After a decade of dominance in budget fitness bands with its signature Smart Band lineup, Xiaomi strikes back again with its ninth iteration. The secret sauce behind Xiaomi’s success in the wearable space is its ability to sell the latest trendy features at an affordable price point, just like its competitors. This strategy is why the Chinese giant has been ruling the global market with its impressive fitness-focused smart bands, and the company’s latest model, the Xiaomi Band 9, is no exception.
Xiaomi’s new dynamic fitness device, the Smart Band 9, truly enhances the best budget wearable experience. The Xiaomi Band 9 brings significant improvements across the board—from the display and sensors to the battery and overall build—surpassing its predecessor, the Band 8, which was announced last year. However, these upgrades are not substantial when compared to last year’s model. If you are already the owner of the Xiaomi Band 8, upgrading may not be necessary; however, if you have the Band 7 or Band 6, it is worth considering an upgrade.
The big question remains: does this new generation of Smart Band hold its ground against competitors like Fitbit, Huawei, Garmin, and other affordable wearables? I took the Xiaomi Smart Band 9 out to find out.
Pros
- Sturdy and classy metal body
- Comfortable to wear
- Bright AMOLED display
- Solid battery life
- Feels more premium
Cons
- No GPS
- Global edition misses out on NFC feature
- Fitness tracking isn’t always super accurate
Price and Availability
The Xiaomi Smart Band 9 starts at just $39.99 and is available in Midnight Black, Glacier Silver, Arctic Blue, Titan Gray, and Mystic Rose color options. Xiaomi has also launched the Band 9 NFC variant, but unfortunately, that remains limited to China. Additionally, Xiaomi offers seven different stylish straps for the Band 9, which can be purchased separately.
While the Xiaomi Band 9 isn’t officially available for sale in the US, you can purchase the global version through importers on Amazon US for $60. Rest assured, it works perfectly well in the United States.
Design and Build
Xiaomi has opted for its signature pill-shaped design for the ninth generation of the Band, maintaining a simple yet compact aesthetic. The Band 9 is more compact and lightweight than its predecessor, the Xiaomi Band 8. It features a sturdy metal frame that measures 46.5 mm x 21.6 mm x 10.95 mm and weighs just 15.8 grams, making it ideal for any wrist. The new metallic frame design offers a premium look when worn.
On the front, the Band 9 retains the rectangle-shaped AMOLED display from the previous generation, while the rear houses a charging port and various sensors. These include a high-precision 6-axis sensor, an ambient light sensor, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, and an optical heart rate sensor. Notably, there are no buttons or speaker grills on the Band 9. It is rated with 5 ATM water resistance, allowing it to withstand depths of up to 50 meters for approximately 10 minutes. This feature makes it suitable for water sports, providing peace of mind against potential damage.
This time around, Xiaomi offered five models: Midnight Black, Glacier Silver, Arctic Blue, Titan Gray, and Mystic Rose, giving the Band 9 a classy yet premium look. Xiaomi provided us with the Titan Gray model, which looks very stylish. Along with the band, you receive either white or black TPU straps that, honestly, look quite cheap. However, you can always opt for Xiaomi’s premium Band 9 straps, available in metal, chain, and leather materials. Additionally, you can choose the Pendant or Clip option, which is available through Xiaomi’s official store.
Since Xiaomi has switched to a quick-release mechanism for its straps in the latest model, you can use the Band 8’s straps with the newer versions. Unfortunately, the Band 7 straps are not compatible with the new fitting.
The wide range of style choices and solid metal build are hard to find in budget fitness trackers. Xiaomi is really doing a great job here.
Display
Xiaomi has made minor upgrades to the display of the Band 9. The display now features a peak brightness of 1200 nits, an increase from the 600 nits on the Xiaomi Band 8. This improvement makes a significant difference when navigating menus and viewing notifications in sunlight. With 1200 nits of brightness, the panel feels very bright, and I didn’t struggle to read the information displayed on it even when outdoors.
The Band 9 retains the same 1.62-inch AMOLED display with a 60Hz refresh rate and a resolution of 192 x 490 pixels. The AMOLED panel looks impressive, offering deep blacks and crisp, vibrant colors. Touch sensitivity is excellent; the Band 9 quickly registers touches, even with wet fingers.
The front panel is protected by 2.5D reinforced glass, safeguarding it from accidental drops and scratches. I can confirm that the glass is very tough. During my testing, the band accidentally fell from my hand three to four times from a height of about 3 to 4 feet, and surprisingly, it passed my “accidental drop” test with no scratches or damage.
Features and Software
Xiaomi has incorporated the latest Bluetooth v5.4 connectivity into its ninth-generation band, which quickly pairs with your smartphone as well as the Mi Fitness app, syncing all data effortlessly.
The Band 9 operates on Xiaomi’s HyperOS right out of the box. The new user interface feels very user-friendly and easy to navigate, requiring only simple swipes left, right, up, or down. Swiping left or right opens the weather forecast, music controller, heart rate and sleep monitoring, quick settings, and other apps.
Swiping up reveals the app menu, where you can find different workouts, health metrics, calendar events, settings, stats, and plenty of other features. Swiping down opens a notification panel that allows you to check the latest notifications, but unfortunately, you cannot reply to notifications directly from the band. Similarly, for phone calls, you can only reject them or send a preset message, such as “Talk to you later” or “In a meeting.”
The coolest feature of the Band 9 is that you can easily customize the home screen. By simply holding the home screen for 1-2 seconds, you’ll discover over 200 pre-loaded watch faces available on the device.
