The Redmi Smart Band Pro: A Feature-Packed Fitness Tracker at an Attractive Price?
The fitness tracker market is becoming increasingly competitive, with a plethora of options available for users of all budgets and needs. Xiaomi has upped the ante with the launch of the Redmi Smart Band Pro, positioning it as a more capable alternative to the standard Redmi Smart Band. This new offering boasts a compelling array of features, including a vibrant AMOLED display, SpO2 and stress monitoring, and thorough workout tracking options. But does this impressive feature set come at a price that makes it a compelling purchase? Let’s delve into the Redmi Smart Band Pro and see if it truly delivers exceptional value for your hard-earned money.
Redmi Smart Band Pro Price and Availability in India
The Redmi Smart Band Pro is priced at ₹3,999 in India, but Xiaomi has announced a limited period offer price of ₹3,499. This competitive pricing, particularly during the introductory period, makes it a compelling proposition in the budget fitness tracker segment. The Redmi Smart Band Pro is available for purchase, and you can find it online and in various retail stores.
Design: A Comfortable Fit with a Sleek Aesthetic
The Redmi Smart Band Pro boasts a modern, rectangular design. Its polycarbonate body encases a 1.47-inch AMOLED display, ensuring visibility even under bright sunlight. The display’s always-on mode adds to its convenience, while the ambient light sensor ensures that the brightness adapts seamlessly to your environment. Navigation is entirely touch-based, with no physical buttons to contend with.
The band features TPU (Thermoplastic Polyurethane) straps similar to those found on the Mi Band 6. These curved straps provide a comfortable fit and are easily removable thanks to the proprietary connector, eliminating the need for additional tools. However, securing third-party replacements might be difficult due to the proprietary design.
On the underside of the band, you’ll find a pill-shaped bump housing the health sensors. The contact pins for charging are clearly visible, facilitating easy connection using the included magnetic charger. The Redmi Smart Band Pro is remarkably lightweight, weighing in at just 25.5g. This featherlight design makes it suitable for all-day wear, including sleep tracking, without discomfort. Adding to its practicality, the Redmi Smart Band Pro is 5ATM water-resistant allowing you to wear it while swimming or showering.
Software and Features: Comprehensive Tracking and Notifications
The Redmi Smart Band Pro seamlessly integrates with both Android and iOS smartphones, leveraging the Xiaomi Wear and Xiaomi Wear Lite apps respectively. The pairing process is straightforward, requiring only a Mi Account. Once connected, the apps can be used to customize various settings on the Smart Band Pro. Both apps support a wide range of Mi and Redmi wearables and offer a user-friendly interface. The band syncs with the app, allowing it to display a wealth of information about your health and fitness. Additionally, the apps allow you to select from a library of over 50 watch faces or even personalize the display with a photo from your phone’s gallery.
Powered by the Ambiq Apollo 3.5 SoC and utilizing Bluetooth 5 LE for connectivity, the Redmi Smart Band Pro delivers reliable performance. However, it lacks built-in GPS, meaning it depends on your smartphone’s location services for accurate positional data.
The Redmi Smart Band Pro can receive notifications from your smartphone, keeping you updated on incoming calls and messages. Furthermore, it offers comprehensive health and fitness tracking capabilities, analyzing a wide range of metrics. The band boasts the ability to track nearly 110 different exercise types, including 14 water fitness exercises. It comes pre-configured with popular workout modes such as walking, running, cycling, HIIT, trekking, and swimming. You can also customize the list to reflect your personal workout preferences. The Redmi Smart Band Pro even offers automatic detection for certain activities like running, walking, and treadmill use.
In addition to its impressive workout tracking, the Redmi Smart Band Pro is equipped with sensors to monitor your heart rate, SpO2 levels, sleep patterns, stress levels, and even menstrual cycles. The band can track your heart rate continuously and monitor SpO2 levels while you sleep, although these features are disabled by default to preserve battery life.
