Summary

We tested the new version of the famous Xiaomi connected bracelet for three weeks.Does the new SPO2 sensor make the difference?Response immediately in our full opinion of the Xiaomi Mi Smart Band 6.

The Xiaomi Mi Smart Band 6 // Source: Maxime Grosjean for Fandroid

New bracelet, new feature.Xiaomi recently updated its famous Mi Smart Band by adding a SPO2 sensor and enlarging the screen.Only six months separate the previous model from this latest version.Did the brand keep the excellent value for money from its connected bracelet?Answer in our full Xiaomi Mi Smart Band 6 test, after three weeks of use.

Xiaomi Mi Smart Band 6 technical sheet

This test was carried out with a bracelet provided by Xiaomi.

An unchanged design

Difficult to visually distinguish this new MI Smart Band 6 from its predecessor, the Mi Smart Band 5.The product keeps the same oval shape with a screen that occupies the entire surface before.The latter has still evolved slightly, but we will come back on it a little further.Anyway, the screen is always tactile and thus allows the brand to do without a physical button.At the rear, we notice the cardiac frequency and SPO2 sensor, as well as the two connection pines for recharge - the owner charger is obviously delivered with the bracelet.The case is made of plastic and is water resistant thanks to its 5 ATM certification: you can wear it in the shower and during your swimming sessions, but remove it from your wrist before going by diving.

The front and rear side of the bracelet // Source: Maxime Grosjean for Frandroid

The Mi Smart Band 6 sports the same symmetrical and sober aspect as before.He is discreet without being particularly elegant.Let's say that Xiaomi went straight to the point.In fact, it is above all the thickness of the Mi Smart Band 6 that makes it very simplistic: the body of the product overlooks the bracelet and thus lets easily guess that the two parts can be detached.We can indeed extricate the bracelet case by applying enough pressure, as for the previous versions.Other activity bracelets enjoy a more neat design, but remember that the 12.45 mm of the Mi Smart band 6 thick are clearly unacceptable.The latter also displays 12.9 grams on the scale, 0.9 grams more than the Mi Smart Band 5.

The bracelet is made up of two parts: the case and the loop // Source: Maxime Grosjean for Frandroid

The bracelet is pleasant to wear thanks to its rubber material - thermoplastic polyurethane to be precise, or TPU.Its thirteen adjustment levels make the mi smart band 6 compatible with a very large majority of wrist sizes.Be careful not to tighten the bracelet too much, just to avoid the funny brands that the adjustment levels leave in this case.

Other bracelet colors exist, but you have to buy them separately // Source: Maxime Grosjean for Frandroid

The bracelet's hook takes the form of a picot that you just have to push in one of the holes to lock everything.Be careful, if installation and uninstallation are facilitated, this system tends to drop out during a sudden friction against a garment.It happened to me two or three times during the three weeks of testing (most often walking) and even if the bracelet has never got won during my sports and running sessions, I have everythingLikewise preferred to leave it in my bag during a boat trip.

A larger screen and better definition

The Mi Smart Band 6 screen still benefits from AMOLED technology and measures 1.56 inch, against 1.1 inch for its predecessor.The display area is therefore 45 % larger and the definition follows the same direction: 152 x 486 pixels (or 326 ppi) against 126 x 294 pixels for the Mi Smart Band 5.

Remember that the sharpness of the display is very pleasant on a daily basis, no need to fold your eyes.Likewise for brightness, since the three proposed intensities make the screen perfectly visible in all situations.However, we regret the absence of an ambient light sensor, which is clearly not practical on a daily basis.Understand that it is often necessary to go to the bracelet settings to switch between the different intensities - before going out in the sun for example.

Here we notice the chin under the screen // Source: Maxime Grosjean for Frandroid

A word on the rounded edges of the screen, which are only symmetrical on the sides: above, the cut is pretty, because close to the edge, while we notice a more imposing chin at the bottom.It is not really annoying on a daily basis since the interface is dark.To tell the truth, we don't even realize it and you have to play with light to notice it.

To take out the watch screen, simply press it or lift your wrist if the function has been activated beforehand in the settings.The mi smart band 6 screen does not offer Always-on mode.

No change on the side of navigation and application

Navigation in the bracelet interface is fluid and pleasant on a daily basis.Note the disappearance of the small touch button present at the bottom of the mi smart band 5 screen: the interaction can be done with any area of the screen.Vertical screen obliges, Xiaomi offers stages storage: you have to slide your finger from bottom to top to scroll through the different features, but it is possible to do the opposite to start the list by the end - practical if you are looking for aApplication closer to the end of the list than the start.

A scan of the screen from left to right allows you to return to the previous menu.This same gesture also gives access to customizable shortcuts if it is performed from the home screen, which displays the time and other essential information, also customizable - number of steps, heart rate, remaining battery, weather ...

The interface of the Mi Smart Band 6 // Source: Maxime Grosjean for Fandroid

All this is configured via the Half -fitted application, available on Android and iOS, the Mi Smart Band 6 being indeed compatible with iPhone.It is thus possible to choose the elements to display on the bracelet - heart rate, training, global clock, timer, find the phone and many others.A sliding of finger upwards reveals the elements two by two and we have on our side decided to reduce their number on the bracelet to facilitate navigation.

Half -fitted

The same goes for shortcuts, we advise you to delete the display of the elements that you do not find essential, just to lighten the interface.You will find some of these elements and shortcuts below.

