Xiaomi Mi Band 5 review - Taking the fight to Fitbit - Android

Xiaomi Mi Band 5: What’s new?

The Xiaomi Mi Band 5 (aka the Xiaomi Mi Smart Band 5 in some regions) is Xiaomi’s latest affordable fitness tracker. It’s a slight improvement over 2019’s Xiaomi Mi Band 4, with a somewhat upgraded design and a few new health features to keep you motivated.

The Mi Band 5 and Mi Band 4 look very similar, though the new fitness tracker is actually slightly larger. It has a 20% larger AMOLED display at 1.1 inches and supports 100% of the P3 color gamut. The display is fine. It can get pretty bright outdoors in direct sunlight. There’s no ambient light sensor, so you might find yourself adjusting brightness more than you’d like.

The Mi Band 5’s larger size unfortunately means you won’t be able to use your older Mi Band 4 or 3 bands with the new device. There are lots of third-party options available on Amazon if you want to add a splash of color to your wrist.

The Xiaomi Mi Band 5 is a battery champ.

The Mi Band 5 is a battery champ — not as much of a champ as the Mi Band 4, however. It can last 14 days on a single charge with “normal use” compared to the Mi Band 4’s 20 days. Xiaomi says you can still get 20 days out of the Mi Band 5 if you take power saving precautions like turning off heart rate monitoring, raise-to-wake, and sleep tracking.

With normal use and tracking a few exercises throughout the week, my Mi Band 5 is on track to last about 13 days on a charge — just under what Xiaomi estimates. I was also digging into the interface quite a bit during that time, so I don’t think it’d be too difficult to squeeze a little more battery out of the device. Regardless, you’ll be able to wear the Mi Band 5 for well over a week without worrying about charging it.

Speaking of charging, the Mi Band 5’s charger is vastly improved over every other Mi Band charger. It’s magnetic and connects to the tracker via pins, so you no longer need to detach the device from its band in order to charge it. Hallelujah! The charger is longer now, too, so no more of this four-inch-long charging cable nonsense.

Xiaomi integrated PAI (Personal Activity Intelligence) metrics into the Mi Band 5 to give you a better idea of your overall health and wellness. PAI gives you a score based on your sex, age, heart rate, and other data. Basically everything you do throughout the day adds to your PAI score, but you’ll get the most PAI points for vigorously exercising and keeping your heart rate in a higher zone. The goal is to keep your PAI score above 100.

PAI is similar to what we’ve seen from Fitbit with Active Zone Minutes and Google with Heart Points and Move Minutes. Since it takes into account how you’re moving — not just the fact that you are moving — this should give you more accurate insights into how healthy you are.