Xiaomi Smart Band 9 Pro review

The Xiaomi Good Band 9 Professional is the Xiaomi Good Band 9 with a much bigger display and built-in GPS to make it extra of a smartwatch and sports activities watch mash-up than Xiaomi’s different cheaper health trackers.

Just like the Band 9, the Band 9 Professional is a price range tracker that also is available in lower than similar-looking hybrid trackers from the likes of Huawei, Honor and Oppo, providing large options for a low worth.

We have been followers of the Xiaomi Good Band 8 Professional and with its successor, it’s extra good right here to offer Xiaomi one other strong reasonably priced possibility.

Design & Construct

• Three case color choices
• Optionally available straps obtainable
• No bodily buttons

The Band 9 Professional now incorporates a smaller 43mm, button-less aluminium alloy case that is available in your selection of three colors.

That’s obsidian black, rose gold and midnight silver (pictured) and that’s paired up with a TPU strap that doesn’t use my favorite sort of pin clasp to maintain it in place in your wrist.

Whereas for many situations it was safe and comfy to put on I did really feel the clasp type wasn’t one of the best match for swims and the strap did have a behavior of slipping out within the water.

Mike Sawh

You may change the strap with a easy button mechanism letting you launch the TPU one and swap in leather-based and magnetic strap choices. The leather-based straps price £17.99 whereas the magnetic one is pricer at £22.99.

It’s uncommon to see this kind of strap customisation on provide on a health tracker this low cost and does assist to smarten up the look of an already likeable tracker design.

Across the again lies the optical sensor array and the 2 magnetic pins, which is your signal that it does use a proprietary charging cable to energy it up. The equipped charging cable connects to these pins simply however doesn’t at all times really feel prefer it’s securely locked in place.

Mike Sawh

As talked about, it is a tracker that’s appropriate for swimming and carries a 5 ATM score to make it secure to be submerged in water as much as 50 metres depth. Throughout swims, the display is locked to make sure it doesn’t fall foul of any unintended display interactions.

It’s a really handsome tracker total that doesn’t really feel price range, although I do suppose having at the least one button would make it a a lot nicer tracker to make use of.

Display & Audio 

• Brighter 1.74-inch AMOLED touchscreen
• 2.5D formed glass
• No microphone or speaker included

Whereas the Band 9 Professional has the same-sized display and backbone because the one featured on the Band 8 Professional, Xiaomi has sought to make it a brighter one.

Mike Sawh

It’s gone from providing a most brightness score of 600 nits as much as 1,200 nits, ensuring this isn’t one you’re going to wrestle to see, even in brighter outside gentle. There’s an automated brightness adjustment mode included to make sure you’re getting one of the best viewing expertise based mostly on the lighting in your setting. 

The 1.74-inch, 336 x 480 decision AMOLED show unsurprisingly isn’t one of the best AMOLED panel you’ll discover on a health tracker or smartwatch, with colors a contact oversaturated notably at larger brightness settings. For the value, it’s greater than acceptable show high quality that’s match for Xiaomi’s software program and is properly responsive to the touch and faucets. It additionally helps an always-on mode if you happen to want that show on 24/7 with the watch face seen always on a darkened display.

Should you’re hoping to make calls or hearken to your music out loud, there’s no microphone or speaker included and also you’ll have to spend extra on one in all Xiaomi’s smartwatches to get these added audio powers.

Software program & Options 

• Runs on Hyper OS 
• Constant expertise throughout iOS and Android
• Fundamental however well-presented smartwatch options

Xiaomi depends by itself HyperOS working system to ship the software program expertise on the Band 9 Professional and that’s a software program that works with each Android and iOS units.

I’ve used it with each, and the expertise paired with an Android telephone and iPhone may be very comparable. You get entry to the identical options and require Xiaomi’s Mi Health app to get issues arrange.

Mike Sawh

The Mi Health app does nonetheless really feel a bit clunky in locations. The primary well being dashboard breaks down your key stats in a largely glanceable trend. Subsequent, it’s the exercise display the place you’ll discover exercise historical past and coaching insights, after which it’s into the units and profile setting sections, which feels a contact busy.

You do have the flexibility to share knowledge with a small variety of third-party apps, which embrace Strava, Suunto and Apple and Google’s well being apps if you happen to desire to view your stats elsewhere.

The software program on the Band is best basically fortunately. It’s a reasonably customary gesture-centric setup the place the whole lot out of your notification stream, knowledge widgets and app drawer is a swipe away.

The interface is properly optimised to the Professional’s AMOLED show making core smartwatch options like studying notifications, organising timers or utilizing music playback controls straightforward issues to do.

Health & Monitoring 

• Over 150 sports activities modes
• Promised improved GPS efficiency
• Presents all-day coronary heart price, blood oxygen and stress monitoring

Larger display apart, the opposite large distinction separating the Band 9 Professional from the Good Band 9 is the Professional’s built-in GPS.

It will possibly talk to the 5 key satellite tv for pc methods and Xiaomi claims a 33% improved accuracy efficiency in comparison with the Band 8 Professional.

Mike Sawh

Whereas it didn’t take lengthy to lock onto a GPS sign, the Xiaomi usually got here up just a little brief on distance monitoring in comparison with a devoted and pricier sports activities watch. It was a bit off with among the metrics related to distance monitoring like pacing.

It wasn’t a horror present and preserving in thoughts the value of the Band 9 Professional and that it was up in opposition to a supremely correct sports activities watch with the newest positioning expertise, the accuracy can be match for runners who aren’t essentially chasing down race PBs and simply need one thing to maintain them extra accountable when exercising outdoors.

