In June,
Xiaomi launched the Mi Band 4, one of those few Xiaomi products that are sold in the U.S. The Mi Band line has been extremely popular since it was originally launched in 2014 thanks to the combination of low pricing and useful features. Xiaomi shipped 23.3 million units of the Mi Band 3 last year, good enough for a 13.5% share of the wearables market. That made the Mi Band 3 the second most popular wearable in the world after the
Apple Watch. The Xiaomi Mi Band 4 adds color to its .95-inch display (with a resolution of 120 x 240) and the device can be bought from Walmart for $35.99.
Just eight days after it went on sale, over 1 million Mi Band 4 units were rung up.
The company that builds the Mi Band is Huami, the largest manufacturer of wearable devices in the world.
According to Wearable, the manufacturer is already working on the Mi Band 5. Wang Huang, founder, chairman, and chief executive officer at Huami revealed this during the company’s Q2 conference call. When asked whether Huami is planning to work with Xiaomi, the executive responded by saying, “We are actually developing Mi Band 5 with Xiaomi.” So this is not a leak or a rumor. The Mi Band 5 is being developed and Wang says that it could be released toward the end of next year.
Mi Band 5 could feature an electrocardiogram (ECG) monitor
“We do not have – we do not have a fixed time when we’re going to launch Mi Band 5. But I would say that we have already started working on Mi Band 5 with Xiaomi and it’s not going to take that long. So we just launched Mi Band 4, but potentially toward the end of next year, we may launch Mi Band 5.”-Wang Huang, founder, chairman and chief executive officer, Huami
The Mi Band 4 tracks the wearer’s physical activities like cycling, running, swimming and walking and can control streaming music on a paired smartphone (iOS or Android) and more. While Huami wasn’t about to reveal the new features for the Mi Band 5, we could assume that they might include some of the rumored features that didn’t make the Mi Band 4. Chief among these would be the electrocardiogram (ECG) monitor that checks for an abnormal heartbeat that could be the result of atrial fibrillation or AFib. This could lead to strokes, blood clots, heart failure, and death. The
Apple Watch Series 4 debuted the feature, which is also found on the recently unveiled Samsung
Galaxy Watch Active 2 (although the FDA has yet to approve it on Sammy’s new watch). Huami already has experience with an ECG monitor,
which it has included on the Amazfit Verge2. We should point out that the FDA has not certified the ECG monitor on the Amazfit timepiece.
The Mi Band 4 is the first Mi Band to sport a color display
You might ask yourself whether it is worth it to buy the Mi Band 4 with the next version being planned. Considering the price point, there is no reason not to pick up the Mi Band 4 right now. And even though Huami says that it is working with Xiaomi for the next model, who knows what might take place over the next year. In the meantime, you’ll be able to track your activities, view your heart rate and monitor your sleep (a feature that the Apple Watch doesn’t have natively). The Mi Band 4 also can act as a stopwatch, an alarm clock and a timer. It is compatible with phones running Android 4.4 or higher and iOS 9.0 and higher.
