Xiaomi Mi Smart Band 6 review – What else can be improved?

Tags: Review | Xiaomi | Smart

11.5.2021 | 7 MIN

It has not even been a year since Xiaomi introduced their fifth generation of this fit band. And now there is Xiaomi Mi Smart Band 6, that mainly brings richer sensor equipment and larger display.

What is new in the 6th MiBand generation?

I have already talked about the novelties this Mi Smart Band 6 brought in one of the articles before, but since repetition is the mother of knowledge, let's review the most important things.

Mi Band 6 has almost 50% larger display with higher resolution and fineness. The display cover the whole front side, has wider view options and is a little more legible for people with poor eyesight.

The number of sensors was increased - by a pulse oximeter. So the band can now measure the oxygenation of your blood.

The fact that Mi Band 6 (like all previous models) is a promising piece also confirms its saleability. Jei Lun (CEO of Xiaomi) boasted on his social media about distributing 1 million of these bands in just 25 days. And what do I say?

Purity, simplicity and elegance

What I've always liked about Mi Bands is their universal and minimalist look. Universal mostly because either man, woman or a child can wear it and there is a bunch of different straps found on the internet that Mi Band can fit into. So in addition to the classic silicone strap, you can get a a different color strap, but also leather or metal bracelet. Due to its clean design, Mi Band case can easily withstand anything.

The strap can be changed by "snapping" the case out of the strap, which is a matter of seconds. In addition, if you are the owner of the previous generation, with dimensions of 47.4 x 18.6 and 12.7 mm, older straps will fit on this model as well. Pleasant is also the weight of only 12,8 grams.

The original Xiaomi strap is really pleasing and strong. It's such a little detail, but I have to say that Xiaomi has quite improved the fastening. You just pass one part of the strap through the other and push the button through a hole. In the previous generation, it was slightly awkward and it took some skills to do it. I didn't have a problem with that with Mi Band 6. I don't know if it's a different button or hole workmanship, but I guess I don't really care. As long as it is easy to do now.

The design of the watch did not change much... But why change something that works well?

The display covers the entire front side of the band

One of the biggest changes (for me the biggest change for sure) is the size of the display. The previous generation had a size of 1.1 inches, but this new one covered the entire front side with a display and reached a size of 1.56 inches. Which is a nice 50% increase and you can definitelly notice it when using. The edge-to-edge display is a technological matter often used in mobile phone industry, and since it's modern now, it added a nice touch to the band.

In addition to the larger display, it also has a higher 152x486 pixels resolution and higher fineness of 326 ppi, pretty decent brightness of 400 nits, that can hande direct sunlight. Shame is, that the brightness of the display is not automatically adjusted according to the intensity of the ambient light as it has to be done manualy.

There is one thing that bothers me. Yes, I might be very detail oriented, but the display is not centered and the top is a little closer to the edge than the bottom. Normally you wouldn't notice it, but if you choose a dial that fills the display with a color other than black, you can see it.

Source: xda-developers.com

The display can be amended by another look. You can find over 100 of different looks in the application and about 10 of them are fully configurable (you choose which data to display).

The sensor equipment was enriched by a pulse oximeter

Xiamoi added a pulse oximeter to the well-known standard set of sensors from previous generations, which included accelerometer, gyroscope and heart rate sensor. A pulse oximeter can be used as a indicator of an illeness, acclimatization to higher altitudes or to monitor regeneration after sports performance.

I was not expecting a GPS in my watch, but I'm a little sad that we didn't get to see a version with an NFC chip that would allow contactless payment. NFC was already used in the previous generation, but only in the Chinese market. And it is the same with this generation.

The manufacturer promises two weeks of battery life

The band should last 14 days when normally used and 19 days in power saving mode. But the term "normal usage" is something that has many questions behind it, and so this information doesn't really bring much. I went for a run, turned on the highest heart rate measurement (1 min) and all-day stress monitoring and only got to a week long battery life.

The user interface with more possibilities due to the larger display

To be honest, I miss the touch button a little bit. In the sixth generation, you have to swipe right to go "Back" and I have to say that I had some issues with that due to the size of my fingers. Swiping right when the display is only one centimeter wide is tricky, especially for somebody with even bigger fingers than mine.

To control the user interface of the band, you move your finger in two ways - left and right (this is a novelty) and up, down. Swiping left and right get you to screens, that you can preset. For swiping left I music control on the phone and for right I have weather, phone notifications, PAI and heart rate data and remote control of the phone camera.

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Xiaomi Mi Band 6 introduction – What is the new generation coming up with?

I was surprised that the remote camera control works, because for example, with Garmin, as an iPhone user, I do not have this option. An application to replace this feature can be downloaded, but it does not work in combination with iPhones. Xiaomi's self-timer also works on my iPhone.

Scrolling up and down let you go through menu, where there is the rest of the apps, for example pulse oximeter, summary of your daily activities, selection of sports activities, breathing exercises, settings or an alarm clock. Behind the "More" icon there is stopwatch, timer and the "Find my phone" feature.

One of the biggest advantages of this model is definitely the ability to display more applications in the menu. Until now, only one icon has been displayed in the menu, but now two of them fit on the display and a third one slightly protrudes. Overall, if you click on any icon and want to see it in more detail, the band will show you much more information.

The band monitors your body throughout the day

During the day, the watch counts your number of steps, distance traveled, heart rate, blood oxygenation, stress level, but can also monitor sleep (light, deep and REM phases) and naps. If your daily stress is too high, breathing exercises will help soothing you.

Previous generations were able to monitor a maximum of 11 sports. Mi Band 6 has expanded its offer more than twice and offers 30 sports activities such as running, walking, yoga, and thanks to the 50-meter water resistance also swimming. The more specific ones include for example HIIT, table tennis, cricket or kickboxing.

What I really appreciate is the Auto Pause feature that automatically pauses the sport activity monitoring as well as the possibility of automatic detection. If you start one of these five activities - walking, running, cycling, elliptical trainer, rowing machine - the watch is able to detect it and starts monitoring.

Another pleasant surprise is the speed of the connection to the phone GPS. Not to exaggerate, but when I wanted to go for a run, I turned on the sports activity "Outdoor running" and the GPS worked in less than a second.

All your activities are then be taken into account in the PAI fitness score, which according to Xiaomi should be kept above 100 for you to stay healthy. :)

Smart functions are a sufficient basis

As far as the smart features go, you will definitely appretiate phone notification (with some emoji support), control of music on your phone, world times, alarm, stopwatch, weather and calendar. What first appeared in this generation is the history of sports activities, where you can see how well did you do. Until now, this was only possible in the mobile application.

Mi Fit or Xiaomi Wear? Does not matter

As it is typical for the Chinese - 20 watches, 20 applications. Who should orientate in all this. I didn't know if to pair the band with the Mi Fit or Xiaomi Wear app. And you know what? The manufacturer used a simple fix and allowed pairing with both. I personally prefere Mi Fit, because in Xiaomi Wear I am bothered by those infantile characters and it occurs to me that it is not yet as fine-tuned as the older Mi Fit app.

Is Xiaomi Mi Band 6 worth it?

Transitioning from the fifth generation may not be worth it, but it might be from the fourth one. The pulse oximeter is a useful sensor, but for me the biggest plus of this model is definitely the display. The image and size are completely different from the previous generation. Plus, it's a relatively inexpensive device, so why not go for a little bit of that upgrade?

There is not much to complain about with this Mi Band. They put a disproportionate amount of things in comparation to the price and still manage to work it out well. The manufacturer of the most popular smart bandhas once again proved its dominance.