OPPO Band Sport review: an alternative to the Mi Band?

OPPO brings with the OPPO Band Sports launched a smart fitness tracker in wristband format on the German market. I took a closer look at this for you. 

The OPPO Band comes in a typical OPPO white box with a product photo on the front and specifications on the back. In addition to the OPPO Band itself, the package also includes a quick start guide and a safety guide. Of course, a charger is also included - this is of course also included.

Equipment

To set up, the tape must be plugged into the charging station once. Then a language selection greeted me. In the next step I should go to the "Hey Tap Health“Go to the app - this is the center for the tape as well as for OPPO's Health Service. When the HeyTap Health App from OPPO arrived, the app would like to establish a connection to the OPPO Band. Then she asks about the arm on which you wear the ribbon. And we're done with the first set-up.

HeyTap Health app

In the HeyTap Health App, we can now view and evaluate all the data that the bracelet collects. That works very well. A was used as a reference Mi Band 5, which I look at as a comparisonproduct made for this test.

The values ​​such as steps taken, calories burned, sleep and other fitness data were almost on the same wavelength. The Mi Band had counted 2.750 steps, the OPPO Band "only" 2.736 steps. Which gadget is a little more precise? Both wearables should calculate the steps a little differently or react differently sensitively, hence the deviation. Who, by the way, for the current Mi Band 6 interested, for whom I would like to refer to the test report from my colleague Nils. The HeyTap Health App is definitely convincing and offers everything I could want from a health app.

Operation and functions

The OPPO band has a 1,1 inch (2,79 cm) AMOLED screen and is operated using swiping gestures. These go in all four directions. A swipe up or down brings you to the function selection. There you will find, for example, the settings and a few other things such as music control, timers and more - basically alternative functions to normal sports tracking. So nothing is missing from the OPPO tape. Swiping from right to left changes the five memory slots for watch faces for the band. Of course, there are also several watch faces, which can be loaded onto the strap in the HeyTap Health app. However, you have to be aware that you can only save five clock faces on the tape at a time.

In the training mode, we then come to the main point of the OPPO Band. There we can choose from many different sports and let the tape record them. And when we're done, transfers it straight to the HeyTap Health app. That works very reliably. connectionproI didn't have any problems at this point. OPPO seems to have managed that well.

Battery life

Let's get to the battery life. Here I have to say that OPPO keeps its promise - the OPPO tape comes with a maximum usage time of 12 days. And I also came up with these 12 days in my endurance test. Basically, I tested the OPPO tape under "normal" use, despite all of this, the permanent sleep monitoring was active every day. Charging the battery is also very quick. But a bit cumbersome, you have to push the tape or the main unit out of the silicone tape and then clip it onto the charging station.

After the first few attempts, however, this turned into a sweat and blood - this was also the case with the Mi Band before the Mi Band 5 came onto the market. Since this is OPPO's first smart band, I assume that the charging option will be revised in the successor. However, charging was relatively quick and it went from 5 to 100 percent within about an hour.

Conclusion after 2 weeks of use

The OPPO strap can currently be found in stores for 49 euros (RRP). In some places there are always a few offers that push the price down to just under 40 euros. But even for 49 euros, in my opinion, you can't go wrong here. Sure, the Mi Band 5 is available for 30 euros every now and then, but I found the performance in operation relatively sluggish in direct comparison with the OPPO Band.

I was particularly surprised by the sleep tracking, which was very accurate to what I used to do with the much larger and much more expensive OPPO Watch (46mm) measured. You still have to adjust the brightness manually, unfortunately it doesn't work automatically. But with the setting of 80 percent, I was always able to read it easily in everyday life and outdoors.

I therefore give it a full recommendation for those who are looking for a smart band that should offer a stable overall package of functionality and battery life. For me personally, a simple fitness tracker would not really be the right one, as I already own the OPPO Watch. But there are many who just want a lightweight gadget on their wrist. And for these people, the OPPO tape is exactly the right choice.

• Buy OPPO Band on Amazon