It may seem that Xiaomi’s product catalog in Spain is extensive, but it is just the tip of the iceberg of everything it sells in China. While the arrival of some devices in Europe is a matter of time, in other cases there will be no such luck: the brand’s foreign marketing strategy is unknown. So we have to wait or travel to China to try their devices first-hand and even take one home. This is precisely what we have done with the Xiaomi Mijia Smart Skipping Rope, a smart and very cheap jump rope to jump…even without a rope.
A functional and original design
When we open the box, what we find are the two handles of the rope, a separate rope, the manual and a practical cloth bag to store everything. A rope and handles separately? Yes, because with this rope you can jump with or without a rope, one of its strong points as we will see later.
Any more of those ropes we usually see in gyms could pass as a rope.
The sleeves have a functional design that aesthetically could pass as any other rope that we usually see in gyms, although the feeling in hand is weak, both due to the quality of the material and its lightness. It seems that in the event of a potential fall, they could be easily scratched. With the classic cylindrical shape, they are made entirely of a plastic with a light matte finish, pleasant to the touch and that does not slip even when your hands are wet (for example, from sweat), so the grip is good and firm.
The edges are rounded and on one of the sleeves (let’s call it the master sleeve from now on), at the lower end we find a USB-C port for charging and a button with the usual on/off icon.
On the side, an LED panel that goes completely unnoticed when the device is off and that can be seen perfectly indoors but whose lack of brightness takes its toll on the brightness outside. It is not something dramatic, although the usual thing is to jump rope inside a sports venue. Of course, if you like to jump outdoors, you will have to put a little effort into seeing what the screen shows.
The most striking thing is that at the other end of the sleeves there is a hole where by default there is a small rope with a ball about three centimeters in diameter. These balls simulate the weight of the rope itself so that it can be used wirelessly, that is, to jump without a rope, but if we wish we can remove this element and replace it with the jump rope. As a note: the included rope is three meters long, but since there is a pin, we can play with its length depending on our height.
A setup with trick and control
The million dollar question and my big fear when I bought the rope at a Mi Store in Shenzhen was whether I could use it here with the Xiaomi Home application, since it is not sold here. It has its own, so I tell the process in case it can be of help to other people. On the sides of the ropes there is a QR code that I tried to read with my iPhone without success: it captured a series of alphanumeric characters that led nowhere.
Fortunately I had better luck with the two QRs in the manual (yes, completely in Chinese, but with some keywords in English like ‘Android 6.0’ or ‘app’), which respectively took me to a usage video showing the Mi application Fitness and the Mi Fitness website respectively. I downloaded it (free for Android on the Google Play Store and for iOS on the App Store), installed it, created an account, and started syncing.
Using this Xiaomi gadget that is not sold in Spain is possible simply by changing the profile location
Again, I had problems. The pairing process is generally very similar regardless of the device, so I just turned on the sleeves to see the Bluetooth icon flashing: good sign. However, when I went to add the device, I couldn’t find the rope. So I was searching through the settings until I found that in ‘Profile’ > ‘Settings’, I had put Spain. I changed it to Spain to try it and everything went smoothly: suddenly I saw the gadget and in a matter of seconds I had it linked to the application and my mobile phone. In short: using this Xiaomi gadget that is not sold in Spain is possible simply by changing the location of the profile, although perhaps with other devices things will change.
How does it work? With a long press we will turn the device on and off. With a specific touch we will alternate between the options, which are indicated with a very intuitive icon. Thus, it is possible to view from the LED panel:
- The count of the jumps we take.
- A stopwatch to be able to quantify how long we are doing this exercise.
- Estimation of calories burned.
However, this same thing can be seen from the application as a whole and in more detail (it is the Xiaomi application for wearables, so there are also categories of sleep, heart rate, stress, blood oxygen) by going to the ‘Training’ section. ‘ and there entering ‘Mijia Smart Skipping Rope’.
Here we will see the record of our activity saved thanks to connectivity, but it is more interesting to scroll down to find a list of videos of different intensities and time where we find routines to get the most out of the device (although it is in Chinese, it is quite descriptive and nothing more is necessary).
Testing the rope: perfect to get started
There is a custom of calling products that are simply connected as “smart” – in this case, with Bluetooth 5.0 – but this is not the case with this Xiaomi Mijia Smart Skipping Rope. And inside it houses a series of multipoint sensors among which is an accelerometer, an old acquaintance on our phones.
This instrument consists of a mobile part that moves depending on the applied acceleration, and another fixed part capable of interpreting the voltage originated in that movement, which allows it to determine speed and orientation. In a phone they are used to measure movement in three-dimensional space and in this rope it has the mission of detecting when we jump, avoiding false counting.
Thus, every time we replicate the typical movement of jumping rope, the LED panel counter goes up one unit, something that, for example, it does not do if you shake it or if we carry it in our hand and it moves with the typical swing. of walking. Of course, you can be on the couch and turn your wrist emulating a jump and it does work, so yes, you can fool him… another thing is whether it makes sense to do so. But the important thing is that with the muff in hand, it won’t make us jump extra when we are simply carrying it.
What I liked the most by difference is being able to jump without a rope for many reasons. The first, practice this powerful and complete cardio exercise at home without having to put lamps and furniture at risk. The second, it is possible to jump just as you would with a standard rope (even cross jump or double and triple jump like you were a pro), but if you are just starting out and skill is not your thing (there are already two of us), it is considerably more easy. Come on, it won’t be the first or the last time I hit myself in the face with a rope and with this device for obvious reasons it doesn’t happen to me. Furthermore, by doing it well (that is, jumping), the physical result will be identical to doing it with a rope.
If one day you prefer to jump rope the old-fashioned way, you adjust it to the height and you will have a practical built-in counter or stopwatch, which is not bad at all. Another option: you take it to the gym to jump and discover that it has no battery. Then it won’t be a problem because you can use it like any rope. In any case, I can already tell you that it will be difficult for you to do so: I have been using it for a month, practicing several days a week for a few minutes (I am a beginner) and I have not yet had to charge it, something as simple as using the iPhone cable and plugging it into the current. Thus, the brand promises an autonomy of more than 20 days of use.
Xiaomi Mijia Smart Skipping Rope, SamaGame’s opinion
The Xiaomi Mijia Smart Skipping Rope has achieved something that not even my three months in kick boxing did: get into jumping rope with a certain frequency and intensity. Not having to go to the gym or go outdoors is essential so that I don’t get lazy and not having to deal with the rope rounds out the experience.
If the above is not a milestone for you, there are several tricks up your sleeve, such as the possibility of better controlling your exercises and having video sessions to get ideas and get out of your routine. From here, in terms of handling or design it does not differ from decent traditional jump ropes and the price is not excessive either.
It cost me 99 yuan in China, a little less than 15 euros, and although we don’t know if it will arrive in Spain, it is not too difficult to find it imported for about 20 euros. In fact, it costs less than this Adidas rope that I bought for the gym at the time. So If you have considered starting to jump or you are bored and looking for something differentit is a most interesting gadget.
