Xiaomi Mi Band 4 vs Samsung Galaxy Fit e: Which Fitness Tracker Is Built for You

When it comes to affordable fitness trackers in India, we barely have a choice. Only a handful of brands, including Xiaomi and Honor, churn out trackers such as the Mi Band 4 and the Honor Band 5 yearly. Samsung is stepping into the game with its sleek and svelte Galaxy Fit e. The fitness tracker packs an AMOLED display and promises to pack all the essential features you’d need in a fitness tracker.

And if you follow the world of fitness accessories, you must know that the Xiaomi Mi Band 4 bundles plenty of features. From steps counter to tracking your daily runs and your heartbeat, this small band can surely pull off a lot with ease. And the Samsung Galaxy Fit e is no different. Well, that’s the picture you get on the first glance.

Hence, it only makes sense to pit both Xiaomi Mi Band 4 and the Samsung Galaxy Fit E against each other and see which fitness tracker is right for you.

Design and Comfort

Let’s start with the design first. The Xiaomi Mi Band 4 sports a rounded design, similar to the Mi Band 3. Plus, this band both looks and feels sturdy. At the same time, it’s light and comfortable.

Also, the panel sits snugly along the wrist, and you can easily pop it out to clean. This also gives you the ability to switch to colorful straps of your choice.

The Mi Band 4 comes with a tuck-and-pin mechanism. So you can slide the strap along the O-shaped hole and then hook it to one of the holes. At the same time, this closure ensures that the band stays on your wrist.

Last but not least, the TPU band is comfortable to wear daily. However, you’d want to clean it with a damp cloth in case you sweat too much.

On the other hand, the Samsung Galaxy Fit e is considerably sleek and slim compared to the Mi Band 4. And likewise, you can pop out the capsule whenever you want to change the strap.

However, when it comes to the build of the Fit e, I found it to be a tad flimsy and light. Also, it tends to stick to your skin if you sweat a lot. And not only that, the clasp is a little out of the ordinary. Here, the band is tucked inside, which creates a sense of discomfort for first-time wearers.

Display and Sensors

Let’s start with the display of the Samsung Galaxy Fit e first. It comes with a 0.74-inch PMOLED monochrome display. Though it looks good from afar, a close peek lets you see all the individual pixels, all thanks to the meager 64 x 128 pixels. On the upside, the white on the black background looks classic.

One of the huge drawbacks of the Galaxy Fit e is its lack of a touchscreen display. Yep, you read that right. So, you’re required to tap on the screen to navigate between the different screens and widgets instead of swiping. Though you get used to it after the first few times, the unusual navigation mechanism is a bit unsettling. Plus, it doesn’t always respond as you’d expect.

As opposed to it, the Xiaomi’s fourth iteration of the Mi Band sports a 0.95 inch AMOLED color touch-sensitive screen. The colors are bright and punchy, and the navigation and the transitions between the screens are fluid. And that’s not all, the icons have a modern look.

Speaking of the common features, the legibility under sunlight of both the bands is great. Plus, you can tone down the screen brightness as per your preference. While the Mi Band lets you do from the band itself, you’d need to open the companion app of the Fit e to do the same.

Though the operation doesn’t take more than a few seconds, the whole process of unlocking the phone and launching the Galaxy Wearable app just to tweak the brightness seems tedious.

Other than that, both the Mi band 4 and Galaxy Fit e allow you to cycle between several watch faces. Here too, the Mi Band 4 has a slight advantage over the Fit e. The Band 4 lets you use third-party ones.

In a nutshell, the Mi band 4 has a superior display and touch-sensitivity. And for almost the same price, it is a better buying decision, at least in the display department.

Battery — Size & Backup

When it comes to fitness trackers, it’s obvious that you’d want it to last at least a week, if not longer. The Galaxy Fit e is powered by a 70 mAh battery, which last about a week as per Samsung. In the real-world scenario, this battery lasts about four days if you enable all the features like notification, sleep tracking, or heartbeat tracking.

Plus, the limited functionality on the band means that you can’t check the battery percentage on the band. You’ll need to open the Galaxy Wearable app for it.

Plus, it doesn’t vibrate, and neither will it alert you of low battery. So should you decide to buy it, you’ll have to develop the habit of checking the battery in the app.

When it comes to the Mi Band 4, it doesn’t disappoint. It’s powered by a 135mAh battery, a significant upgrade over last year’s Mi Band 3. And Xiaomi claims that it can last up to 20 days on a single charge. However, if you switch on features like continuous heartbeat tracking or phone notifications, then it dips significantly.

Lastly, both trackers come with proprietary charging cradles. With the Mi Band 4, you’d need to pop the tracker module out of the strap and then plug it to the charging cable.

As opposed to that, the charging cradle of the Fit e fits the band seamlessly. So yeah, no need to dismantle the band.

Fitness Tracking

Now comes the most important part — how accurate are these two trackers? Well, when it comes to the Galaxy Fit e, it can tell you the number of hours you slept along with your sleep quality, or for how long you remained motionless. However, when it comes to sleep tracking, we didn’t find any way to verify the data.

Other than that, the Fit e comes with a Workout Detection mode and can detect about 90 different activities. Plus, if you walk for more than 10 minutes on a healthy pace, the band will log it automatically.

The step counter is pretty much accurate. Although you’ll find a slight discrepancy, well, that’s something that comes with almost all the trackers in this price range.

On the other hand, the Mi Band 4 packs a new activity sensor that’s capable of identifying not only the workout modes but it can also differentiate between different swimming styles. Plus, the readings are also pretty much accurate.

Also, if you want to track a specific type of workout, you can do so by diving into the workout scenes. Plus, the continuous heartbeat tracking is the cherry on top.

Aside from the above, both bands do not have GPS chips. They borrow these details off from your phone to provide you the necessary stats.

Pick a Better Band

Well, the picture is pretty much clear at this point. Though the Samsung Galaxy Fit e comes packed with the essential features, they are not simply enough. The battery life and the monochrome display panel are disappointing for the price.

And on top of that, you’d need to peek into the companion app for almost everything. From changing the watch faces to checking the battery life and setting the alarm, you need the app at your beck and call every time.

Plus, the lack of a touch-sensitive screen takes the cake.

As opposed to it, the Mi band 4 strikes the right balance between features and price. Its packs a superior display and the product build is just about right.

You perform all the basic activities like tracking exercises or set alarms. Apart from that, you can also control your music from the comfort of your fitness band. For security, you can set a 4-digit password to lock the band when you take it off. And if you want a detailed stat, all you need to do is to open the Mi Fit app. The exercise tracking mode is almost spot-on. So, why not?