Xiaomi Mi Smart Band 5
This is still the budget fitness tracker champ to beat.
At first glance, the Mi Smart Band 5 at first glance doesn’t look all that different from the Xiaomi Mi Band 4. It still pairs up a similarlooking tracker module with a TPU plastic strap that comes in six different colours (compared to eight for the Chinese version).
It’s a bit of plain in terms of design, and less stylish than Fitbit’s trackers, but it feels well built and nowhere as ‘cheap’ as some trackers at this price point.
It’s the display that really elevates this tracker above the competition, though. Xiaomi uses a 1.1-inch, 126 x 294 resolution AMOLED touchscreen, which is a bump up in size and resolution on the 0.95, 120 x 240 resolution screen on the Mi Band 4. Xiaomi has also upped things in the brightness department, cranking up the max to 450 nits. The result is a display that pretty much wipes the floor with the competition.
Compare it to what you get on Fitbit or Samsung’s cheapest fitness trackers, and there’s no contest. The Mi Smart Band 5’s screen is bright, colourful, responsive and crucially, easy to view in bright sunlight.
With every new Mi Band, Xiaomi has sought to improve its uses outside of fitness and sports tracking and that doesn’t change with the Mi Smart Band 5. It’s compatible with Android phones and iPhones, bringing you features like the ability to view phone notifications, view weather forecasts, control music playback on your phone and taking smartphone photos remotely. Bottom line: it crams in a lot.
We shouldn’t forget to talk about the Band faces you have to pick from on that main screen. The bump in screen quality on the Mi Band 4 meant Xiaomi could be a bit more playful and adventurous with faces, and with the Mi Smart Band 5 it’s added a number of animated faces that need to be synced over from the Mi Fit companion app. You also have more control over what health and fitness data is displayed on those faces, which can be changed on the device itself.
For core sports like running and swimming, it fares well from an accuracy point of view. Getting
GPS support set up for outdoor activities is a bit fiddly because you need to head into the phone app to enable it, but once that’s done, you’ll be able to record key metrics like pace, distance and cadence, which we found to be pretty reliable.
Other notable features include stress tracking and guided breathing exercises, which we’ve seen crop up on many other wearables, and round off a comprehensive set of features.
Following on from the excellent Mi Band 4, the Xiaomi Mi Smart Band 5 again offers exceptional value for money. It delivers core fitness tracking features well, and improvements made to the colour display and richer sports tracking make it more desirable.
Michael Sawh