Xiaomi Smart Band 9 Review: Unbeatable Value For Money

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I’ve been using the Xiaomi Smart Band 9 for two weeks now. I can tell you without reading any further, it might be my favourite bit of tech I’ve used this year. And that’s for a few reasons, not least the price.

At first glance, the Xiaomi Smart Band 9 is a slightly confusing device. By Xiaomi’s own marketing, it sits in a middle ground between being a pure fitness tracker and a full-blown smartwatch.

But I think this is part of its charm; uncomplicated, small and effective at what it sets out to do. Along the way, Xiaomi also sprinkles in some excellent unique features, adding to the sense that genuine care has gone into making the Smart Band 9.

Let’s get into it and find out if you should consider buying it.

Design

The first thing you notice about the Xiaomi Smart Band 9 is how light it is. At 15.8 grams (without the strap), it’s 20 grams lighter than the Apple Watch Series 10 and about 9 grams lighter than the Fitbit Luxe. For something used primarily for fitness tracking, that matters.

It’s also oval-shaped, which gives the Smart Band 9 a really slender profile on your wrist. When working out or going for a run, you want to be able to forget that your smartwatch/band is there which this design achieves.

Some people will dislike how small it is compared to something chunkier like a Garmin Fenix, but I think it makes sense to be nimble as a fitness-focused device.

The aluminium alloy frame looks a bit Apple-like, matching the premium look and feel of the silver Apple Watch Series 10. Neither the main body nor 2.5D curved glass screen have picked up any scratches or dents while I’ve been wearing it day-to-day.

The standard strap is made from sweat-resistant thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) which feels like a velvety plastic, but there are seven different strap types in total. You get two types in the box for free when you order; I opted for the Midnight Black Metal strap which delivers on a more formal look.

Surprisingly, the Smart Band’s adjustable straps fit my rather skinny wrists without any problems.

What’s most impressive though is the quick-release mechanism for changing between straps. Two buttons on the bottom of the device release the bands and you simply click new ones on in their place.

As I mentioned above, the main thing I’ve noticed is the care and genuine thought that has gone into the Smart Band 9. Xiaomi has tried to make it special. You can wear it around your ankle or even buy a necklace chain to make it into a pendant.

I’m not sure how it would actually look around your neck but conversations would certainly be started!

When in necklace form, you can only use it for the time and step counting. But it’s little bits of originality like this that matter, the extra mile that makes products stand out and feel special.

Display

The Xiaomi Smart Band 9’s AMOLED display is dinky by design. At 1.63 inches it sounds small because it is, but the vertical layout means everything fits on screen without any crowding or hard-to-read font sizes.

Most applications are designed to be as visual as possible so you can understand what you need at a glance.

Let’s be straight, this isn’t a huge display. It isn’t square or round and therefore looks unconventional compared to a classic watch. But, again, that’s the point of the Smart Band; to be as non-invasive as possible whilst retaining usability.

There’s a peak brightness of 1200 nits which has served me well in all light conditions, including direct sunlight. The handy light sensor module also brings automatic dimming and brightening. With a 60Hz refresh rate, the Smart Band matches the Apple Watch 10 and most other wearables.

It isn’t the most blindingly bright or vibrant display but it’s perfectly serviceable for what you’ll most likely be using it for.

You can use Always On Display (AOD) too, but I found the motion sensor to detect a flick of the wrist works most of the time to wake up the screen.

Battery

Here’s where things start to get really impressive.

If you’ve read Mark’s Apple Watch Series 10 review, you’ll know just how important long-lasting battery life is to a wearable bit of tech’s attractiveness. If you have to keep charging something every night just to use it the next day then it starts to get very annoying very fast.

Thankfully this isn’t the case with the Smart Band 9. In fact, that may well be the understatement of the year.

Xiaomi claims the battery will last up to a truly massive 21 days with ‘normal’ use and AOD turned off. Yes, I can hear you crying ‘but surely that can’t be?!’. Let me tell you friends, it isn’t far off!

With a full charge, I used the Xiaomi Smart Band 9 without AOD and the battery got down to 21% after 15 days. That was with a fitness activity tracked pretty much every day, notifications turned on and sleep monitoring at night.

