Xiaomi's Mi Smart Band 5 sports a bigger screen and more advanced tracking than its predecessor

A year after the arrival of the Mi Smart Band 4, Xiaomi has today announced an updated model with a bigger display and more advanced tracking capabilities.

Called the Mi Band 5 (or Mi Smart Band 5 outside of China), the new activity tracker is equipped with a 1.1-inch AMOLED display that goes as bright as 450nits, which Xiaomi says will better show off the over 100 dynamic themes (from SpongeBob SquarePants to Neon Genesis Evangelion to Detective Conan) and custom wallpapers available for the band.

This is the first Mi Smart Band to support custom 'watch faces', so to speak.

In terms of fitness features, the Mi Smart Band 5 boasts a total of 11 sport modes, including first-timers such as yoga and rope skipping.

There's even one for rowing machine workouts. Of course, the band has round the clock heart rate and sleep monitoring features, too, which Xiaomi says are now far more accurate due to the significant algorithm and hardware upgrades (e.g., a 50 per cent more precise light-based PPG biosensor).

Additionally, the band is able to alert you when it detects an abnormal heart rate.

Sleep tracking analysis is also much improved, according to Xiaomi. An interesting addition is the use of infrared detection to determine if there's any light interference during your sleep.

But this feature and a few others (e.g., mobile payments, smart home control) is only available with the NFC variant of the Mi Smart Band 5.

But that's not all. On top of other health metrics and features such as a vitality index, stress monitoring and breathing exercises, users can also use the Mi Smart Band 5 to track and record their menstrual cycle, and get timely reminders.

The Mi Smart Band 5 uses a new magnetic charging system for recharging its 125mAh lithium-ion polymer battery.

Battery life is rated at 14 days under typical usage, but goes up to 20 days when an endurance mode that disables features such as automatic heart rate monitoring and heart rate-assisted sleep detection is used.

In China, the Mi Smart Band 5 is priced at 189 Yuan for the standard edition and 229 Yuan for the one with NFC. The band comes with a black strap by default, but seven optional colour straps are also available for purchase.

Update, June 12: According to Xiaomi, the Mi Smart Band 5 is set for a global launch in July.

This article was first published in Hardware Zone.