Xiaomi Mi Band v/s Micromax Yu Fit Band – Comparison & Review

Advantage Yu Fit – or in most cases – Disadvantage of Mi Band

1. Band is softer. Better feel and comfort. The Mi Band got really dirty to use by the end of the week. The Yu Fit band just feels much better to use and clasp on.
2. Display is a lovely addition. Actually useful. It does double up as a watch if nothing else. Which is nice. I don’t need to wear my Timex Ironman on some basic runs. When it vibrates – I actually know what it’s trying to say, whether it’s an alarm, a msg, a call, a warning – with the Mi Band – you had to look at your phone. Would it be too much to ask them to display the number when alerting of an incoming call?
3. Accuracy is better than the Mi Band. The Mi Band would count ALL my hand movements as steps and I would end up achieving my ‘goal’ within half a day. The Mi Band does count some hand movements – but essentially I end up meeting the same goal almost at the end of the day. In the same circumstances. Definitely real time accuracy is better.
4. The healthify me app is actually the first of its kind that I am using. Calorie counting for Indian food. It is actually this app that makes the band what it is. I really wish it was better merged with the Yu Fit app. It does get irritating to switch between the apps. Essentially you just have a few settings in the Yu Fit app – the rest is all in Healthify app. The calorie counting bit is really nice. Pure fitness freaks – it’s a dream come true! The app is smooth. Fluid. Plenty of settings, swipes and a LOT of info pumped in neatly. It get’s better by day as it gets customized to your needs. I have NOT used the pro version yet.
5. Some additional gimmicks thrown in for good measure. e.g. Capture pics & video from the phone, using the band. So essentially for this – you HAVE to go and launch it on your phone. It there could be some gesture or pattern on the band that would do it – it would be much better. The SOS function is brilliant too. Nifty tool, if you ask me. But it does get launched VERY easily.

Disadvantage Yu also translates to Advantage Mi :

1. Battery life. The screen obviously makes a difference here. Mi band lasted more than 45 days on a single charge. The Yu Fit band will barely make it 10. 10 is not so bad, but with the OLED display I definitely expected more. The OLED dispaly does look very flimsy and cheap at some angles. But it’s quite robust.
2. Sleep cycle. It was brilliantly tracked and displayed with the Mi Band. The deep sleep bit, the lgith sleep auto detection and subsequent wake up alarm, the ability to edit my sleep time (example – I left the band lying around since 22:30, but actually went to sleep wearing it at 23:45, the next day I could change the time manually to eliminate the ‘deep sleep‘ from 22:30 to 23:45. Not so with the Yu Fit band. They want to me to define a SET time zone during which it will detect the sleep – EVERYday! That just does not happen! Unless you are in the army, right? Also the Yu Fit does not give as much importance to this sleep feature as the Mi Band did. Some software kinks, can easily be sorted or enabled with an update – if they try. (Healthify Me – that’s for you)
3. Rotation. Right hand or left hand detection. And screen orientation. Sorely missed in Yu Fit band. Makes the button awkward to wear on right hand and prone to accidental presses. While this was given as a ‘setting’ in the Mi Band – where you could choose what hand you would wear it in. The Yu Fit band should DEFINITELY have it – and rotate the screen according to the option chose such that the ‘button’ is on the inner (medial side, medically speaking) side of your body – which would make it less awkward to press when wearing it on your right hand, and also less prone to accidental presses.
4. Bluetooth detection. This seems to be a bit of an issue with the Micromax Yu Fit band. For starters, even after pairing it does not show up in the ‘bluetooth devices menu’ – even when paired. Which makes it impossible to use as a ‘trusted device’ to unlock. 1 simple feature lost. Secondly, the band just keeps loosing connection with the phone every now and then – and then starts warning you – with full volume alarms on your phone! (can be turned off in the settings, thankfully) but definitely needs a software tweak.
5. Vibration on the Yu Fit band is not as strong as the Mi Band. Tried multiple times. This was immensely useful as the wake up alarm, which incidentally was much better in the Mi Band (read #2 in this list) and the Mi Band allowed multiple alarms, while the Yu Fit band allows only one!

Both seem to be sourced completely from our next door neighbours, yet the Micromax Yu Fit band is a significantly better product that ultimately does benefit our own health and country wealth (and you thought you won’t see that factor being mentioned here, like it is with almost every post on this blog – Be Indian, Buy Indian).