Xiaomi entered the wearable market four years ago, emulating a similar strategy as its phone business that saw the brand edge out its Chinese rivals. The key takeaway from the first-gen Mi Band was its affordability: costing just $15, it was much cheaper than any other product that offered a similar set of features. It's no wonder, then, that the Mi Band turned out to be one of the most popular products for Xiaomi. The company introduced an updated variant — the Mi Band 2 — back in 2016 with an OLED display and heart rate monitoring, all for under $25. With the Mi Band 3, Xiaomi is offering a larger OLED screen, better heart rate, activity monitoring features, and water resistance up to 50 meters. The Mi Band 3 is just as affordable as earlier models in the series, retailing for the equivalent of $25 in China. There's even a model with NFC connectivity that is available for just $30. Verizon is offering the Pixel 4a for just $10/mo on new Unlimited lines You'll have to shell out over $100 to get a fitness tracker from the likes of Fitbit that offers heart rate monitoring, but with the Mi Band available for a quarter of the cost, it's easy to see why Xiaomi is the second-largest wearable manufacturer in the world. Xiaomi sold over 3.7 million Mi Bands in the first quarter of 2018, and the Mi Band 3 saw over one million sales in the first two weeks of its availability in China. The Mi Band 3 definitely ticks all the boxes if you're looking to get started with a fitness band, but what's it like to use on a day-to-day basis? Let's find out.

Xiaomi Mi Band 3 Price: $30 Bottom line: The Mi Band 3 is a great way to get started with wearables. At $30, the barrier to entry is low enough to make the Mi Band 3 accessible to a wider audience, and the features on offer make it one of the best budget fitness trackers available today. Pros: Large OLED panel

Water resistance up to 50m

Heart rate monitoring

Automatic activity tracking

Incredible battery life Cons: Plain design

Tracking isn't always accurate

Screen visibility isn't great outdoors See at GearBest

Xiaomi Mi Band 3 What I like Interest in wearables has plateaued in recent years, but Xiaomi's offerings have always fared well because they lower the barrier to entry. That's the main draw with the Mi Band 3 as well — at its core, it is an affordable way to measure your daily activity, sleep pattern, and mirror notifications from your phone to your wrist. The larger 0.78-inch OLED panel (with a resolution of 128x80) is particularly useful for things like notifications and weather updates, as the Mi Band 3 is able to fit more information on the screen. The touchscreen isn't the most responsive, but it isn't any worse than the one on the Fitbit Alta HR. When it comes to value, there's nothing in the market that comes close to the Mi Band 3. In fact, the Mi Band 3 is largely similar to the Alta HR in terms of dimensions, although the larger screen means it is a tad wider. It comes in at 20g — just under the Alta HR's 22g — so you won't feel any discomfort wearing it over the course of the day. Like its predecessor, the Mi Band 3 does a great job utilizing the screen size to the fullest. You'll be able to scroll through various screens on the band itself, including the steps taken, weather information, and incoming notifications, and there's also the option to select from a variety of watch faces. The Mi Band 3 also has a button at the bottom of the panel that lets you go back to the home screen. Like the Alta HR — which automatically measures your heart rate over the course of a day — the Mi Band 3 logs your resting heart rate, and you can trigger a measurement by long-pressing the home button. The hardware itself is just one half of the story — you'll need an app that breaks down all the information in an easy-to-use format. That's where Mi Fit comes in. Xiaomi added new features into Mi Fit with every new generation of Mi Band, and it offers an easy way to view your activity details, calories burned, and sleep data. The app itself is basic and doesn't offer quite as many insights as Fitbit or Garmin, but you're getting what you par for in this regard. As for battery life, the Mi Band 3 easily delivers over a week's worth of usage from the 110mAh battery. In just under three weeks of usage, I've had to charge the Mi Band 3 just once. It takes a smidgen under three hours to fully charge the band, and the one issue I have on this front is that it's easy to lose the charging cradle.