Huami confirms work has begun on the Xiaomi Mi Band 5

If you’re looking for a fitness tracker that doesn’t break the bank, then you’ve probably stumbled upon the Mi Band while shopping online. The Mi Band is a line of affordable, fitness-centric wearables sold under the Xiaomi brand, though they’re made by Huami, a leading company in wearable technology. The Mi Band 4 launched in China in June, and it brought a 0.95-inch colored AMOLED display, voice assistant, 20-day battery life, NFC, up to 5ATM water resistance, and much more for a price of around ~$33. A week later, the fitness tracker went on sale in Europe (though without NFC or the voice assistant) for ~$40. Now, we’re hearing that Huami is working on the next smart band, which will likely just be called the Xiaomi Mi Band 5.

During Huami’s Q2 2019 earnings call (via Wareable), an investor asked if Huami plans to continue its collaboration with Xiaomi on the Mi Band product line. In response, Huang Wang, Huami’s CEO, confirmed that the company is “actually developing Mi-Band 5 with Xiaomi.” Another person asked the CEO when the Mi Band 5 will launch, to which Huang Wang responded:

“And in terms of Mi-Band 5, we do not have a fixed time when we are going to launch Mi-Band 5. But I would say that we have already started working on Mi-Band 5 with Xiaomi and it is not going to take that long. So we just launched Mi-Band 4, but potentially towards the end of next year, we may launch Mi-Band 5.”

If you were wondering whether your newly purchased Mi Band 4 will become outdated in a few months’ time, then don’t worry. The Huami CEO expects the new product to launch later next year, so you shouldn’t hold off on purchasing the current Mi Band if you’re looking for an affordable fitness tracker. Besides, Huami/Xiaomi’s current wearable is so cheap that it’s in the impulse-buy territory. We don’t know if the next version will be more expensive, but if it adds features like ECG, then expect the prices to go up at least slightly.

During a recent trip to China, I picked up a Mi Band 4. One of our Managing Editors, Aamir Siddiqui, also purchased the wearable while on a recent trip to Taiwan. Expect to hear our thoughts on the device in our upcoming review. If you aren’t ready to spend hundreds on a smartwatch like the Galaxy Watch Active 2, then you may be more comfortable investing in a cheap, easily-replaceable wearable like the Xiaomi Mi Band.

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Featured image: Mi Band 4 next to the Mi Band 3

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