Xiaomi Smart Band 9 Pro review: Premium features without the price tag

Xiaomi, the Chinese tech giant, is playing a major role in keeping the budget fitness tracker market thriving and their latest offering, the Smart Band 9 Pro, shows they have no signs of slowing down. Launched at the end of 2024, the affordable fitness tracker packs a punch, offering a large AMOLED display, built-in GPS, over 150 sports modes, and up to 21 days of battery life, all for less than £65. Pretty impressive.

I was pleasantly surprised by the performance of its even cheaper sibling, Xiaomi’s Smart Band 9, but, the biggest new offerings with the 9 Pro are its bigger display and built-in GPS. The latter making it instantly more desirable to those who want more accurate tracking capabilities.

I’ve been testing the Smart Band 9 Pro for around three months now to see how it compares to the ‘big dogs’, like Fitbit and Garmin. While it isn’t flawless (let’s be honest, we wouldn’t expect it to be at this price), when you consider the price, it’s pretty close.

Xiaomi Smart Band 9 Pro review: Price and availability

The Smart Band 9 Pro is available to buy from Xiaomi.com for the recommended retail price of £62.99, costing slightly more than the Smart Band 8 Pro.

It comes with a TPU rubber strap which is available in three elegant colours: moonlight silver, obsidian black and rose gold. For those seeking a more refined touch, a premium leather strap is also offered separately, which comes in harbour blue or apricot pink.

I received the watch in rose gold and was also sent the apricot pink leather strap. However, despite how comfortable and soft the leather strap felt, as someone with an active lifestyle, I stuck with the rubber strap for this review.

Xiaomi Smart Band 9 Pro review: What’s new?

The main difference between the Smart Band 8 Pro and the Smart Band 9 Pro is that the latter has a slightly larger display. Xiaomi also states it has a newly upgraded AFE chip, a 15% improvement in heart rate monitoring, and that the GPS position accuracy has increased by 33%. You also get a longer battery life, up to 21 days, whereas the 8 Pro only offers up to 14 days.

In comparison to the Smart Band 9, well, you only need to look at them side by side to spot the immediate differences. The Smart Band 9 Pro's square screen is significantly bigger than the oval pill-shaped display of the Smart Band 9. It's sibling also offers less workout modes (140) and has GNSS support.

Xiaomi Smart Band 9 Pro review: Design

The Smart Band 9 Pro looks far more premium than its retail price suggests, and I received plenty of compliments while wearing it. For the most part, people kept asking ‘What watch is that?’ because it looks scarily similar to an Apple Watch.

The standout has to be its large 1.74-inch AMOLED display with a max brightness of 1,2000 nits. This sits within an alloy aluminum frame with chrome edges, giving it a polished feel. The watch has no buttons and is completely touchscreen, which is easy to use and very responsive. It also has automatic brightness adjustment although, I would often switch to ‘custom mode', as I always found the display a little too dark indoors.

At 41 grams (with the TPU strap), the Smart Band 9 Pro is extremely lightweight, making it very comfortable to wear, but feels a little cheap in hand. That being said, having worn it during all of my workouts and regularly coming into contact with barbells and dumbbells, it’s still in mint condition, so I’d say it’s pretty durable.

The quick-release mechanism allows you to easily swap between straps to match your outfit/lifestyle demands. As someone who’s struggled with the itchiness of silicone straps, I found the TPU strap very comfortable and gentle against my skin causing no irritation. The calfskin leather strap was also soft and flexible, however, I didn’t opt to use this due to its porous nature.

Xiaomi Smart Band 9 Pro review: Features and performance

The Smart Band 9 Pro offers 150+ sport modes with a 5ATM water resistance rating, making it capable of withstanding depths up to 50 meters. It supports just about every activity you could imagine, like strength training, running, cycling, and hiking, to more unique options like martial arts, bobsleighing, and even board games (if you count that as a sport). It also automatically detects six of these— running, cycling, walking, jump rope, elliptical and rowing. I found it a little hit-and-miss when it came to running, working sometimes, and other times not picking up anything at all. The cherry on the cake is built-in GPS, which, at £62.99, is impressive. While Xiaomi doesn't specify if it's dual or single-band GPS, I found it to be reliable during my runs with only slight differences when compared to my Samsung phone (see image below). The areas I was testing though were rural and not built-up.

When it comes to health tracking, again, the 9 Pro covers everything you’d want from a basic fitness tracker: sleep, all-day heart rate, stress, women’s cycles, training state, vitality score, and blood oxygen saturation (SpO2) monitoring. Similar to my experience with the Smart Band 9, I really enjoy the deeper insight you can get into your sleep on the Mi Fitness app, where it offers advice to improve your sleep and, after seven days of wearing, tells you your sleep animal (I came out as a koala, again). Sadly, I didn’t find the sleep tracking as accurate as the Smart Band 9 though, which never seemed to miss a beat, as there were just a couple of nights the 9 Pro overlooked a couple of wake-ups.

Other features I found myself enjoying and using the most included music controls (ideal for running or the gym), checking the weather, and the flashlight. This isn’t built-in, the screen turns a very bright white, but it's a godsend when you need the loo in the middle of the night and don’t want to disrupt your sleep too much by turning on the lights. I also really like the fact that there are 10 different running courses for various fitness levels, from endurance to interval training and jeffing. I haven’t tested these yet, but very much look forward to it. Receiving call and text notifications was also handy, more so I could decline them straight from my wrist. There is no built-in speaker or mic though so, while you can pick up and decline calls, you can’t take them, or respond to texts.

Warning, on the Xiaomi website it does state not to wear the watch in the shower or saunas. I never took mine off and then wondered why it was asking me if I was ready to start my run mid-shower. It’s a slight nuisance having to take it off every time but, if it protects it in the long term, it’s probably worth it.

Xiaomi Smart Band 9 Pro review: Verdict

The Smart Band 9 Pro from Xiaomi is an excellent fitness tracker for budget-conscious buyers who want something stylish. For less than £65 it offers reliable GPS, a beautifully bright AMOLED display, over 150 sport modes, and plenty of health metrics to help you take care of your wellbeing. Feature-rich and affordable, it’s another brilliant budget fitness tracker from Xiaomi.

Sure, it's a little hit-and-miss in some areas, such as the sport auto-detect mode not always doing its bit, and the sleep tracking missing a couple of wake-ups. However, for this price, you can’t expect it to be 100% perfect.

Overall, it’s a great fitness tracker for beginners, especially those who require GPS, as many of these more affordable trackers tend to only offer GNSS. It looks good, covers the basics, and is easy to use, so if you can accept that it’s not completely flawless, you should be more than satisfied.