasing the launch of the Mi Band 4 in the country.
Xiaomi is hosting a "Smarter Living" launch event in India on September 17, 2019. On this day, the company is also rumored to launch the new Redmi TV in India, and the new Mi Band 4 as per the latest teaser which is very clear in its implication. The new iteration of Xiaomi's fitness tracker coming to India is unlikely to have NFC or voice assistant functionality as those as China-only features. You can read our review of the Xiaomi Mi Band 4 over here. It remains to be seen how competitively Xiaomi prices the Mi Band 4, as other competitors like the Honor Band 5 are enjoying decent success in the country.
Source: Xiaomi India