Lifesense Band 2 Review
About a year ago, I wrote a review of Xiaomi’s Mi Band 2 on Mi Community SG, praising its beautiful design and excellent bang-for-the-buck. Today, we will be taking a look at another fitness band, also called Band 2, but this time from a company called Lifesense.
Lifesense makes 2 versions of this fitness tracker, but the one we will be taking a look at today is the regular Band 2, not the costlier Band 2S. The Band 2S has a more elegant design, but loses the ability to go swimming, (Band 2 is IP68, Band 2S is IP67)
Does the Lifesense 2 deserve a S$88 price tag? How accurate is steps and heart rate tracking? Should you be getting one over more affordable offerings from Xiaomi and Huawei, or a costlier fitness band like the Fitbit Alta HR? Without further ado, let's get to the review.
Unboxing - That’s It?!!!
The Lifesense Band 2 comes in a rather large white box for a fitness tracker. What is in the box? After removing the two plastic stickers on the back, we shake off the lid to reveal the device sitting upright, in the middle of the box. Nice presentation.
Lifting the cardboard below the band reveals a hidden compartment containing … just an instruction booklet! Where is the charging cable? We will keep that a mystery for now. Peeling off the illustration sticker on the display, the device vibrates and notifies you to pair it with the app.
Design & Build Quality - Genius!
The Lifesense Band 2 is very similar in size to the Mi Band 2 and that is a great thing. It is nether too big for ladies, nor too small for guys. The strap has a lot of adjustments holes, so it should fit on your hand even if your wrist is very thick.
The core part of the band is made of plastic - matte black on the rear, transparent on the front with black background beneath. The 0.87” OLED display offers blacks so deep, you cannot tell where it ends. The display is really bright, visible under direct sunlight but a little glaring at night.
Right below the display is a capacitive button, used to navigate through the UI. You can view time, step count, heart rate and more from the display by tapping the button. You can also enable the exercise mode from the band, which we will be taking a closer look below.
The strap's material is smooth and flexible, really comfortable to wear. Now, the million dollar question: How do you charge the Lifesense Band 2? The secret lies beneath the straps, which can be released by holding down the buttons on the back.
Taking off the bottom strap reveals a USB head for charging the band. No need for a charging cable! Convenient. The top strap can also be removed and beneath it you will find the serial number, used for pairing to the app. Attaching the straps back produces a satisfying click.
Setup & App - Needs Polishing
To use the Band 2, you will need to download the Lifesense Health app, available on both the Play Store or App Store. Once downloaded, open the app and you will be prompted to register or login. You do get the option to login with Facebook, which is really nice.
Things get weird when setting up. This is my first time using the app but it claims to already have my steps from the past 2 days. OK? Next, I noticed that the app had set my weight and height without asking for it, but the information is completely wrong. Hmm…
To pair the band to the app, you have two options: scan the QR code in the instruction manual or type the band’s serial number. The band connects really quickly and within a couple of seconds, you are good to go. Really simple compared to other fitness bands I have used.
An update was available out of the box and the whole process took approximately 5 minutes. The battery dropped from 50% to 18% after the update. Lifesense asks users to only update with 30% battery or higher, but I recommend having at least 40%.
So what can you do in the app? On top of the usual stuff like viewing of steps, heart rate and sleep, you can also customize the band's display in the settings menu, like selecting between vertical and horizontal view or hiding calories burnt.
If you spend most of your day sitting at the computer, the Lifesense Band 2 will remind you to move if you sit too long. You can set it such that the band will only remind you at certain timing, like during working hours. Just make sure that you select the days under "repeat" or it will not work.
Syncing the band takes about 10-15 seconds every time, not particularly fast but at least it is consistent. Overall, I like the features on the Lifesense Health app, but their implementation can still be improved. Also, there are still a couple of bugs that needs to be ironed out.
Notifications - (Almost) Perfect
From the app, you can select which apps to receive alerts from. On both Android and iOS, it is limited to incoming calls, text messages, WeChat, WhatsApp, Gmail & Line, but more might be added in the future via a firmware update. In fact, the first update I received added support for the latter three.
This feature worked really well, possibly a little bit too well for my liking. I usually receive a WhatsApp notification a couple of times every minute and the Lifesense Band 2 vibrates every time that happens. I ended up disabling WhatsApp notification entirely.
