Xiaomi’s Smart Band lineup (formerly Mi Band) is now in its ninth generation, and the Smart Band 9 Active is the most affordable of the bunch. With its €25/£20 suggested retail price, this plastic nugget is one of the most affordable smartwatches on the market.
Xiaomi Smart Band 9 Active Specifications
- Display: 1.47” TFT LCD touchscreen, 172 x 320 px resolution, 60Hz refresh rate, 450 nits peak brightness
- Stripes: Detachable proprietary strap, 135-215mm adjustable length
- Features: 5ATM rating, real-time heart rate monitor, 24/7 blood oxygen level monitor, sleep tracking, stress monitoring, sports tracking, step counter, meditation, notification, idle alert, phone finder, weather forecast, music and camera control, alarm, Stopwatch, compass, barometer, flashlight.
- Sports Modes: Outdoor Run, Indoor Run, Outdoor Walk, Cycling, Hiking, Trekking, Jump Rope, Freestyle (50 more in Mi Fitness App)
- Sensors: PPG optical heart rate sensor, SpO2 sensor, 3-axis accelerometer, barometer, rotor vibration motor
- Connectivity: Compatible with Bluetooth 5.3, Android 8.0 and iOS 12+
- Battery: 300 mAh
- Colors: Black, beige, white, pink
- Parameters:46 x 27 x 9.99 mm
- Weight: 16.5 grams without strap
It had to come with some compromises to reach that price point, and it features a TFT LCD with its thick bezels, all-plastic build and basic design. You still get the usual health and activity tracking features we’ve come to expect from Xiaomi’s wearables, but is the bargain price enough to justify going for the Active over its siblings or competing devices?
This reviewer wore the Band 9 Active on his wrist 24/7 for over two weeks and here are his findings.
design
Xiaomi Smart Band 9 Active is an affordable smartband made entirely of plastic. The device is shaped like a nugget, with a one-piece TPU strap hugging it tightly. The only visual change to the Band 8 Active is a slightly raised lip around the display, which offers better protection, and it certainly helps against the occasional dink against doorknobs and table corners.
The 1.47-inch TFT LCD offers 172 x 320 px resolution and 60Hz refresh rate. It’s rated at just 400 nits of brightness, which is good, even when viewed outdoors in direct sunlight. However, the OLED panel is miles better in terms of viewing angles, contrast and brightness as on the Smart Band 9 or 9 Pro.
We’re also missing physical buttons here, which is common for the Band 6 Day, but we’re still not convinced that the all-swipe gesture navigation model is the best way to go, especially when your hands are wet.
The Smart Band 9 Active uses a proprietary strap, sold by Xiaomi, and we’re already seeing listings from third-party manufacturers on AliExpress. The retail package includes the Band 9 Active, a black TPU strap, Xiaomi’s proprietary two-pin magnetic charging cable, a quick start guide, and a warranty leaflet.
Our review unit came with Xiaomi’s official Luminous Strap, which adds style and functionality for runners with fluorescent elements that glow in the dark for safe evening runs.
Like its predecessors and seemingly every smartwatch in the last few years, the Band 9 Active is 5ATM waterproof, meaning it can handle dives in fresh water up to 50 meters. In layman’s terms, you would take it to the pool and shower.
symptoms
The Smart Band 9 Active features a light path sensor with an optimized health and fitness monitoring algorithm. It can monitor your heart rate and blood oxygen saturation 24/7 while also offering sleep and stress tracking. Xiaomi is also bringing over 50 sports modes, covering all the basic options you’d expect.
Returning to the entry-level price, Xiaomi has omitted GNSS satellite positioning on the Band 9 Active, so you’ll have to rely on your smartphone’s positioning data to track your runs.
Like the rest of Xiaomi’s smart wearables, the Band 9 Active comes with access to hundreds of watch faces through Xiaomi’s Mi Fitness companion app. The only downside is that it doesn’t get automatic brightness control. Due to its TFT LCD nature, the Band 9 also doesn’t support Active Always On Display (AOD).
Band 9 Active pairs to your Android/iOS smartphone via Bluetooth 5.3, and you can sync incoming notifications to buzz your wrist. You’re limited by the stretched horizontal space on its screen, and there’s no way to reply to incoming messages. There are no speakers or microphone on the device itself, so Bluetooth calls are a no-go. However, you can control music playback from your wrist and use the band as a remote shutter for your phone’s camera.
