Whenever you’re looking for an affordable fitness tracker, Xiaomi’s Mi Band is always the first few options that you should really consider before investing in one.
The reason is simple, the Mi Band is by far the cheapest fitness tracker you can probably find in the market thanks to it’s unbelievable price S$65 (US$49). Despite that, it still comes with pretty much every features and functionalities that you need in a fitness tracker.
This is true even for the latest Xiaomi Mi Band 6 which continues to impress with some really nice upgrades over it’s predecessor, bringing along a slightly larger OLED display as well as support for SpO2 measurement.
While these aren’t any huge or game-charging upgrades, but they are crucial in refining user experience and ensuring that the Mi Band 6 remains relevant with all the new features that are gaining popularity among consumers.
Courtesy of Xiaomi Singapore, I’d been able to try out the new Mi Band 6 for the past couple of weeks, and here are the top five reasons why I really love the Mi Band 6!
Sporty Design, Impressive Build Quality
On the outside, the Mi Band 6 retains the same sporty design that’s free of any intricate design elements. It still closely resembles last year’s Mi Band 5, but it’s oval-shape display is now slightly larger and that’s what makes it awesome since more fitness data can now be fitted into the home screen.
The similarities between the Mi Band 6 and Mi Band 5 extend to their Black colored silicon strap – which means you get to change the Mi Band 6’s strap with any of the Mi Band 5 straps which you may have purchased in the past.
It’s bundled silicon strap feels soft and gentle on the skin, and doesn’t cause any discomfort during workout. It comes with a familiar pin-and-hole design which allows you to easily fasten the strap once you get a hang of it. Along with it’s featherlight weight of just 12.8 grams, I hardly even notice that the Mi Band 6 actually exists on my wrist most of the time.
It’s also noteworthy that the Mi Band 6 also carries 5 ATM waterproof rating which makes it a great companion for your next swimming session too!
Do check out our unboxing video above for a better view of the Mi Band 6, as well as it’s interface.
Big Display, Punchy Colors
As mentioned earlier, the Mi Band 6’s display is now notably larger than any of it’s predecessors. This, in my opinion, is a much needed upgrade as it makes numbers and words more visible than before.
What’s more important is that the Mi Band 6 retains the good old AMOLED panel for it’s 1.56” display that brings you punchy colors along with an ultra-sharp 326 ppi that’s comparable to smartphone displays.
The display can also gets really bright with a peak brightness of up to 450 nits. Speaking about this, there’s actually five preset brightness levels that you can take advantage to ensure the screen is always visible.
Trust me, you’ll be spoilt with choices when it comes to watch faces. Though the Mi Band 6 is pre-loaded with just three different watch faces, but there are more than a hundred more over on the Xiaomi Wear app which can be downloaded and synced over to the Mi Band 6.
All The Health & Fitness Features You Need
Despite it’s low-price, the Mi Band 6 has has pretty much every health tracking and monitoring features that you need. This include a 24-hour heart rate monitoring (interval level), sleep monitoring, stress monitoring, female health tracking, as well as the highly-coveted SpO2 measurement which was absent on the Mi Band 5.
To sweeten the deal, the Mi Band 6 also get you covered with 30 different fitness modes which include the likes of Outdoor Running, Treadmill, Walking, Cycling, Indoor Cycling, Rowing Machine, Elliptical, Pool Swimming, Yoga, Rope Jumping, Freestyle, Dance, Indoor Fitness, Gymnastic, HIIT, Core Training, Stretching, Stepper, Pilates, Basketball, Volleyball, Table Tennis, Badminton, Cricket, Bowling, Boxing, Kickboxing, Street Dance, Zumba, as well as Indoor Ice Skating.
Interestingly, the Mi Band 6 is able to automatically recognise six of the aforementioned fitness modes including outdoor running, treadmill, rowing machine, elliptical, walking and cycling. That means you wouldn’t need to go through the hassle of scrolling though the menu and list of fitness modes to kick off the tracking process. It’s a useful feature that I really appreciate, and hope that it could be extended to other fitness modes in future.
Xiaomi Wear App Is A Nice Companion
Besides allowing you to download even more watch faces for the Mi Band 6, the Xiaomi Wear App also complements the Mi Band 6 by providing a clear and logical breakdown of data into a well-organized chart that can be easily interpreted by mainstream users.
Let’s take the sleep monitoring as an example. It has a simple interface that gives you a nice breakdown of your sleep distribution into various sleep cycles including Deep Sleep, Light Sleep, REM, as well as duration you spent awake.
It will then analyzes the data and appends a rating that informs you whether you have sufficient or insufficient sleep. The same goes to other health tracking features like heart rate monitoring, stress monitoring and even the number of times you stand up.
As for other fitness modes like outdoor running, the Xiaomi Wear app also organizes and charts out all the key indices that we’re interested in like the duration of workout, amount of calories burnt, total number of steps, as well as the changes in heart rate during the course of workout.
Battery Life That Impresses
The 125mAh battery that sits inside it’s tiny module is surprisingly great. I get around 10 days worth of battery life with 3 to 5 times heart rate and Sp02 measurements each day, along with sleep monitoring activated for 3 nights. To offer you a better context, it’s screen brightness level was also set to 3 and the raise-to-wake feature was turned on as well.
When it’s battery runs out, the Mi Band 6 can be easily charged via it’s bundled magnetic charger that’s capable of delivering a full charge in around two hours. It’s in fact the same charging technology which was also used in the Mi Band 5.
So, Is The Mi Band 6 Worth?
At S$65 (US$49), the Mi Band 6 is an absolute steal. It’s one of the cheapest fitness tracker in the market, but yet doesn’t skimp on any of the key features that matter most to mainstream users. As such, the Mi Band 6 is an easy option to recommend for those looking for an affordable fitness tracker.
If you’re interested, the Xiaomi Mi Band 6 can be purchased in Singapore via both Lazada and Shopee.
