Xiaomi’s smart band lineup is one of the most popular smart wearables on the market. And yet, even in its ninth generation, it manages to add significant improvements to stay relevant.
This is the Pro model (we did a regular review a few months ago) and it adds a larger display, nicer build, and a GPS tracker for runners.
Version Nine brings an 18% larger battery than its predecessor, bumping expected standby from two weeks to 21 days. The screen retains its size and resolution, but is now twice as bright as the old model. Xiaomi also added a linear vibration motor for more pleasant haptics.
Xiaomi sells the Smart Band 9 Pro for €80 (twice as expensive as the regular model), and ships with a proprietary two-pin magnetic charger and silicon band.
You can buy many official accessories like this €15 leather band.
The leather band is a step up from the silicone design. The texture is nice and soft. However, this reviewer finds the silicone band a better choice for a fitness accessory like the Smart Band 9 Pro, and it sits more securely during a workout.
Leather strap
It adds a lug to the Xiaomi Smart Band 9 Pro, which can be used to connect other official Xiaomi bands.
Design and build quality
On the surface, the design of the Xiaomi Smart Band 9 Pro is mostly similar to its predecessor. Upfront is a 1.74-inch 336x480px AMOLED display that is the centerpiece of the entire device. Since there are no physical buttons on the Xiaomi Smart Band 9 Pro, you will use the display to control everything.
This model features a 2.5D curve on all four sides of the front glass. It feels better to control the band as your finger slides along the edge of the screen, and it feels better because of the light that gently curves around the edges of the glass.
The biggest upgrade comes via a peak of 1,200 nits of brightness. Above 600 nits, that means the display will be visible even in strong sunlight.
The lack of a home button leaves us with mixed feelings. Yes, the device looks sleek and more minimal. On the other hand, it’s nice to have a body control to rely on when you’re working out, have sweaty fingers, or are doing something outside in the rain.
Any smartwatch or smart band is only as good as its watch face selection. Xiaomi has a lot of really high quality options for the Smart Band 9 Pro. There are nine preloaded faces, each with its own custom all-on variant.
You can download hundreds of additional faces from Xiaomi’s Mi Fitness app.
Display and its AOD variant
On the back, the Smart Band 9 Pro has an optical heart rate sensor and a pulse oximeter. Combined, they continuously measure heart rate and blood oxygen, and Xiaomi says the algorithm behind the sensors has improved by 15% over the previous generation.
Software, health and fitness tracking
Xiaomi Smart Band 9 Pro runs on its proprietary OS. The main screen is your watch face. A swipe to the right will take you to your quick toggles – Do Not Disturb, Alarm, Raise to Wake, Screen Flash, Find Your Phone, Settings, Power Saver Mode and Turn on screen for 5 minutes.
Swiping up from the main watch face will reveal a grid of apps, which you can change as a list. Swiping down on the watch face reveals notifications, and swiping left brings up your various widgets – weather and fitness, health, music, etc. You can reset it on the band or through the app.
The health and fitness tracking credentials on the Xiaomi Smart Band 9 Pro are excellent. You get continuous heart rate and blood oxygen tracking, and based on those readings the band can gauge your stress levels.
If you want, you can enable the Vitality Score, which takes all your data into account to give you an overall score and give you pointers on how to improve it. The band also supports women’s health management for cycle recording and prediction and guided breathing exercises.
Sleep tracking is good but not great. The band will automatically start sleep tracking when you go to bed – no need to enter any special mode, which is convenient. You get a breakdown of your total sleep in light, REM (rapid eye movement, aka your dream sleep) and deep sleep. If you are awake, how long will you get the reading?
However, the Smart Band 9 Pro doesn’t give you a count of your sleep cycle, or a reading of your movement, and it lacks skin temperature data – things a more advanced wearable offers. The band barely recorded this reviewer’s wake time, which my other tracker picked up flawlessly.
Then there’s the deep sleep reading, which is the downfall of most basic trackers. Xiaomi’s tracker is incredibly generous with its deep sleep readings. One night, it showed 2 hours of deep sleep compared to 40 minutes From Galaxy Watch6 Classic and 1 hour and 40 minutes For the Huawei Watch Fit 2 (another deep sleep culprit).
One annoyance with the Xiaomi is that you can’t see your full deep sleep on the band when you wake up – the full breakdown is available on your phone.
Sleep tracking
I can’t fault the heart rate reading, accelerometer data, or GPS reading. The band was very quick to lock onto a GPS signal before I ran.
Running with the Smart Band 9 Pro
I did a few runs wearing the Xiaomi Smart Band 9 Pro, Huawei Watch Fit 2 and Samsung Galaxy Watch6 Classic to compare the data. I’ll give the numbers so you can decide for yourself. I measured my run on a few different GPS mapping sites and the total length averaged 4.27km to 4.36km – meaning the Xiaomi shows a deviation of around 150m to 220m, which isn’t too bad. The Samsung Watch was worse, while the Huawei was the closest.
| the distance | speed | Average heart rate | VO2 Max | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Samsung Galaxy Watch6 Classic | 3.96 km | 5’50” km | 166 bpm | 40.7 |
| Xiaomi Smart Band 9 Pro | 4.12 km | 5’39” km | 156 bpm | 37 |
| Huawei Watch Fit 2 | 4.16 km | 5’36” km | 169 bpm | 45 |
| the distance | speed | Average heart rate | VO2 Max | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Samsung Galaxy Watch6 Classic | 4.06 km | 5’35” km | 167 bpm | 41.2 |
| Xiaomi Smart Band 9 Pro | 4.14 km | 5’31” km | 159 bpm | 38 |
| Huawei Watch Fit 2 | 4.23 km | 5’24” km | 145 bpm | 46 |
At the end of the day, tracking your health or fitness will rely more on the consistency of your data than its absolute accuracy – meaning you can get a better idea if you use a wearable for long periods of time and judge changes in the data. are you Where are you in terms of health and fitness?
Battery life
The Xiaomi Smart Band 9 Pro’s large battery really delivered. With light usage — boost to wake, AOD off, notifications enabled, three workouts per week, no sleep tracking — the band was able to hang on for an incredible 14 days of use.
When I enabled the always-on display and added daily sleep tracking, the band lasted for 7 days of use (it needed a charge on the 7th day).
It took one hour and 26 minutes to charge the band back up.
conclusion
The Xiaomi Smart Band 9 Pro is an affordable smart wearable that has hit the global stage just in time for the holidays. A bigger battery and a curvier, brighter screen make this a solid update on the Smart Band 8 Pro — and a solid smart wearable.
If you need a good fitness and health tracker that can deliver notifications at once and last for days, there’s really nothing the Xiaomi Smart Band 9 Pro can’t do. Xiaomi’s wearables are hard to beat – you’ll need to look at Huawei’s Watch Fit range to get the same package for the same price.
pros
- Well made and attractive with 2.5D screen curve
- Responsive UI, beautiful watch faces
- The display is bright and easy to read under any light
- A great health and fitness tracking suite
- Great battery life
- affordable
opposition
- There is no home button tradeoff
- An overly optimistic deep sleep reading
- You cannot respond to notifications
You can buy Xiaomi Smart Band 9 Pro from Amazon Germany here.
We may earn commissions from qualifying sales.
