Mio Fuse – a heart rate monitor that is enough for everyone. A good option for those who have not yet acquired something similar.

What is it and why is it necessary

Mio created a universal device that will suit both ordinary people and those who diligently monitor their physical form.

• It is convenient to use while jogging and cycling. Especially if you don’t like to bandage yourself with chest straps.
• The tracker will be useful for training in the gym for those who need to track their heart rate for better results.
• It will come in handy even if you are not actively involved in sports, but just want to keep fit. To do this, the bracelet tracks daily physical activity.

To be honest, you won’t be able to find anything better or more versatile than the Mio Fuse. He can do almost everything that is expected from activity trackers, with the exception of accounting for sleep phases.

What’s in the box

The delivery set does not strike the imagination, and in principle, it should not. The box in which the fitness bracelet is supplied contains the tracker itself, a magnetic charger dock with an integrated USB cable, and booklets with simple instructions and warranty service conditions.

Although the manufacturer offers devices in two colors, buyers will not have much choice. The point is that turquoise Mio Fuse Aqua only available in small size and red Mio Fuse Crimson — only in the big one. And although the true motives for such a decision are unknown, it is logical to assume that, in this way, the manufacturer separated the male and female models.

The device is made of softsoft touch” silicone and weighs less than 40 grams. Unfortunately, a tactilely pleasant material, like a magnet, attracts dust particles from the surrounding air. Therefore, achieving perfect cleanliness of the gadget will be a non-trivial task.

In the center, under a translucent coating, there is a small LED screen, which, in addition to displaying the collected data, can serve as a clock.

Of course, the Fuse is a little on the big side compared to its competitors. However, the stylish red and black bracelet looks just fine on the hand. Its design is concise, devoid of catchy details. Even in combination with a shirt and a suit, the device looks quite appropriate. In my opinion, Mio offers one of the most beautiful activity trackers on the market.

The gadget is controlled by three touch buttons: two located on the sides of the screen, and one central. The side buttons are responsible for navigating through the tracker’s menu items, and the central one is used to switch operating modes.

It is worth noting that Mio Fuse is two devices in one. The first is a regular fitness tracker that will count your steps, calories burned, progress towards your goals. The second is an advanced heart rate monitor from Mio, which is in no way inferior to the updated Mio Alpha.

By long pressing the central button, the tracker is switched to the heart rate monitor mode and starts measuring the pulse. After that, it will be possible to start recording a workout, which can be started / paused by briefly pressing the central touch button. In training mode, the tracker can display its duration, speed, distance traveled, calories burned and, of course, the current heart rate. Also in training mode, a separate colored LED will show which zone your heart rate is in. This will be useful for those who, depending on the type of activity, must maintain the desired heart rate. Also, when moving from one heart rate zone to another, the heart rate monitor will give a signal with a built-in vibration motor.

You can save your workout data and switch back to the activity tracker mode in the same way — by long pressing the center button.

The battery charge should last for a week with daily workouts lasting about an hour. In the continuous heart rate recording mode, the battery will last about 10 hours.

All data that Mio Fuse registers, whether it’s saved workouts or just progress towards achieving daily goals, is automatically synchronized with the proprietary Mio GO application via the built-in Bluetooth 4.0 module.

By the way, the memory in Mio Fuse is enough to store up to 14 days of daily activity records and up to 30 hours of training. And you don’t have to worry about the device running out of memory suddenly. When free space is left for 2 hours of recording, the tracker will report a lack of memory with the message “LOW MEM“. During the remaining time, it is better to find an opportunity to synchronize data from the bracelet, otherwise the screen will display “NO MEM“, and data recording will stop.

When you first launch the Mio GO app, you will be asked to register, fill in a brief information about yourself, and automatically connect the tracker.

How does it work

You can initiate a workout recording not only from the bracelet, but also from the native Mio GO application. Despite the fact that it can record 8 different types of activity, the data will still end up in Health.app as “Walking or jogging”.

In general, heart rate data can be used by any sports application that supports the connection of external accessories. Therefore, using the same RunKeeper or sports trackerseems more reasonable to me. They are able to issue voice notifications during training, have advanced tools for assessing your achievements and good social integration.

In Mio Fuse, the accuracy of heart rate measurements turned out to be expected at a height. Moreover, I neglected the manufacturer’s recommendations and put on the bracelet both on the inside and on the outside of the wrist, and with and without an indent of 8 cm from the bone on the wrist. The pulse measurements were always accurate.

Among other features of the fitness tracker, it is worth noting that it supports the ANT + protocol. This means that the Mio Fuse will be able to send data to an impressive list of GPS watches or bike computers. Yes, and water resistance will not be superfluous. The manufacturer does not recommend swimming with the tracker in the pool, but it is quite possible to use it in the rain.

In the process of use, some inconveniences associated with the form factor of the device showed themselves. So, Fuse looks better when it is worn on the outside of the wrist, but it is more convenient to use it when put on the inside.

In the first case, in order to read the data, the hand must be twisted at an unnatural angle.

And in the second, the clasp of the bracelet will be on the outer, visible side of the wrist, which looks a bit rustic.

In addition, I found that sometimes the bracelet does not respond to key presses. It turned out that the accelerometer blocks the buttons when the bracelet is in a horizontal position, which corresponds to the vertical position of the hand. Apparently, so, the manufacturer decided to exclude erroneous button presses while walking or during classes. The lock does not bring discomfort in handling the device, but it requires, at a minimum, getting used to.

Among its weak points, I can only attribute the need to compromise in the choice of wearing method and the soiling of the material from which the bracelet is made.