The launcher Amazfit held back is finally here

The T-Rex 3 family moved onto Zepp OS 6 months ago, but one of the most obvious parts of the new operating system was deliberately left behind. The watches received the new operating system but not the Launcher 2.0 interface.

That was not a hardware limitation. As I explained back in August when looking at the missing Zepp OS 6 launcher, Zepp Health had deliberately paused its rollout after getting feedback from users who preferred the old navigation system, particularly the horizontal widgets available from the watch face.

Launcher 2.0 rearranges that basic navigation. Swipe right from the watch face and you now go directly to the Workout List, while swiping down opens Quick Access for system controls and notifications. A double press of the UP button opens Control Center, giving the physical buttons a bigger role in moving around the watch.

That last part arguably makes more sense on the T-Rex than it does on something like the Balance series. These are outdoor watches with chunky physical buttons, so being able to move through more of the interface without relying on the touchscreen is useful when wearing gloves, running in rain or simply during a workout.

It does not mean everyone will prefer the change. The original hesitation over Launcher 2.0 came from genuine differences in how people use their watches, and the new layout still replaces some of the old swipe behaviour rather than simply adding another option. It would be even better if Zepp Health eventually allowed users to customise those directions.

There is quite a bit more in 6.6.14.3

The update is not just an interface refresh. Device Lock now gets an Auto Relock option, while users can assign “Lock Device Once” to a long press of the SEL/DOWN button. Touch Lock during workouts also gains a slide-to-unlock method, which becomes the default way of getting back into the screen.

There is also now a Restore Defaults option inside individual workout settings. Theater Mode has been tweaked as well. It can now automatically adjust brightness based on ambient light when the screen wakes, and you can set how long the mode should remain active.

Navigation gets a couple of changes too. Road rendering on maps has been improved, while direction arrows can now appear along a route at more map scales. For runners, Zepp Health also says pace accuracy has been improved when using GPS Automatic Mode.

A better fit for the T-Rex hardware

The interesting part of this update is not really the version number. It is that Zepp Health has gone back to a software feature it deliberately held off releasing and has now decided the T-Rex line should get it after all.

Zepp Health describes the new launcher as a more consistent foundation across Amazfit watches, rather than something tied to one particular product family. The current Zepp OS 6 overview now lists the T-Rex 3, T-Rex 3 Pro and T-Rex Ultra 2 among the supported devices.

Whether the new navigation is actually better will come down to preference. But on a button-heavy outdoor watch, a launcher designed to work more comfortably without constant touchscreen input has a stronger case than it did on some of Amazfit’s more lifestyle-focused models.

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Black Friday itself does not arrive until November 27, but the Garmin sale season is clearly underway. And this is not just one or two older watches getting a token reduction either, because the current list stretches across a surprisingly large chunk of the range.

The table below pulls in the latest qualifying deals from our live wearable deals tracker and updates as the underlying offers change.

