Xiaomi Smart Band 8 review: an excellent tracker for only 176 lei

I tested the Xiaomi Smart Band 8 bracelet for 2 weeks and I understood why thousands of pieces are sold every month in Romania: it is so light that you don’t feel it on your wrist, it has almost all the functions of a regular smart watch, including pulse and sleep monitoring, the screen the mic has good enough resolution to comfortably read any notification and the battery lasts over 2 weeks.

And it’s also very cheap. It currently costs 176 lei eMAG and PC Garage and Mi-Home. It is about 5 times cheaper than a comparable smart watch and, at this price, you don’t even cry for it if you lose or destroy it.

(It is possible that I underestimate the Smart Band sales in Romania when I say “thousands of pieces per month”. In 2020, at a conference, Xiaomi said that 10,000 bracelets come to Romania monthly. The price now is the same as then, the bracelet has more functions, and Xiaomi’s sales in general have increased. On the other hand, the competition in the market has also increased. It may even now sell more than 10,000 such smart bands every month.)

The Smart Band 8 comes standard with a white or black silicone (TPU) bracelet and weighs only 27 grams with it, which is almost imperceptible in the hand. The device itself is 22 x 48mm and 11mm thick and is nicely rounded so it doesn’t bother the hand at all. Advantage also when sleeping, that you or your wife do not fall asleep in the head with something angular and heavy (scenario tested several times by me).

Xiaomi also sells a lot of additional bracelets for the Band 8, and there are probably 3rd party manufacturers as well. There are lots of bracelets available, some colored silicone, some metal, braided, multi-looped and so on. In other words, you can make this bracelet an elegant device, matching your style.

It seems to me that the Smart Band is designed for those who don’t want to give up their usual watch, so they wear the bracelet on the other hand (or as a pendant, you can do that). It is also intended for those who want a cheap smart device that can monitor their steps, sports, heart rate, sleep and others and who do not want a watch to charge every 2-3 days, so a bracelet 5 times cheaper and with 5 times more autonomy is much more suitable.

And the Smart Band 8 excels at this. It has all the usual functions of a smart watch, as I said. You can choose from several pre-installed faces in the bracelet, with small color settings for each one.

There is also the option of always-on display, which reduces the autonomy from 16 to 6 days officially, but I did not use it. The bracelet turned on without a problem whenever I raised my hand to see it, and I didn’t need an AOD screen.

Notifications from the phone are easy to read because the screen has a high resolution. It’s a 1.62″ AMOLED bright at 600 nits, enough for visibility in strong sunlight, and the resolution is 192 x 490 pixels, one comparable to that of the titrated smartwatches on the market. This means that texts can be rendered in smaller fonts and remain easy to read.

The touchscreen also reacts well, swipes are easy and haptic feedback is good enough. The Smart Band 8 doesn’t have physical buttons on the wristband, which can be an impediment in some special cases, like if it gets stuck (though it never did for me). Everything is solved by gestures on the screen, left back, up notifications, etc.

Also related to the smart side, there are a few small functions such as flashlight, find my phone, world clock, alarms, timers, weather and others.

Then, in addition to notifications, comes the health part, which is also at the level of most watches on the market. Smart Band 8 measures your steps, pulse, blood oxygen concentration, how you slept, calculates your stress level, calories burned and more.

Some measurements take a few seconds, but generally the bracelet monitors you passively, according to its schedule, or while you do sports.

The fitness part includes about a hundred different activities. The Smart Band 8 also has built-in GPS, so you can see your route on the map. It has 5 atm water resistance, so you can also use it for swimming and showering with it. The monitoring of the sports activity is done as per the book, see the pace, total distances, cardio intervals etc.

You can also mount it on the shoe, by the way, for some specific measurements. I didn’t do this for obvious reasons (I don’t wear shoes) and I don’t think many would either. Those who are so concerned with sports monitoring are probably already moving to more specialized devices from Garmin, for example.

All data is synchronized in the Mi Fitness application, which manages Xiaomi smart devices, and it is easy to use. You can see daily, weekly and monthly statistics, various reports, graphs and more, as usual in such applications.

The autonomy is really very good for such a small device, it lasts the officially promised 16 days. This allows you to use the bracelet for an entire vacation without needing to charge it.

When I add it all up and what was a hassle-free user experience, I can’t believe the price is only 176 lei. It is one of the best value for money devices on the market.

Price: 176 lei at eMAG and PC Garage and Mi-Home.