Mi Band 5: Review
Smart Watches have been all the rage the last few years and Xiaomi have had a good spot with the Mi Band series. As it's been budget friendly and decent quality, with the Mi Band 5 they've improved on most aspects
Smart Watches have been all the rage the last few years and Xiaomi have had a good spot with the Mi Band series. As it's been budget friendly and decent quality. How does the Mi Band 5 do? Let's find out
Display
The display is 1.1" AMOLED display, where it will display clock, weather and step count
By swiping up or down, you'll find more options, such as status (steps and distance walked), PAI, Hearth rate, Notifications (can also be accessed by swiping left/right), Stress, Breathing, Events, Weather, Workout and More (DND, Alarm, Camera, Music, Timer, Find Device, Silent and more)
By swiping left or right, you can see latest notifications, music being played and weather
From More-menu and the companion-app, you can customize what options you see and don't see on the watch
Exercise modes
The watch feature lot of measure options for exercise, but these have not been tested
I use the watch for seeing time and notifications
Strap
The strap feels nice and sits securely on your wrist
Unfortunately the straps get very brittle after a while, at least if you live in a hot and humid country as I do. The loop at the end is normally the first that breaks and that normally happens after about 6 months. I had the same issue with Mi Band 4
Charger and battery
The biggest upgrade to Mi Band 5, from the previous generations. Is that you no longer need to remove the strap to charge the watch
Now there's a magnetic connection in the back, so all you need to do is remove the watch and the charger will snap on. Then it's a couple of hours and it's fully charged again
Unfortunately the battery life is a huge downgrade, compared to Mi Band 4. Mi Band 4 lasted me about 13-14 days, where Mi Band 5 lasted me the first few months about 6 days and now I'm down to 4 days
Xiaomi advertise 14 days battery life, but then most features are disabled (such as sleep tracking)
Companion app
I have the Chinese variant, which works best with Mi Fit-app, but if you've a Global variant, you can also use the Zepp-app
I personally prefer the Zepp-app, but it's to unstable with the Chinese-version and you still need to use the Mi Fit app for updates (for Chinese Mi Band versions)
In the app, you can check your step count, battery life, how you've slept (if enabled), change design, perform updates and configure what notifications you receive
Notification is probably the feature I love the most, as I'm able to easily check messages (Teams, Messenger, etc) directly on the watch and even get notified when call is incoming. So I don't need to always carry the phone around, as I still get notified on my watch if something is happening. The range is decent, so I can have my phone on my desk and it covers my entire apartment
Conclusion
Overall the Mi Band 5 is a nice watch, but battery life is a bit short. The magnetic charger is a welcome addition, as it's so much easier to charge the watch now (compared to previous generations)
Many people would get this, to track their exercise and the watch features a lot of exercise options. I use the watch, to see time and notifications, where the watch does a great job
When it comes to notifications, the watch has a very limited support for emojis, but it at least have some support
Tags: #Xiaomi #Mi #MiBand #MiBand5
