Xiaomi Smart Band 9 Active Review | 171 Data compared

The Xiaomi Smart Band 9 Active stands out primarily for its exceptionally low, budget-friendly price tag. On the positive side, the fitness tracker features a bright display that remains easily readable even under direct sunlight, making it highly functional for outdoor use. Additionally, it provides users with a comprehensive breakdown of its primary advantages and disadvantages, helping buyers understand exactly what they are paying for. However, the device's affordability comes with clear trade-offs and compromises, particularly when it comes to tracking sports and athletic activities. While it serves well as a basic health monitor, users looking for advanced or highly precise athletic metrics may find it lacking. Ultimately, it acts as an accessible entry-level wearable for casual tracking, provided you accept its functional limitations.

Xiaomi Smart Band 9 Active The Xiaomi Smart Band 9 Active is an entry-level fitness tracker launched at a very low retail price of €26.99, but it demands significant compromises compared to the standard Smart Band 9. On the positive side, the device is highly affordable, features solid build quality, and offers a sufficient baseline of features for fitness beginners. However, its physical construction is a pure "plastic bomber" lacking the premium metal finish and convenient clip-on straps of its sibling. It is equipped with an inferior, lower-resolution LCD screen with thick bezels rather than an AMOLED display. Additionally, the device lacks both NFC for mobile payments and built-in GPS. The tracker falls short in software capability and performance, offering only 50 sports modes compared to the 150 found on the standard model, and it lacks automatic activity recognition. Testing revealed highly inaccurate tracking, with the companion Mi Fitness app recording vastly different step counts and distances compared to Samsung Health and Google Fit. Battery life is another major disappointment; despite packing a larger 300 mAh cell, heavy usage drained...

Based on the review, the Xiaomi Smart Band 9 Active is a budget-friendly fitness tracker priced around €20 to €25, but its low cost comes with notable compromises in design and tracking precision. On the positive side, the tracker pairs seamlessly with the intuitive Mi Fitness companion app, which reliably visualizes metrics and provides actionable insights for sleep hygiene. The 1.47-inch TFT touch display is highly responsive and remains perfectly readable under direct sunlight, while the overall sleep tracking accurately identifies waking and sleep phases. Additionally, the battery lasts a decent five days even under heavy use with maximum brightness and five hours of weekly workout tracking. However, the reviewer highlights significant drawbacks, ultimately advising against buying this model over its slightly more expensive siblings. The hardware feels cheap, featuring a basic plastic body, thick black display bezels, and a frustrating plastic-pin strap buckle carried over from older generations. Performance limitations are also prominent: the step counter underreports data by about 10%, heart rate tracking becomes highly inaccurate during high-intensity interval training (HIIT), and it completely lacks a swimming profile...

The Xiaomi Smart Band 9 Active is an exceptionally budget-friendly fitness tracker that excels primarily in battery performance and basic health monitoring. In testing, the device demonstrated an outstanding battery life, lasting nearly 20 days on a single charge and reaching a 50% charge in just about 31 minutes. Its lightweight 29-gram design includes core health sensors for tracking heart rate, blood oxygen levels (SpO2), menstruation, and sleep quality. Everyday smartwatch utilities are covered solidly, providing standard notifications and a color LC-display that remains highly readable under direct sunlight when manually adjusted to maximum brightness. However, the ultra-low price tag demands significant compromises, resulting in a flawed sport-tracking experience. The tracker completely lacks a built-in GPS module, forcing users to carry a smartphone to map outdoor routes, and it omits both an altimeter and a temperature sensor. Workout modes are sparse, must be triggered manually since automatic detection is missing, and do not track swimming metrics despite the band's 5 ATM water resistance. Furthermore, the display lacks an ambient light sensor for automatic brightness, misses an Always-On option, lacks premium...