Mi Band 3 deconstructed

I will get into details about the UI and other aspects around the device without entering into too much technical details.

While there are probably 100’s of different Chinese brands out there, the combination between “good” design, hardware and software is rare. Only a few brands stand out, like Huawei with its Honor Bands or Xiaomi with the Mi Bands. There are of course known brands like Jawbone (now out of business), fitbit and others that look like bracelets with minimal or no display, but at another price range.

Even though I’m not used to having something on my wrist (last time I used a watch was 10–15 years ago), I was immediately intrigued by its design, UI, small form factor, and of course, price.

I’ll split the post into two parts: user interface in the device and some notes on the device itself (hardware-software); and its Companion app (iOS).

One thing I really liked about this device, is its minimalistic display. It looks great and fits the design perfectly.

It is a 0.78 inch OLED touchscreen display with a resolution of 128x80 pixels. Enough to display relevant information without impacting its battery life.

Good design is defined by constraints, and what better constraints than a super small, monochromatic screen?

Anyone can “design” in larger color displays (not really), it’s easier to fit in all the needed components and information. It is also easier to screw it up, like other white label bands that look busy and distracting with color graphics and animations that don’t add up to the user experience, usually lagging in responsiveness (because of its unpowered processors), and eating up their batteries.

The navigation and menus are pretty straightforward and customizable from the companion app (more in part 2).

The responsiveness of the screen is pretty good and only a few times fails to recognize direction i.e. when trying to go “down” in the menu some times it takes you “right” (Update: I discovered that it is better to start the swipe from the center of the screen, that way it won’t fail that easily).

By default the menu order is as follows:

You can also choose from 3 different watch faces:

Notifications can be set for every application from the app, but in general they don’t look good or are hard to read, specially if there are symbols or emoji. I disabled most if not all notifications (WhatsApp, email, messages..) and left only phone calls, which I found useful since my phone is always on mute. So when I get a call, the display shows caller ID from my contacts and vibrates on my wrist.

The application is divided into 3 main areas: Status, Activity and Profile.

Status screen acts like a dashboard displaying KPIs with small charts with information like “steps”, “calories burnt”, “last night’s sleep”, “last workout”, “heart rate”, “weight” and so on. Every KPI is tappable and takes you to a new screen with more expanded information (see below example showing more information on “weight tracking” and “sleep analysis”).

Notice how in some cases (1, 2, 3) it compares your stats with other users, that makes me aware of the privacy of my data and where is being saved; makes me feel uncomfortable. Even though the profile is anonymous, I don’t think there’s a way to opt out. It may look interesting at first but I don’t think it provides much insight for the trade out. “You have longer deep sleep than 92% of people”. Leave me alone, that’s personal! Who are you to go around talking about how deep is my sleep?

Activity lets you track different activities (never used it really), that are not possible to track from the band (usually more convenient to me). In short it tracks your heart rate, time and position using you phone’s GPS during your workout.

As you can see, this is by far the most chaotic section starting by its label that doesn’t represent the number of options that one finds here.

The UI in most pages look very similar (blue header, list with colored icons), is easy to get lost, or not being able to find some option you remember having seen before.

From “Add device” (1) you can add more devices to track data, for example you can pair a pair of smart shoes.

There are also some UI components that don’t look touchable or that are hard to figure out. “Set weight goal” (2) screen has a slider that looks like an indicator, there are no instructions about what’s about and to save your “goal” you need to tap “Reset goal” button, otherwise it clears your changes. I think this may be a translation issue, there are several problems with internationalization especially in the Spanish version that I tried as well.

“Behavioral tagging” (3) is another screen that I have no clue what’s about. Am I supposed to tag everything I do on a day? Even “Bath” time or “Brushing teeth”? Just weird…

“Band display screen” (4) allows you to sort or remove sections in the device. Options by default are ok in my opinion so I didn’t find any reasons to change them. One thing I noticed thought is that if you change the watch face and then remove the “More” section in the band, there would be no way to change it back again.

The Mi Band 3 is a little device that you can get for cheap, is light, comfortable, its display looks good, touchscreen could be improved but it works and its battery life is pretty good as well (10–15 days depending on its settings).

The companion app on the other hand needs work: buttons more noticeable, screens distinctable, menus categorized hierarchically. In my opinion there are more options than needed and decluttering it would improve the user experience significantly.

Related posts:

In the very beginning you probably don’t need microservices. Start with monolith and see, if you really need them in future. As the database itself is a service, does it make sense to use a…

It is 2031 and Counterfeit Drake has quite recently enlisted his fourteenth number-one single. It outperforms the count put by Genuine Drake in a difficult spot in 2024 when he delivered his last…

There is a question many parents, myself included, deal with whenever school vacations are coming: how do I keep my kids active? The answer begins by choosing the right fitness activities and sports…