Xiaomi Smart Band 9 review: Quality refreshed fitness tracker

This Xiaomi Smart Band 9 review is done to enable readers to learn about this fitness tracker based on my experience from using it for a few weeks.

I’ve tested the fitness tracker according to my daily use, and here’s what I have to say about Xiaomi’s latest band.

Pairing the watch

Pairing the Xiaomi Smart Band 9 is pretty easy with the Mi Fitness App.

Onced I signed up into my Xiaomi account, I just needed to tap ‘Devices’ and Add Device to sync the band with my smartphone.

I could also use the bluetooth pairing option, but that wasn’t as simple as just searching for the watch in the Mi Fitness app.

Note that you can’t use the watch without pairing it first.

Design & comfort

This Xiaomi Smart Band 9 design is probably not much different if compared to other fitness trackers in the market as most look largely similar.

However, with an all-metal design, the band saperates itself from the competition by being more durable and classy, admittedly being so much more polished than its previous models.

Personally, I always liked how tiny the Xiaomi Smart Band 9 is, so I am happy Xiaomi decided to retain this capsule like design.

The metalic frame not only feels and looks good, but gives me confidence when I am using the device, as well as provides more colour options and ‘attitude’ as well, enabling me to match it with numerous colours.

The band itself is only 15.8g, making it very light on the wrist. There are times I forget I am actually wearing one because it is so lightweight.

In terms of comfort, the default silicone strap is strong despite its flexibility and there’s tonnes of colour options for customisation as well.

The standard strap is the silicone strap, but you could easily get more strap styles online.

Screen

Xiaomi had increased the brightness of the Smart Band 9 from 600 on the Smart Band 8, to 1600 in this Smart Band 9.

This means the screen of the watch, as well as the hundreds of watch faces I can choose from, would remain clear and visible despite bright day light.

The auto-brightness of the screen also kicks in when the surrounding is darker for the comfort of my eye.

The screen is also an OLED display with 60Hz refresh rate, ensuring navigation is smooth and fluid, while the colours presented through the screen pop out nicely as well.

Customization

There is over hundreds of watch faces to choose from that I was spoiled of choice, with Xiaomi further allowing users to further customize each design individually.

This meant I could use one particular design, but set what information was displayed to my liking.

In addition to that, the watch faces also included minimalist designs which make the whole band look very cool.

Also a favourite feature of mine is how the watch now has ‘always on display’ or AOD, which enables me to check the time even when I don’t move my wrist.

Health tracking

The watch can record blood presure levels, heart rate, blood oxygen, sleep, stress, steps, move and calori burn.

Xiaomi also included a new heart rate sensor which the company claims is 60% more accurate than previous models.

During this Xiaomi Smart Band 9 review, I compared the readings with my Apple Watch 9 as Apple Watch is the ‘standard measurement’ these days for smartwatches.

My comparison for the heart rate monitor shows that the Xiaomi Smart Band 9’s reading was close to my Apple Watch.

The sleep tracking is also worth to mention because it seems more solid than previous editions, with yes, my comparison with my Apple Watch showing it is not too different in terms of reading as well.

In terms of sports mode, there’s over 150+ to choose from, and the Xiaomi band can also detect such activity automatically.

Common activities like running, cycling and swimming however have more detailed analytics, giving information like swimming stroke and cycling speed.

The band also supports the running course mode which allows you to choose from multiple types of running styles like basic running, walking, basic jog and more.

Also supported is the Pebble mode which allows me to use the watch to record strides and cadence though I do need to buy a saperate clip to clip the band on my shoes to use this mode.

One thing the Xiaomi Band 9 does not have is GPS, which means I do need to bring my phone around if I wanted to track my movement.

Other features

The Xiaomi Smart Band 9 can also receive messages, notifications and alerts, but I can’t reply them.

In addition to that I can also use the band to control my phone for music, take a photo or set my alarm.

The band itself also allows me to look at my calander, activate the band’s ‘flashlight’, check the weather and ‘Find my phone’ although most of these are also synced to the phone attached to the band.

The app also allows me to track friend’s fitness details, a great feature to keep myself up to date with my kid’s’s fitness regime.

Battery Life

The battery life of the 233mAh battery of the Xiaomi Smart Band 9 is very impressive.

On a normal day use, it hardly used up 15% of its power after 5 days of use.

Xiaomi claims that light usage can power the band for 21 days, which is actually very impressive.

I however switched on all the health functions which included the always on display, and managed to get about 9 days which is so much better than others. In comparison, my Apple Watch 9 already had to be charged on the second day of use with less functions switched on.

Charging to full capacity needs about an hour to complete.

The Xiaomi Fitness app

As you may have realized, I mentioned the Xiaomi Fitness App quite often here. This is largely because the Xiaomi Smart Band 9 functions are well when synced with the app.

Syncing of data is seemless and the analysis of the data collected by the Band 9 is also much better presented and elaborated in this app.

The app is easy to navigate, and it is also very functional.

It also allows quite a lot of customisation to fit my preference, making it one of the better fitness related apps in the market.

Conclusion & Where to buy

To conclude this review, I think the Xiaomi Smart Band 9 is a very compelling weareable to have.

Compared to its predecessors, the Xiaomi band has better screen brightness, batery life and design, making it a very tempting upgrade.

In addition, when you consider the pricing, the Xiaomi Smart Band 9 is simply nicely priced at RM199, making this rather complete fitness band something anyone should consider.

Personally, I think it would be a great watch for school going children as well as it is void of ‘smart functions’ which are not allowed in school such as the calculator and call making.

For best pricing as well of promotions related to the Xiaomi Smart Band 9, you can go to the official Xiaomi Store HERE.

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