Mi Band 2 owners reporting wrist burns

If it’s not an exploding Xiaomi phone, it’s the company’s wearable in the headlines for burning wearers wrists.

Xiaomi launched the Mi Band 2 this year with some major updates over the original simple wearable. First of all the Mi Band 2 is a larger device, with a bigger battery, but on the function front the wearable finally got a screen and retained a heart rate monitor.

The heart monitor is located on the rear of the Mi Band 2 and uses a pulsing optical sensor to read your pulse, this syncs to your health app so you can stay in shape, but some users are reporting an unexpected and painful side effect.

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Users in China are posting images of the wrists with burns and blisters that they claim come from the Xiaomi Mi Band 2.

The burns look rather nasty and are surely very painful, but could they be caused by the Mi Band or a look-a-like knock off? The issue with Xiaomi products in China (and the world) is the sheer number of knock offs, many of which can fool even the proudest of Xiaomi fans!

In the past fake or unofficial chargers for phones have caused explosions, could fake wearable be causing burns or are Xiaomi really to blame here?

Do you have a Xiaomi Mi Band 2? Have you experienced any similar problems? Let us know.

Disclaimer: We may be compensated by some of the companies whose products we talk about, but our articles and reviews are always our honest opinions. For more details, you can check out our editorial guidelines and learn about how we use affiliate links.

About the author
Andi

bladesuk1
August 4, 2016
absolutely no issues with mine thus far; doesn’t even feel like it gets warm to me. but then i often leave mine relatively loose and only tighten it up when i want to use the heart rate monitor on a regular basis eg when i’m training

_jack_
August 4, 2016
how does someone even let the band burn them (assuming it is the miband) and not removing it if it get’s so hot? I can imagine it getting hot, but not like “bammm-immiediately-glowing” burned!
- NextHype
  August 4, 2016
  Think of a 23yo chinese playing MMORPG on PC for 48H non-stop. His child already died of dehydratation 6 hours ago but he’s still playing. Now his wrist is burning but he must kill that boss to loot the epic sword he’s farming for 48 hours.
  That may not be far from reality ^^
  - Adam Irvine
    August 4, 2016
    I did laugh at this! But then… it could very well be true couldn’t it… 🙁
    - Dante
      August 4, 2016
      I know an asian dude in my campus which spends like 30+ Hours plus playing some Bigass MMORPG then making pauses in real life which can be days in which hes exhausted and depressed
      - NextHype
        August 5, 2016
        Let’s hope you’re not living in America. Or let’s hope he will soon loot the epic sword he’s looking for.
        Because if not, he may get very angry some day and go buy an M16 to slaughter everyone in your campus.
        If you wanna save your campus, find a girl to date him right now and force him to quit his game.
        
        Dante
        August 5, 2016
        haha good remark
        Now that you mention it he actually did want to beat one guy up for scamming him – ended up waiting in front of a block for 5 hours then some bs arguing
    - cyril symbio
      August 4, 2016
      Man, I live in China, and I work for a video game company. Believe me, that’s true. Here, you can see dudes punching their gf in the face and trying to kill them just because the impolite females had the idea to ask them to stop to play after 24h non-stop contest. Not kidding. Thus, it is true that when you play or are really focus on something, you don’t necessary feel the pain at the very beginning. I ride motorcycle, and I once open my knee while I was riding to close to other cars. I didn’t feel it once I arrived home. But, this could also be a scam. All those pictures are from the same dude. So he got burnt, a blister, scratched it, got infected maybe, scratched it again, then sent pictures to Sina Weibo.