However, Xiaomi has included two significant features in the Chinese variant that are unfortunately missing from the global version: GPS and NFC payments. This omission is quite disappointing. Without GPS and NFC, you won’t be able to make payments or track your exercise routes with the Band 9.
Sports and Health Tracking
Designed for fitness enthusiasts, Xiaomi has packed all the essential tracking features into the Smart Band 9, making it an excellent and affordable companion for fitness tracking.
Xiaomi Smart Band 9 comes equipped with workout tracking modes for over 150 different activities. These range from everyday workouts such as cycling (both indoor and outdoor), running, swimming, freestyle, hiking, and strength training, to more specialized athletic events like paddleboarding, sailing, kayaking, rafting, ATV riding, paragliding, BMX, jiu-jitsu, and horseback riding.
Additionally, the fitness tracker supports automatic workout detection for running, walking, rope jumping, rowing, using an elliptical machine, and cycling.
Tracking has significantly improved on the latest Smart Band 9 compared to the previous generation model. During my three weeks of rigorous testing, the Xiaomi Smart Band 9 performed well. The Xiaomi Band 9 effectively tracked most of my workouts, including cycling, running, and strength training. The device measures different levels of activity and stress throughout each workout, including light, intensive, aerobic, anaerobic, VO2 max, training load, average pace, and recovery time. You can easily check all of these metrics directly on the Band, but for a detailed fitness analysis, you’ll find more insights in the Mi Fitness app.
Additionally, the fitness tracker supports automatic workout detection for activities such as running, walking, jump rope, rowing, elliptical training, and cycling. However, my experience with auto-workout detection was somewhat inconsistent. As a result, I often preferred to manually start the tracker at the beginning of each workout.
Xiaomi’s in-house fitness tracking app, Mi Fitness, offers a comprehensive overview of your tracked data in a simple and clean manner, making it accessible even for beginners. The companion app allows for third-party integrations with Strava, Google Fit, and Suunto, providing a more holistic analysis of your workouts. Additionally, the app enables you to customize the health metrics you want the Band to track in greater detail, allowing you to monitor your fitness goals and adjust dozens of settings to your liking.
While I wouldn’t say the Band 9 is perfect, it generally provides accurate data. However, I found that certain metrics, such as step counts, are often under-counted, and calorie burn estimates can be unreliable.
If you’re serious about fitness, you may want to consider more premium options like the Garmin Fenix or Whoop 4.0 instead of relying solely on the Band 9’s data.
Regarding health tracking, the Band 9 is equipped with improved sensors, offering all standard monitoring options: heart rate, stress, sleep, and blood oxygen levels. All of these health metrics can be measured automatically, though many features, such as blood oxygen levels, resting heart rate data, and high/low heart rate notifications, are disabled by default. You can enable them manually.
So far, the data is mostly accurate and aligns with what you would expect. The heart rate, stress, and blood oxygen level readings have remained within my expected range. Xiaomi claims that the sensor is 16% more accurate than last year’s model, though in real life, you hardly notice any difference. The Mi Fitness app also allows you to enable advanced health monitoring if you want a more detailed picture of your health.
The sleep tracking feature is arguably one of the most useful aspects of the Xiaomi Band 9. Unlike other fitness trackers or smartwatches, the Band 9 reliably records both falling asleep and waking up times, even without turning on advanced sleep monitoring—something that is hard to find in fitness trackers, especially at this price range.
The fitness band also provides a detailed map of your sleep cycle, highlighting sections for light, REM, and deep sleep phases. Additionally, it tracks your average sleeping heart rate, breathing rate, and blood oxygen levels, which is quite useful. I tested the sleep-tracking feature of Band 9, and it proved to be very reliable. The overall sleep data it provided aligned perfectly with my other trackers.
When you enable the advanced sleep monitoring, the Mi Fitness app offers an in-depth analysis of your sleep patterns. Xiaomi also rates your sleep quality, providing marks such as ‘Good’ or ‘Fair.’
Battery Life
One of the key upgrades is the battery life. The Xiaomi Band 9 features a 233mAh battery cell, an increase from the 190mAh found in the Band 8. With all advanced tracking disabled, Xiaomi claims the Band 9 can last up to 21 days on a single charge, which is impressive.
In my testing, with all advanced tracking and the always-on display enabled, the Smart Band 9 easily lasted for 10 days on a single charge, experiencing a battery drain of about 9-10% per day. However, battery life varies based on the settings you enable. With basic settings, the band provides around 19 days of battery life on a single charge, aligning well with Xiaomi’s 21-day estimate.
In comparison to other trackers and smartwatches, the Xiaomi Band 9 boasts an exceptional battery life. You can expect two weeks of battery life on a single charge, even with all the advanced monitoring features enabled, which is impressive.
Fortunately, the band doesn’t take long to fully charge. It only takes 52 minutes to recharge the device using the included USB-A charging cable. This means you can quickly top up the device without any anxiety.
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Should you buy the Xiaomi Smart Band 9?
The Xiaomi Smart Band 9 is the best budget-friendly fitness tracker you can buy without spending a fortune. It offers a compact, lightweight design, decent fitness tracking features, solid battery life of 19 days, and reliable health monitoring—all hard-to-find qualities in this price range.
If health and fitness data are your top priorities, and you also desire built-in GPS along with more advanced health features, you might want to consider premium options available on the market from brands like Garmin and Whoop.
