Xiaomi Amazfit Cor (Midong A1702) Smartband Review

For over a year, Xiaomi focused on its affordable smartband, the Xiaomi Mi Band 2. It is a lightweight fitness focused smartband that is light on the budget, it is the most popular affordable smartband in the market and currently holds the record for the most number of smartband sold worldwide.

We have a Xiaomi Mi Band 2, and we are amaze with its simplicity, its features, but we want more including the fans that are waiting for the next Mi Band 2.  After a year, Xiaomi might be on the right track with this new smartband. The latest smartband in the arsenal of Xiaomi is the Midong A1702 or popularly known as Amazfit Cor or just Amazfit Band, again this smartband is made possible in partnership with Huami, the 1 wearable device company in the world.

Amazfit Cor Details

Well, here at smartwatchspecifications.com, we are lucky to have this wearable in our collection to provide you with a review of this smartband, so check out our insights on its specs and features.

Design and Display

Similar to Mi Band 2, the Amazfit Cor do have a soft silicon strap that is interchangeable, but I found the band of the Cor to be much durable as well as professional looking and well designed. It is a clip on band similar to that of the Fitbit Alta Band or Charge 2.0. Right now, there is no available third party strap for the Amazfit Cor, but there are at least 6 color option like black, blue, red, gray, orange and green.

When it comes to display, the Amazfit Cor is one of the first affordable smartband to abandon the monochrome OLED display, instead it uses an IPS color screen display, with 80 x 160 pixel resolution, the 1.23” inch screen is not that sharp compared to the likes of Gear Fit but it has a much richer color compared to the conventional monochrome OLED display that you usually see on smartbands that is being offered. Amazfit Cor has a touch screen interface instead of touch button which is a welcome changes for a smartband, it provides easy access to menus, by easy tap or swipe on the screen.

Get the Amazfit Cor Here at Gearbest.com

Overall, the design is great, the case which is a combination of stainless steel and PC is durable, the glass also premium, which is a 2.D Gorilla glass display making it durable from scratches.

Features

The Amazfit Cor got the basic features, it has pedometer, heart rate monitor, calorie counter and distance counter as well as sleep monitor. There are at least 4 menus, the message center, weather, timer and alarm and settings. Submenus on the “Settings” include watch face settings, brightness and lock option.

WatchFace

Regarding the watch face/clock skin, there are at least two preloaded watch face, but with the additional firmware update at least two additional watch face has been added, a full detailed digital watch face that includes weather, date, time, step counter into one watch face. And the other one is the analog watch face with a simple design, it also includes pedometer and date, we expect that more will be added with additional firmware updates in the future.

Message Center

Receiving notifications is also plus for Amazfit Cor, it is not just the name but also the content of the messages that is forwarded to your smartband. You can scroll to the list of text messages that you receive, the notifications is direct accompanied with mild vibration to alert you.

Weather

Weather is also in real time, update on weather is feed directly to the smartband with the aid of the support app, up to 7 days of weather changes is displayed on your Cor.

Hardware

Amazfit did not provide much detail on the inner hardware of the Cor, but it got the basics like the acceleration sensor, PPG heart rate monitor. But based on the battery performance with Amazfit Cor, Amazfit used a low power consumption chip processor for its smartband as well as the Bluetooth 4.0 chip. No details on the memory also but based on our experience, the smartband can store several messages on the band, which tells us that it has a huge storage space compared to a common Chinese smartband.

Battery

Based on the specs, the smartband has 170 mAh Lithium Polymer battery with standby time of 12 days. But based on our test, its more than that, it is around 20 days of battery life but still it depends upon your usage, the . But if the Bluetooth connectivity is turned on , the device run for at least 10 days only. It uses a proprietary magnetic charging cradle, that is easy to connected to the back of your Amazfit Cor.

Software

The Amazfit Cor uses the Mi Fit App that is also available for Mi Band 2. So far Xiaomi keeps on upgrading the support app adding new features and options. So far, it provide all the basics for the smartband, but of course it is still inferior compared to the likes of Fitbit and Garmin support app.

What’s Missing

The UI for the Cor is great, it’s easy to navigate, and switching to different options is just a matter of swiping from left to right or up and down. But just like any other smartband in the market it is missing some few features.

No English Language/Firmware – right now, the Cor is in Chinese language, there is no option as the time of this review to switch the band to English language, there is no firmware available for download to update your band manually which is a bit frustrating for those who don’t understand the Chinese language. If you want to buy the international version, there is also no available  smartband yet.

No Digital 12 Hour Format – if you are not used in reading a 24 hour format time (military time), this could be a huge issue, the only temporary solution on this one is the analog watch face added to the smartband after a firmware update. We hope a 12 hour format option will be added soon to Amazfit Cor watch face.

OverAll

The Amazfit Cor is a good smartband in terms of design, the stylish color screen is a plus for those who wanted more for their smartband in terms of design and usage. It also has an amazing battery life even if it using a wide colored IPS screen.

The price is also a plus, it only cost $50 dollars making it very affordable if you compared it to other band with the same specs and features. So far, the features that may turn –off other users from getting the band is the lack of built-in GPS and the option to change the language to English, anyways the latter may be solve by a firmware update.

Jo Di Calivo -Blogger, Tech Guru, providing the current news on wearables particularly on smartwatches, smartbands. And loves to go fishing on spare time.