Ionut Johnny
August 4, 2016
Seems someone is trying very hard to make efforts that xiaomi can be seen looking bad.
bladesuk1
August 4, 2016
absolutely no issues with mine thus far; doesn’t even feel like it gets warm to me. but then i often leave mine relatively loose and only tighten it up when i want to use the heart rate monitor on a regular basis eg when i’m training

_jack_
August 4, 2016
how does someone even let the band burn them (assuming it is the miband) and not removing it if it get’s so hot? I can imagine it getting hot, but not like “bammm-immiediately-glowing” burned!
- NextHype
  August 4, 2016
  Think of a 23yo chinese playing MMORPG on PC for 48H non-stop. His child already died of dehydratation 6 hours ago but he’s still playing. Now his wrist is burning but he must kill that boss to loot the epic sword he’s farming for 48 hours.
  That may not be far from reality ^^
- Adam Irvine
  August 4, 2016
  I did laugh at this! But then… it could very well be true couldn’t it… 🙁
- Dante
  August 4, 2016
  I know an asian dude in my campus which spends like 30+ Hours plus playing some Bigass MMORPG then making pauses in real life which can be days in which hes exhausted and depressed
- cyril symbio
  August 5, 2016
  Man, I live in China, and I work for a video game company. Believe me, that’s true. Here, you can see dudes punching their gf in the face and trying to kill them just because the impolite females had the idea to ask them to stop to play after 24h non-stop contest. Not kidding. Thus, it is true that when you play or are really focus on something, you don’t necessary feel the pain at the very beginning. I ride motorcycle, and I once open my knee while I was riding to close to other cars. I didn’t feel it once I arrived home. But, this could also be a scam. All those pictures are from the same dude. So he got burnt, a blister, scratched it, got infected maybe, scratched it again, then sent pictures to Sina Weibo.
- NextHype
  August 5, 2016
  Let’s hope you’re not living in America. Or let’s hope he will soon loot the epic sword he’s looking for.
  Because if not, he may get very angry some day and go buy an M16 to slaughter everyone in your campus.
  If you wanna save your campus, find a girl to date him right now and force him to quit his game.
- Dante
  August 5, 2016
  haha good remark
  Now that you mention it he actually did want to beat one guy up for scamming him – ended up waiting in front of a block for 5 hours then some bs arguing

deeeeeezy
August 4, 2016
i also call BS on this, i’ve been using my mi band 2 for a few weeks now and with normal wear there’s no way this could happen. if the batteries have been exploding then that’s another story but I haven’t heard any reports of that..thankfully
- pizzaboy
  August 8, 2016
  - deeeeeezy
    August 8, 2016
    yes I wear it to sleep. I don’t worry about the radiation, everything electronic produces radiation and I probably get more radiation from my wifi or phone in my pocket than the miband. Not tested but such a small device can only create so much radiation.

Ionut Johnny
August 4, 2016
Seems someone is trying very hard to make efforts that xiaomi can be seen looking bad.
tkff
August 4, 2016
where is photos od this miband?
deeeeeezy
August 4, 2016
i also call BS on this, i’ve been using my mi band 2 for a few weeks now and with normal wear there’s no way this could happen. if the batteries have been exploding then that’s another story but I haven’t heard any reports of that..thankfully
- pizzaboy
  August 9, 2016
  You wear it in sleeping?
  You don’t afraid from the radiation?
- deeeeeezy
  August 9, 2016
  yes I wear it to sleep. I don’t worry about the radiation, everything electronic produces radiation and I probably get more radiation from my wifi or phone in my pocket than the miband. Not tested but such a small device can only create so much radiation.

Guest
August 4, 2016
where is photos od this miband?
Qidamin
August 4, 2016
Users? seems that there is only one user having problems…

