Xiaomi Mi Smart Band 6 review

The Xiaomi Mi Smart Band 6 has demonstrated that you don’t have to pay a fortune to acquire a fitness tracker that can compete with Fitbit, Samsung, and others.

Xiaomi Mi Smart Band 6 review

You get a fitness tracker like the Xiaomi Mi Smart Band 6 that works with both Android and iOS phones and gives you the same experience on both. No matter your choice, you’ll have access to features like notifications and music controls for both built-in apps and third-party apps like Spotify. The Mi Band 6 had a smaller 1.1-inch screen with a resolution of 126 x 294 and the same brightest setting. The new design is clearer, brighter, and better at going all the way to the edge of the case to show even more information at a glance.

The motion sensors that track movement while you’re doing things and let you do something like monitor your sleep are still the same. Like the Mi Band 5, it has a 3-axis accelerometer and a 3-axis gyroscope. You’ll also get a PPG optical heart-rate monitor that lets you take measurements on the spot and track your heart rate while you work out or all day long if you want. Xiaomi has also made it possible to measure blood oxygen while sleeping and on the spot. This uses the optical heart-rate sensor to get readings shown in the Mi Fit app on your phone.

In terms of what you can track, Xiaomi Mi Smart Band 6 covers the basics by letting you count your daily steps, distance travelled, and an estimate of how many calories you burn while moving. Some alerts appear if you haven’t moved around enough during the day. Automatic sleep monitoring breaks down the different stages and lengths of sleep and analyses sleep. The SpO2 sensor on board will also measure how well you breathe. On the health front, that heart-rate monitor lets you track stress by measuring heart-rate variability, and the band has breathing exercises to help you feel less stressed when you’re in a stressful situation.

Xiaomi uses the PAI Health Assessment scores, which on how often you speed up your heart rate, as a sign that you are in good health. There are also ways to track a woman’s health, like keeping track of her cycle patterns, her periods, and when she ovulates. Even though these features are “health functions,” they haven’t been cleared or approved to give serious health information. They should always of as suggestions.

When you want to track more than just steps, Xiaomi Mi Smart Band 6 has core sports modes like running (both outside and on a treadmill), swimming in a pool, skipping, and rowing. In these modes, you can track more than just the length of your workout and your heart rate. Xiaomi has gone from having 11 sports modes to having 30. Some new sports modes are ice skating, cricket, badminton, boxing, and Pilates. These will only tell you how long something took and your heart rate.

The Xiaomi Mi Smart Band 6 also has smartwatch functions, but they aren’t that different from the Mi Band 5. Here, you can choose from many Band faces, which must be downloaded on the phone app and then synced to the fitness tracker. Another reason to keep an eye on the Xiaomi Mi Smart Band 6 is its battery life. It has the same 14-day battery life as the Mi Band 5 and even charges with the same cable. When it reaches 0%, it will take about two hours to get back to 100%.