Same note as during our Mi Smart Band 5 test: the application is clogged and deserves to be a little better organized.We must often open several menus and submenus to find the desired option, a new user will surely feel forced to explore all corners to be sure that you have missed any feature-there are many.Note that the main tab of the application logically displays the activity data recorded by the bracelet, to which we will come back in more detail in the next part.

Half -fitted

Otherwise, the application offers several dozen dials, arranged by categories.There is something for everyone, but it must be recognized that most dials are very busy, not to say kitsch.This is why we preferred to keep the initial dial, which also offers modifiable complications directly on the bracelet.

Good to know: the bracelet can display notifications of your phone. Là aussi, tout se paramètre depuis l’application Half -fitted.Note that only the consultation of notifications is offered, so do not plan to respond to your messages and emails from your wrist.Anyway, the vertical display of the screen is not very pleasant to converse.

During an incoming call, the Mi Smart Band 6 vibrates and displays contact information, but it is still not possible to drop from the bracelet.You still have the option of sending an automatic response from a customizable list.

The bracelet can be used to read its notifications // Source: Maxime Grosjean for Frandroid

Finally, know that the Mi Smart Band 6 is not equipped with an NFC chip (in France) and therefore does not offer contactless payment.It is also impossible to store music or connect it to wireless headphones.Nothing abnormal for a connected bracelet, especially in this price range.Recall that the bracelet still offers beautiful features: alarm clock with vibrations, weather, telephone music control ...

A convincing activity follow -up despite a poorly exploited SPO2 sensor

The Mi Smart Band 6 always has the classic accelerometers, gyroscopes and cardiofrequency meter, but this year welcomes a blood oxygenation sensor, the famous SPO2.The latter is unfortunately badly exploited by Xiaomi.The day, it is only possible to launch manual recordings, but the problem is not there.

It must indeed be understood that the analysis of the SPO2 is more relevant at night and it is on this point that the bracelet is doing badly: the functionality is in beta version (at least at the time I write theselines at the end of June 2021) and is not yet developed.

Already, the bracelet often continues its measures between 5 and 20 minutes after awakening (we see it thanks to the red light sent by the sensor), without this data being analyzed or available later.Precisely, the SP02 data recorded at night is only displayed in a sleep analysis submenu (in the application) and are not found in the SPO2 tab.The latter therefore displays the rare manual measurements launched by the user during the day.Suffice to say that this tab allows everything except precise monitoring of oxygen saturation in the blood.Finally, this "monitoring of the quality of breathing during sleep" has a heavy impact on autonomy-go to the next part of this test for the details.

Otherwise, the Mi Smart Band 6 measures the number of steps carried out, the heart rate and even the level of stress thanks to the variability of the heart rate.The bracelet also offers the calculation of the PAI, an indicator of physiological activity which is based on heart rate, sex, age and physical activities of the user.The goal is to have a highest pai, above 100.It is even possible to manually inform your weight and body fat to follow this data in the long term.Menstrual follow -up is also part.

The main application tab takes care of displaying all this data, which is accompanied by explanations and sometimes comparisons with other users of the same age."You have a deep sleep that lasts longer than 41 % of users", will read some.

At night, the bracelet detects the different sleep phases (light, deep and rem), but this follow -up would deserve to be more precise.For example, my few frequent and fast awakenings in the night were rarely detected.That's not all, since one evening, the bracelet confused my little pre-festive nap with my start of the night then did not seem to understand that I was in movement throughout the beginning of the night.In this case, it is fortunately possible to manually modify the time of sleeping in the application, just to readjust the follow -up.

Regarding sport, the bracelet supports 30 activities and can recognize six automatically, which allows the user not to manually launch the start of tracking.The data indicated seem relatively just, but note some big errors in the measurement of heart rate: I noticed some sporadic, but drastic frequency decreases during my running sessions.On this subject, it is imperative to run with your phone to benefit from precise monitoring of the route since the Mi Smart Band 6 still does not include GPS.For comparison, here are the data recorded by the bracelet and the Strava application on my phone during two foot races - both use the GPS of the phone and we consider Strava here as the reference.

First running:

Second running:

The Mi Smart Band 6 measures and displays the data of sports activities, here running // Source: Maxime Grosjean for Frandroid

Without the telephone GPS, the bracelet becomes without real surprise much less precise:

We notice on the last screenshot the unexplained falls of measurements the heart rate

Generous autonomy under conditions

The different versions of Mi Smart Band are renowned for their generous autonomy.It is therefore not surprising that Xiaomi advances up to two weeks of autonomy for its new model.In fact, this 14 -day score is never reached, far from there.Know that the bracelet seems to lose twice as much battery during the night as during the day.

Note that each test period includes the same number of sports activities, namely one per day.

You see it, the autonomy of the Mi Smart Band 6 is greatly reduced when the SPO2 follow -up is activated.Otherwise, the bracelet reaches more than 8 days of autonomy, which is almost half of the manufacturer's promise, but that remains more than comfortable.We can't help but think that buying a bracelet for its SPO2 sensor, then deactivating it to keep a correct autonomy, is only moderately interesting.

The magnetic charger of the Mi Smart Band 6 // Source: Maxime Grosjean for Fandroid

The magnetic charger allows a full load of the bracelet in an hour and 28 minutes according to our tests.

Price and availability of the Xiaomi Mi Smart Band 6

The Xiaomi Mi Smart Band 6 is displayed at the recommended price of 59.99 euros on the official website, but it is often around 40 euros on the usual merchant sites, like Amazon.Only a bracelet color (black) comes with the product, but it is possible to buy other loops separately, with five colors to choose from: blue, orange, yellow, olive and ivory.