Best fitness bands to buy in India in 2022: Mi Smart Band 6, Fitbit Charge 5, Realme Band 2, and more

Fitness bands have undergone a sea of change ever since being introduced as a novelty gadget segment less than a decade ago. While the initial concept of a smart wearable for your wrists that could help you keep track of your fitness was quite unique, the market was soon flooded with brands looking to offer one better than the other. Soon, Fitbit was no longer the only brand offering such a product.

Today, fitness bands are declining in shipments as more buyers opt for smartwatches instead. This has been further boosted by the rise of local Indian brands that are offering smartwatches at great prices – often at better rates than the fitness trackers themselves. However, if you prefer to have your watches look like the classic chronographs, and would rather have fitness bands dedicated just to track your health data, there are plenty of good options to choose from even today. Here’s our pick for the best fitness bands to buy in India.

Things to consider when buying a fitness band

Brand

One can find a wide variety of fitness bands by doing a quick search online. But, not all fitness bands are the same. It is highly recommended to choose one from a reliable and established company, even if it costs you more. Not only will you get a quality product with a robust set of features, but a better user experience and also better after-sale service in case the device is damaged or stops working as intended. Additionally, beware of cheap knockoffs that are showcased as high-end fitness trackers.

Design and Display

The early age of fitness bands didn’t include any displays. Rather they were just a bunch of sensors crammed into bracelets and silicone straps, while users relied on the smartphone app to analyze their data. Today, even the affordable fitness bands are equipped with tiny OLED displays offering deep blacks and bold colours. Make sure you purchase a band that offers a bright display that is visible both indoors and outdoors, especially while you are working up a sweat.

As for the design and durability, a majority of fitness bands come with silicone-based straps that are usually comfortable, last long and easy to swap. Also, make sure that you check the IP rating as it ensures that the band can withstand water and dust. This is especially important if you are into swimming or tend to sweat a lot during workouts.

Battery Life

Fitness bands usually offer long battery life as opposed to smartwatches. The primary reason for that is due to the smaller screen size and the lack of high-end sensors. Most bands should last anything from 3-15 days depending on the usage and battery size.

Fitness Features

As mentioned earlier, fitness bands offer way more features than they used to a few years ago. Apart from counting steps, you can expect features like heart rate monitoring, SpO2 or oxygen saturation tracking, activity and sports tracking, women’s health tracking, stress monitoring, sleep tracking and more. There might be some ambiguity when it comes to accuracy, thus we once again suggest that you go for a reputable brand. For instance, Fitbit has been a pioneer in the health and fitness tracking business, and the Fitbit Charge 5 is indeed one of the best premium fitness bands. 

Apart from tracking health and fitness, you can expect them to offer useful features like getting notifications from your smartphone, controlling your media, getting alerts, checking the weather, unlocking your phone, and so on.

List of the best fitness bands in India 2022

Xiaomi Mi Smart Band 6

Xiaomi’s Mi Band series is not only popular but also one of the highest-selling fitness bands in the country. Their current offering is the Mi Smart Band 6 which, like the previous models, is affordable and works quite well. It comes with up to 14-days of battery life, a 1.56-inch AMOLED display capable of up to 450-nits of brightness, a PPG heart rate sensor, SpO2 tracking and much more. The band hooks up with a dedicated app which can be used to set up the device, customize it and maintain your health data. For something that is priced at Rs 3,500, the Mi Smart Band 6 is quite loaded with features and our pick of the best budget fitness band.

Buy: Mi India Store | Amazon

Pros:
-Large AMOLED screen
–Comfortable & lightweight
-Packed with useful features
-Value for money

Cons:
–Staid looks
-No always-on display
-Advanced features drain the battery

OnePlus Band

OnePlus entered the wearables market with its own fitness band last year. There are certain similarities with the Mi Smart Band in terms of design, but overall OnePlus has done a good job if not the best with the OnePlus Band. The contoured strap with a dual-tone finish and the 1.1-inch AMOLED display both look great. It comes with heart rate and SpO2 sensors along with 13 exercise modes. You can even track your sleep, which is surprisingly well implemented. Like most fitness bands, it also offers dust and water resistance with 5ATM IP68 ratings. Overall, if you are looking for a cheap alternative to Xiaomi’s Mi Band series, this is not a bad option.

Buy: OnePlus Store | Amazon

Pros:
-Good looking design
-Bright display
-Fluid UI navigation
-Accurate tracking capabilities

Cons:
-No Stress tracking
-Inconsistent battery life

Redmi Smart Band Pro

With the success of its Mi Band series, Xiaomi introduced another fitness band under the Redmi brand. The Redmi Smart Band Pro features a wider 1.47-inch AMOLED panel, compared to the Mi Smart Band 6, and also features an Always-on display option. It also comes with heart rate and SpO2 monitoring, over 110 workout modes, women menstrual health tracking, stress tracking, sleep monitoring and much more. Battery life is rated at 14-days with up to 20-days when used with the power-saving mode. It also comes with a 5ATM rating which means you can swim while wearing the band up to 50m.

