Xiaomi Band 8

Product Information

Xiaomi’s proprietary OS is also very zippy - a feeling that's is aided by that bump-up in refresh rate we referenced earlier.

Band 8 hands-on: Comprehensive fitness tracking on a budget Xiaomi Smart Band 8 hands-on: Comprehensive fitness tracking on a

Gone is the long-standing unibody design of older Mi Bands/Smart Bands, and in its place are now the more typical slot connections on each end.

SpO2 readings never dipped below what we would expect to see from our blood oxygen data on other devices - between 95-99% - and resting heart rate data was similar. For example, we’ve run 30 miles in a week with the Smart Band 8, alongside two gym sessions and five hour-long walks, yet our training load is still considered ‘Low’. As shown in our example above, all the data seems within a healthy range of the wrist-based Running Dynamics info available from our Garmin Epix Pro (Gen 2), which, considering the incredible price difference, is impressive stuff. Interestingly, the Mi Fitness app will still point out your lowest HR from a particular 24-hour period, as shown above, and this was always very in tune with our Oura and Garmin.

Band 8 - Xiaomi UK Xiaomi Smart Band 8 - Xiaomi UK

The Smart Band 8 is also capable of high and low heart rate notifications, though this is another feature that you’ll have to turn on manually.

It means swiping through menus and viewing graphics and stats is much smoother - and much more in line with what you would see from a smartwatch with a much loftier price tag. Features, OS and ecosystem The omission of GPS continues to be a bit of a killer, and means you’ll have to take your phone with you if you want any kind of reliable distance data. And even then, we’ve found this to be pretty poor - distances are often underreported and location trails in the app are essentially non-existent. However, anybody looking to get anywhere close to the most out of the Smart Band 8 will want at least a few of these features enabled, and that’s naturally where things begin to decline. An hour-long, aerobic run will see the Smart Band 8 advise taking the next 63 hours off to recover, meanwhile, and tag the workout as mostly anaerobic despite an average HR reading of 153.

Band 8 review - Wareable Xiaomi Smart Band 8 review - Wareable

AOD mode test conditions for the Xiaomi Smart Band 8: Fully charged, factory default settings, static display, and smart AOD function turned on, but high-precision sleep monitoring, in-sleep breathing quality monitoring and all-day stress monitoring turned off. Heart rate monitoring every 30 minutes and message notifications (100 messages, 10 calls, and 3 alarms per day) enabled; app data synchronised once per day; blood oxygen manually measured twice per day; and exercise monitoring for 60 minutes per week. On our test runs, we’ve found that the heart rate readings don’t react too well to fluctuations in real-time - even when the pace is relatively steady. In its condition out of the box, with most of those power-intensive features turned off, as we mentioned above, the battery drain is very minimal. Typically, we saw it lose around 5-7% per day, which roughly equates to Xiaomi’s estimate of 16 days. Some, like Garmin and Oura, simply take your lowest heart rate reading from sleep, while others, like Xiaomi and Apple, instead look for your lowest reading when you’re in an awake and inactive state.With a simple switch in the app (and the help of an attachment sold separately), you can transform the Smart Band 8 from a wrist companion into a bonafide running pod.

Band 8 Active - Xiaomi UK Xiaomi Smart Band 8 Active - Xiaomi UK

There are thankfully some insights that are a bit more useful, though, and they generally come from when the device is instead attached to your running shoe. Pebble Mode And while this does add some polish to the operating system, we should say again that there’s still very little in terms of smart features to get excited about here. It’s not just the case that’s been improved, either. The display, despite being the same 1.64-inch size and 192 x 490-pixel resolution as its predecessor, can now reach 600 nits of brightness. We should note, though, that resting heart rate figures are always gathered slightly differently between manufacturers. Xiaomi also continues to mimic plenty of the more advanced insights you’ll find on Apple and Garmin devices - such as training load, recovery time, and VO2 max - but none of these are really anything close to being useful.

Typical usage mode test conditions for the Xiaomi Smart Band 8: Fully charged, factory default settings, and static display, with high-precision sleep monitoring, in-sleep breathing quality monitoring and all-day stress monitoring turned off. Heart rate monitoring every 30 minutes and message notifications (100 messages, 10 calls, and 3 alarms per day) enabled; wrist raised to engage screen 200 times per day; app data synchronised once per day; blood oxygen manually measured twice per day; and exercise monitoring for 60 minutes per week.