Wolvie
August 4, 2016
I try really hard to think without any bias against any brands. But again it is just utterly oxy-moron to feel the heat built up and still insist not to take out the mi-band 2.
So my analysis is there are 3 possibilities :
1) This guy (or gal ?) is a moron who wear real mi-band2 and got unlucky have the factory defected one. But hey even Apple or samsung also got the same problem. Nobody can guarantee 100% production of millions of gadget without any defect units rite ?
2) He (or she) was using either fake mi-band2 or fake charger (not a good charger i mean)
3) He (or she) got paid to make sure xiaomi got a bad tarnish name because of this incident
- Xalis
  August 5, 2016
  An pulse-oxymeter burned my finger in a similar fashion(but way smaller area), it took like 10seconds, you don’t really feel pain the first seconds just some heat, and I tough I was just feeling the pressure of the pulse-oxymeter (clamp one for fingers) then I feel the pain and removed it, few seconds later there was a blister, just like if I had burned my finger with a match.
  - wolvie
    August 6, 2016
    - justjc
      September 5, 2016
      It might be possible with the technology in a pulse-oxymeter, but that is not what is found in the MiBand 2.
      When the MiBand 2 is asked to measure ones pulse it sends out a green light, which makes it easier for the optical sensor to read the pulse. It does not get hot, or at least haven’t gone hot in the little more than a month I’ve owned one and used it daily.
      Only thing that could result in a burn close to the one shown, using the MiBand 2, is to wear it tightly, without stop, till the lack of hygiene means that fungus and the like causes a rash.
      As for the unit shown at http://news.mydrivers.com/1/494/494240.htm I see a lot of small differences to my original MiBand 2, leaving me to think it’s a fake. If nothing else because the Mi logo is placed where mine has a clear window for the optical heart rate sensor.
    - justjc
      September 5, 2016
      It might be possible with the technology in a pulse-oxymeter, but that is not what is found in the MiBand 2.
      When the MiBand 2 is asked to measure ones pulse it sends out a green light, which makes it easier for the optical sensor to read the pulse. It does not get hot, or at least haven’t gone hot in the little more than a month I’ve owned one and used it daily.
      Only thing that could result in a burn close to the one shown, using the MiBand 2, is to wear it tightly, without stop, till the lack of hygiene means that fungus and the like causes a rash.
      As for the unit shown at http://news.mydrivers.com/1/494/494240.htm a translation shows it has nothing to do with the new MiBand 2, which is also the reason why the smart unit looks different from mine.

Qidamin
August 5, 2016
Users? seems that there is only one user having problems…

Guest
August 5, 2016
I try really hard to think without any bias against any brands. But again it is just utterly oxy-moron to feel the heat built up and still insist not to take out the mi-band 2.
So my analysis is there are 3 possibilities :
1) This guy (or gal ?) is a moron who wear real mi-band2 and got unlucky have the factory defected one. But hey even Apple or samsung also got the same problem. Nobody can guarantee 100% production of millions of gadget without any defect units rite ?
2) He (or she) was using either fake mi-band2 or fake charger (not a good charger i mean)
3) He (or she) got paid to make sure xiaomi got a bad tarnish name because of this incident
- Guest
  August 5, 2016
  An pulse-oxymeter burned my finger in a similar fashion(but way smaller area), it took like 10seconds, you don’t really feel pain the first seconds just some heat, and I tough I was just feeling the pressure of the pulse-oxymeter (clamp one for fingers) then I feel the pain and removed it, few seconds later there was a blister, just like if I had burned my finger with a match.
- Guest
  August 6, 2016
  Ah thanks for the information, so this scenario is really possible in real live.
- justjc
  September 5, 2016
  It might be possible with the technology in a pulse-oxymeter, but that is not what is found in the MiBand 2.
  When the MiBand 2 is asked to measure ones pulse it sends out a green light, which makes it easier for the optical sensor to read the pulse. It does not get hot, or at least haven’t gone hot in the little more than a month I’ve owned one and used it daily.
  Only thing that could result in a burn close to the one shown, using the MiBand 2, is to wear it tightly, without stop, till the lack of hygiene means that fungus and the like causes a rash.
  As for the unit shown at http://news.mydrivers.com/1/494/494240.htm a translation shows it has nothing to do with the new MiBand 2, which is also the reason why the smart unit looks different from mine.

xingfenzhen
August 6, 2016
Official response from Xiaomi, which shown pictured of the RMA unit the user have sent. The unit functions normally with no signs of it being burnt.
http://news.mydrivers.com/1/494/494240.htm
In tieba, people speculate that the entire thing is either a hoax, or if the user was allergic to the material used in the mi band.
- Wolvie
  August 6, 2016
  Hmmm i hope there is a logical explanation for this.
  I do hope Xiaomi are not like other manufacturers that keep insisting their products are without any defects and ignoring their customers complains without any supporting facts/evidences.

