The Mi Band 5 has nothing to sweat

Rumors about the OnePlus smartwatch are almost as old as the OnePlus smartphones themselves, but any full-fledged smartwatch that might exist is still in sight. The first OnePlus wearable is an inexpensive fitness band for the Indian market. The OnePlus Band’s price is consistent with India’s best-selling Mi Band 5, but some of its glaring shortcomings at the base level prevent the OnePlus Band from realizing its full potential.

Design, material, what’s in the box

It’s pretty easy to mistake the OnePlus Band for just about any inexpensive fitness band on the market – unless you take a look at the prominent OnePlus brand. There’s no capacitive button on the front as everything works using swipe gestures on its 1.1-inch screen. This small rectangular screen is vivid and very bright in the sun, although you will have to delve into the settings to access the manual brightness controls. Turning the capsule over, you will find its heart rate and SpO2 sensors, as well as a 2-pin charging connector.

To charge the bracelet, you need to pry up the core and secure it to a plastic charging cradle. Dislodging and putting the capsule back in its strap can get a bit tricky, which is frustrating when there are much more stylish solutions in the same price range. But that shouldn’t be a dealbreaker because you would only do it once every few days.

The included TPU strap is high quality and comfortable enough to wear all day long. It didn’t irritate my skin at all – something I regularly encountered with older Mi Bands – and its clasp remains secure and won’t unlock on its own, even during heavy workouts. The one included in the box is predominantly black, with a gray lining on the inside (more colourways are sold separately), so it should be quite understated, even for more formal occasions.

Much like the band itself, the packaging is also pretty minimal. All you get is the charging cradle with a short USB-A cable and some documentation, in addition to the wristband. That’s all.

Software, performance, battery

The onboarding process was not complicated, although you would need to create an app profile before you could pair the group. On a OnePlus phone, the app will automatically select your registered OnePlus account (FYI, the app and the bracelet are both compatible with all Android phones). Those looking to use this fitness tracker with an iPhone will be disappointed to learn that there is no iOS app at the moment, although OnePlus says it’s in the works.

The app is extremely simple with only essential options available at your disposal. For example, it doesn’t motivate you enough to ‘close the rings’ regularly or match scores with your friends, plus there is little to no customization for the watch faces and pushing movements included – stuff. that the alternatives of Honor and Xiaomi are better at. However, the app has neatly organized heads that let you know about your daily activity right off the bat, and you can expand on one to dive deeper into your data (see below).

The Fitness tab is where you record your outdoor running and walking sessions with GPS assisted tracking. The Manage tab is where you see all of the settings for customizing your bracelet with watch faces, adjusting notification sync settings, managing your profile, alarms, and everything in between. One thing that’s noticeably lacking in the settings are third-party integrations with apps like Strava and Google Fit – the latter being supported by fitness trackers from OnePlus’ own sister brand, Realme. Another thing that caught my eye was the slow firmware-to-group file transfers, although that’s something an app update can easily fix.

But you don’t have to pull out your phone for every interaction with the Band. OnePlus has included a good selection of features right on the bracelet, letting you check your activity logs or even start any of the 13 supported workouts. It also means that you will have to manually start recording your workouts as the group does not have automatic workout tracking, although it can automatically stop measuring when you take a rest and resume afterwards. Apart from the usual activities like cycling and running, the group can also follow pool swimming and even your ravine cricket matches which many Indians will love.

As for the tracking itself, the sleep monitoring turned out to be very unreliable in my testing. The band thought I was in ‘light sleep’ as I was clearly out of bed, walking around – a problem we’ve never encountered with the Mi Band 5. And there has been more. of two instances where the band recorded terribly high wake-up times. I mean, I’ll be the first to know when I’m not sleeping half the night. Also, the band doesn’t track your REM cycles which is a shame considering the honor band has been supporting it for a long time. All you get is deep sleep, light sleep, and an hour of wakefulness, plus a score based on how well you sleep. Sleep tracking is notoriously difficult to come by, but the data I got from the OnePlus Group isn’t credible from a distance.

Other than that the step count was within the acceptable range of error as was the heart rate, nothing special. For outdoor activities, I found the GPS to be quite adequate. The route he locked at the end was on point and overall usage was on par with many of his rivals. When tracking other workouts, the bracelet gives you basic information, including your exercise intensity, primarily based on your heart rate and other built-in sensors.

Heart rate monitor (left) and SpO2 sensor (right) in action.

The standout feature of the OnePlus Band is SpO2 (blood oxygen) tracking, which you don’t often find in such budget deals. The function starts when you sleep to record your blood oxygen saturation at regular intervals. Although I didn’t have a medical grade meter on hand to compare the results, my readings were still within the suggested range. Still, it’s not something you should rely on for anything other than keeping tabs on your health.

I really like the band as a notification receiver. Phone notifications sync without delay and are nicely displayed, with custom app icons for many popular apps. You obviously can’t interact with them on such a small screen, but they’ve helped me avoid touching my phone so often during the workday. I call it a victory! And when you receive a call, the band allows you to mute or disconnect the call.

The OnePlus Band also includes a lot of little things. You can control your phone’s camera and media playback with the wristband with ease. I also like the flick-to-wake gesture, which has worked for me every time without fail. However, the group doesn’t have any tools for tracking women’s health that many budget slices are starting to include these days.

In terms of battery life, the OP Band is decidedly okay. My use case included regular work and personal notifications, heartbeat tracking at the default interval (every two minutes), regular sleep monitoring with SpO2 enabled. With this kind of use, the band died in just under 6 days. This number may decrease further if you perform more frequent GPS assisted training tracking sessions. Although technically you could squeeze a little more juice out of the tape if you lower some tracking frequencies, but that still wouldn’t match the claimed 14-day backup.

Should you buy it?

Buy it if:

• You only need basic fitness tracking features.
• Sleep tracking isn’t your concern.

Do not do it but if:

• You can get a Mi Band 5 just as easily.
• Having third party integrations is a must for you.

Or buy

OnePlus India, Amazon India and Flipkart