	Amazon	Garmin
Garmin Bounce 2	$249.99View on Amazon Was $299.99 | Save 17%	$249.99 Was $299.99 | Save 17% Bounce 2
Garmin Descent G2	$599.99View on Amazon Was $699.99 | Save 14% Garmin Descent G2, Watch-Style Dive Computer, 46mm, Black	$599.99 Was $699.99 | Save 14% Descent G2
Garmin Descent MK3	$899.99View on Amazon Was $1,199.99 | Save 25%	$899.99 Was $1,199.99 | Save 25% 43 mm
Garmin Fenix 8	$749.99View on Amazon Was $999.99 | Save 25% Spark Orange/Graphite	$749.99 Was $999.99 | Save 25% 43 mm, AMOLED, Sapphire
Garmin Fenix 8 Pro	$949.99View on Amazon Was $1,199.99 | Save 21%	$1,099.99 Was $1,599.99 | Save 31% 51 mm, MicroLED, Sapphire
Garmin Fenix E	$575.00View on Amazon Was $799.99 | Save 28%	No current deal
Garmin Forerunner 170	$314.99View on Amazon Was $349.99 | Save 10% Forerunner 170 Music · Black with Amp Yellow	No current deal
Garmin Forerunner 265	$299.99View on Amazon Was $449.99 | Save 33%	$299.99 Was $449.99 | Save 33% Forerunner® 265
Garmin Forerunner 570	$449.99View on Amazon Was $549.99 | Save 18% Garmin Forerunner® 570, 42mm, Aluminum, Whitestone/Cloud Blue	$449.99 Was $549.99 | Save 18% 42 mm
Garmin Forerunner 965	$449.99View on Amazon Was $599.99 | Save 25%	No current deal
Garmin Forerunner 970	$649.99View on Amazon Was $749.99 | Save 13%	$649.99 Was $749.99 | Save 13% Forerunner® 970
Garmin Instinct 3	$249.99View on Amazon Was $449.99 | Save 44% AMOLED Black · 45mm · AMOLED	$249.99 Was $349.99 | Save 29% 45 mm, AMOLED
Garmin Instinct Crossover	$549.99View on Amazon Was $649.99 | Save 15% Garmin Instinct® Crossover AMOLED, 46mm, Cocoa	$549.99 Was $649.99 | Save 15% AMOLED
Garmin Instinct E	$199.99View on Amazon Was $299.99 | Save 33% Garmin Instinct® E, Rugged GPS Smartwatch, 45mm, Charcoal	$199.99 Was $249.99 | Save 20% 40 mm
Garmin Lily 2	$209.99View on Amazon Was $249.99 | Save 16%	$199.99 Was $249.99 | Save 20% Lily® 2
Garmin MARQ	No current deal	$1,500.00 Was $1,900.00 | Save 21% MARQ® Athlete (Gen 2)
Garmin Quatix 8	$849.99View on Amazon Was $1,099.99 | Save 23% Garmin quatix® 8, Marine GPS Smartwatch, 47mm	$849.99 Was $1,099.99 | Save 23% 47 mm, AMOLED
Garmin Quatix 8 Pro	$949.99View on Amazon Was $1,299.99 | Save 27%	$949.99 Was $1,199.99 | Save 21% 47 mm, AMOLED
Garmin Tactix 8	$1,149.99View on Amazon Was $1,399.99 | Save 18%	$1,049.99 Was $1,299.99 | Save 19% 47 mm, AMOLED
Garmin Venu 4	$449.99View on Amazon Was $549.99 | Save 18%	$449.99 Was $549.99 | Save 18% 41 mm
Garmin Venu X1	No current deal	$499.99 Was $699.99 | Save 29% Venu® X1
Garmin Vivoactive 5	$168.95View on Amazon Was $299.99 | Save 44% Orchid	No current deal
Garmin Vivoactive 6	$249.99View on Amazon Was $299.99 | Save 17%	$249.99 Was $299.99 | Save 17% vívoactive® 6

Live qualifying deals from Deal Tracker. Prices and availability can change at checkout.

The Forerunner deals are worth watching

For runners, the Forerunner range is probably the most interesting part of the current sale. Both the Forerunner 265 and the newer 970 are showing up in the deal tracker, while the older Forerunner 965 has also been appearing at a price that can make the upgrade decision considerably less obvious.

The 970 brings Garmin’s newer Elevate V5 sensor, ECG, a sapphire lens, an LED flashlight, speaker and microphone, plus several newer running metrics, but the 965 remains a very capable training watch. We went through the differences in our Garmin Forerunner 970 vs 965 comparison, and a large enough Black Friday price gap can easily change which one makes more sense.

There is a similar argument lower down Garmin’s range. The Vivoactive line becomes much easier to recommend when it is heavily discounted, particularly for someone who wants the Garmin ecosystem without paying for the deeper training and navigation features of a Forerunner or Fenix. Our Venu 4 vs Vivoactive 6 comparison is worth a look if those are the two sitting in your shortlist.

