Xiaomi Smart Band 9 review | Infinium-tech

Xiaomi’s original Mi Band was the catalyst for affordable fitness trackers. The lineup also initially had no display (it got it with the Mi Band 2 in 2016), or heart rate sensor – it was as useless as they come.

Now in its 9th generation, the Xiaomi Smart Band 9 features a 1200-nit display with Always-On functionality, a quality heart rate sensor (which Xiaomi says is 16% more accurate than version 8), and a new linear Vibration motor. Better haptics. Compared to the Series 8, the new band has a bigger battery and a brighter display.

What are not? BUILT-IN GPS. For this, you’ll typically get the Pro model with the larger display, but Xiaomi hasn’t announced a 9th generation version yet – likely soon.

The Xiaomi Smart Band 9 comes in four colors – pink, black, white and blue – and the non-NFC model costs €40. It comes with its own proprietary magnetic charging cable

You can additionally purchase the Smart Band 9 Running Clip (€10) and the Dual-Tone Leather Strap (€25). Keep in mind that if you have a Xiaomi Smart Band 8 with a running clip and you’re upgrading to the Smart Band 9, you’ll need to get the new running clip as well due to the slight difference in dimensions between the two trackers.

We tested running with the Smart Band 9 strapped to our shoes and wrist and found the deviation to be less than 5%. However, not having a band on the wrist to check your heart rate and gait from time to time was not ideal.

leather strap and walking clip

Xiaomi sells several different straps depending on the market – you can choose silicone, leather, metal, or even magnetic. Or you can find a third-party alternative online – you really are spoiled for choice.

Design and build quality. Display

The Xiaomi Smart Band 9 is made of metal (although there is also a special ceramic version) and weighs only 15.8 grams, strapless. It is rated for 5ATM water resistance (50 meters).

The design hasn’t changed at all from the previous version, and you get the same 1.62-inch screen diagonal with 192x490px resolution, although the panel is twice as bright at 1,200 nits.

This is a welcome improvement – ​​the panel is easier to read in bright sunlight during the day and makes for a more useful flashlight in the dark.

There is an optical heart rate sensor on the back of the Smart Band 9 which Xiaomi says is 16% more accurate than its predecessor. It can monitor SpO2 (aka blood oxygen saturation), as well as stress with breathing exercises. There’s also an accelerometer and gyroscope for movement tracking, and an ambient light sensor for the display.

The TPU strap attaches easily – simply push it into place. To remove it, press down on the unlock lever on the bottom of the band.

The strap isn’t the easiest to fasten to your wrist and only sits well when tied tightly – loosening it means the band will move around on your wrist, which isn’t the most comfortable experience.

The display is very good. We left it on auto brightness and it managed to remain consistently legible in all lighting conditions. It lacks any kind of anti-reflection coating, but it is bright enough to be easily seen outdoors.

There are 11 preloaded watch faces to choose from and an endless list of third-party watch faces to download. Despite the narrow and tall aspect, you can easily find a face suit to suit your needs. This editor wanted a larger clock, date, and battery indication and had no shortage of options.

It has an Always-On display mode, which is custom for each watch face we tested. By default, it’s set to Smart, which will turn off AOD when you’re not wearing the band or are sleeping.

Features, fitness and sleep tracking

Xiaomi Smart Band 9 uses Mi Fitness app. ‘Mi’ is a strange relic of Xiaomi’s past life – nowadays all of the company’s products are dropping the Mi moniker.

Still, the app works well. This includes your smart wearable menus and settings as well as your health and fitness information.

To move around the UI, you swipe. Swipe left or right to see your various widgets – alarm, timer, heart rate, weather, music – swipe down on the homescreen to check notifications, and swipe up to open the Workout menu. You can create custom widgets with the functions you want, which is neat.

A big part of smart wearables is notifications. You can choose which apps can send you notifications and set Do Not Disturb mode, but you can’t respond to notifications on the band.

The Smart Band 9 supports over 150 fitness modes, although we didn’t find “Football” – sure, you can use “Freestyle” but it’s specifically based on your number of steps or fixed after a match. Does not show distance. You have to scavenge them independently from the stage menu.

Customizing Smart Band 9

We used the Xiaomi Smart Band 9 for various training sessions over the course of a few weeks of testing the device. The Workout screen shows you your heart rate and heart zones during a session. You can’t tell the display to stay on all the time, which is annoying, but it responds quickly when you move your wrist. Exiting a workout is done cleverly – you have to press and hold the End toggle for a few seconds – that way you won’t accidentally end the session midway.

Due to the lack of GPS, the Xiaomi Smart Band 9 needs to be connected to your phone to find location data. You can still use the tracker without the phone but you won’t get location data into your workouts.

fitness tracking

Sleep tracking on the Xiaomi Smart Band 9 was not monitored particularly well. You can get a detailed breakdown of your sleep in the Mi Fitness app, but on the Smart Band 9 itself, our sleep stages were shown not in hours or minutes, but in percentages. There’s no way to change it and we found it very limiting.

Then there is reading in deep sleep, which is exaggerated. This editor gets about 30 minutes to an hour per night, according to any Huawei smartwatch and Galaxy Watch he’s used. Sadly, Xiaomi’s reading of over 3 hours is wrong.

sleep tracking

battery life

The Xiaomi Smart Band 9 packs a 233mAh battery, which Xiaomi says can last up to 21 days with normal usage and up to 9 days on a single charge with AOD. It gets fully charged in about 1 hour.

We tested the Smart Band 9 with the always-on display enabled, notifications enabled, all-night sleep tracking, and about three to four 1-hour workouts per week, which is pretty rigorous use. We were surprised that the Smart Band 9 lasted a full 7 days on a single charge. That’s an impressive runtime.

conclusion

If you need a smart wearable device to track your basic fitness parameters and give you the time and notifications, the Xiaomi Smart Band 9 is an easy choice. In version 9, it’s not a bad upgrade over its predecessor, with a brighter display and larger battery.

The stamina of the Xiaomi Smart Band 9 is confidence inspiring and because of it you are more likely to forget when you last charged it, rather than suffer from battery anxiety.

The small form factor is also best if you’re serious about sleep tracking – the Smart Band 9 is really unobtrusive.

Serious runners should probably look elsewhere due to the lack of GPS – Xiaomi will be releasing a GPS-enabled Smart Band 9 Pro, which should be better suited for that.

Pros

• very affordable
• Well built and solid
• Bright display with always-on mode
• Functional software, lots of customization
• excellent battery life
• A robust suite of fitness and health features

Shortcoming

• no gps on board
• highly optimistic deep sleep reading