Xiaomi Smart Band 9 review

13 October 2024

Xiaomi's original Mi Band was a catalyst for affordable fitness trackers. The lineup didn't even have a display intially (it got one in 2016 with the Mi Band 2), or a heart rate sensor - it was as barebones as they come.

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

What's missing? Built-in GPS. For that, you'd typically get the a Pro model with a bigger display, but Xiaomi is yet to announce the 9th generation version - likely soon.

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

You can buy the additional Smrt 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 upgrade to the Smart Band 9, you'd need to get the new running clip as well due to slight differences in dimensions between the two trackers.

We tested running with the Smart Band 9 strapped to our shoe and on our wrist and found a deviation of below 5%. However, not having the band on the wrist to periodically check your heart rate and pace wasn't ideal.

Xiaomi sells a number of different straps depending on the market - you can opt for silicone, leather, metal, or even magnetic. Or you can find a third-party option online - you are spoiled for choice really.

Design and build quality. display

The Xiaomi Smart Band 9 is made of metal (though there is a special ceramic version as well) and weighs just 15.8g, 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, though the panel is twice as bright at 1,200 nits.

It's a welcome improvement - the panel is easy to read in bright sunlight during the day and makes for a much more useful torch in the dark.

There's an optical heart rate sensor on the back of the Smart Band 9 that 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 - just push it into place. To remove it, push down on the unlock lever on the band's underside.

The strap isn't the easiest to secure on your wrist and only sits well when tightly fastened - having it loose 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 stay consistently legible in all lighting conditions. It lacks any sort of anti-reflection coating, but is bright enough to be easily visible outdoors.

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

There's 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 the AOD when you're not wearing the band or are sleeping.

Features, fitness and sleep tracking

The Xiaomi Smart Band 9 uses the Mi Fitness app. The 'Mi' is an odd remnant of Xiaomi's past life - nowadays all of the company's products are dropping the Mi monicker.

Nevertheless, the app works well. It encompasses your health and fitness information along with your smart wearable menu and settings.

The get around the UI, you swipe. Swipe left or right to view your different widgets - Alarm, Timer, Heart Rate, Weather, Music - swipe down on the homescreen to check notifications, and up to open the workouts menu. You can create custom widgets with the functions you want, which is neat.

One big part of smart wearables is notifications. You can choose which apps can send you notifications and set up a Do Not Disturb mode, but you can't reply to notifications on the band.

The Smart Band 9 supports more than 150 fitness modes, though we couldn't find a "Football" one - sure, you can use "Freestyle" but it doesn't specifically show your step count or distance covered after the match, you'll need to scrounge those from the steps menu independently.

We used the Xiaomi smart Band 9 for different training sessions during our few weeks of testing the device. The workout screen shows you your heart rate and heart zone during a session. You can't tell the display to stay always on, which is a bummer, but it responds quickly when you turn your wrist. Exiting a workout is cleverly done - you need to hold the End toggle for a few seconds - this way you won't accidentally terminate a session in the middle of it.

Due to the lack of GPS, the Xiaomi Smart Band 9 needs to connect to your phone to find location data. You can still use the tracker without a phone but you won't get location data in your workouts.

Sleep tracking on the Xiaomi Smart Band 9 was not particularly well monitored. 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 in percentages, and not in hours or minutes. There's no way to change this and we found it very limiting.

Then there's the deep sleep reading, which is exaggerated. This editor gets around 30 minutes to an hour per night, according to any Huawei smartwatch and Galaxy Watch he's used. Xiaomi's reading of more than 3 hours is, sadly, inaccurate.

Battery life

The Xiaomi Smart Band 9 has a 233mAh battery, which Xiaomi says can do up to 21 days of typical use, and up to 9 days with AOD on a single charge. It charges back to full in around 1 hour.

We tested the Smart Band 9 with an always-on display enabled, notifications enabled, all-night sleep tracking, and around three to four 1-hour workouts per week, which is pretty rigorous usage. To our astoundment, the Smart Band 9 lasted a full 7 days on a charge. That's an impressive runtime.

Conclusion

The Xiaomi Smart Band 9 is a no-brainer if you need a smart wearable to track your basic fitness parameters, and give you the time and notifications. At version 9, it's not a bad upgrade over its predecessor with a much brighter display, and a bigger battery.

The endurance of the Xiaomi Smart Band 9 is confidence-inspiring and you are more likely to forget when you've last charged the thing instead of suffering battery anxiety because of it.

The small form factor is also the best if you're serious about sleep tracking - the Smart Band 9 is truly unobtrusive.

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

Pros

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

Cons

• No GPS on board
• Overly-optimistic deep sleep reading