The Xiaomi Mi Smart Band 5, or the Mi Band 5 as everyone calls it, was announced in mid-June, but that was just a Chinese launch, and it wasn't clear when we'd be able to pick up the cheap fitness tracker anywhere else – well, Xiaomi just surprised us all by announcing that the release date is tomorrow.
During Xiaomi's latest ecosystem product launch event, which also brought us two new Xiaomi electric scooters and some true wireless earphones, the company announced that the anticipated Mi Band 5 can be bought from July 16.
You can pick up the Xiaomi Mi Smart Band 5 from Xiaomi's website, and it'll cost you €39.99 (about $45 / £35 / AU$65), with an early bird price of €34.99 (about $40 / £30 / AU$55). Well, that's the European price, but it remains to be seen if the fitness band will actually make its way to the US or Australia. Due to precedent, we wouldn't expect so.
- Check out our Xiaomi Mi Band 4 review
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- What do we know about the Fitbit Versa 3?
What's new in the Xiaomi Mi Smart Band 5?
The Xiaomi Mi Smart Band 5 has a 1.1-inch AMOLED screen, making it bolder and brighter than its predecessors.
According to Xiaomi the Mi Smart Band 5 lasts two weeks on a single charge, so it'll last you much longer than your Fitbit Versa 2 or Apple Watch 5, although those are proper smartwatches with more lifestyle features so it's not an exact comparison.
The Xiaomi Mi Smart Band 5 does come with plenty of fitness and health features though - there's 11 different fitness tracking modes, a heart rate sensor, stress detection, female health tracking, 'PAI matrix' (basically a way of gamifying your heart rate), and apparently more features too.
That sounds like plenty of features packed into a cheap device, and we'll be sure to bring the Xiaomi Mi Smart Band 5 in for testing to see if it's really as good as it sounds.