Software and performance
Like its predecessor in the Xiaomi Smart Band series, the Band 9 Active boots a familiar-looking real-time operating system (RTOS), powered entirely by swipe. The UI includes card-based widgets, although you can’t customize or group different widgets into a single card like you can with more premium Smart Band models. The app layout is list-based and has 16 built-in apps without the option to add any third-party.
The UI feels easy to navigate thanks to the 60Hz refresh rate, and everything works as expected. The screen on the vanilla Smart Band 9 is slightly wider but it’s still significantly more cramped than the 1.74-inch 336 x 480px panel on the Band 9 Pro.
The Mi Fitness smartphone companion app stores a month’s worth of health-tracking and workout data, and you can sync your data with Apple Health or Google Fit, as well as Strava and Suunto.
Mi Fitness app interface
We tested the Band 9 Active with the iPhone 15 Pro. Connectivity between the two was great, with no interruptions in data syncing and some minor delays in incoming notifications.
Health and activity tracking
Heart rate tracking on the Band 9 Active is configurable to 1, 10 or 30-minute intervals like its predecessor, and you can monitor it 24/7 for a better overall picture of your HR fluctuations. The Band 9 Active’s readings are consistent with the readings of the Xiaomi Band 8 and 9 series, and are also consistent with the readings of the Huawei Watch Fit 3.
The same can be said about the SpO2 readings, which are comparable to what you get with other smartwatches in this price range, with some minor deviations coming in at or around the same result.
Sleep tracking on the Band 9 Active has a standard set of metrics such as total sleep time with light interruptions, rapid eye movement (REM), and deep sleep stages. During our review, we found the Band 9 Active to be less accurate when it comes to sleep and wake times compared to the Huawei Watch Fit 3.
Sleep data from the Smart Band 9 Active within the Mi Fitness app
Xiaomi’s latest band also showed consistently longer sleep times than its rival and also failed to record night wake times, which the Huawei wearable didn’t. Another annoyance is that you don’t get deep sleep time on the band itself, so you have to go to the Mi Fitness app every time.
For workout tracking, we tested the Smart Band 9 Active alongside the Huawei Watch Fit 3 at the gym where both were put to the test of an average workout with a combination of treadmill running and weightlifting.
Band 9 active sample workout data
Band 9 Active reported less steps and total run distance. Both devices recorded similar results in heart rate readings during workouts. However, we found that the Band 9 Active exceeded the maximum heart rate readings by about 10BPM, which seems to be a pattern on Xiaomi wearables.
The absence of a dedicated GNSS tracker within the Band 9 Active means you’ll need to bring your phone if you want to log outdoor runs.
Battery life
The Band 9 Active has a 300 mAh battery, which Xiaomi claims can last up to 18 days of use or up to 9 days with more activity.
In our tests, we found the Band 9 Active to last 8 days with the display brightness set to 60%, with all health and activity tracking features and notifications activating every other day with workouts.
That’s plenty of endurance in our books, though we’d find it hard to reach the advertised 18 days unless you turn off most of the health tracking features and turn down the display’s brightness significantly.
What’s not so good is the slow charging, which takes over 90 minutes to go from 0 to 100%.
judgment
The Xiaomi Smart Band 9 Active is the most affordable fitness tracker from the company, and it offers a decent overall package with its compact and sturdy build, waterproof design and decent battery endurance. You get the usual mix of health and activity tracking features and a rich companion app that summarizes your health, sleep and activity trends.
The TFT LCD isn’t the brightest around, and it’s significantly below OLED displays like those on other smart bands from Xiaomi and its competitors. The sleep tracking leaves a lot to be desired and the build quality, while decent, feels significantly cheaper than the vanilla Smart Band 9. Given the name Active, we’d expect a built-in GNSS satellite receiver for tracking outdoor runs and hikes, which is one. Lost opportunity here.
At the end of the day, Xiaomi’s Smart Band 9 Active is worth considering just for its entry-level asking price, which is hard to beat. If you want a more premium smartwatch experience, we’d suggest you go for the vanilla Smart Band 9 or its more premium sibling – the Smart Band 9 Pro.
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