if you're in the market for a budget or cheap fitness tracker in 2021 then the mi band 6 is
proving to be a worthy affordable alternative to more expensive fitness tracker brands such as
fitbit but for a mere 40 pounds there have to be some compromises so let's take a look at xiaomi's
brand new me band 6 and see where it falls short of some of its more expensive competitors
stay tuned what's up guys welcome back to tech it easy so the xiaomi mi band 6 we're going to
unbox it check out his features and of course do a heart rate and spo2 accuracy test but before
we jump into all of that if you could quickly leave a cheeky like subscribe to the channel
check out the discord server and take a look at that brand new channel tz's top 5 that would be
awesome links down below so let's kick things off with an unboxing very similar to the mi band 5 if
i'm honest not much inside the box we of course do have the magnetic charger which i praised a
lot on the me band 5. compared to the lights of the galaxy fit 2 it is much easier to use
and it saves you from messing around trying to get the clip on other than that though you do get your
manual and of course the me band 6 itself now it looks virtually identical to the last version but
it feels a little bit more premium and that could be due to the slightly larger screen which
i do prefer on fitness trackers it's much more practical and just gives you a more modern
up-to-date feel so moving on to the mi band 6 itself as i mentioned earlier it has a much larger
display than the me band 5. but aside from that it also has a much brighter display so practicality
wise it's just so much better than the last version and it makes it feel a lot less like a
budget product when it comes to features on the mi band 6 we have an obvious focus on general health
tracking we have heart rate monitoring which can continuously track your heart rate all day with
intervals of between 1 and 30 minutes the first option will of course drain your battery life a
lot lot faster do remember we do have a heart rate accuracy test coming up later on in the video we
also have spo2 monitoring sleep tracking period tracking and of course all day stress tracking
with breathing cycles and over 30 different workout modes indoor and out a very nice selection
there and it sort of sits in the middle compared to other fitness trackers and smart watches when
it comes down to workouts also featured on the mi band 6 is the ability to receive call
and text notifications directly onto your watch but you cannot take a call using your mi band 6
but you can decline them also thanks to a recent update you can now reply to text messages also on
the phone to fitness tracker connectivity subject you do have the ability to control your music and
your camera shutter from your mi band 6. these are features that we saw on the previous me band 5 and
to be honest it's pretty standard on all fitness trackers and smart watches these days budget and
flagship alike if you're looking for a smartwatch or fitness tracker that you can customize the mi
band 6 does offer a fair few different watch faces through the app as well as three pre-installed
watch faces on the mi band 6 itself not the biggest selection of pre-installed watch faces
but what you can do is customize them to how you like them so you can swap different buttons and
symbols out for say calories or steps or whatever you want to use it for that's not all though when
it comes down to customization the me band 6 wristband can also be switched out for various
third-party options i've even seen a few stainless steel ones i will leave some links down below to
some of my top choices if you want to take that customization to the next level moving on does the
mi band 6 have gps unfortunately not in this case and i really wouldn't expect it to at this price
point what it does have though is connected gps which means it can actually use your phone's gps
so long as you have your phone nearby what it does have though is a water resistance rating up to 50
meters so if you're going to be using the mi band 6 for swimming you're going to be absolutely fine
in that department so now that we've covered the main features of the me band 6 let's jump into a
quick heart rate and spo2 accuracy test if you haven't watched one of my videos before to do
this i will be using the o2 ring that the guys at well you provided me for a previous video this is
a piece of medical grade equipment which will live stream its results directly to my phone so you'll
be able to get a good look at what the readings are so without further ado let's jump into it
to start off we're gonna go with the heart rate accuracy test so straight off the bat it was in
the ballpark but that's really as much as i can say here it struggled to match up exactly
with the readings on the o2 ring occasionally crossing over but generally two to as much as
eight beats out each time and this was the case for all on camera and off camera tests
now moving on to the sp02 accuracy test that was actually not too bad it was generally
one percent out each time which compared to other smartwatch and fitness tracker devices i've tested
seems to be the norm very few devices i've tested have got it bang on every single time
but one thing to note on this test is that again it is tracking your heart rate and you can see
that it is way way off so in terms of accuracy the mi band 6 sort of sits in the middle compared to
its competitors in terms of accuracy i've seen better and i've seen worse so that's the heart
rate and spo2 test out of the way not really what i was expecting and if i'm honest i feel like in
this test the results were actually worse than the me band 5 i tested out last year i suspect
the problem is what happens with a lot of smart watches and fitness trackers in the sense that
its continuous heart rate tracking isn't actually that continuous and it lags behind a little bit so
you're not really getting a dead on reading what it was doing though was giving us a pretty close
ballpark figure compared to the o2 ring so really for 40 pounds on what you're going to be using
this device for it should be absolutely fine and to be honest i don't really have any huge concerns
about the accuracy here but i have definitely seen better on fitness trackers around a similar price
point so should you buy a xiaomi mi band 6 in 2021 short answer yes i think it is a lot better than
the mi band 5 in many many different ways the larger brightest screen is a welcomed upgrade
accuracy may be a little off in comparison but to be fair last time i did the test i
was just comparing it to a galaxy watch i didn't really have any medical grade equipment to use
then there's the os it seems a little bit smoother running this time around but that is also where
my problem lies i think it still falls short of say the galaxy fit 2 in that department
but it does have tons of features that the galaxy fit 2 is in fact lacking
such as spo2 tracking and that magnetic charger my last complaint about the xiaomi mi band 6 is
that the connected gps didn't seem to work all that well i did a route that i've done many
times and it always seemed to be a little bit out compared to my galaxy watch 3 for example again
though nothing huge is definitely getting you in the ballpark and it should be fine just for some
crude monitoring really the type of people who are going to be buying the mi band 6 is going to
be people who are looking for an affordable device to keep a high on your general well-being albeit
for a low price so that was the xiaomi mi band 6. as always let me know down in the comment section
what you thought of the video and the xiaomi mi band 6. and whilst you're here please do leave
a cheeky like check out the discord server and of course subscribe to the channel if you're new
around here for now though i've been alex thank you so much for watching and remember take it easy
you