For comparison, the Fitbit Luxe lasts about 5 days, and the Apple Watch Series 10 nearer to 15 hours. And yes, I know the Apple Watch does loads more stuff than the Smart Band 9, but to last that much longer it’s still mega impressive.

With AOD turned on, the battery life falls to a still impressive 9 days and 6.6 days with heavy use. But I’m not really sure what heavy use means as I can’t imagine using it much more than I did in a real-world scenario.

The TLDR of all this means you don’t need to charge the Smart Band 9 very often. In theory, only a few times a month! But when you do have to, it uses magnetic fast charging, reaching 100% in about an hour.

For the battery alone, the Xiaomi Smart Band 9 gets a massive tick.

Health tracking features

All that battery life is good, but it’s meaningless if the Xiaomi Smart Band 9 isn’t any good at being a fitness tracker.

Well, I’m pleased to report that it is very capable, with some minor issues.

The Xiaomi Smart Band 9 can track over 150 activities whilst monitoring your heart rate, training load, workout intensity, steps, VO2 Max, blood pressure and blood oxygen saturation amongst others. It will then give you something Xiaomi calls your Vitality Score.

That Vitality Score is my favourite bit of the Smart Band’s fitness tracking. It’s an aggregate of different measurements like exercise intensity and your average heart rate. When combined, this produces a number by which you can monitor your overall fitness levels.

If you reach a Vitality Score of 100 over seven days then it means, in Xiaomi’s words, that you’ve been active at a level that will significantly better your health.

It can feel vague but it gives you a nice goal to aim for each week and a real sense of satisfaction when you boost your score. It’s another little feature that makes the Smart Band 9 unique to other similar offerings.

You can also get activity-specific data. For example, if you go for a run, the Band will read your stride length and cadence. The suggested recovery period is another handy tool, although I’m sure no one really pays attention to it.

The sleep tracking is (embarrassingly for me) accurate too. As you can see below, it pinpoints when my dog barked throughout the night (thanks, Finch). It also compares you to an animal depending on your sleeping habits. I’m a Koala, if you’re interested.

There were some instances on runs where the GPS momentarily dropped out to give me some inaccurate routes, but other than this, I had no issues.

All of the data is saved onto the Mi Fitness app where you can view activities in more detail in graph form. Statistics can be stored locally on the device for seven days and then uploaded to the app on your phone when a connection is re-established. That means you don’t need your phone with you to record things.

If you want a fitness tracker that does the basics well and some specialist data too, then you won’t be disappointed with the Xiaomi Smart Band 9.

Usability

I loved using the Xiaomi Smart Band. 

Within minutes, I knew where everything could be found; swiping right to access quick options like Do Not Disturb, swiping up to bring up the main menu and down to see my notifications.

Setting it up was easy too. Choosing to pair a new device in the options menu produces a QR code. Scanning this with your phone begins the pairing process which occurs over Bluetooth.

The Mi Fitness app is simple. Changing watch faces was super easy (this can also be done on the device) and finding workout data was similarly seamless.

There were some instances where the touchscreen wasn’t as responsive as I would have liked. I often had to touch a few times to pause my music for example. 

Xiaomi also states that there is tech in place to avoid accidental touches from water which I found to be temperamental. Sometimes, I’d be able to use the screen with water on it, sometimes it would be all over the place.

But overall, it was a good experience.

Price

Have you been impressed so far? Does this sound like something you’d want to buy?

Well, here’s the thing; the Xiaomi Smart Band 9 costs as little as $49/£34. Yes, I typed that right. I can’t think of many bits of tech that have a better value-for-money ratio than this. If you can, let me know below. 

I didn’t know the price when I started testing the Smart Band 9 so when I checked about a week in, I was genuinely shocked. I thought I was using an $80+ bit of kit.

For what you get, a premium feeling, feature-packed fitness tracker with smartwatch capabilities and battery life for (literally) weeks, it really is hard to complain.

There’s no monthly subscription either and you get two straps in the box as standard. I’m struggling to think of anything more I’d want at this price point.

Should you buy the Xiaomi Smart Band 9?

Short answer? Yes. 

Slightly longer answer? If you don’t need a smartwatch with a big display, or some of the advanced features like sleep apnea detection, but still want excellent fitness tracking and a premium-feeling design, then yes!

The epic battery life, extensive suite of workout tracking and ease of use make it hard to ignore and easy to recommend.

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