Cheap enough to buy on impulse, flawed enough to frustrate
At the lowest rung of wearable technology, Xiaomi's £19.99 Smart Band 9 Active poses an ancient question in modern form: how much are we willing to sacrifice for affordability, and what does that sacrifice reveal about what we truly value? Released in late 2024, this ultra-budget fitness tracker offers the casual user a foothold in health monitoring, while quietly asking whether a device that counts your steps imprecisely is better than no device at all. It is a product that exists not at the frontier of innovation, but at the frontier of accessibility — and the distance between those two frontiers turns out to be measurable in pounds, pixels, and trust.
- At £19.99, the Active undercuts nearly every competitor on price, but the savings arrive with a TFT screen, a thick black bezel, and a sluggish interface that makes the cost feel visible every time you swipe.
- Step counts drift 1,000–2,000 steps from reality, runs shrink by 300 metres, and heart rate spikes 8–9 BPM above chest-strap readings — small errors that quietly undermine the device's core purpose.
- Music controls failed entirely during testing, and swim tracking is absent despite a 5 ATM water resistance rating, leaving two advertised capabilities as little more than marketing gestures.
- Sleep tracking and resting heart rate monitoring perform genuinely well, and an 18-day battery life — achievable with restrained settings — gives casual users a low-maintenance daily companion.
- The real tension lands here: fifteen pounds more buys the standard Smart Band 9 with an AMOLED display, better accuracy, and working music controls, making the Active's value proposition razor-thin for anyone paying attention.
At nineteen pounds ninety-nine, Xiaomi's Smart Band 9 Active occupies a peculiar corner of the fitness tracker market — cheap enough to feel impulsive, capable enough to raise questions about what exactly has been left behind. It matches the price Xiaomi charged for its earliest Mi Band models, but where those devices once pushed the boundaries of budget hardware, the Active seems content simply to exist at the floor.
The hardware reflects that ambition honestly. A 1.47-inch TFT display, ringed by a thick black bezel, delivers a noticeably slower and less vivid experience than the AMOLED screens found on the Band 9 and 9 Pro. The removable TPU strap offers some personality across three colour options, but the overall construction is utilitarian rather than considered.
Tracking accuracy is where the compromises become harder to overlook. Step counts diverged by up to 2,000 steps from competing devices, a 5K run registered as 4.7K, and heart rate during intense exercise read 8–9 BPM above a chest strap. None of these are catastrophic, but they accumulate into a quiet erosion of confidence. Music controls — listed as a feature — failed entirely in testing. Swim tracking is absent despite a 5 ATM water resistance rating.
The Active recovers some ground in health monitoring. Sleep tracking proved reliable, with stage breakdowns aligning well with premium alternatives. Resting heart rate and blood oxygen readings offered useful if non-clinical guidance. Battery life, boosted by a larger 300mAh cell, promises 18 days — realistic under light use, optimistic with continuous monitoring enabled.
For someone who wants a step counter and sleep tracker without caring deeply about precision, the Active functions. But the standard Smart Band 9 sits just fifteen pounds higher and delivers a meaningfully better experience across nearly every dimension. The Active's value depends entirely on how much the details matter to the person wearing it.
At nineteen pounds ninety-nine, Xiaomi's Smart Band 9 Active occupies a strange position in the fitness tracker market—cheap enough to feel almost disposable, yet capable enough to make you wonder what you're actually giving up. The device arrives as the company's answer to the question nobody asked: how low can we go? And the answer, it turns out, involves real trade-offs that become apparent only after you've strapped it to your wrist.
The Active sits three rungs down Xiaomi's own ladder. The standard Smart Band 9 costs £34.99. The Pro model runs £62.99. This new entry point matches the price Xiaomi charged for its earliest Mi Band models years ago, when fitness trackers still felt like novelties. The comparison is instructive. Back then, Xiaomi was pushing boundaries on what budget hardware could do. Now, with the Active, the company seems content to simply exist at the lowest possible price point, leaving the innovation to its pricier siblings.
