Xiaomi fined for inaccurate description of Mi Band 5 NFC sleep function
Tech giant Xiaomi was fined this month by the Chinese regulatory authorities for the marketing description of Mi Band 5 NFC’s sleep function. It was deemed to be inaccurate.
This is a violation of the Advertising Law according to the Beijing Haidian District Market Supervision and Administration Bureau. To this end they handed the company a 80,000 yuan (over $12,000) fine. That amount shouldn’t really make a dent in Xiaomi’s finances given the size of the company and its vast product range. It is more of a slap on the wrist.
The problem arose due to the description of the sleep tracking function of Mi Band 5 NFC version. In advertising material Xiaomi claimed the fitness band supports a “24-hour sleep monitoring” function. It turns out, that’s not the case.
In reality, the device tracks sleep during the night and supplements this with sporadic nap records during the day. The naps are factored in the calculation as long as they last at least 20 minutes. As far as nightly tracking, if your main sleep session is less than 60 minutes, the night sleep function will not record it. Hence, it is misleading to describe this as “24-hour sleep monitoring”.
Essential reading: Best fitness trackers and health gadgets
If you can look beyond this detail, Mi Band 5 represents a great little budget fitness device. It comes with a 1.1 inch display and most things you need to track your health and activity. Plus it has excellent battery life. The Mi Band is probably the most popular budget fitness band in the world.
Its successor, Mi Band 6 offers an even bigger 1.56 AMOLED which occupies practically the entire front area of the gadget. Other additions include an SpO2 sensor for blood oxygen tracking, along with a bunch of additional sports modes.
Now that we are into 2022, we can also look forward to the next edition in the lineup. There has been only one credible leak so far as far as what to expect. This implies that we could get an even larger screen this time around, one that extends beyond the width of the strap. As far as a potential release date, look for Mi Band 7 to land anytime between late Spring and June.
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