Buy: Mi India Store | Amazon

Pros:
-Nice display
-Comfortable and lightweight
-Tons of sports modes
-Good battery life

Cons:
-Proprietary straps
-Small issues with iPhone connectivity

Huawei Band 6

Like the Redmi Smart Band Pro, the Huawei Band 6 also comes with a wide AMOLED display that almost makes it look like a smartwatch. In fact, it is a solid competitor for Xiaomi as it comes with a ton of features including heart rate and SpO2 tracking, sleep tracking, and up to 96 workout modes. Available in four colour options, the Huawei Band 6 comes with a 5ATM rating which means it has a water resistance rating of 50-meters. It can also track your sleep cycles as well as stress, along with features like getting call and app notifications, controlling media, etc. Huawei claims a battery life of 14-days, and in our testing, we found that to be correct provided continuous heart rate monitoring, automatic SpO2, and automatic stress tracking are disabled.

Buy: Amazon

Pros:
-Attractive and large AMOLED display
-Superb battery life
-Plenty of workout modes

Cons:
-You cannot reply to messages
-Straps not changeable
-SpO2 tracking is iffy

Realme Band 2

Realme is also quite active in the affordable fitness tracking market and the Realme Band 2 is currently their best fitness band offering. It looks like a cross between the Huawei Band 6 and the Redmi Smart Band Pro, having a 1.4-inch display, but notably, this one doesn’t make use of AMOLED. It pretty much offers a similar set of features though including 90 sports modes, heart rate and SpO2 tracking, sleep tracking, and stress tracking. The good thing about the Realme Band 2 is that it comes with non-proprietary 18mm straps, so you can easily swap them out. Other notable features include a 5ATM rating for water resistance, 12-days of battery life and smart AIoT controls.

Buy: Realme Store | Amazon

Pros:
-18mm universal strap
-Long battery life
-Realme Link app

Cons:
-No calling or message reply option
-Connected GPS only
-Not AMOLED
-No women menstrual health tracking

Fitbit Charge 5

Coming down to the most expensive fitness band on our list, we have the Fitbit Charge 5. Fitbit is a popular name in the fitness and health tracking space and the Charge 5 is our pick of the best premium fitness band for 2022. The design is quite premium with an aluminium casing as opposed to using plastic. The vibrant OLED display is great to use and the dedicated app comes with an excellent interface to track your health. Speaking of which, the fitness band features an ECG sensor for heart rate tracking along with a SpO2 sensor for tracking blood oxygen saturation. It can also track your sleep cycle, stress, and even menstrual cycle tracking for women. It comes with a comparatively lower battery life of about 7-days, but that is definitely not a deal-breaker considering the premium styling and variety of health features on this device.

Buy: Amazon

Pros:
-Stylish, comfortable design
-Good battery life
-Can track a host of fitness activities
-Good sleep tracking

Cons:
-Cannot revert to notifications
-EDA scans can take a long time
-No on-demand SpO2 monitoring

OPPO Band Style

With the Band Style, OPPO has sought to offer a product that doesn’t look like a drab piece of rubber strapped around your wrist. As a result, the OPPO Band Style offers a metal ring around the central tracker piece to add a bit of extra zing to your everyday workout regime. For the most part, the Band Style looks quite nice too.

Adding to that is a fairly strong feature set, which includes round-the-clock heart rate and SpO2 blood oxygen monitoring, a 1.1-inch full-colour AMOLED display, and notification prompts. The tracker is lightweight as well, which makes it comfortable to wear at all times. It covers 12 dedicated workout modes, and a host of other activities, to give you fitness maps of your workout sessions. You can even reject calls and control music playback on your smartphone from the fitness band itself. Finally, the battery life of the Band Style is quite impressive, with regular usage one charge cycle can last comfortably for a week. At Rs 1,999, it is also one of the best-priced products in this range.

Buy: Amazon | OPPO

Pros:
-Looks good
-Comfortable for long wear
-Fun customisable display faces
-Inexpensive

Cons:
-Exercise modes are limited
-Undocking the tracker feels flimsy
-Charging process is awkward for Sport band

Garmin Vivosmart 5

The Garmin Vivosmart 5 is among the most expensive fitness trackers that have been launched of late. It comes with a lofty price tag of Rs 14,990 in India. That said, Garmin relies on its stellar reputation for offering highly accurate health and fitness data, so those really serious about their fitness regimes may not really mind splurging on this one. The Vivosmart 5 comes with a wealth of features that include niche features such as sleep quality monitoring and body-age tracking. The latter takes into account a person’s chronological age, daily fitness regime, body fat percentage, resting heart rate and other features to guide users into ensuring that their body is not ageing more than it should.

However, the Vivosmart 5 features a monochrome display and does not have as many features as you’d expect of a modern-day fitness tracker, hence being solely focused on fitness only.

Buy: Amazon | Synergizer

Pros:
-Accurate fitness data
-Diverse health tracking modes
-Stress and sleep analysis are helpful

Cons:
-Monochrome display
-Battery life could have been better
-Very expensive

GOQii Vital ECG

The GOQii Vital ECG is aimed at helping you track your cardiac health regularly through in-band ECG analysis. What more, you can also get a detailed analysis of your ECG once you sync the fitness data to your smartphone – and you can even consult a doctor through the app by sharing the data with them.

GOQii claims that the ECG tracker is validated by the Central Drugs and Standard Control Organization (CDSCO), hence, lending credibility to its data. It can also work as a regular exercise tracker, and buying this fitness band will also give you three months of live fitness coaching bundled with the tracker itself. At Rs 3,999 for the bundle, the GOQii Vital ECG is a fairly unique offering in the industry.

Buy: Amazon | Reliance Digital

Pros:
-Unique ECG tracking
-Bundled fitness services
-Can work as regular exercise tracker as well

Cons:
-Limited overall feature set
-Specifically programmed for ECGs only