This does sound interesting. I’ll have a look. Would it load to Strava or just keep a record? How does that work?
I'm not trying to sell this watch to you or anyone but there is a point here which may help others. I had a Garmin vivoactive HR for eight years. It was good, did everything I wanted and more. It was though very heavy and bulky, one friend referred to it as Paul's tag, and I couldn't tolerate wearing it 24 hours a day!! Over the years the performance declined until April when the touch screen began to fail. I wanted a replacement but baulked at the prices for Garmin, Apple etc. At the time I bought the Xiaomi, early May, Which? hadn't reviewed it. I decided for £50 it was worth a punt. After five months use I'm delighted with it. I wear the watch 24/7 which means I get the full benefit of all the health tracking. It is a fitness tracker rather than a watch.
The Xiaomi comes with a companion app called Mi Fitness. All activities are recorded on the watch by pressing the relevant function button. When the activity is complete the watch syncs with Mi Fitness where you can view all your results and automatically uploads to Strava. It's seamless after syncing with the app, by the time the app is closed down the data is on Strava. In cycling and walking terms my only moan, a very small one, is the watch records in kms and it's only after uploading to Strava that one gets the data in miles. It's a tiny thing that I don't lose any sleep over. It has the following:
- 158 different sporting activities pre-programmed on the device, if none of those suit choose "freestyle."
- Swim proof
- Notifications and calls
- Nine fitness and health elements monitored
- Apps on watch include Music, Alarm, Tasks, Weather, World Clock, Find Device, Find Phone
- Torch, compass, stop watch, timer, calendar
- Take a photograph with your phone but controlled from the watch - this is really useful
- Hundreds of different watch faces and screen configurations
Which? describe it as "It’s the highest-performing fitness tracker we’ve tested"
It won't take calls and you can't pay for your coffee using the watch. Does this really matter? With all of the above packed in for £50-60 I can't see a reason to buy Garmin, Apple, Samsung etc unless integration with one's phone is seen as essential.
