Over the past few years, Xiaomi has been consistently improving the performance and offering new features on its fitness tracker, the Mi Band, while keeping the price at check. Last year, it introduced the Mi Band 4, which comes with a colored OLED panel along with a bunch of new features, and today, the company has unveiled its latest iteration, the Mi Band 5, at an event in China. Here’s what you need to know about the all-new Mi Band 5.
One of the significant changes in the Mi Band 5 is the addition of the new magnetically attaching charging dock, which simplifies the charging experience. Compared to the previous models that required the need for the tracker to be removed from the strap and aligned perfectly with the cradle, the newer model has two nodes at the bottom of the tracker that can attach to the charging dock easily.
Besides, another welcome change on the Mi Band 5 is the 1.2-inch AMOLED colored touch-screen display that comes with a 2.5D curved glass on top. The display is around 20% bigger than the previous models, offering mode screen estate to interact with, and the band is also 5ATM (50 meters) water-resistant.
At its core, the Mi Band 5 runs on a faster processor and includes a 125mAh that promises to offer up to 14 days of battery life on a single charge. The band connects over Bluetooth 5.0 (LE) and offers the Xiao Ai’s voice assistant for hands-free interaction. Talking about tracking and fitness features, in addition to the heart-rate sensor, which has become a norm on most fitness bands these days, there is also the inclusion of photoplethysmography that aids with detecting changes in blood circulation. In addition, there is 24-hour sleep tracking, fitness tracking, PAI health analysis, and women wellbeing tracking.
Coming to sports and activity tracking, the Mi Band 5 includes tri-axis accelerometer and gyroscope, with support for tracking up to 11 different sports modes such as outdoor running, walking, cycling, indoor running, swimming, exercise, indoor cycling, etc. Moreover, with the new band, you also get sedentary reminders, better sleep tracking, and the usual slate of features like steps, weather, activities, weather, and notifications from apps, etc.
Mi Band 5: Pricing and Availability
Mi Band 5 comes in two variants: NFC and standard (non-NFC) model. The standard variant is priced at CNY 189 (~ USD 26), whereas, the one with NFC comes in at CNY 229 (~ USD 32). As for availability, the band will go on sale in China starting June 18. There is no word on the launch and availability of Mi Band 5 in India or other global markets. Stay tuned for that.