Now there’s been a lot to unpack about the Mi Band 4. Released last year in 2019, the Mi Band 4 spots a 0.95 inch AMOLED, full color touch screen display with up to 400 nits. It comes with the latest version of Bluetooth 5.0 BLE with NFC on China models, spots a 135mAh battery that lasts you upto 20 days. The Mi Band 4 is water proof up to 50 meters, 5 atmospheres and comes with a number of sensors including accelerometer, gyroscope, PPG heart rate sensor, capacitive proximity sensor. Read more: 5 things to like about the Xiaomi Mi Band 4 Fitness tracker For a price point of below $40, it’s hard to turn away the Mi Band 4. But now Xiaomi’s subsidiary Huami has revealed that the Xiaomi Mi Band 5 will be launched this year 2020 according to Android Authority. The exact release date of the Xiaomi Mi Band 5 is unknown June 11 according to the Xiaomi Mall WeChat Public account. The Mi Band 5 is expected to have a bigger 1.2″ display which is slightly bigger than the Mi Band 4’s 0.95″ AMOLED display. The new display is expected to have a brighter contrast than one of the previous version. The display of the Band 5 is expected to spot an oval punch-hole unlike the previous one which didn’t have it. It’s not clear what the punch-hole is going to be used for, but we are speculating that it might be a camera. The other change expected with the Mi Band 5 is global support for NFC. Now both the Mi Band 4 and Band 3 have NFC but only for China models. NFC, short for Near Field Communication is a wireless technology akin to Bluetooth used to enable communication and data exchange between portable devices. NFC in the Chinese version of the Mi Band 3 & 4 has been used to power or integrate with mobile payments specifically AliPay and WeChat which are extremely popular in mainland China. Globally, few players have NFC-based payments and that explains in-part why the global version of the fitness band didn’t have the capabilities. Update 1: On 27th May, a user from Weibo, one of China’s biggest social media website uploaded two alleged images of the Mi Band 5, one showing the Band’s display and another a plug-in charger. The leakster says the device is expected to retail at 200 yuan (~$28). Update 2: On 6th June, Xiaomi has showed a poster of the Mi Band 5 on its Weibo page, showing the wearable in four colorways: yellow, red, green, and black. The band is set to launch this week on June 11. On price tag, the Mi Band 5 is expected to go for 179 yuan in China (~$25.31) in China. The price will obviously vary across the global and you can expect to topup about $5-20 to that official price tag. Even then, this is a lot cheaper than similar products from the likes of Apple, Samsung, Garmin and Fitbit. Upgrade 3: The Mi Band 5 has appeared on Chinese retail website Gearbest selling at $39.99 for the Chinese version and $42.99 for the global version. According to the product page, the Mi Band 5 will feature for following;
Extra bigger dynamic color screenmagnetic chargingNFC uniopay QuickpassRemote cameraUpgraded professional sensor11 professional sports modesnew female health model
The coming Mi Band 5 is certainly going to cost slightly more for a not-so epic upgrade. So I would go for the Mi Band 4. But if you can wait and you really want to see what’s new from Xiaomi, then you should probably wait for the Band 5.
