Xiaomi’s Good Band lineup (previously Mi Band) is now in its ninth technology, and the Good Band 9 Lively is probably the most reasonably priced out of the bunch. With its €25/£20 instructed retail value, this plastic nugget is among the most reasonably priced smartbands available on the market.
Xiaomi Good Band 9 Lively specs
- Show: 1.47” TFT LCD touchscreen, 172 x 320 px decision, 60Hz refresh charge, 450 nits peak brightness
- Straps: Removable proprietary straps, 135-215mm adjustable size
- Options: 5ATM score, Actual-time coronary heart charge monitor, 24/7 Blood Oxygen stage monitor, Sleep monitoring, Stress monitoring, Sports activities monitoring, Step Counter, Meditation, Notifications, Idle Alert, Telephone Finder, Climate Forecast, Music and Digital camera Management, Alarm, Stopwatch, Compass, Barometer, Flashlight.
- Sports activities Modes: Outside Run, Indoor Run, Outside Stroll, Biking, Climbing, Trekking, Soar rope, Freestyle (50 extra in Mi Health app)
- Sensors: PPG optical coronary heart charge sensor, SpO2 sensor, 3-axis accelerometer, barometer, rotor Vibration Motor
- Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.3, Suitable with Android 8.0 and iOS 12+
- Battery: 300 mAh
- Colours: Black, Beige White, Pink
- Dimensions:46 x 27 x 9.99mm
- Weight: 16.5 grams with out strap
Reaching that value level needed to include some compromises, and they’re proven within the TFT LCD with its thick bezels, all-plastic construct, and fundamental design. You continue to get the standard well being and exercise monitoring options we’ve come to count on from Xiaomi’s wearables, however is the discount value sufficient to justify going for the Lively over its siblings or competing gadgets?
This reviewer had the Band 9 Lively strapped to his wrist 24/7 for over two weeks, and these are his findings.
Design
Xiaomi Good Band 9 Lively is an reasonably priced smartband made totally out of plastic. The system is formed like a nugget, with the one-piece TPU strap hugging it snugly. The one visible change from the Band 8 Lively is the marginally raised lip across the show, which ought to supply higher safety, and it definitely helps in opposition to the occasional dink in opposition to doorknobs and desk corners.
The 1.47-inch TFT LCD gives a 172 x 320 px decision and 60Hz refresh charge. It’s solely rated at 400 nits of brightness, which is ok, even when considered in direct daylight outside. Nonetheless, an OLED panel like those on the Good Band 9 or 9 Professional is miles higher when it comes to viewing angles, distinction and brightness.
We’re additionally lacking bodily buttons right here, which has been the norm for the Band 6 days, however we’re nonetheless not satisfied that the all-swipe gesture navigation mannequin is one of the simplest ways to go, particularly when your fingers are moist.
Good Band 9 Lively makes use of proprietary straps, that are offered by Xiaomi, and we’re already seeing listings from third-party makers on AliExpress. The retail package deal contains the Band 9 Lively, a black TPU strap, Xiaomi’s proprietary two-pin magnetic charging cable, a fast begin information and a guaranty leaflet.
Our evaluate unit arrived alongside Xiaomi’s official Luminous strap, which provides a splash of fashion and performance for runners with the fluorescent parts glowing in the dead of night for safer night runs.
Like its predecessor and seemingly each smartband in the previous few years, Band 9 Lively is 5ATM waterproof, that means it may deal with dives in recent water as much as 50 meters. In layman’s phrases, you’ll be tremendous taking it to the pool and bathe.
Options
Good Band 9 Lively incorporates a gentle path sensor with an optimized well being and health monitoring algorithm. It may well monitor your coronary heart charge and blood oxygen saturation 24/7 whereas additionally providing sleep and stress monitoring. Xiaomi can be bringing over 50 sports activities modes, protecting all the fundamental choices you’d count on.
Circling again to the entry-level value, Xiaomi omitted GNSS satellite tv for pc positioning on the Band 9 Lively, so that you’ll must depend on your smartphone’s positioning knowledge to trace your runs.
Like the remainder of Xiaomi’s sensible wearables, Band 9 Lively comes with entry to lots of of watch faces through Xiaomi’s Mi Health companion app. The one draw back is that it doesn’t get automated brightness management. As a consequence of its TFT LCD nature, Band 9 Lively doesn’t assist At all times on Show (AOD) both.
Band 9 Lively pairs to your Android/iOS smartphone through Bluetooth 5.3, and you may sync incoming notifications to buzz your wrist. You’re restricted by the cramped horizontal area on its display screen, and there’s no solution to reply to incoming messages. There are not any audio system or microphones on the system itself, so Bluetooth calls are a no-go. You’ll be able to, nonetheless, management music playback out of your wrist and use the Band as a distant shutter in your telephone’s digital camera.
