Xiaomi Smart Band 8 Pro review: Big display, small flaws

At a glance

Expert’s Rating

Pros

Great display
Plenty of tracking options
Inexpensive
Good battery life

Cons

No NFC
Can’t reply to messages
Settings change with watch faces

Our Verdict

Xiaomi follows up the impressive Smart Band 8 with its Pro stablemate that boasts a larger screen and GPS tracking. It’s not the most accurate tracker available, but it should be good enough for most people and at a price that’s hard to beat.

A new, bigger version of a fitness tracker from Xiaomi that makes a passable impression of a smartwatch. But how good can it be with a price tag this low?

The Xiaomi Smart Band 8 Pro costs just £59.99/€79.99 and while it has an excellent display and lot of tracking options, there are some downsides that might make you think twice such as the lack of NFC for contactless payments.

Check out the competition in our best fitness tracker chart.

Design & Build

Sturdy construction
Waterproof to 5ATM
Plenty of straps available on the Xiaomi store

As the bigger brother of the Xiaomi Smart Band 8 I reviewed recently, the Pro model features a larger display, which in turn makes it a bit more of a presence on the wrist.

The 46mm x 33.35mm x 9.99mm dimensions means it’s reasonably compact and lightweight at 22.5g (without the strap), so it sits comfortably under a shirt or jacket sleeve.

A metal chassis is a welcome surprise at this price, and the smooth lines of the frame are uninterrupted

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A metal chassis is a welcome surprise at this price, and the smooth lines of the frame are uninterrupted by any buttons or dials. On the underside there’s the optical heart rate sensor and bespoke charging port to which you magnetically attach the included charging cable.

A TPU strap comes with the Xiaomi Smart Band 8 Pro, that will fit wrists that measure 135–205 mm. If you want a longer, shorter or different style of strap, there are plenty of options available on the Xiaomi Store.

I have to say that putting on the watch and fastening the band is a bit fiddly. There’s a stud that goes through the holes in the strap, then you slide the rest of the strap into holders so it doesn’t flap about. The problem is the material is a bit grippy, so it doesn’t slide through very easily.

It’s only a little thing, but it was more work than seemed necessary.

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Xiaomi says the Smart Band 8 Pro has a waterproof rating of 5ATM, which means you can swim in it as long as you’re not going down too deep though 50m should be plenty for most people. It is recommended not to use the band in a hot shower though, so bear that in mind.

You can get the Smart Band 8 Pro in two colourways – light grey and black. This not only applies to the strap but also the screen surround. On the black model, it’s a glossy black which blends in with the panel. While the light grey scheme has a silver casing that looks more premium.

Screen

1.74-inch AMOLED
GG3 Reinforced glass
Always-on display

As the display is the only part of the Smart Band that you’ll be interacting with most of the time, it’s a good job that Xiaomi has fitted a decent panel.

The 1.74-inch AMOLED display is clear and a lot easier to read than some smaller bands I’ve used. It runs at a resolution of 336 x 480, giving it a pixel density of 336ppi, which is more than enough for a panel this size.

There are still some busy watch faces it can employ that defeat my old eyes, but for the most part text and readouts are discernable without the need to take off my glasses or hold the band close to my face.

Responses are solid, with the occasional difficulty of tapping targets in the corners of the screen. Swiping is all good, with smooth transitions between the menu pages.

A 60Hz refresh rate keeps the display scrolling along smoothly

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The rectangular panel does look a little basic in terms of design, as there’s no real shaping to the contours of the frame, just a bit of a slab, but it does the job. The light grey livery fixes these aesthetic quibbles thanks to its silver edge around the display.

You get an Always-On display option that shows the time, and you can adjust various other settings such as auto-brightness and raise to wake. The sensors can be a bit slow, as I found several times when I was out walking and pulled up my jacket sleeve to see the time, only to have to wait a second or two before the brightness level came up to something I could read clearly in the sun.

This can be fixed in software updates though, so I wouldn’t expect it to be an ongoing issue for users, at least I hope not.

The maximum brightness is listed at 600 nits (and proved this when I tested it with a light meter), which should be enough luminescence for most situations, although the Smart Band 8 Pro did feel underpowered in bright sunshine.

A 60Hz refresh rate keeps the display scrolling along smoothly, and the fact that it’s made from Gorilla Glass 3 reinforced glass should keep it clear of any major shatters if you accidentally catch it on a door frame or other obstacle. After nearly two weeks of continual wear, I didn’t notice any scratches on the glass, so it also exhibits a bit of toughness to survive the day to day.

Software & Features

Compatible with Android 8.0 and above or iOS 12 and above
Simple to understand interface
Plenty of useful features built-in

Xiaomi uses its own software for its smart bands and trackers, which has a simple and easy-to-use interface.

From the home screen you can swipe down to read notifications, up to find the app list, left to access the various widgets to popular features, or right to find the quick settings menu. As there’s no button on the Smart Band 8 Pro, you’ll need to swipe back through the menus to return to the home page.

There are plenty of useful features baked into the software

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There are plenty of useful features baked into the software, aside from the range of health-related ones I’ll cover below.

As you’ll find with most smart bands, you get the standard array of timers, stopwatches, media controls (the Smart Band 8 Pro supports all the main music streaming services as well as podcast and audiobook apps), plus weather, reminders and calendar apps. The latter can’t access your Google calendar or other third-party ones, so you would need to add appointments manually.