Fenix and Instinct prices are getting more interesting

Fenix is where early Black Friday discounts can make the biggest difference in actual dollars. Garmin pushed the range into four-figure territory with many Fenix 8 configurations, so even a fairly ordinary percentage discount can knock a substantial amount off the checkout price.

That also makes the cheaper Fenix E more interesting, but only if the price gap is wide enough. We questioned Garmin’s Fenix pricing when the generation launched, and the basic problem has not really changed. When Fenix E gets too close to a discounted full Fenix model, it becomes much harder to justify the compromises.

Instinct 3 is a different proposition. It gives up the maps and some of the premium hardware you get higher up the Garmin range, but it still brings multi-band GPS, strong battery life, training features and a built-in flashlight, with AMOLED and solar versions available.

There is one thing I would not do yet, which is assume every early deal will be beaten on Black Friday itself. Retailers have spent the past few years stretching Black Friday into a much longer sales period, and some of the best wearable deals can appear well before the actual day and disappear before November 27.

The post Garmin watch prices are dropping early for Black Friday appeared first on Gadgets & Wearables.

And these are not small cuts. If the plan goes ahead, Suunto would lose nearly three quarters of its remaining Finnish workforce, another pretty clear sign that the company is gradually shifting away from the country it has called home for almost 90 years.

Suunto has already been moving production away from Finland

According to Helsingin Sanomat, Suunto is planning to eliminate 118 positions in Finland. The company reportedly has around 160 employees there at the moment, which means the proposed reduction would amount to a large proportion of its workforce in the country.

This is not really coming out of nowhere. Suunto’s own figures show that the balance between Finland and China has already changed quickly over the past couple of years.

In 2024, Suunto said 63% of its products were designed, developed, tested and assembled at its Finnish factory. The remaining 37% came from its Chinese operation. Suunto’s current sustainability information says the Finnish factory accounted for only 42% of total production in 2025.

That is quite a swing. It suggests the latest restructuring would not start the move away from Finland so much as accelerate something that is already happening.

There is an interesting contrast with the way Suunto still describes itself. Its company page continues to emphasise a history stretching back to Finnish orienteer Tuomas Vohlonen in 1936, along with the company’s Nordic identity and its headquarters and factory in Finland.

That heritage has always mattered more for Suunto than it would for a generic consumer electronics brand. Garmin is American, Coros has Chinese roots and Polar is Finnish, but Suunto has spent decades making Finland part of the product story itself.

The direction changed after the Liesheng takeover

The bigger shift started after Chinese electronics company Liesheng acquired Suunto from Amer Sports in 2022. At the time, Suunto’s announcement said Liesheng had indicated that the company would continue running its operations from Vantaa, Finland.

A lot has changed since then. Suunto has expanded its Chinese development and manufacturing operation, while the share of production taking place in Finland has fallen.

That has happened alongside a busy period for the product range. So this is not a story about a brand obviously winding down.

What happens to Suunto’s Finnish identity now?

For buyers, moving production or development does not automatically mean worse watches. Suunto’s recent devices have been some of its strongest in years, and shifting more work to China could potentially lower costs, shorten development cycles or give the company easier access to electronics suppliers.

But there is another side to this. Suunto’s Finnish roots have been part of the reason some people choose the brand in the first place, particularly in Europe. Remove most of the Finnish workforce and move more production and development elsewhere, and eventually the question becomes what “Finnish” actually means for Suunto beyond its history and headquarters.

For now, Suunto is still based in Finland and still has operations there. But if the reported cuts go ahead, the company’s Finnish presence will look very different from the one it had even a couple of years ago.

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The workout actually lives on your wrist

Step-by-step Workouts started rolling out on November 10 and should reach supported watches over the coming week. It works with strength workouts, mixed workouts and routines created through Google Health Coach.

