Xiaomi Mi Band 5 launches with 1.2″ color screen, NFC, and magnetic charging

Xiaomi’s Mi Band series is highly praised in the fitness tracker segment for offering several value features at a very affordable price. With each new generation, the Mi Band fitness trackers gain new functionality compelling existing users to upgrade and new users to get onboard. Last year on June 11th, Xiaomi announced the Mi Band 4 with a colored OLED display and support for a plethora of official and third-party watchfaces for just about $30 and its value allowed Xiaomi to sell a million units in just a week after its launch. Exactly after a year, Xiaomi is launching Mi Band 4’s successor – the Mi Band 5 – with a larger colored AMOLED display, improved fitness tracking, and a magnetic charging dock.

Quite evidently, the first feature to grab users’ attention will be the slightly larger display. The upgraded display on the Mi Band 5 measures 1.2″ diagonally and stretches across a 20% bigger area than 0.95″ display on the previous generation. With this, the Mi Band 5 will also get 100+ new animated watchfaces with characters from popular animated series such as Neon Genesis Evangelion, Case Closed, Hatsune Miku, and SpongeBob SquarePants.

The animated watchfaces from these franchises will be accompanied by matching colored bands as seen in the images below:

The second massive design change is the new magnetically attaching charging dock. Two electrodes stick out of the bottom part of the Mi Band 5 to which the charging dock automatically hooks – even though it will not be backwards compatible with the older generations for which the tracker had to be taken out of the strap and placed into a charging cradle. The new magnetic charging dock eliminates the need for taking the tracker out of the strap or ensuring that it sits properly on the cradle – which has been a problem for older versions just as Aamir mentioned in his Mi Band 4 review.

Xiaomi is launching some new dual-toned straps along with the band. These new bands with the black part wrapping the fitness tracker might set off the illusion that the steps are connected to the two far ends of the body instead of being an entire removable/replaceable strap.

The Mi Band 5 also gets an improved processor for faster and more accurate tracking. Besides 11 fitness tracking modes, female users can use the fitness band to tracking their menstrual cycles. The fitness band will also offer a PAI (Personal Activity Intelligence) score to help you contextualize how physical activities contribute to your fitness. For more efficient sleep tracking, the Mi Band 5 will now also report REM sleep beside deep and light sleep.

Further, the tracker also comes with an inbuilt barometer to gauge the atmospheric pressure and can also be used as a remote shutter button for taking images on the phone from a distance.

Just like the older versions, the fitness band will also support NFC payments in China.

Price & Availability

Xiaomi will start selling the Mi Band 5 in China starting June 18th. The non-NFC variant is priced at CNY 189 (~$27) while the NFC version will be sold for CNY 229 (~$32).

Xiaomi Mi Band 5 Specifications

Specs	Mi Band 5
Size and weight	TBA
Materials	Polycarbonate
Wrist band	Silicone
Compatibility	Android, iPhone
SoC	unspecified
RAM/Storage	unspecified
Network	NA
Display	1.2-inch AMOLED ( x  px)
Connectivity	Bluetooth v5
GPS	NA
Sensors	Heart rate sensor, accelerometer, barometer, proximity sensor
NFC payments	Yes
Battery	mAh
Water resistance	50m up to 30 minutes in freshwater

 

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