By way of different train monitoring help, there are modes aplenty right here together with improved swim monitoring, which supplies you a breakdown of splits, stroke price and now generates SWOLF scores.

Extra modes are categorised that can assist you discover supported ball, winter or staff sports activities. Simply remember that a few of these modes are solely going to seize period and coronary heart price knowledge.

Mike Sawh

Coronary heart price monitoring is an space that Xiaomi claims gives enhancements on the Band 8 Professional too, with a brand new chip in place that helps to ship each coronary heart price and supported blood oxygen monitoring.

Xiaomi claims accuracy has been boosted by 15% over the older Band. I’d say for train, the guts price monitoring hasn’t been tremendous dependable, even outdoors of extra high-intensity exercises the place most optical sensor setups falter.

Each common and most coronary heart price readings sometimes reported larger knowledge and coronary heart price spikes throughout most exercises in comparison with a coronary heart price monitor. It was by no means wildly larger, but it surely was sufficient to query the reliability and whether or not insights fuelled by coronary heart price, like Vitality scores and VO2 Max estimates could be actually trusted. 

Mike Sawh

I discovered that its potential to observe your coronary heart price each day and in the course of the night time was much more dependable compared. The all-day blood oxygen and stress monitoring when enabled, does imply sacrificing extra battery life for insights that I feel some however not all customers might be involved with. Given the blood oxygen monitoring isn’t clinical-grade monitoring, it’s extra about providing prompts when there are modifications in your knowledge.

For each day exercise monitoring like monitoring steps, it’s completely as much as the duty. The exercise monitoring widget is a quite simple one to glean your progress from. I discovered calorie burn estimates surprisingly low, although given the inconsistency of the guts price monitoring, which that knowledge is tied to, that wasn’t an enormous shock.

It’s a reasonably competent sleep tracker, producing sleep scores, providing a breakdown of sleep levels and offering some insights and ideas based mostly on sleep knowledge. I discovered sleep stats like scores, period and time fallen asleep and time awoken much like knowledge from two different dependable sleep trackers – one a wrist-based tracker and the opposite a sensible ring.

The insights and ideas are removed from groundbreaking ones telling you issues like why it’s dangerous to go to mattress late or explaining the significance of various sleep levels. Should you’re attempting to become familiar with these sleep stats, they’re helpful explainers if not essentially the most properly offered inside the app.

Battery Life & Charging

• Larger battery in comparison with Band 8 Professional
• As much as 21 days battery life
• Superior well being options drain battery 

Some of the interesting points of strapping on a Xiaomi health tracker is the form of battery life you’ll get pleasure from. It’s going to be weeks versus days. Getting one of the best battery life solely will depend on whether or not you go all in with the monitoring options obtainable.

There’s now a bigger 350mAh capability battery that guarantees as much as 21 days in typical utilization, 8 days in heavy utilization and 10 days with the display set to always-on. With all of these utilization situations, attending to these numbers will rely on how frequently you’re utilizing GPS or turning on all-day monitoring for coronary heart price, stress and blood oxygen ranges. You too can embrace essentially the most superior sleep monitoring help right here as one thing that can add extra drain on the battery.

Should you’re going gentle on utilizing these options and are keen to sacrifice among the all-day monitoring and preserving the display on all day and night time too, the battery life drop-off could be as small as 3-4%. As quickly as you deliver these options extra into play, it’s getting nearer to 10-15% and might get larger particularly if the display is in always-on mode and also you’re turning the blood oxygen and stress monitoring.

I’d say it’s a tracker that may nonetheless get you thru per week’s price of use, even in heavier utilization. Whenever you do have to recharge, it takes roughly simply over an hour to get from 0-100%, so it doesn’t take lengthy to offer it a fast top-up to get you thru a number of extra days if you happen to don’t wish to or have the time to cost it totally.

Worth & Availability

The Xiaomi Good Band 9 Professional was introduced and launched in China first in October 2024 earlier than globally rolling out a month later.

The Band 9 Professional launch worth was £62.99, making it dearer than the Band 8 Professional at launch, which prices £59.99.

You should buy it from Xiaomi in addition to Amazon. It’s not formally obtainable within the US, although you will discover different global models on Amazon.

It’s nonetheless very low cost and cheaper than rival trackers just like the Huawei Band 9 and the Honor Band 9. It’s additionally considerably cheaper than Samsung and Fitbit’s least expensive obtainable trackers, which sit a lot nearer in direction of the £100 mark.

For context, the Xiaomi Good Band 9 prices £34.99 and in addition contains an AMOLED display, however does lack the built-in GPS you get on the Band 9 Professional.

Test our chart of one of the best health trackers to see extra prime choices.

Must you purchase the Xiaomi Good Band 9 Professional?

Should you’re on the lookout for a really low cost health tracker with some helpful further sports activities watch and smartwatch performance, the Band 9 Professional is price .

Band 8 Professional house owners may not see large causes to make the improve until you need the increase in display brightness, battery life and a few promised accuracy enhancements in GPS and coronary heart price efficiency that also wasn’t spotless for us.

Whenever you take a look at the opposite big-screen health trackers that Xiaomi is competing with that price greater than the Band 9 Professional, it’s greater than holding its personal and in addition has that inbuilt GPS help you received’t discover on these rival trackers.

It’s providing you with the entire good things from the Good Band 9 for a bit extra money and whereas dearer, continues to be an amazing price range health tracker purchase.

Specs

• Hyper OS
• Works with Android and iOS
• Constructed-in GPS
• Coronary heart price, blood oxygen and stress monitoring
• Waterproof as much as 50 metres 
• 1.74-inch AMOLED touchscreen
• View notifications and music controls
• Bluetooth 5.4
• As much as 21 days battery life