I noticed that twitter could send notifications to my Lifesense Band 2 even though it was not an option in the app. There is no way to disable this other than disabling notification entirely. Not sure if this is a bug exclusive to the iOS app but I hope it gets fixed soon.
Steps - Very Accurate For Its Price
The one thing every fitness band has to get right is step tracking and I am glad to say that Lifesense delivered. I took the Band 2 out for a walk and counted the number of steps I took, under different hand positions and speed and here are the results I have obtained.
Walking casually, the Lifesense Band 2 was really accurate, usually only off by about 1-2 step in every hundred steps. Next, I walked at the same speed while trying not to swing my hand and the Lifesense Band 2 achieved similar level of accuracy as before. Awesome.
When you start to run, the Band 2's step tracking will not be as accurate, but still within an acceptable range. I tried this with exercise mode enabled and disabled and on both occasions, the Band 2 was off by only 6-8 additional steps per hundred steps.
You can view your daily step count from the band, but the value is rounded off to the nearest hundred when in vertical mode. (E.g. 2301 steps will be shown as 2.3K) To view the exact amount, change to horizontal mode. Whenever you hit your daily step count target, you will get a notification on the band.
Right now, there isn't a way to share the steps to link Lifesense's app to the iOS Health. This is a bummer to many iOS users and I hope Lifesense will add support for it in the future.
Just completed a long hike? Want to share your accomplishment with your Instagram followers? Simply tap the "share" icon on the app and it will generate a square image with your daily step count, distance and calories burnt. Best of all, you can select a custom background.
Exercise Mode - Basic But Useful
An exercise mode is available on the Lifesense Band 2 and can be toggled directly from the band via a long press of the navigation button while on the exercise menu. Activating it will start a timer and the display will be forced into horizontal mode.
During the exercise session, the band will show steps and calories burnt during the session. You can view your heart rate in exercise mode, but only if you enable heart rate detection in the app. To end the exercise session, hold on the navigation button for a couple of seconds.
I do not see a difference in accuracy of steps or heart rate with exercise mode and without exercise mode enabled. The only benefit to it is that your step count, calories burnt and heart rate for that session will be stored on the "exercise" page in the app.
Heart Rate Detection - Sweet, sweet .... Wait a Minute
The thing that sets the S$88 Lifesense Band 2 apart from more affordable rival competitors is its support for continuous HR detection, a feature usually only found on costly fitness bands. This means that it can record your heart rate 24/7, generating a really cool heart rate graph.
Unlike non-continuous HR sensors like on the Mi Band 2, there is no need to hold still and wait for the device to measure your heart rate. It is always tracking your heart rate. I found this to be a lot more consistent than the Mi Band 2's unreliable heart rate detection. But how accurate is it?
Initially, I wanted to compare the Lifesense Band 2's heart rate detection to an Apple Watch's, which is one of the more accurate fitness wearable according to a study. However, while I was obtaining some photos for this review, I noticed something odd.
Heart Rate Detection - The Cold Hard Truth
Having no objects directly behind the HR sensor will result in a null reading, as expected. Wearing the band on your wrist provides a reading, also as expected. For weeks, I thought that this was an indication that the HR detection was working perfectly.
However, when you wear the Band 2 around an inanimate object, things get weird. One would expect to get null results, but that did not happen. Instead, it continued to provide readings between 60-90bpm, which is the resting heart rate.
For reference, I tested the same thing with the Mi Band 2 and it showed null results as long as I am not holding it. I asked around and was told that reputable fitness trackers and watches like Garmin's Fenix 3HR show null results as well.
The 6 minute video below demonstrates this really clearly. I attached the Lifesense Band 2 and Mi Band 2 to an umbrella and tested the HR detection on both bands. The Mi Band 2 produced null readings, while the Lifesense Band 2 claims that the umbrella has a heart rate.
But, does the HR detection actually work when it is on your hand? I do not know, but I would not trust it. I tried running with the Lifesense Band 2 and it did go up. Hmm... What if this is faked? Hence, I attached the band to a foldable umbrella and took it for a run.
I held the umbrella like an extension to my hand and ran naturally. On one round, the recorded heart rate was under 90bpm at rest, but increased to 102bpm after running. However, this does not happen most of the time, so lets give Lifesense the benefit of doubt and blame it on the poor heart rate algorithm.
