It’s been eleven years since Xiaomi launched its original Mi Band and the series has now entered its tenth generation. The Mi Band was the catalyst to Xiaomi’s rise in the wearables market, managing to maintain its position as one of the best bang for your buck devices out there.
With the Smart Band 10 now official, Xiaomi tried to refine its best-selling wearable with a few hardware upgrades and an ever-so-slightly higher starting price.
Xiaomi Smart Band 10 specifications
- Display: 1.72” AMOLED touchscreen, 212 x 520 px resolution, 60Hz refresh rate, 1,500 nits HBM brightness
- Straps: Detachable proprietary straps, 135-210mm adjustable length
- Features: 5ATM rating, Real-time heart rate monitor, 24/7 Blood Oxygen level monitor, Sleep tracking, Stress monitoring, Sports tracking, Step Counter, Meditation, Notifications, Idle Alert, Phone Finder, Weather Forecast, Music and Camera Control, Alarm, Stopwatch, linear Vibration Motor, Flashlight.
- Sports Modes: Outdoor Run, Indoor Run, Outdoor Walk, Cycling, Hiking, Pool Swimming, Jump rope, Freestyle (150+ more in Mi Fitness app)
- Sensors: PPG optical heart rate sensor, SpO2 sensor, 3-axis accelerometer, barometer, gyroscope, electronic compass
- Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.4, Compatible with Android 8.0 and iOS 12+
- Battery: 233mAh
- Colors: Black, Silver, Rose, White
- Dimensions:46.57 × 22.54 × 10.95mm (Metal), 47.74 × 23.94 × 10.95mm (Ceramic)
- Weight (without strap): 16g (Aluminium), 26g (Ceramic Edition)
The main additions to this year’s Band 10 are the slightly larger and brighter screen alongside claims of more accurate health and activity tracking. You’re also getting an updated vibration motor in the same basic design that’s practically unchanged since the Band 7 days. So, are the new additions worth the higher asking price?
Design
Xiaomi didn’t change much with the Smart Band 10’s design. It’s still the same pebble-shaped puck with its long and narrow AMOLED display. The new model features a larger screen diagonal, measuring 1.72 inches, compared to 1.62 inches on its predecessor.
The bezels are slimmer this time around at 2mm on each side and they are perfectly symmetrical.
The other big addition is the updated max brightness. Band 10 now cranks out 1,500 nits HBM brightness, which tops the 1,200 nits on its predecessor. That’s a nice upgrade that helps when using the Band 10 outdoors in these sunny summer days. You still get auto brightness, which is what we used during our review process, and Always-on display (AOD) when you just want to glance over at the time.
Our review unit is the Ceramic Edition. This is not the first ceramic Xiaomi Smart Band, but it is the first one making its way to global markets. The side frame is made from ceramic, while the bottom, where we have the sensors, is still made from plastic.
Xiaomi Smart Band 10 Ceramic Edition
The Ceramic Edition Band 10 sports a sleek white color that gives off Stormtrooper armor vibes. The other immediately noticeable fact is how much heavier it feels compared to past Smart Bands. Our review unit weighs 26 grams on its own and 44 grams with its fluororubber strap.
For context, the regular version of the Band 10, which features a metal shell, should weigh in at around 16 grams sans its strap. Despite the added heft, Band 10 feels that bit more premium in its ceramic finish.
We’d like to go off on a tangent here as the lack of physical buttons on the last four generations of Xiaomi Smart Bands has been a recurring annoyance for this reviewer in particular.
We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: bring back the physical buttons! Or at least a capacitive back button? There’s no way to turn the band on apart from attaching it to the magnetic charger. If you need to restart the band and you don’t have the charger with you, you’re out of luck.
We’re still not convinced that the all-swipe gesture navigation model is the best way to go on a wearable, especially when your hands are wet, so we’d urge Xiaomi to at least consider bringing back buttons for the Smart Band 11.
The box contents are the usual Xiaomi Smart Band affair – a proprietary two-pin magnetic charging cable, a quick start guide and a warranty leaflet.
Xiaomi Smart Band 10 pearl-chain pendant
Xiaomi also sent out its new pearl-chain pendant, which transforms the Band 10 into a fashion accessory if you’re into that.
Features
Smart bands made their mark as inexpensive activity trackers, and in recent years, they have been getting closer in feature parity to smartwatches. But a band always comes with its limitations when compared to fully-fledged smartwatches, and the Smart Band 10 is no exception.
For one, it does not feature a speaker, so you can only receive notifications for incoming calls without the ability to answer them. For obvious (size) reasons, there’s no on-screen keyboard, so you can’t reply to incoming messages. Our global version does not feature NFC connectivity and Xiaomi has yet again omitted a GPS receiver so you need to bring your phone if you want to track runs and other aerobic exercises.
Band 10 pairs over Bluetooth 5.4 and features a multitude of sensors. These include an accelerometer, gyroscope, optical heart rate sensor, pulse oximeter and ambient light sensor. The new addition this year is the electronic compass, which is a nice feature to have, but in our opinion, a dedicated GPS receiver would have been a more useful addition.
Another new addition is the ability to broadcast heart rate data during workouts to third-party devices like a cycle speedometer. Band 10 also gets guided running courses and deeper integration with Xiaomi’s AIoT device ecosystem, allowing you to control compatible Xiaomi devices and smart appliances.
Smart Band 10 comes with a new linear motor with an upgraded algorithm and custom vibrations. You can assign different vibration patterns for incoming notifications, calls, and alarms. Xiaomi also added an option to buzz your wrist when you swipe to go back in the menus, which is a nice addition, but as we said previously, a physical or even a capacitive back button would have been a better option.