You can receive notifications and messages from texts, WhatsApp and other apps, but there is no way to reply on the Smart Band. It’s a little different with incoming calls, as you can choose from a few preset quick responses such as, ‘I can’t talk. Call me later?’.

Naturally, you can set up do not disturb and other restrictions on the band, but one thing I noticed was that when you switched to a new watch face, the settings don’t stay in place. I think the idea is that you can have different watch faces for different purposes, but it does seem a bit daft, as you can soon forget what settings you have for each one.

It can all be adjusted in the menu, but be aware of this before you accidentally miss calls because the wrong do not disturb was on or you don’t auto track an exercise session because the setting isn’t enabled.

There are a wide range of good-looking watch faces available for free, going from information-dense ones to classic analogue styles, so you’re bound to find a few that suit your needs and aesthetic preferences.

You can adjust more settings, as well as look at the data collected about your health, on the accompanying Mi Fitness app. This also allows you to import data from the Zepp app used by several rival smart bands and trackers, making it seamless to transition from one platform to the other.

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While the Smart Band 8 Pro does include GNSS/GPS tracking and Bluetooth, there’s no NFC in the global version (China does get the feature). So if you were hoping to make contactless payments with the band, that won’t be possible this time around.

Health & Fitness Tracking

150+ sports modes
Heart rate, SpO2, stress and sleep tracking
Tracking is good but not super-accurate

It’s rare to find a smart band or fitness tracker these days that doesn’t offer a ludicrous number of tracking modes for different specific sports or activities.

Xiaomi doesn’t break this trend as the Smart Band 8 Pro offers over 150 modes, ranging from the more normal walking, running, cycling, swimming, up to the more exotic ones such as fishing, somatosensory games (I don’t know either), and even eSports.

How they differ in terms of what they track is something of a mystery, but if you’re doing it then there’s probably a mode for it.

The sensors onboard can monitor your heart rate during activities, location through GPS, plus there are options for manually checking your blood oxygen (SpO2) and stress levels

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The sensors onboard can monitor your heart rate during activities, location through GPS, plus there are options for manually checking your blood oxygen (SpO2) and stress levels. I found the tracking to be on par with most bands I’ve tried around this price tag, including the Xiaomi Smart Band 8, wherein it’s a useful guide for general training, but doesn’t feel accurate enough to be used if you require precise data.

For the latter, you’ll need to go up the more expensive offerings such as an Apple Watch SE (2022) or a dedicated running watch like the Polar Pacer.

Those would be overkill for most people though, so if you just want a way to keep an eye on your activity levels, plus some health monitoring, then the Smart Band 8 Pro is still a good choice.

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A useful capability is the sleep monitoring on the device. As the battery life spans multiple days, you can keep it on at night, meaning it can more closely pay attention to your metrics.

You’ll need to enable the advanced monitoring to get the most out of the feature (it’s off by default to save battery life), which then gives you a detailed report of your sleep patterns and levels. These can be viewed daily, weekly or monthly so you can see whether you’re getting the right levels of rest. There is a breathing tracker that’s in beta stage, but I don’t really know how that works, so its accuracy can only be guessed.

For the most part, the sleep monitoring seems decent, although the band does struggle to differentiate between lying down and sleeping. That’s fair enough, but it can skew the reports if you struggle to get to sleep or prefer to lie in bed for a while after waking.

Battery Life & Charging

289mAh battery
Lasts around five days with tracking enabled
Recharges in around 90 minutes

Battery life is good, with the Smart Band 8 Pro being able to run for around five days with the tracking features enabled.

Of course, you could extend this for longer by turning off some of the more in-depth tracking, but when you can get a working week covered with it all turned on, that seems a bit of a waste.

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The 289mAh battery can be fully replenished by attaching the bespoke magnetic charging cable and plugging it in for around 90 minutes.

There is a battery saving mode on the device, that can ensure you get home if the energy levels are low, but that does reduce the band into essentially just a watch until you power it up once more.

Price & Availability

You can buy the Xiaomi Smart Band 8 Pro directly from the company’s site for £59.99/€79.99 but it’s not available in the US.

There are often deals available so it might be worth watching the Xiaomi site for a few days before buying to see if a reduction appears. Most other Xiaomi wearables are usually available from Amazon (including in the States), including the Smart Band 8 and Smart Band 7 Pro but the 8 Pro isn’t there at the time of writing.

In terms of alternatives, Xiaomi’s own Smart Band 8 is a great option that forgoes the larger screen and GPS but does offer a cheaper price (£39.99/$49.99), much of the same feature set and a longer battery life.

Amazfit is another company that excels in the affordable tracker sector, with its Amazfit Smart Band 7 covering much of the same ground as the Xiaomi model but for around 20% less on the ticket price.

You’ll find several other alternatives in our best fitness tracker roundup.

Should you buy the Xiaomi Smart Band 8 Pro?

Picking up an affordable fitness tracker these days can be complicated, as there are so many decent options available.

The main selling point is the large screen, which is a lovely panel that’s easy to read. Tracking is solid, but not as accurate as you’d find on more expensive models.

If you’re happy with general guidance rather than precise readings, then this will easily be enough for people that just want an easy way to monitor their health, control their media and read messages without needing to pull out their phone, all for a cost that won’t break the bank.