Should you buy the Xiaomi Mi Band 5 or the Honor Band 5?

Full of features

Xiaomi Mi Band 5

$48 at Amazon

Pros

• AMOLED display
• 14-day battery life
• 11 sport modes
• 5 ATM water resistance
• Tracks sleep, heart rate, stress, female health

Cons

• A bit more expensive
• Lacks SpO2 monitoring

The new Mi Band 5 comes with a colorful AMOLED display, 14-day battery life, 5 ATM water resistance, heart-rate monitoring, and activity/sleep tracking. Some of the new features include stress monitoring and female health tracking.

Simple yet efficient

Honor Band 5

$37 at Amazon

Pros

• AMOLED display
• 14-day battery life
• 10 sport modes
• 5 ATM water resistance
• Tracks sleep, heart rate, Sp2

Cons

• Lacks stress and female health tracking
• Fewer sport modes

If affordability is your main concern when buying a fitness tracker, it doesn't get much better than the Honor Band 5. You get all of the basics, including heart-rate monitoring, activity/sleep tracking, 5 ATM water resistance, and more.

Xiaomi Mi Band 5 vs. Honor Band 5 A close call

When deciding between the Xiaomi Mi Band 5 and the Honor Band 5, there are only a few differences that could affect your choice. They aren't too far apart when it comes to the price range, so you'll be getting a good deal either way. If you want the newest tracker with the most features and sport modes, the Xiaomi Mi Band 5 has more to offer. It's one of the best fitness trackers available right now.

If extra features such as female health tracking and stress monitoring aren't essential to you, then you may find yourself favoring the Honor Band 5. It still has everything you need for a successful tracking experience, like heart-rate monitoring, sleep tracking, multiple sport modes, and SpO2 monitoring.

The Xiaomi Mi Band 5 is an impressive upgrade

When compared to the Mi Band 4, it's easy to see that the Mi Band 5 has received some important improvements. The company states that the display area is 20% larger this time around. You also get some new features, including stress monitoring, guided breathing exercises, and female health tracking.

	Xiaomi Mi Band 5	Honor Band 5
Display	1.1" AMOLED, 126 x 294	.95" AMOLED, 240 x 120
Sensors	3-axis accelerometer + 3-axis gyroscope, PPG heart rate sensor	6-axis accelerometer, gyroscope, SpO2, heart rate sensor
Battery life	125 mAh, up to to 14 days	100 mAh, up to 14 days
Water resistance	5 ATM	5 ATM
Sport Modes	11	10
Smartphone notifications	✔️	✔️
Sleep monitoring	✔️	✔️
Stress tracking	✔️	❌
Female health tracking	✔️	❌

The Xiaomi Mi Band 5 now provides a Personal Activity Intelligence (PAI) score, which is calculated by the user's sex, age, heart rate, and other data. It will then offer suggestions regarding the level of activity that is required to maintain good health. It will also suggest types of activities that can help improve your score.

You'll also have some new sport modes on the Xiaomi Mi Band 5, including yoga, jump rope, elliptical, and rowing. Another difference this time around is that sleep monitoring has improved. Now, you'll be able to view your rapid eye movement (REM) sleep stages. Xiaomi also confirmed that heart rate accuracy has increased by up to 50% on the new model.

Keep it simple with the Honor Band 5

One of the many similarities you'll find is the design. However, the screen is slightly smaller on the Honor Band 5. With that said, they're both lightweight fitness trackers that are unassuming on the wrist. You'll also have a bright AMOLED display that's easy to read and navigate. Of course, with a small screen, the number of things you can do on the tracker itself is somewhat limited. You'll need to open the corresponding Huawei Health app to complete some tasks.

While these two trackers share quite a few features, you'll find that you can keep things a bit more simple with the Honor Band 5. If stress monitoring, female health tracking, and guided breathing exercises aren't particularly important to you, then you may not be a huge fan of the Xiaomi Mi Band 5.

With that in mind, there are still plenty of features to look forward to if you buy the Honor Band 5. It has heart-rate monitoring, activity/sleep tracking, multiple sport modes, and SpO2 monitoring that measures your blood oxygen saturation levels. Some of the sport modes you'll have include indoor/outdoor running, indoor/outdoor cycling, swimming, rowing, and free training. The Honor Band 5 offers up to 14 days of battery life along with 5 ATM water resistance.

Xiaomi Mi Band 5 vs. Honor Band 5 Which should you buy?

Both of these fitness trackers will meet the needs of someone who wants an affordable device that will handle their basic health/activity tracking needs. There are more similarities between the two than there are differences. Regardless of which one you pick, you'll get heart-rate monitoring, activity/sleep tracking, smartphone notifications, 5 ATM water resistance, and up to two weeks of battery life.

The Xiaomi Mi Band 5 is the newer device, so naturally, it has a few more features to offer. This fitness tracker offers stress monitoring with guided breathing exercises as well as female health tracking. If these additional perks are valuable to you, then you may prefer the Mi Band 5 over the Honor Band 5.

Full of features

Xiaomi Mi Band 5

Extra perks

$48 at Amazon $40 at Walmart $47 at Newegg

If you're looking for extra perks, like female health tracking, stress monitoring, and guided breathing exercises, you'll appreciate the Xiaomi Mi Band 5. It also has a slightly larger display than its predecessor.

Simple yet efficient

Honor Band 5

Stick to the basics

$37 at Amazon $33 at Walmart $50 at Newegg

The Honor Band 5 manages to pack a lot of helpful features into a very affordable fitness tracker. You get 10 sport modes, SpO2 monitoring, activity/sleep tracking, and heart-rate monitoring.