Band 10 gets an upgraded vibration motor
Band 10 is 5ATM waterproof, which lets you take it to the pool and it can survive dives in fresh water up to 50 meters. Xiaomi is also advertising an upgraded activity tracking sensor with an enhanced sports tracking algorithm. For more details, refer to the health and activity tracking section.
Software and performance
Band 10 boots Xiaomi HyperOS 2.0, which looks and feels just like previous generations of Xiaomi Smart Bands. It’s a real-time operating system (RTOS) operated via swipes with a handful of first-party apps and card-based widgets. We’d again like to emphasize the lack of physical buttons here, which makes navigating the UI on this small and narrow screen challenging in more ways than one.
The 60Hz screen leaves little to be desired in terms of smoothness, everything works as you’d expect without any delays or hiccups. Band 10 now offers a total of 26 pre-installed apps, including the new running course app, a compass app, tasks and focus mode.
One notable addition on the Band 10 is the ability to add widgets directly from the Band itself without going into the Mi Fitness app. Another positive is that Xiaomi made text on the Band 10’s display slightly larger compared to the Band 9 which makes it easier to read incoming messages and system UI elements.
As with any Xiaomi wearable, you’ll need to install the Mi Fitness app on your phone to get started. This is your one-stop shop for accessing your health and activity data as well as tweaking, managing watch faces, and installing updates.
Mi Fitness app on iOS
The Mi Fitness companion app stores a month’s worth of health-tracking and also brings access to a seemingly endless list of watch faces. There are numerous options that are bound to suit your style. From classical analog to minimalist electronic modes and even animated versions with animals and simple games, Band 10 brings arguably the best selection of watch faces to date.
A few of the watch faces available inside the Mi Fitness app
Nearly all watch faces bring an AOD option with varying degrees of additional information displayed at all times. Some AOD options also add glanceable details like battery status, weather info, and steps counter.
Xiaomi allows you to store up to a month’s worth of health and workout data, and you can sync it to Apple Health, Google Fit as well as Strava and Suunto.
Some irks we had with the software include the lack of emoji support and the inability to use the band for anything else after you start a timer. For some odd reason Xiaomi is still using the US date format (mm/dd) which is not particularly useful for users in other regions.
Connectivity was great during our review period with the Band 10 paired to an iPhone 15 Pro. We did not experience missed notifications or connection interruptions.
Health and activity tracking
With the Band 10, Xiaomi is also offering its most up-to-date optical heart rate sensor alongside blood oxygen saturation, sleep, stress metrics.
In our testing, we found heart rate readings from the Band 10 to be much more accurate than previous Smart Band models in both resting mode and during workouts. We compared results with a Huawei Watch Fit 3, and both devices showed similar values.
Previous Xiaomi Smart Bands had a tendency to overreport heart rate data, especially early on in workouts but that seems to be fixed with the Band 10.
SpO2 readings were generally accurate with a minor deviation from what we measured with a dedicated pulse oximeter.
Sleep tracking is still not as accurate as offerings from other brands. Band 10 consistently reported inaccurate sleep times, randomized rapid eye movement (REM) sleep readings and deep sleep readings which were not true.
Sleep tracking: Xiaomi Band 10 (left) vs Huawei Watch Fit 3 (right)
On the activity tracking side, Band 10 performed just as well as our reference Huawei Watch Fit 3. The two showed nearly identical heart rate readings during our sample workouts, which included a combination of treadmill running and weightlifting. This is a great improvement over past Xiaomi Smart Bands, which had a tendency to overreport heart rate data.
Fitness tracking: Xiaomi Band 10 (left) vs Huawei Watch Fit 3 (right)
Band 10 also gets on-device guided running courses with basic and advanced options with interval breakdowns. These are also adapted for walking, jogging and sprint running with beginner and advanced options. These training sessions can help you reach specific goals like improving running endurance, sprint times and lung capacity.
Battery Life
Band 10 features a 233mAh battery – just like the Band 9 and Xiaomi claims can deliver up to 21 days in typical usage, or 9 days with AOD.
In our testing, we found the Band 10 to last for 10 days on a single charge with all of the health tracking features turned on alongside AOD mode and notifications. Truly impressive endurance from such a small activity tracker.
When you do need to recharge, it takes around 50 minutes to get back to 100%.
Verdict
Smart Band 10 is Xiaomi’s best entry in the series. The updated AMOLED touchscreen gets noticeably brighter than its predecessors, and text is easier on the eyes thanks to its larger display diagonal. The improved vibration motor is another nice addition, and we’re finally seeing accurate heart rate readings, which deserves praise.
The build quality is top-notch, and the new Ceramic Edition is absolutely stunning. Battery life comfortably lasts for over a week and the endless options of watch faces coupled with the large pool of fitness tracking options should be enough for most users.
Sleep tracking accuracy leaves a lot to be desired and we’d like to see better management of notifications with the ability to reply to incoming messages.
There are several great smartband alternatives from Huawei and Honor that offer nearly identical specs and the ability to take calls for around the same price as the Band 10. But if you’re looking for a more compact device that gives you accurate heart rate readings, a bright AMOLED display and a week’s plus battery life, then the Band 10 should be on your shortlist.
Pros
- Bright AMOLED display with excellent outdoor legibility
- Great build, especially on the Ceramic Edition
- Improved heart rate accuracy
- Stellar battery life
Cons
- Lacks GPS receiver
- Inaccurate REM and deep sleep readings
- Doesn’t do voice calls
- No physical buttons
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