This fitness band with heart-rate sensor is cheaper than you’d expect

One of the welcome changes in the Michigan Band Pulse is the built-in heart-rate sensor, which now makes it a complete activity tracker. No, it’s 100 yuan in China, and that’s about $16, just $4 more than the original. The wearable is dust-and water-resistant, and syncs with phones running Android 4.4 or iOS 7. On the top of the core module are three LED lights, ready to show progress towards your goal, and can be used for notifications. The biggest addition to the fitness tracker is the optical heart rate sensor.

The Mi Band 1S measures 37×13.6×9.9mm (so a tad larger than the Mi Band) and also weighs half a gram more than the Mi Band.

It’s worth noting, however, the Apple Watch and the Michigan Band aren’t direct competitors. The company also announced that it will continue to sell the original Michigan Band. The Michigan Band 1S is the successor to its Michigan Band fitness tracker which was launched previous year. Unlike its predecessor which joined the wearables market sporting a price-tag of just under $30, the new Michigan Band 1s will be available for CNY 99, or about $15, when it goes on sale later this week. However, we expect the Mi Band Pulse to be available outside of China soon, since the Mi Band itself retails in India, Europe and the USA too via Xiaomi’s global Mi.com store. A quick search on eBay reveals that the first gen Michigan Band isn’t hard to get hold of, although you may have to pay a couple of dollars extra to get it. The 2nd gen will undoubtedly follow soon. However, you should still be able to pick them up on specialist Chinese tech import sites in Europe and the United States cheaply.