I am thoroughly impressed with the MGCOOL Band 2. It’s packed with all the features and stats you’d ever need from a fitness tracker. The battery life is absolutely fantastic. And, the band is designed quite well, especially considering how cheap it is.
Some of the things I’ve noticed are a problem with comparable devices, have been fixed here. The band is comfortable yet reliable. The charger is designed well, and even though it has a magnetic clip – which I usually loathe – it attaches in a way that it’s securely locked to the face of the watch and the port. With other devices – like the No 1 D6 – the charger would fall off and I’d come back to find the battery life lower than when I plugged it in.
The mobile app is also great for something of this caliber. It looks great. Tracks everything you want to keep an eye on, and even has some extras. For example, you can remotely control the camera shutter on your phone from the band. You can also control music playback right on your wrist.
Interaction with the band is a little sluggish, since it only has one button on the face and no touchscreen. But this is certainly forgiven.
All this aside, the MGCOOL Band 2 sounds and looks great on the surface, but is it the right wearable for you? Read the rest of our review to find out.
Elephone MGCool Band 2 Review
By all rights, this thing should be terrible. It costs less than $50 most places, and Elephone – make of the MGCOOL – isn’t exactly a well-known company.
Yet, it’s an exceptional device, so long as you’re not looking for bleeding edge features like a touchscreen or remote calling support.
At its most basic form, it is a cheap, full-featured fitness tracker comparable to a Fitbit, Jawbone, or something similar. It even has a heart-rate tracker that – while not completely accurate – is decent enough for a quick reference.
It’s also easy to interact with and navigate. There’s a single touch-based button on the front, just below the screen. A single tap on this will either cycle through the menus, or make a selection. A double tap will open sub-menus. That’s it. No touchscreen. No swipes or gestures to fiddle with. No complicated button set. It works well too.
If you don’t want to break the bank – or spend much, for that matter – this is the wearable to look at.
Overview
| Elephone MGCool Band 2 Review | |
| Overall: (3.6/5) |  |
| Build: (3/5) |  |
| Design: (4/5) |  |
| Fitness Tracking: (5/5) |  |
| Functionality: (3/5) | |
| Compatibility: (3/5) | |
The band is made of silicone while the watch portion is hard plastic. According to Elephone, the MGCool is IPX7 water resistant. In short, it’s waterproof up to 3 feet so long as it isn’t submerged for too long. Yes, that means you can take it in the shower or wash your hands with it on though you’ll need to stay away from the ocean.
It’s pretty durable. I’m not one to slam my devices around, nor do I ever take a hammer to them but this thing should withstand normal wear and tear. As for a major drop from a considerable distance, it would probably do some damage.
The small 64*48 pixel LED screen shows just enough information as necessary. It can receive call and SMS notifications, and also has an anti-lost alarm which you can trigger from your phone – to find the band if you set it down.
On the rear of the face is the heart-rate monitor and the magnetic charging port. It’s standard fanfare all around.
Overall: 4/5 – The Elephone MGCool is decent, reliable, and works as advertised. There are an impressive array of features packed in too, considering the price.
Build
Again, the Elephone MGCool Band 2 is fairly durable. It has an IPX7 water resistance rating. Other than that, there’s not much else to say about it.
The band is attached well and would take excessive force to break. The screen is protected well, although I’m not entirely sure if it’s shatterproof or not. I’d advise you not to test it.
Build: 3/5 – The MGCool is not invincible but it is durable. You can also safely take it in the pool, shower, or wash your hands with it on which is nice.
Design
The MGCool Band 2 is a bit wide – note that’s width not depth – but it’s just as sleek as any other fitness band. If I had to describe it using existing wearables, I’d say it looks like a cross between a Fitbit and a Microsoft Band.
The pictures do it justice both in size and form factor. Sometimes a watch will look smaller in pictures when it’s large in real life, and vice versa. It’s good to see that’s not the case here.
It’s sleek enough that my wife asked about it and even tried it on. That’s a big deal for her because she’s not into technology like I am. She also doesn’t crane her neck every time she sees a new gadget so it’s rare to see her interested and even excited over something like this. It also means the MGCool Band 2 has an attractive unisex design, which is surprisingly hard to find these days. Most unisex watches and wearables end up being quite bulky, especially for those with smaller wrists.
I happen to like the design. It’s minimal yet still appealing. Will you? That depends. Take a look, because what you see is what you get with this one.
Design: 4/5 – The Elephone MGCool Band 2 looks good, and isn’t too bulky either.
Elephone MGCool Band 2 Device Gallery
Fitness Tracking
There is where the MGCool really excels. Before I elaborate, let’s go over what the band can do first.
Fitness tracking support is as follows:
- Calories Burned
- Pedometer to track steps – running and walking
- Heart-rate monitor
- Total distance
- Sleep
You see, it’s not the stats you can track with the band that make it stand out. For all intents and purposes, they are the same you’d get with any other fitness tracker. No, what really stands out is how these stats are tracked and displayed in the mobile app.
I’ve been fortunate to test several cheap, generic-type wearables by now. Most of the time, the biggest problem with these devices is that the mobile app is second-rate. Elephone’s app – the one you use with the MGCool Band 2 – is excellent. It looks great too.
You can see all your stats at a glance after you sync your band with your phone. Records are stored and organized by day, week, month and year. You can also browse your entire history from the time you started tracking your data until your most recent check-in. If you need to, you can even export this data for use elsewhere.
There are remote camera and notification options too.
Tracking: 5/5 – The MGCool has fitness and health tracking, a heart-rate monitor and sleep tracking to boot. More importantly, the app is designed great too.
Functionality
For extra features, the MGCool Band 2 doesn’t offer much, but that’s okay. You can remotely control the camera shutter on your phone, from the band. You can play and pause music. You can also review SMS and incoming call notifications on the band.
Other than that, it’s meant to be used as a fitness and health tracker and that’s it.
There’s a single button on the front of the band just below the screen. This is used to swap menus and make selections. It can be a bit confusing to get used to at first, but once you spend some time with it the quirkiness goes away.
The battery lasted for six to seven days before I felt compelled to charge it, and I still could have pushed it further.
Functionality: 3/5 – The MGCool Band 2 doesn’t have much in the way of extra features, but that’s okay. The battery life is absolutely spectacular.
Elephone MGCool Band 2 Menu Gallery
Compatibility
The MGCool Band 2 is compatible with Android devices 4.4 and up, and iOS devices 7.0 and up. It would be nice to see support for Windows Phone, but that’s not common at all these days.
Compatibility: 3/5 – The MGCool Band 2 is compatible with most newer smartphones including iOS and Android.
Elephone MGCool Band 2 Review: Conclusion
We hope you enjoyed our MGCool Band 2 review and that it helped you decide whether it was the wearable for you or not. Stay tuned for more coverage!
Where Can I Get the Elephone MGCool Band 2?
You can buy the MGCool Band 2 from Geekbuying for less than $30.
But if you’d rather buy from a seller on Amazon, you can do that, as well.