TL;DR
- Xiaomi has announced an NFC variant of the Mi Smart Band 6 in Europe.
- The new model will enable contactless payments.
- It also features Alexa support.
Xiaomi announced its 11T series and the Mi Pad 5 in Europe yesterday, but these weren’t the only standouts at its launch event. For the first time ever, Xiaomi rolled out an NFC version of its popular fitness tracker for buyers outside of China.
The Mi Smart Band 6 NFC is essentially the same Mi Band 6 Xiaomi launched back in March. However, it now enables contactless payments thanks to Xiaomi’s collaboration with Mastercard.
“Payments are made more efficiently than ever, no matter if it’s for picking up daily groceries, paying for public transport, or even simply grabbing a coffee during users’ daily running routine,” Xiaomi writes in its blog post.
The company has yet to announce how exactly NFC payments will work on the new Mi Band. We’ll have to wait and see which banks and card issuers support the contactless payments feature.
Aside from NFC payments, the new global Mi Smart Band 6 will also now offer built-in Amazon Alexa capabilities. Voice interaction was another feature that remained missing from Mi bands sold outside of China. Xiaomi says Alexa integration will enhance the hands-free experience for smart homeowners. We’re guessing it’ll let Mi Smart Band 6 owners interact with other Alexa-enabled smart home devices in their homes.
The Mi Smart Band 6 NFC is priced at €54.90, a bit pricier than the non-NFC version that costs €48.99.