In addition to that, I also found the graph generated by the app to be highly inaccurate. At 12:55 PM, I took the photo above, which shows recorded heart rate hitting 102bpm. However, the graph from the app did not show this peak, as seen below. Instead, it showed a spike at 1:25PM, when I was already in my room, editing this review.
(Notice that the photo was take at 12:55PM)
If a fitness band cannot differentiate heart beat from no heart beat, how accurately can it tell us our heart rate? If the display shows one thing and the app shows the other, who should we trust? The accuracy of the heart rate monitor is questionable and having it is equivalent to having none in my opinion.
I am not the only reviewer that experienced such issues with the Lifesense Band 2. I checked with 3 other tech blogs in Singapore who had reviewed the Lifesense Band 2 and all of them have found similar issues with their device. Also, some have pointed out inaccuracies in the heart rate readings from actual heart rate.
Sleep Tracking - Works Well, But Can Be Better
It is difficult to tell how accurate sleep tracking is without a benchmark, so for this section I will be comparing the Lifesense Band 2 to the Mi Band 2. I wore both to bed, one on each hand to test how accurately they can track my sleep that night.
Both bands detected that I have slept at almost the same time, but I am unable to tell which is the more accurate one. On the other hand, the Mi Band 2 got my sleep-end time right, stopping as soon as I left the bed while the Lifesense Band 2 was slightly off, ending 5 minutes later.
(Left - Mi Band 2, Right - Lifesense Band 2)
The second half of the graphs are really similar, both registering long periods of light sleep. The first half is where we see the differences, with both bands registering different timings for deep sleep. This is likely due to a difference in deep sleep tracking algorithm. Which is more accurate? Nobody knows.
Battery Life - Great, But Not Excellent
Lifesense's website claims a battery life of up to 30 days with heart rate detection off, but the Lifesense Band 2 lasted me only 9 days on normal usage, before going into low battery mode. So are those claims on the website false? After some clarification from the Lifesense, I have the answer.
The Band 2 was able to achieve 30 days of battery life from Lifesense's lab testing because it was not connected to a phone. But most people will have it connected to their phones 24/7 to receive calls and notifications. So yeah, 30 days battery life is a little misleading.
With the same kind of regular usage and HR detection turned on, the band was able to last a little over 3 days on a single charge, before going into low battery mode. This is on par with similarly specced fitness trackers, but as seen above, HR detection is problematic to say the least.
What is low battery mode? It basically turns your Lifesense Band 2 into a dumb watch to preserve battery. Only time is accessible on the display and continuous HR detection is disabled. In this mode, you are also unable to pair the band to the app. This is a life saver.
Conclusion - Should You Get One?
At S$88, Lifesense's Band 2 isn't trying to outsell Mi Band 2. Instead, Lifesense positions it as a Fitbit Alta HR competitor, offering similar features at less than half the price. For most parts, it works really well. However, its key feature, continuous HR detection, seems very poorly implemented.
Ignoring the heart rate sensor, the Lifesense Band 2 is a pretty good fitness tracker. If you need one with a large display but do not want to pay over S$200 for a Fitbit, the Lifesense Band 2 is good for the most part. However, S$88 is a bit om the costly side for a fitness band that cannot do HR detection well.
UPDATE - Hearing From Lifesense
After the review was published, Lifesense argued that it was normal for fitness bands using similar heart rate monitor technology to produce heart rate readings for inanimate objects, citing this article on MIUI Forum. The Mi Band 1s was one of the fitness bands featured in the article and coincidentally (or not), I still have one so I tested it.
Updating the Mi Band 1s to its latest firmware, I placed it on over 30 objects around my house and tested the heart rate detection. Over three quarter of the time, the Mi Band 1s failed to produce any result or read 240bpm, which also stood for error. Meanwhile, the Lifesense Band 2 produced readings within resting heart rate for all objects.
This shows that the Mi Band 1s, while not perfect, could tell which objects should not have a heart rate most of the time. Meanwhile, the Lifesense Band 2 showed no sign of recognizing the object it is placed on. Even in air, the Lifesense Band 2 failed to recognize that there was no object directly behind the sensor, while the Mi Band 1s did not show any reading.
Hence, I do not agree with Lifesense that it is normal for fitness bands to produce heart rate readings for inanimate objects. In this day and age, even an outdated product can differentiate inanimate object from a human's wrist to a certain extent. It is not acceptable for a new fitness tracker, especially one at S$88, to not be able to do so.