You can build a workout manually inside Google Health using a library of more than 1,000 predefined exercises. Alternatively, Google Health Coach can create one for you based on what you want to do.

Once the session starts, the watch shows the current exercise, your targets and what is coming next. You can change the number of reps or the weight directly from the wrist if the original plan turns out to be too easy or too ambitious.

Google also synchronizes the workout between the phone and watch. If you pause or end the session on one device, the other follows. But importantly, you do not actually need to carry the phone around once you start training.

That was one of the things we highlighted when we previously looked at how Pixel Watch 5 strength training was supposed to work. At the time, the feature was still listed as coming soon. It has now moved from demo material to something owners can actually use.

Google has added the small things

The system can automatically move through sets and rest periods, with visual timers and audio cues telling you when it is time to continue. If you prefer to control the pace yourself, you can switch automatic progression and audio guidance off during the workout.

You can also record reps and weights as you go rather than trying to remember everything afterwards. That puts the Pixel Watch much closer to dedicated strength-training apps where the workout itself becomes the interface.

Pixel Watch 3 and 4 owners get the good part too

Step-by-step Workouts are rolling out to Pixel Watch 3, Pixel Watch 4 and Pixel Watch 5. That makes this a fairly substantial free upgrade for owners of the two older generations, particularly anyone who does regular gym work.

There is one caveat. Building workouts through Google Health Coach requires Google Health Premium, along with the Google Health app and an internet connection. The company does not apply that same subscription requirement to manually creating routines from its exercise library, so you should still be able to build and follow your own sessions without paying for the AI coach.

Google has spent years building up Pixel Watch health tracking through Fitbit. This update pushes in a slightly different direction. Instead of simply measuring what happens during a workout, the watch can now help run the workout itself.

The post Google finally switches on Pixel Watch’s proper strength training mode appeared first on Gadgets & Wearables.

Meta announced the smartwatch rollout yesterday. The Muse version 15.0 update adds the Apple Watch companion app, while Meta has confirmed that a Wear OS version is also available.

What Muse can do on a smartwatch

On Apple Watch, users can type a request, dictate it or start a voice conversation with Muse. A watch face complication provides quicker access, while the animated Muse character appears inside the app.

Meta’s examples show Muse searching for movie tickets and detecting a scheduling conflict between a meeting and a dentist appointment. The agent can suggest a change and then carry out the task once the user approves it.

That is the main difference between Muse and a normal chatbot. Muse can navigate websites, fill in forms, manage calendar events and make bookings through connected services. It can also continue working after the app has closed and return when it needs more information or permission.

The Wear OS app appears to offer the same core interaction methods. However, Meta has not published yet a proper compatibility list.

The watch is a remote for the agent

Of course, Muse does not run its main AI model on the smartwatch. The company says the agent operates inside a cloud-based computer called Muse Secure VM, which has its own browser and stores the services connected by the user.

The Apple Watch and Wear OS apps only act as remote controls for that system. This lets users start a task, read an update or approve an action from the wrist, while the actual work happens in the cloud.

No surprise there. A watch is not a good place to supervise a complicated booking, but it works well for short instructions and quick decisions. We previously looked at why smartwatches could become natural access points for AI agents, and Muse is a practical example of that model.

Meta has not announced direct access to smartwatch sensors as part of this update. The bot can connect to health and fitness services when users give it permission, but there is no indication that the new apps independently analyse heart rate, sleep or workout data from the watch.

The update also puts Meta on the wrist without waiting for its own device. The company has reportedly been developing a smartwatch focused on AI and neural controls, but Muse can reach existing smartwatch owners much sooner through software.

Muse will sit alongside Google Gemini on compatible Wear OS watches. The latter benefits from being built into Google’s platform. Muse, on the other hand, focuses more heavily on longer tasks that cross between different apps and websites, such as researching options, filling in forms and completing a booking.

