Xiaomi Mi Band 5: Wearable for workout lovers

Amid the unprecedented crisis caused worldwide by Covid-19, the fitness trackers or gadgets are getting popular among the enthusiasts.  Among those, Xiaomi’s smart belts nowadays seem to be a ‘superhit’ in the gadget market. The latest Xiaomi Mi Band 5 is one of the affordable fitness trackers, which is why this wearable deserves a review.

Design

The new Mi Smart Band 5’s overall aesthetics has not evolved much compared to its predecessors, but the company claims it has approximately 20 per cent more display area than the Mi Smart Band 4. There is a touch-sensitive button below the 1.1-inch (126x294 pixels) AMOLED touchscreen, which has a 16-bit colour range.

This is a downgrade from the 24-bit colour range of the Mi Smart Band 4’s display. However, the peak brightness has increased from 400nits to 450nits.

The weight of the Mi Smart Band 5 is only 11.9g and is comfortable on the wrist. There also seems to be a coating for preventing fingerprint smudges. There are two contact pins at the back for the magnetic charger.

Specifications and features

The Mi Smart Band 5 offers 11 professional sports modes compared to the six on its predecessor. These include outdoor running, treadmill, cycling, indoor cycling, walking, elliptical machine, rowing machine, yoga, jump rope, pool swimming, and freestyle. The fitness band monitors your heartbeat during activities and figures out when the workout has stopped to pause tracking automatically.

This gadget also packs 512KB of RAM and 16MB of storage, and supports Bluetooth 5. Sensors on-board include a three-axis acceleration sensor, three-axis gyroscope, and a PPG heartbeat monitor. The Mi Smart Band 5 is compatible with phones running on Android 5.0 or iOS 10.0 and above.

Interface and software: Xiaomi offers over 100 watch face options on the Mi Smart Band 5, sorted into categories such as workout, art, science and technology, business, fashion, and more.

Apart from letting one read emails and text notifications, the Mi Smart Band 5 also lets its user reject and answer calls. Its interface is simple and easy to understand. Text is readable and the brightness is adjustable.

The Mi Smart Band 5 has a host of software features including the ability to use it as a remote shutter for your paired smartphone’s camera. A world clock feature has also been introduced to show the time in different cities, and a new dedicated breathing guide can train you to calm yourself and focus better. Xiaomi has also introduced a menstrual cycle tracker that offers reminders on period dates, ovulation days, and even the fertile period.

Battery life

Usually the Mi Smart Band 5’s battery lasts for nine days with half an hour of activity every day, with some activated apps. On an average, the power runs around 15 days. This wearable has magnetic charging pins, thus is easy and quickly chargeable.

Price

This wearable costs Tk 2,500 and is easily available in gadget stores.