The Redmi Smart Band Pro’s UI is intuitive and straightforward. Swiping right from the homescreen provides quick access to toggles, while swiping left displays widgets for heart rate, SpO2, weather, workouts, and fitness stats. Swiping downwards reveals unread notifications from your smartphone, and swiping upwards reveals the full range of the Smart Band Pro’s functionalities.
Performance and Battery Life: An All-Day Companion
During our testing period, the Redmi Smart Band Pro consistently proved comfortable to wear. The AMOLED display offered excellent visibility outdoors, although we found it to be overly bright in dimly lit environments. While the interface was initially a bit sluggish, particularly when scrolling, a software update (v1.1.127) addressed this issue, making it more responsive. The band’s raise-to-wake feature was well-calibrated, reliably activating the display whenever we raised our wrists and quickly deactivating it when we lowered our hands.
We manually enabled features such as automatic heart rate and SpO2 tracking, app notifications, and advanced sleep tracking metrics. We configured the Redmi Smart Band Pro to measure heart rate every minute and SpO2 every 30 minutes during sleep. We also enabled alerts for both resting and active heart rates and set the band to vibrate for incoming notifications.
In terms of fitness tracking, the Redmi Smart Band Pro delivered accurate results. Comparing it to an Apple Watch Series 7, we found that the heart rate measurements were consistently within a similar range. While the continuous heart rate monitoring did impact battery life, as expected, it yielded valuable data. Sleep tracking was also precise, providing a detailed breakdown of our sleep patterns. Enabling SpO2 tracking while asleep, the band diligently captured the data. Manual readings taken throughout the day aligned with those obtained from a medical-grade pulse oximeter.
To test the tracking accuracy during walks, we used the Redmi Smart Band Pro in conjunction with a paired smartphone. Since the band lacks built-in GPS, it relies on your smartphone’s location services to track your movements. During an evening walk, we found that the band underreported the distance, registering 0.96km instead of the actual 1km we had walked. However, when the smartphone was kept in our pocket, the band performed better, measuring 1.02km for the same distance.
The Redmi Smart Band Pro also boasts automatic workout detection for specific activities. During our testing, the band promptly prompted us to track our walk within a minute of starting the activity. It recorded 1,002 steps for every 1,000 steps we counted, a relatively acceptable error rate considering the band’s price range.
Battery life proved to be decent, considering the small 200mAh battery powering the device. Ultimately, battery life heavily depends on your usage patterns and individual preferences. With the always-on display, one-minute heart rate tracking intervals, 30-minute SpO2 tracking intervals during sleep, advanced sleep tracking enabled, app notifications active, and daily outdoor walks tracked, the Redmi Smart Band Pro consistently lasted for four and a half days. This falls short of Xiaomi’s claim of fourteen days with light usage, but you should be able to achieve over a week of battery life with strategic adjustments to your usage habits. The supplied magnetic charger effortlessly connected to the band and fully charged the battery in approximately an hour and a half.
A Verdict: A Solid Value for Fitness Enthusiasts
Looking back on our evaluation of the Redmi Watch last year, we found it to be a capable device despite lacking SpO2 tracking. Xiaomi has addressed this deficiency with the Redmi Smart Band Pro, providing a comprehensive fitness tracking experience that surpasses its predecessor. The Redmi Smart Band Pro is only truly missing GPS functionality compared to the Redmi Watch. If you consistently carry your smartphone with you during walks, the Redmi Smart Band Pro should still deliver accurate tracking data.
The Redmi Smart Band Pro effectively combines all the features you’d expect from a modern fitness band, all delivered at an attractive price point. It will appeal to users seeking a larger display than the Mi Band 6, offering a more immersive visual experience. While the Mi Band 6 remains a more affordable option, the Redmi Smart Band Pro provides a significant upgrade in features. The Honor Band 6 emerges as a direct competitor, offering a similar feature set at a comparable price point.
Ultimately, the Redmi Smart Band Pro emerges as a compelling option for fitness enthusiasts seeking a comprehensive and affordable device. Its vibrant display, accurate tracking capabilities, and long battery life, combined with its competitive price, make it a worthy contender in the ever-evolving fitness tracker landscape.