There will still be overlap between the two. Both can handle reminders, schedules and general questions, so the more useful assistant may depend on which services someone already uses.

Muse also becomes more capable as users connect email, calendars, financial services and other accounts. Meta says users can control those connections, review an activity log and approve sensitive actions before anything gets sent, shared or purchased.

Even then, some supervision will be necessary. Meta’s Google Play listing warns that Muse may provide inaccurate information or take unexpected actions, and advises users to check its work.

Sources: Muse, Meta

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This has been coming for a while, but Google has now put an actual end date on it. The Fitbit App Gallery will switch to apps and clock faces made only by Fitbit and Google, bringing an end to the third-party software ecosystem that was once a fairly important part of owning a Fitbit smartwatch.

Don’t delete anything you want to keep

The change applies to Fitbit Sense, Sense 2, Versa, Versa 2, Versa 3, Versa 4 and Versa Lite. Google also lists the recalled Fitbit Ionic, although there should not be many of those still in normal use.

Anything already installed can continue working after November 28. The important catch is what happens if you delete it. Once a third-party app or clock face is removed, there will be no way to download it again. The same problem applies after a factory reset, because the watch will no longer be able to retrieve that software from the gallery.

That makes the next couple of weeks fairly important for anyone still using an older Versa or Sense. If there is a third-party clock face or app you regularly use, this is the time to make sure it is installed and leave it alone.

Developers are being cut off at the same time. From November 28 they will no longer be able to upload new apps and clock faces or push updates to existing ones.

Sense 2 and Versa 4 were already halfway there

For Sense 2 and Versa 4 owners, this is slightly different because Google had already stripped out third-party app support when those watches launched. We covered that back in 2022 when Fitbit confirmed third-party apps were not coming to Sense 2 and Versa 4.

Those two watches did retain third-party clock faces, though, and that door is now closing as well. Google still lets Sense and Versa owners keep up to five clock faces saved on the watch, so anyone using a third-party design they like would be wise not to remove it.

Older Versa and Sense models lose more because they supported proper third-party apps. Fitbit’s gallery once included things such as Strava, Starbucks, Uber, barcode tools and various utilities. Our old guide to the best Fitbit smartwatch apps gives a pretty good idea of how much broader the platform once was.

The App Gallery was never on the scale of Apple’s App Store or Wear OS, but it did make Fitbit’s smartwatches feel more expandable. That distinction has been fading for years as Google shifted its proper smartwatch ambitions toward Pixel Watch and Wear OS.

Another piece of Fitbit OS disappears

The timing is not especially surprising. Google has spent the past few years steadily moving away from Fitbit OS as a smartwatch platform, while Fitbit itself has moved back toward simpler health and fitness hardware.

There is also some history here. Google already removed third-party Fitbit apps and clock faces for users in the European Economic Area in 2024 because of regulatory requirements. What happens on November 28 takes that much further, effectively ending new third-party Fitbit smartwatch software everywhere.

For owners, nothing suddenly stops working on November 28. That is worth stressing. Existing third-party apps and clock faces remain on the watch and can continue to function. But there is now an expiry mechanism built into them. Delete one, reset the watch or eventually replace the device, and it is gone.

The post Fitbit Sense and Versa lose third-party apps later this month appeared first on Gadgets & Wearables.

This has always been one of those slightly odd Polar things. The H10 could record a workout by itself for years, but if you actually wanted to use that feature, Polar sent you off to a different app.

That changes with Polar Flow 7.38.0.

Polar Beat just became a lot less necessary

The H10 has enough internal memory to store one standalone heart-rate session, recording heart rate once per second for more than 30 hours. That makes it useful for swimming, team sports, gym sessions or anything else where carrying a phone is annoying.

The hardware could already do all of this. The strange bit was how you started it.

