Earlier: The smartphone giant Xiaomi has now finally unveiled the all-new Mi Band 5 in its homeland China. The new fitness tracker comes as a successor to the popular Mi Band 4 (review) launched last year in June. It brings several new features and enhancements to the table including a colorful AMOLED display, magnetic charging, and animated watch faces. Let’s have a detailed look at Mi Band 5 features, specifications and how does it compare against the Mi Band 4.
Xiaomi Mi Band 5: Features, Specifications
Large Display
The Mi Band 5 comes with a large 1.1-inch color AMOLED display, compared to the 0.95-inch panel on the Mi Band 4. It boasts a screen resolution of 126 x 294 pixels and supports 100% of the P3 color gamut. The brightness is capped at 450 nits. The small touch key at the bottom makes up for unlocking and return controls. Furthermore, the fitness tracker supports over 100 animated watch faces with characters from popular animated series such as Neon Genesis Evangelion, Hatsune Miku, Case Closed, and SpongeBob SquarePants. The Mi Band 5 is also water-resistant up to 50 meters.
New & Improvised Tracking Modes
Notably, there are a total of eleven different activity tracking features onboard. It includes outdoor running, treadmill, cycling, walking, freestyle, and pool swimming. New inclusions comprise elliptical, rowing machine, jump rope, indoor cycling, and Yoga. Xiaomi claims of using an improved processor for faster and more accurate tracking.
Women’s Health & PAI
Besides sports tracking, there’s a separate Women’s Health mode, which allows female users to track their menstrual cycles. Xiaomi is also offering a Personal Activity Intelligence (PAI) score to help users understand the impact of physical activities on their fitness.
Improved Sleep Tracking, Heart Rate Monitor
The Mi Band 5 brings 24-hour sleep tracking to the Mi Band-series. For more efficient sleep tracking, it will also report REM (rapid eye movement) sleep and sporadic naps alongside deep & light sleep. This, when coupled with continuous heart rate tracking, will help Xiaomi give you personalized suggestions to improve sleep quality.
SPO2 Sensor, Barometer, NFC
Similar to Honor Band 5, the Mi Band 5 gets a SpO2 sensor for measuring oxygen levels in the blood. The same helps to enhance the sleep monitoring function. Furthermore, it comes with an inbuilt barometer to gauge the atmospheric pressure. Note that the tracker comes in two different variants- with NFC and without NFC. The latter can be used for payments at NFC-based payment terminals in China.
Notifications, Remote Control, Mic
As usual, the Mi Band supports notifications for social media, incoming calls, text, weather updates, and more. It also carries forward the music control feature, which lets you manage the music playback on your phone through the band. Interestingly, the tracker can be used as a remote shutter button for clicking pictures through the phone from a distance. Heck, you even get a built-in microphone to enable voice commands.
Battery Life, Magnetic Charging
Xiaomi is touting a 20-day battery life for the regular Mi Band 5. Whereas, the NFC variant is said to last about 14-days on a single charge with the 125mAh cell. The band employs a magnetic charging mechanism that eliminates the need for taking the tracker out of the strap or placing it in the cradle, as the case with previous generations.
Price, Availability
The Mi Band 5 price in China has been set at 189 yuan (about Rs. 2,000) for the regular variant. Whereas, the NFC-model has been priced at 229 yuan (about Rs. 2,500). It’ll go on sale in Chinese markets starting June 18. Xiaomi will likely launch the regular variant in most of the international markets, including India. As of now, the company hasn’t made any announcements regarding the global launch.
Mi Band 5 vs. Mi Band 4; Should you buy it?
Now, many of you might be wondering if you should wait for the Mi Band 5 or if it’s a worthy upgrade over the Mi Band 4. Well, as evident, Band 5 brings loads of new additions to the table. The larger display, revamped charging mechanism, more tracking modes, and freshly added features like SpO2, 24-hour sleep tracking, and PAI definitely make it an ideal choice for both, new buyers as well as existing Mi Band 4 users. However, if you’re looking for changes in design, then there’s nothing much to rave about. The basic design profile stays more or less similar to the previous generation.
