Mi Band 6 launched in India: 3 reasons to buy this Xiaomi fitness band (and 3 reasons you shouldn’t)

Highlights
  • Mi Band 6 price in India is Rs 3,499.
  • The Mi Band 6 comes as a successor to the Mi Band 5 and brings a large 1.56-inch touch AMOLED display.
  • Mi Band 6 specifications include 5 ATM water resistance, 125mAh battery, SpO2 sensor, and continuous heart rate monitor.

Xiaomi Mi Band 6 was unveiled in India at Xiaomi’s Smart Living 2022 event on August 26th and comes as the latest lifestyle product and a successor to the Mi Band 5. The latest fitness tracker ships with a large 1.56-inch display compared with a 1.1-inch display on the Mi Band 5, an SPO2 sensor, and support for 30 exercise modes. The Xiaomi Mi Band 6 price in India is Rs 3,499 and will be available in multiple colour options. We’ve already reviewed the fitness tracker and found it to be a compelling offering in the segment but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have any flaws. Today, we will bring you three reasons to buy the Mi Band 6 and three reasons why you shouldn’t buy it.

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Also read: Mi Smart Band 6 review: bigger screen, better features

3 reasons to buy Mi Band 6

A large AMOLED display

Mi Band 6

Let’s face it, the display is everything for a smart device, be it a smartphone, a smartwatch, or even a fitness tracker. With regards to the Mi Band 6, Xiaomi ticks all the right boxes. It has bumped up the screen size from 1.19-inch on the Mi Band 5 to a 1.56-inch panel on the successor, most importantly it is touch-enabled colour AMOLED. Our review found the Mi band 6 display to be quite vivid, sharp, and responsive to touch. Thanks to its large real estate, it can fit in more content. The company has changed the shape of the display, which is now oval-shaped and is edge-to-edge.

Feature-packed fitness tracker

Whenever a successor of a popular product comes out, the question that needs to be asked is what upgrades it brings over the predecessor. In this regard, the Mi Band 6 brings a handful of improvements. The foremost improvement is the SpO2 sensor that can keep track of blood oxygen levels. The band supports 30 sports modes and can auto-detect six of them, including outdoor running, walking, treadmill, cycling indoor, rowing, and elliptical training. The Mi Band 6 also gains sleep breathing quality monitoring. Additionally, there’s continuous heart rate, sleep monitoring with REM, and stress monitoring.

The fitness tracker has the ability to throw idle alerts and can even track female health. There are features like alarm, weather, stopwatch, timers, music control, and remote camera shutter. The Mi Band 6 is compatible with Android and iOS and there’s a companion app, the Mi Fit app.

Comfortable and lightweight design

The Mi Band 6 has a compact and lightweight design. It measures 47.4×18.6×12.7mm and weighs just 12.8 grams. The fitness tracker is so lightweight that you barely notice when you’re wearing it. Looks don’t tell the complete picture.

3 reasons you should not buy Mi Band 6

No always-on display

The Xiaomi Mi Band 6 doesn’t come with an always-on display despite packing an AMOLED display. This would have been an impressive addition to the Mi Band 6 but for some reason, Xiaomi has missed out on it. The always-on display shows notifications, time, and other health data even when the screen is off, similar to how it works on smartphones with AMOLED display.

Average battery life

The Mi Band 6 comes with a 125mAh battery that can be charged via cable with a magnetic connector. It takes 2 hours to completely charge. While the fitness tracker adds an impressive set of features and new additions, this certainly takes a toll on the battery performance. While the company claims 14 days, it could last between 10-12 days with basic usage. Features like continuous heart rate monitoring, sleep breathing monitoring and others will certainly reduce the battery life further. It would have been better had Xiaomi worked further on improving its battery life, with better optimisations or a bigger capacity battery.

Xiaomi Mi Band 6 price is higher than expected

Xiaomi Mi Band 6 price in India is Rs 3,499, which seems a bit steep compared to its China price. In comparison, the Mi Band 6 in China costs RMB 229 (approx. Rs 2,600) for the non-NFC variant and RMB 279 (approx. Rs 3,100) for the NFC version. No doubt, the Mi Band 6 brings significant upgrades over the Mi Band 5 but it feels slightly pricer this time. This is because Xiaomi has set a common expectation among the casual buyer that its products are priced aggressively. Had Xiaomi priced the Mi Band 6 at Rs 3,000, it would have been a great buy in the segment.