xingfenzhen
August 6, 2016
Official response from Xiaomi, which shown pictured of the RMA unit the user have sent. The unit functions normally with no signs of it being burnt.
http://news.mydrivers.com/1/494/494240.htm
In tieba, people speculate that the entire thing is either a hoax, or if the user was allergic to the material used in the mi band.
- Guest
  August 6, 2016
  Hmmm i hope there is a logical explanation for this.
  I do hope Xiaomi are not like other manufacturers that keep insisting their products are without any defects and ignoring their customers complains without any supporting facts/evidences.

sam0
August 7, 2016
The owner has right there is no doubt about the problematic product
sam0
August 7, 2016
The owner has right there is no doubt about the problematic product
Tanya
August 17, 2016
I have the mi band 1 and after 6 months of working fine, it did burn me while I was asleep. Not as bad as the above photos though but still painful. I haven’t had a response yet so emailed again today. The Basis peak has been recalled due to burning people so it could be an issue with lots of fitness trackers. I think it is the heart rate monitoring as this goes off every 10 mins on the mi band while you sleep and this is when I was burned.

Guest
August 17, 2016
I have the mi band 1 and after 6 months of working fine, it did burn me while I was asleep. Not as bad as the above photos though but still painful. I haven’t had a response yet so emailed again today. The Basis peak has been recalled due to burning people so it could be an issue with lots of fitness trackers. I think it is the heart rate monitoring as this goes off every 10 mins on the mi band while you sleep and this is when I was burned.

TheLocNar
November 16, 2016
No wrist burns here, just a rash. I got my Mi Band 2 from Tiny Deal. My Mi Band 1 never gave me a rash. I may go back to that temporarily.
TheLocNar
November 16, 2016
No wrist burns here, just a rash. I got my Mi Band 2 from Tiny Deal. My Mi Band 1 never gave me a rash. I may go back to that temporarily.

Marko
December 18, 2016
I bougt Mi Band 2 from GearBest site. On the first day everithing was Ok but when I woke up on the next morning I had those painful burns with blisters. But my burns were not on pleace where the optical sensor was. Actully, mine were on the place where the buckle was. The biggest blister is where the buckle pin touched my skin. From my case it looks like allergic reaction to used materials.
- Marko
  December 18, 2016
  Today I heve visited my doctor. She told me that it is not allergy because I have blisters. The most probably some chemical which is in the material of the buckle pin caused all this. It is not the problem with the rubber strap since the rush and blisters are localized around the place where pin touched me.
  I kept the band very tight because I noticed when it is lose the hart rate can not be measured. You can see the marks on the image I have uploaded.
Guest
December 18, 2016
I bougt Mi Band 2 from GearBest site. On the first day everithing was Ok but when I woke up on the next morning I had those painful burns with blisters. But my burns were not on pleace where the optical sensor was. Actully, mine were on the place where the buckle was. The biggest blister is where the buckle pin touched my skin. From my case it looks like allergic reaction to used materials.
- Guest
  December 18, 2016
  Today I heve visited my doctor. She told me that it is not allergy because I have blisters. The most probably some chemical which is in the material of the buckle pin caused all this. It is not the problem with the rubber strap since the rush and blisters are localized around the place where pin touched me.
  I kept the band very tight because I noticed when it is lose the hart rate can not be measured. You can see the marks on the image I have uploaded.
tonton
December 25, 2016
I bought mine directly at the Xiaomi shop in Hong Kong, so I know it is 100% genuine, and I’m having this issue, though thankfully not to the extent in the photos.

tonton
December 26, 2016
I bought mine directly at the Xiaomi shop in Hong Kong, so I know it is 100% genuine, and I’m having this issue, though thankfully not to the extent in the photos.
gedas
March 2, 2017
I have. No problems, using day-night for 10 days without taking off.
Even in shower 🙂
Looks like allergic reaction of skin. Sad 🙁
But…
If some are alergic to cat or oranges – no cat and not a orange is guilty for your alergy 🙂
gedas
March 2, 2017
I have MiBand2. No problems, even using day-night for 10 days without taking off.
Even in shower 🙂
Looks like allergic reaction of skin. Sad 🙁
But…
If some are alergic to cat or oranges – no cat and not a orange is guilty for your alergy 🙂

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