Until now, Polar’s own instructions told H10 users to open Polar Beat, connect the sensor and choose “Save HR with sensor.” Once recording started, you could walk away from the phone and let the H10 handle the session on its own. When you came back, Beat downloaded the workout from the sensor and synced it into Flow.

Flow 7.38.0 removes that detour. You can now start the standalone recording directly from Polar Flow, which is where most Polar users are managing their training data anyway. It sounds like a small change, but it cleans up a clumsy part of the Polar ecosystem.

Better for phone-free workouts

The use case is simple. Start the recording in Flow, leave your phone behind and let the H10 store heart-rate data on the strap itself.

That makes particular sense for swimming because Bluetooth is unreliable through water, but it is also useful for football, martial arts and other activities where carrying a phone is impractical.

Once the session is finished, the data transfers back into Flow. The H10 still stores only one standalone session at a time, so this is not a replacement for a watch, but it removes one of the more annoying parts of using the sensor.

Polar has not said that Beat is going away, so we would not read this as the end of the app just yet. But for H10 owners who only kept Beat around for internal memory recording, Flow 7.38.0 removes a big reason to use it.

The timing is also interesting. We previously found references to an unreleased Polar H12 inside Flow code, suggesting Polar is still investing in its chest-strap lineup.

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What’s strange about this is that the watches still show software version 17.05. Garmin released that version back in January, so there is no obvious new Vivoactive 5 firmware that should have installed at the start of November.

Some watches are barely making it through the day

The first reports describe a fairly dramatic change. One Vivoactive 5 owner says the watch restarted as though it were installing an update on November 1, then dropped below 10% battery in around 12 hours.

Other owners have since reported similar behaviour. One watch fell to 4% in less than 24 hours, while another now lasts no more than 36 hours. A separate owner saw the battery drop by 14% within an hour of charging and then fall to 53% overnight. Before this started, the same watches were generally lasting several days between charges.

That is nowhere near the battery life normally associated with the device. Garmin rates the Vivoactive 5 for up to 11 days in smartwatch mode, or up to five days when using the always-on display.

The reports do not look like a simple case of someone switching on Pulse Ox or installing a battery-hungry watch face. Most affected owners say their settings had not changed.

The update itself is still a mystery

Garmin’s current Vivoactive 5 software page lists version 17.05 as the latest release. The company also confirmed in its support forum that 17.05 arrived on January 27, 2026, and nothing since then.

But several owners report that some sort of installation was done on their watch around a week ago. The watches may instead have received a supplemental component, attempted to reinstall an existing package or become stuck processing something in the background.

There is at least one clue pointing in that direction. An affected owner connected the watch to a computer and found an old file named D944502.zip sitting inside the Garmin/RemoteSW folder. After removing it, resetting the watch and charging it again, battery use reportedly returned to around 6% over 24 hours.

Garmin has replied to the latest reports, although it has not yet acknowledged a wider software problem. Its current recommendation is to connect the watch to Garmin Express and check for any supplemental updates that may not appear through the watch or Garmin Connect.

That is the sensible place to start. It may allow Garmin Express to finish or remove an incomplete package without the owner having to dig through the watch’s folders manually. A forced restart and a full uninterrupted charge are also worth trying. But for now, there is no single confirmed fix.

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The watch has the score, Connect does not

Reports started appearing this week from owners of several Garmin devices, including the Fenix 8, Enduro 3, Forerunner 955 and Forerunner 970. Users say their morning Training Readiness appears correctly on the watch, while Garmin Connect either shows no score at all or claims there is insufficient data. Other information such as sleep, HRV, Body Battery and activities continues to sync normally.

One Fenix 8 owner went a step further and pulled the metrics FIT file directly from the watch after getting a morning Training Readiness score of 87. The file was then sent through Garmin Express, which returned a duplicate-file response, suggesting Garmin’s servers had already received it. The data appears to be arriving, but for some reason it is not being turned into a Training Readiness entry.

