The Xiaomi Mi Band 5 has just been announced and it’s packing a few big upgrades while retaining a low price like its predecessor, the Xiaomi Mi Band 4.
So far the Mi Band 5 has only been announced for China, but XDA Developers has got all the details, revealing that the wearable has a 1.2-inch color AMOLED screen, up from 0.95 inches on the Mi Band 4. That makes the Xiaomi Mi Band 5 20% larger.
And the company has made the most of all that space by giving it a selection of over 100 animated watch faces, some of which include characters from popular animated shows such as SpongeBob SquarePants, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and Hatsune Miku. You’ll also be able to get straps designed to match some of the watch faces, and there will be a selection of dual-color straps available.
The other big update here is a change to the charging mechanism, with a magnetically attached dock used instead of a charging cradle. The old method required you to separate the tracker from its strap, while the new method doesn’t, so it should be quicker and simpler.
The chipset is also apparently faster in the Xiaomi Mi Band 5 than in the Mi Band 4, and activities are supposedly tracked more accurately.
There are 11 fitness tracking modes, as well as a heart rate monitor, menstrual cycle tracking, and a PAI (Personal Activity Intelligence) score designed to give you a clearer idea of whether you’re being active enough.
Sleep tracking is also present, and has been improved with the addition of REM tracking, so you can see how long you spent in that phase of sleep, as well as light and deep.
The Xiaomi Mi Band 5 also benefits from the ability to work as a remote camera shutter for your smartphone, and from having a barometer built in (for gauging atmospheric pressure). Finally, it has a 125mAh battery and is water resistant to depths of 50 meters for up to 30 minutes.
Even with all those upgrades, it only costs 189 Chinese yuan (around $25 / £20 / AU$40) for a version without NFC (for contactless payments), or 229 Chinese yuan (roughly $30 / £25 / AU$45) for a version with NFC.
It remains to be seen exactly when the Xiaomi Mi Band 5 will arrive in other regions, what it will cost in them, or whether both versions will be available. But given that the Xiaomi Mi Band 4 is just $39.99/£34.99/AU$59, you can expect it to be cheap.
