If you already have a Smart Band 10, this is not an automatic upgrade. But if you are choosing between the two today, the newer model is pretty clearly the one to get unless the older band is substantially cheaper.

The design barely changes, but the Band 11 gets thinner

Put Smart Band 11 and Smart Band 10 next to each other and there is not much to separate them at first glance. Xiaomi has stuck with the same elongated 1.72-inch AMOLED format rather than making the screen larger again, which is probably the right decision after the jump from 1.62 inches on Band 9.

The big change is peak brightness. It rises from 1,500 nits on Smart Band 10 to 2,000 nits on Smart Band 11.

The actual body has also become slimmer. Smart Band 11 is 9.99 mm thick and starts at 15.58 grams, compared with 10.95 mm and 15.95 grams for the standard Smart Band 10.

That weight difference is basically irrelevant, but losing almost a millimetre of thickness is more useful. These bands are already tiny, and having one sit a little flatter should help during sleep and generally make it disappear on the wrist.

Xiaomi has also expanded the choice of finishes. Alongside the regular version and Ceramic Edition, Smart Band 11 now gets an All-metal Edition with a unibody aluminium construction, giving the range a slightly more watch-like option.

I spent quite a bit of time with the previous generation in my Xiaomi Smart Band 10 review, and its size was never really a problem. So the design changes here are refinement rather than something you will immediately notice from across the room.

Main specs comparison

Sleep HRV is the upgrade most people will notice

There are some interesting changes on the health side. Smart Band 11 adds HRV tracking during sleep, filling one of the more obvious gaps in the previous model.

That omission stood out when I reviewed Band 10 because Xiaomi was already tracking heart rate, stress, SpO2 and a fairly detailed set of sleep metrics. HRV gives the software another useful signal for looking at recovery and how your readings change relative to your normal baseline.

Xiaomi is also pairing that with AI-based sleep interpretation and recommendations. That is more interesting than simply dropping an HRV number into Mi Fitness, although how useful it becomes will depend on what Xiaomi actually does with the data over several weeks.

The optical sensor itself has been upgraded too. Xiaomi says Smart Band 11 uses a higher-precision sensor for heart rate and blood oxygen readings, although there are still no ECG, skin-temperature or EDA sensors on the standard model.

Band 10 already performed surprisingly well for me during exercise. In my testing against a Garmin and chest strap, average and maximum heart-rate readings were consistently very close, so the new sensor has a decent starting point rather than fixing something that was obviously bad.

Fitness tracking is mostly familiar

You still get more than 150 sports modes, 5 ATM water resistance, heart-rate broadcasting and the usual mix of activity, stress, sleep and blood-oxygen tracking. Xiaomi has not suddenly turned the regular Smart Band into a miniature sports watch.

The biggest omission is still built-in GPS. Both Smart Band 11 and Smart Band 10 rely on connected GPS from your phone, so anyone who wants to leave the phone behind and record an outdoor route will need to move up to something like the Smart Band Pro line.

For most people buying this type of fitness band, that probably makes sense. Built-in GPS adds cost and power consumption, while plenty of users carry a phone anyway.

HyperOS 4 brings some less obvious changes

Smart Band 11 launches with Xiaomi HyperOS 4, and this is where some of the quieter differences appear. Xiaomi is pushing deeper integration with its wider ecosystem, including Xiaomi Home controls and better interaction with other Xiaomi devices.

There is also stronger support for Apple users. Xiaomi advertises dual-device notifications involving Android and iPhone, plus Apple Shortcuts integration, which makes the Band 11 a little less tied to Xiaomi’s own ecosystem than you might expect.

That is not necessarily a reason to upgrade on its own, but it does make the new model more flexible. Smart Band 10 already worked with Android and iOS, while Band 11 appears to be putting more effort into what happens once you actually pair it with an iPhone.

The NFC version also continues as a separate model, with payments, access cards and other features depending heavily on region. Xiaomi’s Chinese feature list is much broader than what normally makes it to international models, so I would not buy one based on Chinese NFC features unless Xiaomi confirms support in your market.

Battery life basically does not move

Xiaomi has kept the same 233 mAh battery capacity used by Smart Band 10. The headline battery claim also stays at up to 21 days, while charging takes around an hour.

That might look disappointing until you consider the brighter display and thinner body. Xiaomi has managed to increase peak brightness by a third and shave almost a millimetre from the casing without giving up the long battery life that remains one of the main reasons to buy a Smart Band.

