Where did the tenth one go? Xiaomi released a new budget band with 21 days of battery life — and apparently skipped one generation

The Active line is Xiaomi’s cheapest branch of fitness bands — no NFC, no GPS, but with battery life that more expensive smartwatches can’t match. Now it has a successor, and just by looking at its name you might think you missed something. You didn’t. After the Smart Band 9 Active, straight comes the Smart Band 11 Active, and the tenth one never existed in this line.

Three weeks on a single charge

The main argument is the battery. A 300 mAh cell fits into the 18-gram body, and Xiaomi says it should last up to 21 days. But that figure applies to light use — in the standard mode with continuous heart rate and blood-oxygen monitoring, the manufacturer itself states eight days, which is a more realistic value. Charging via a magnetic connector takes just under two hours.

Even so, it’s multiple times what typical smartwatches can manage. That’s the whole point of the Active line — you buy it so you don’t have to constantly think about charging it.

A display kept from the old model

Here’s the main trade-off. Instead of an AMOLED panel like the more expensive Smart Band models, you get a 1.47″ TFT screen with a resolution of 172 × 320 pixels and a refresh rate of 60 Hz. The glass has rounded 2.5D edges, so on your wrist it looks better than you’d expect for this price tag — but in direct sunlight, TFT still won’t be great.

As for the sensors, there’s a PPG sensor for heart-rate measurement, blood-oxygen saturation, sleep tracking, an accelerometer, and improved continuous stress monitoring. There are now 50 sports modes, more than a hundred watch faces, and women’s health tracking. The 5 ATM rating means you can swim with it without worry.

Where did the tenth one go?

Xiaomi didn’t explain the skipped generation in any way. The most likely reason is aligning the numbering with the main Smart Band line, so different-numbered models don’t sit next to each other on the shelf — but that’s just speculation; there’s no official statement.

The band works with the Mi Fitness app and requires Android 8.0 or iOS 14 and newer. There are three colors to choose from: black, gray, and Pomelo Pink pink. In the first countries where it’s already being sold, the price is around €40 — when and for how much it will arrive in Slovakia, we don’t know yet.

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