The hardware tells this story plainly. The Active ships with a 1.47-inch TFT display—the same screen technology found on its predecessor, the Band 8 Active. It's surrounded by a thick black bezel that makes the screen feel smaller than it is. Swipe through the interface and you'll notice lag that doesn't plague the AMOLED screens on the Band 9 and 9 Pro. For a few pounds more, you could have that superior display. Xiaomi chose not to include it here. The removable TPU frame and strap offer three color options and some customization appeal, but the overall feel is utilitarian rather than premium. The pin clasp mechanism that holds the strap in place is functional but inelegant.
Where the Active's compromises become genuinely problematic is in the tracking itself. Testing against dedicated devices revealed consistent inaccuracy. Daily step counts diverged by 1,000 to 2,000 steps from competing trackers—a significant margin when you're relying on the device to motivate movement. Outdoor running distances came up short: a 5-kilometer run registered as 4.7 kilometers, throwing off pace calculations. Heart rate readings during intense exercise ran 8 to 9 beats per minute higher than a chest strap monitor. These aren't catastrophic failures, but they're the kind of small errors that accumulate and erode trust in the device.
The software experience is straightforward and uncluttered. Notifications work, though you must enable them app by app in the companion app. Weather forecasts display without the visual polish of pricier models. There's a find-my-phone feature, timers, alarms, and calendar reminders. Music playback controls are listed as a feature—except they didn't work during testing, neither with native apps nor third-party services. That's a notable failure for a device marketed as a smartwatch companion. The Active also lacks swim tracking despite carrying a 5 ATM water resistance rating that theoretically permits swimming. It's another feature that exists on higher-tier models but not here.
Health monitoring is where the Active shows its strengths. Sleep tracking proved solid in testing, with duration and stage breakdowns matching data from competing devices like the Samsung Galaxy Ring. Heart rate monitoring during rest and easy exercise aligned well with dedicated monitors. Blood oxygen readings stayed in normal ranges and, while not clinical-grade, serve as useful guidance. Stress tracking exists but only as spot measurements rather than continuous all-day monitoring. The device will assign you a sleep animal once you've logged enough nights and generate a sleep score, adding a touch of personality to the data.
Battery life improved over the Band 8 Active thanks to a larger 300mAh cell, now promising 18 days between charges instead of 14. In practice, the number feels optimistic. Light usage saw battery drain of less than 10 percent daily; tracking workouts consumed 1 to 2 percent per 30 to 60 minutes. Enable continuous blood oxygen monitoring and the most accurate heart rate tracking, and you'll watch the battery deplete faster. The device won't demand weekly charging, but reaching that 18-day claim requires restraint with the monitoring features.
The Active exists in an uncomfortable middle ground. It's cheap enough to buy on impulse, yet flawed enough to frustrate. For someone who simply wants to count steps and monitor sleep without obsessing over precision, it works. But spend another fifteen pounds on the standard Smart Band 9 and you get a superior display, better tracking accuracy, and working music controls. The Active makes real compromises, and whether those compromises are worth the savings depends entirely on how much you care about the details.
Citas Notables
The Active takes a step back to early Mi Band days when the company pushed boundaries on what cheap fitness trackers could do— Wareable review
La Conversación del Hearth Otra perspectiva de la historia
Why does Xiaomi keep making cheaper versions of trackers they already sell? Doesn't that just cannibalize their own market?
It's less about cannibalization and more about capturing people who wouldn't spend thirty-five pounds on a fitness tracker at all. The Active is a gateway device—it costs less than a coffee subscription for a month.
But the step counting is off by thousands. How is that acceptable?
It's not, really. That's the core function of a fitness tracker, and when it's consistently wrong, the device becomes more of a curiosity than a tool. The company knows this, which is why they keep the better display and more accurate sensors on the pricier models.
The music controls didn't work at all. That seems like a basic failure.
It does. That's the kind of thing that suggests the device wasn't tested thoroughly before launch, or that the software wasn't ready. For a nineteen-pound device, maybe that's expected. But it's still disappointing.
What about the battery life claim of eighteen days?
It's optimistic. You'll get there if you disable most of the monitoring features, but then you're not really using the device for what it's designed to do. Realistic usage probably lands you around ten to twelve days.
So who should actually buy this?
Someone who wants to track sleep and basic movement without caring much about precision. Someone who sees a fitness tracker as a novelty rather than a serious health tool. For anyone else, the extra fifteen pounds for the Smart Band 9 is money well spent.