Smartwatches are useless! That's a pretty radical opinion, and you can read my points in the article, but what about fitness bands? If the gadget isn't pretending to be a fancy smartwatch but still doing pretty much the same stuff, and at a fraction of the price, would those things be enough to redeem it?
The Xiaomi Smart Band 9 is exactly that. A down-to-work, no-goofing around straightforward fitness tracker. It builds upon a long line of successful smart bands under the same (or similar; it used to be called Mi Band) name.
It's lightweight, stylish, it can do a lot of things, and most importantly, it costs just $59 (40 euros). Today we're going to put the Xiaomi Smart Band 9 through its paces.
Xiaomi Smart Band 9 Design and Display
The 1.62-inch AMOLED display can go up to 1,200 nits | Image by PhoneArena
People familiar with Xiaomi smart bands will recognize the design right away; it has hardly changed in the past couple of years. It's a pill-shaped body with flat screen and an aluminum frame. The bottom is made out of plastic and houses the sensors and charging pins. The silicone band that's included attaches via quick-release buttons on the body, and that's pretty much it.
The Xiaomi Smart Band 9 weighs only 16 grams without the strap | Image by PhoneArena
Put on our scale, this smart band weighs only 16 grams without the strap, or 28 grams total. There are additional bands, including a special adapter that allows you to wear the thing as a necklace, which turns this $59 fitness tracker into a fashion accessory. There are even matching watch faces to emphasize the effect.
The silicone strap is hard to put on, but very comfortable afterwards | Image by PhoneArena
We don't know if it's just our review unit, but the strap is super hard to put on—the pin just refuses to snap inside the silicone holes. It's annoying and less than ideal, but maybe it gets better with time. The Xiaomi Smart Band 9 is available in pink, black, white, and blue.
Moving to the display. It's a 1.62-inch AMOLED panel with 192x490 resolution, and one of the big improvements compared to the previous model is its brightness. Under direct sunlight, it can go up to 1,200 nits. There's also an Always-on mode, which is a must-have feature for any gadget you wear on your wrist.
One thing that could be slightly annoying for some people is that the bezel on the bottom side of the Smart Band 9 is visibly bigger than the one on the top. Maybe that's a feature and it's meant for the necklace wearing mode, but it's there, at least on our test unit.
The bottom bezel is slightly larger and can bother you depending on the watch face | Image by PhoneArena
Speaking of the bezel and watch faces, there are plenty you can choose from, and there's also the option to make your own. The same goes for the widgets; you can use the split mode to create custom widgets with two elements, which is nice and surprisingly useful.
Smart features, fitness, and health tracking
Limited smart features, but a lot of fitness tracking options | Image by PhoneArena
There are no buttons on the Xiaomi Smart Band 9, which may be a little confusing at first. You tap on the screen to wake it and then swipe. Down brings notifications, up gets you into the actual menu, and left or right swipes through different widgets.
You get notifications, but there's no way to answer on the device; you need your phone for that. You can also control the music on your phone, use the band as a camera remote, set alarms and timers, and check the weather.
There are more than 100 fitness modes on the band | Image by PhoneArena
When it comes to fitness tracking, the band excels, especially if you take into account the price. The Smart Band 9 can track more than 150 activities; there's auto tracking as well, and it works really well. Of course, the band doesn't have a dedicated GPS chip and relies on your phones, so if you want to track your runs, you need to bring your phone with you.
Above is my last 5K run, tracked with three gadgets on my wrist, a Garmin Vivoactive 5, a Huawei Watch Fit 3, and the subject of this review, the Xiaomi Smart Band 9. Overall the statistics match to some extent (heart rate tracking and zones were almost identical, don't mind the difference in average pace, I stopped the Smart Band 9 last, losing some pace there), but the Smart Band 9 was not very generous with the distance, probably due to the lack of an onboard GPS.
Sleep tracking is done the usual way, with sleep stages, wake up monitoring, and in the morning you get a sleep score. The detailed breakdown of your sleep can't be accessed through the band, and you need to use the Mi Fitness app to delve deeper.
We also found the deep sleep measurements a bit off. I got around 2:40 hours of deep sleep several nights in a row, while I know from different trackers my deep sleep times are much shorter, under the 2-hour mark. If you're persistent in tracking your sleep with the Smart Band 9, you will get your own sleep animal. Additionally, you get breathing rate, heart rate, and blood oxygen level statistics, which is nice.
Battery life and charging
This little fitness tracker comes with a 233 mAh battery, which, given the small and efficient display and the humble smart features, promises to keep the band running for 21 days. That's a bit of an overstatement, though, because you would want to turn the always-on display, and this will bring down the battery life to around 9 days, which is still pretty good.
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During our time with the band, we managed to get around a week of pretty heavy use with the always-on display turned on and at least one hour of exercise every day (running, walking, hiking, badminton, etc.).
You charge the band via a two-pin magnetic connector, and even though we would prefer a wireless charging system, at this price point we can't complain. The 233mAh battery fills up from 0 to 100% in just a tad over an hour.
Conclusion
A great fitness tracked on a budget | Image by PhoneArena"
The Xiaomi Smart Band 9 is a well-thought-out fitness tracker. It's the ninth generation, and Xiaomi has managed to polish the UI, slap on a brighter display, tweak the fitness tracking algorithms, and offer heart rate and blood oxygen monitoring while keeping the price unbelievably low.
The band is easy to wear thanks to its feather-light weight (ones you manage to click the strap on), and it looks surprisingly stylish for its price. There are, of course, some omissions.
There's no GPS chip inside, so you have to bring your phone with you if you want location data in your workouts and outdoor activities. The smart features are quite limited; unlike most budget smartwatches, this band can't take calls; there's no microphone and/or loudspeaker.
But at the end of the day, the Xiaomi Smart Band 9 manages to cover all the basics without sucking your wallet dry. And most people barely use all the fancy-schmancy features on their smartwatches after the honeymoon period anyway.
So, why pay hundreds of dollars when you can have solid fitness and health tracking in a stylish and lightweight device for pocket money?
Pros
Extremely affordable
Good battery life
Stylish design
Light & comfortable
Bright, colorful display
5ATM water resistance
Plenty of fitness modes
Cons
No GPS on board
Limited smart features
Sleep tracking might not be the most accurate out there
Mariyan, a tech enthusiast with a background in Nuclear Physics and Journalism, brings a unique perspective to PhoneArena. His childhood curiosity for gadgets evolved into a professional passion for technology, leading him to the role of Editor-in-Chief at PCWorld Bulgaria before joining PhoneArena. Mariyan's interests range from mainstream Android and iPhone debates to fringe technologies like graphene batteries and nanotechnology. Off-duty, he enjoys playing his electric guitar, practicing Japanese, and revisiting his love for video games and Haruki Murakami's works.
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