Mi Band 6 Scientific Review: Comprehensive Heart Rate Test

🟡 Twitter: @QuantifiedRob
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Intro: When the Mi Band 6 was released, the performance of its health features were disappointing, especially its heart rate tracking. However, as we’ve seen for other devices, firmware updates can result in huge improvements. So, almost a year later, has the heart rate tracking of the Mi Band 6 improved? Well, that is what we will find out in this video, and to summarize, it actually seems like it might have improved quite significantly.
For those of you that are new to the channel, my name is Rob, and I am a postdoctoral scientist specializing in biological data analysis. For this video I wanted to do a comprehensive test of the Mi Band 6, so I bought a total of 3 Mi Band 6’s. I tested two Mi Band 6’s on myself, to be sure the results were not influenced by manufacturing variations between devices; and the third was tested by others, to see if results were any different when tested on other people.
First, we will very briefly recap how the Mi Band 6 performed when it was released. Second, we will look at the results of an extensive test I did of the Mi Band 6 in the end of 2021, where I tested it for more than 30 workouts. Third, we will check if the performance of the Mi Band 6 is consistently good when used by different individuals of the Austrian Junior Rowing Squad. And, fourth, we will look at the performance of a brand new Mi Band 6 that I bought this week. As you will see, it is this last test that is particularly confusing to me.

Conclusion: All in all, I think that these results look quite promising for the Mi Band 6. Most of the results I obtained are quite a lot better than the results I originally got for the Mi Band 6. Given the low price-tag of the Mi Band 6, it might be the right fit for people that are not looking to spend too much money on a heart rate tracker. However, there are a couple of things to keep in mind before buying the Mi Band 6: firstly, as you saw, I did get some conflicting results at the end of my testing, this could potentially mean there could be some variation in quality between different units that are produced. Second, I am not the biggest fan of the “Mi Wear” app, which was actually rebranded to the “Mi Fitness” app this week. It frequently had issues synching my data to other apps like Strava, so it was not the most reliable for me in that respect. Third, the Mi Band 7 is rumored to be released i n the next few months, so you might want to wait for my tests of that Smartband before buying the Mi Band 6. Though, also keep in mind that the Mi Band 7 might also need a couple of months to get a stable firmware version.

Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
01:45 Test 1
03:09 Test 2
06:29 Test 3
08:23 Test 4
10:01 My Interpretation

[TheQuantifiedScientist]

🔵 Newsletter: www.robterhorst.com
🟡 Twitter: @QuantifiedRob
* Affiliate (paid) links support the channel by earning me a small commission on any sale, and it doesn't cost you any more! My opinions are completely my own, and this content is not sponsored.

[vdnmadhuri]

Mann this is crazy, this is what we call a review not just telling about feature but telling the accuracy .

[GekGhost]

I own a Mi band 6 and this was an unexpected video, i always had this "bad" image of the watch since i watched your last test on it. The improvement is quit impressive, especially for the price, i wonder if sleep tracking improved similarly. Thank you for your efforts.

[Anonymous]

Mi band 6, s accuracy is improved by the firmware updates which is really good. Thanks Rob for telling

[ankushmukherjee]

I am stunned!! didn't expect to have a video of this high caliber on Thank you for your effort, your video helped me a lot in deciding whether to buy the mi band 6 or not.

[zerbytes]

Thank you for all the work you do and the information you make available to us.

[mboiko]

This is one if not THE...largest selling fitness band in the world...let's all hope the Mi Band 7 is another step in the right direction as far as accuracy and functionality.

[niels]

Nice, excited to view this since I am currently using the mi band 6. Greetings from The Netherlands!

[hajjianh]

Well done, I have been waiting for your updated review as I could realize mi band's heart rate discrepancy right when it was first released. I immediately switched to using my old Honor band 5 which was mor consistent especially while performing my LIIT workouts

[niels]

I use the mi band 6 every day but I don't rely on it during excersize. It has trouble measuring high heartrates, where my Magene H64 cheststrap measures around ~180 bpm my mi band measures ~110-120 bpm. For other use I really like it because of the small design. Furthermore, it does nearly always think I'm sleeping early when in reality I'm watching YouTube till 1am.

[arjuu]

I purchased Mi band 6 for my wife recently just for steps tracking and sleep wake-up tracking. I somehow had feeling that it might improve. Thanks for updated review Rob. That helps. Pls provide update on sleep tracking too if possible. Youtubers shud take u as inspiration on how the reviews shud be made.

[dairelysgarcia]

I found this video while investigating why my Mi Band 6 is recording absurdly high HR while walking, when compared to oxymeter it was nearly half the value. I was concerned about my health, but right now this device just stopped being reliable for me

[ryankassel]

Really cool to see other people testing the devices for you!

[fernosan]

Mine has definetly the contrary bias: sometimes I'm just starting, and around 5 minutes of fast waking it registers 170 bpm, when in reality would be something around 130. This continues for around 2-3 min. At first I thought it had something to do with the band being too loose on the arm, but even now it still happens around 25% of times.

[jazminethomas]

It would be nice if you could conduct tests to see how accurate these types of heart rate trackers are, relative to skin color. It would be great to see which fitness monitors perform best on wearers with darker skin and or tattoos on their wrists.

[norwegianzound]

Just bought one. My resting heart rate was manually measured at 71. The Mi detected it at 72.

[DeuxiemeFois]

I bough my Mi Band 6, two weeks ago, since that they I was looking for a review after my purchase... I saw the last video you did about it, but I remain curious about the firmware, so today I'm seeing this video with the same firmware and now I aware about it! Thank you very much!

[quanquan]

Thank you so much for covering this mi band 6 again 👍🏻👍🏻

[Tyr]

Really appreciate the thoroughness of the research here! I'm keeping an eye on the upcoming 7 and looking forward to seeing your coverage of it :)

[lofitochill]

amazing videos, hopefully you wont stop making these in the future