Garmin Connect 5.31 is the common thread

A number of affected users point to Garmin Connect 5.31 as the point when the problem started. One Enduro 3 owner says everything worked normally before updating, while an iOS Forerunner 970 user also suspects the latest Connect version. Garmin Connect 5.31 arrived earlier this week and is already listed in our firmware and software update tracker.

That does not prove 5.31 caused the bug. The interesting part is that reports span Android and iOS and involve several different watch families, which makes a single-watch firmware problem look less likely.

Garmin has had its share of software cleanup lately. We recently covered the Fenix 8 heart-rate failure and subsequent 23.40 fix, although this new issue is quite different because the underlying metric still appears to be calculated properly on the device.

Garmin is investigating and there is a temporary workaround

Garmin has now acknowledged the reports on its support forum. A company representative said the concern is being looked into and asked affected users to check Garmin Connect Web as well as the mobile app.

There is also a slightly ridiculous workaround. Several users say Training Readiness suddenly appears after they record and save an activity, even though the score had been missing all morning. In other words, going for a run may currently be one way of convincing Garmin Connect that you were ready to go for a run. Reinstalling Garmin Connect has also been tried, but the results look less convincing.

For now, the sensible move is to trust the score shown on the watch and wait for Garmin to sort out the Connect side. The fact that Garmin is already investigating is encouraging.

The post Garmin Connect 5.31 users report missing Training Readiness appeared first on Gadgets & Wearables.

Payments work, but the range looks weak

One early owner has now used the global Smart Band 11 NFC for payments in Hungary. The transaction worked, but the band had to be brought very close to the payment terminal before it registered.

Another owner reported a more frustrating experience. In that case, the band often needed to be almost touching the terminal, with failed reads happening more often than expected. The owner initially suspected a faulty unit. He then bought a second Smart Band 11 NFC directly from Xiaomi, but the replacement reportedly behaved in much the same way.

That same owner compared it with the older Smart Band 7 NFC, Redmi Watch 6 and Xiaomi Watch 2. Those devices could apparently trigger terminals from several centimetres away, while the Band 11 needed much more careful positioning.

Two owners are not enough to prove a wider hardware problem, but the reports point in the same direction. The NFC system works, but its effective range appears fairly short.

Xiaomi’s own instructions are interesting in that context. The company recommends holding the band around 1 to 3 cm from the reader. The display should face the sensing area, and you need to keep it there for one or two seconds. That suggests close positioning is expected, although the comparison with older Xiaomi wearables still raises questions about whether the Band 11 antenna is simply weaker.

How payments work

The payment setup is fairly straightforward. Cards are added through Xiaomi Pay in the Mi Fitness app, rather than through Google Wallet or Apple Pay. As to what banks are supported, that depends on region. There’s a full list on Xiaomi’s website.

So for example, if you live in the UK – these are your options.

Once a supported card is added, you open the Cards section on the band. You then select the bank card and activate it before holding the tracker near the terminal. Support still depends on the country, bank and card issuer, so buying the NFC model does not automatically mean every Visa or Mastercard will work.

The important part from these early tests is that the international version is now doing what Xiaomi promised. People are actually using it at normal payment terminals outside China, rather than simply seeing NFC listed on a spec sheet.

NFC payments return after Band 7

The last regular Xiaomi Smart Band with comparable international payment support was the Smart Band 7 NFC. The following generations still had NFC variants in some markets, but they were largely focused on China and did not give international buyers the same straightforward Visa and Mastercard payment option.

That changed with Band 11. At the moment, availability is still uneven. Xiaomi has not launched the NFC model everywhere, but it is starting to roll out region by region. Spain is one of the markets where it is already officially on sale, while buyers elsewhere are still relying on imports from neighbouring European countries.

So far, the verdict is mixed. International payments on the Smart Band 11 NFC do work, which is the important bit after the long gap since Band 7. The early warning is that you may need to hold it noticeably closer to the terminal than you would with some older Xiaomi wearables.

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