Software program and efficiency
Like its predecessors within the Xiaomi Good Band sequence, Band 9 Lively boots a familiar-looking real-time working system (RTOS), which is totally operated through swipes. The UI includes of card-based widgets, although you possibly can’t customise or group totally different widgets right into a single card like you possibly can with the extra premium Good Band fashions. The app structure is list-based and options 16 built-in apps with out the choice so as to add any third-party ones.
Navigating the UI feels easy due to the 60Hz refresh charge, and every part works as anticipated. The display screen is a bit wider than the one on vanilla Good Band 9 nevertheless it’s nonetheless noticeably extra cramped than the 1.74-inch 336 x 480px panel on the Band 9 Professional.
The Mi Health smartphone companion app shops a month’s value of health-tracking
and exercise knowledge and you may sync your knowledge to Apple Well being or Google Match in addition to Strava and Suunto.
Mi Health app interface
We examined the Band 9 Lively paired with an iPhone 15 Professional. Connectivity between the 2 was nice, with no interruption in knowledge sync and a few minor delays in incoming notifications.
Well being and exercise monitoring
Coronary heart charge monitoring on the Band 9 Lively is configurable in 1, 10, or 30-minute intervals like its predecessors and you may have 24/7 monitoring for a greater total image of your HR fluctuations. Readings from the Band 9 Lively are per these from the Xiaomi Band 8 and 9 sequence and are additionally in step with those from the Huawei Watch Match 3.
The identical will be stated concerning the SpO2 readings, that are akin to what you’d get with the opposite smartbands on this value vary, with all coming in or across the similar end result with some minor deviations.
Sleep monitoring on the Band 9 Lively options the usual set of metrics like whole sleep time with a breakdown of sunshine, fast eye motion (REM), and deep sleep levels. Throughout the course of our evaluate, we discovered the Band 9 Lively to be inaccurate relating to go-to-sleep and wake-up instances in comparison with the Huawei Watch Match 3.
Sleep knowledge from the Good Band 9 Lively contained in the Mi Health app
Xiaomi’s newest band additionally confirmed persistently longer sleep instances than its competitor and it additionally failed at jotting down wake-up instances in the course of the evening, which was not the case on the Huawei wearable. One other annoyance is that you simply don’t get the deep sleep time on the band itself, so you must go into the Mi Health app every time.
For exercise monitoring, we examined the Good Band 9 Lively alongside the Huawei Watch Match 3 on the health club the place each have been put to the take a look at of a mean exercise with a mix of treadmill working and weightlifting.
Band 9 Lively pattern exercise knowledge
Band 9 Lively underreported the steps and whole run distance. Each gadgets recorded comparable ends in coronary heart charge readings throughout exercises. Nonetheless, we discovered that Band 9 Lively exceeded most coronary heart charge readings by round 10BPM, which appears to be a sample on Xiaomi wearables.
The absence of a devoted GNSS tracker contained in the Band 9 Lively means you’ll must carry your telephone if you wish to jot down outside runs.
Battery Life
Band 9 Lively incorporates a 300 mAh battery, which Xiaomi claims can last as long as 18 days of use with moderation or 9 days with extra motion.
In our checks, we discovered the Band 9 Lively to final us 8 days with show brightness set to 60%, all the well being and exercise monitoring options activated alongside a exercise each different day, and notifications.
That’s ok endurance in our books, although we’d discover it laborious to succeed in the marketed 18 days except you flip off a lot of the well being monitoring options and decrease the show brightness significantly.
What’s not so good is the sluggish charging, which took over 90 minutes to go from 0 to 100%.
Verdict
Xiaomi Good Band 9 Lively is probably the most reasonably priced health tracker from the corporate, and it delivers an honest total package deal with its compact and durable construct, waterproof design and respectable battery endurance. You get the standard mixture of well being and exercise monitoring options and a wealthy companion app that sums up tendencies in your well being, sleep and exercise.
The TFT LCD isn’t the brightest round, and it’s a substantial step down from an OLED show like those on different Good Bands from Xiaomi and its opponents. Sleep monitoring leaves loads to be desired and the construct high quality, whereas respectable, feels noticeably cheaper than the vanilla Good Band 9. Given the Lively identify, we anticipated a built-in GNSS satellite tv for pc receiver to trace outside runs and hikes, which is a missed alternative right here.
On the finish of the day, Xiaomi’s Good Band 9 Lively is value contemplating solely for its entry-level asking value, which is difficult to beat. In order for you a extra premium smartband expertise, we’d advise you spring up for the vanilla Good Band 9 or its extra premium sibling – the Good Band 9 Professional.
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