With Band 10, I found battery drain modest even with frequent heart-rate sampling, sleep tracking and workouts enabled. Xiaomi’s maximum figures are obviously based on lighter usage, but this is still a very different charging experience from a smartwatch that needs attention every couple of days.

There is no obvious reason to upgrade for battery life alone. The two generations are effectively tied here.

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Unveiled at IFA 2026, the earbuds combine active noise cancellation, adaptive sound masking and overnight health tracking in a design made for side sleepers. They will cost $349.99 in the US and £299.99 in the UK when they arrive in November.

A heart-rate sensor inside your ear

A 100 Hz optical PPG sensor records pulse data throughout the night. Soundcore says it can use this to track heart rate, changes in HRV, sleep stages, sleep quality and breathing-related patterns.

That data is turned into a morning report containing a Sleep Score, sleep-stage information and something Soundcore calls Body Battery. None of this makes the earbuds a medical device, of course, and the accuracy will need proper testing. Even so, it removes the need to wear a smartwatch or smart ring simply to collect overnight data.

Soundcore is also experimenting with a feature called BioSync. It checks the wearer’s relaxation level roughly every five minutes and can adjust the tempo, soundscape and binaural beats playing through the earbuds.

The idea is that the audio responds to what your body is doing instead of playing the same track all night. It sounds interesting, although it is also the sort of feature that could be genuinely useful or something you barely notice.

The charging case does much more than charge

The SleepHub case has its own AMOLED touchscreen, processor and local storage. You can change modes, adjust the volume, select stored sounds, set an alarm and view the morning sleep report without reaching for your phone.

Audio can also be stored locally, allowing the earbuds to play soundscapes without an internet connection. That could make them easier to travel with and helps keep the phone out of the bedtime routine.

Noise reduction combines passive isolation, active noise cancellation and adaptive snore masking. When the sound of snoring changes, the system can adjust the frequency, volume and rhythm of the masking audio rather than continuing with one fixed sound.

Each earbud weighs around three grams, while the area touching the ear is 20% smaller than on the Sleep A30. That matters more than it might sound. With sleep earbuds, comfort can be more important than almost anything listed on the specification sheet, particularly if you sleep on your side.

Enough battery for a full night

Soundcore quotes eight hours of Bluetooth streaming with ANC enabled, rising to 11 hours with ANC switched off. Local audio playback extends that to 9.5 hours with ANC or as much as 14.5 hours without it. The case supports wireless charging, which should at least make topping it up less of a nuisance.

There is also a regular Sleep Earbuds 4 model arriving in October for $229.99 or £199.99. It drops the in-ear PPG sensor, detailed physiological sleep tracking and touchscreen case, but keeps the sleep-focused fit, noise reduction and adaptive snore masking.

Interestingly, the cheaper model has a couple of features the Pro does not. Its case can monitor bedroom noise and recognise selected sounds such as a baby crying or a fire alarm, lowering the masking audio when something important is detected.

At $349.99, the Sleep Earbuds 4 Pro are firmly at the expensive end of this category. They cost considerably more than SomniPods 3 and sit above the QuietOn 4 noise-cancelling earbuds I reviewed earlier this year.

The touchscreen case and in-ear health sensor make them one of the more complete sleep-earbud packages on paper. The real question is whether the tracking and adaptive audio improve sleep enough to justify paying $120 more than the regular model.

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Ten Garmin models under one certification

The new ANATEL certification covers A05124, B05124, C05124, D05124, E05124, F05124, G05124, H05124, I05124 and AA5124. All ten sit under the same Brazilian homologation, which is exactly the sort of pattern you would expect if Garmin were certifying multiple physical versions of the same underlying device. And all were registered on the same day.

Ten variants would be rather strange for a normal Garmin watch. For a smart ring, though, it immediately makes sense.

Ring makers have to offer far more hardware sizes than watch manufacturers because there is no adjustable strap to make up the difference. For example, the current Oura Ring 5 comes in 8 sizes, from size 6 through 13. Interestingly, Oura Ring 4 had a wider range, 12 sizes, from 4 through 15. 

And Brazil is not the only place where these model numbers have started appearing.

China certified four members of the same family on September 1. C05124, E05124, G05124 and H05124 were all registered by Garmin’s Taiwanese entity. Each is simply described as a Bluetooth device.

That is a pretty useful extra clue. We now have four individual 05124 models turning up together in China, followed by a Brazilian certification covering ten variants from the same family.

AA5124 was already sitting next to the smart ring

The really interesting part is that 5124 did not appear out of nowhere.

Back in August, we reported on a Garmin device called the CIRQA SMART RING that briefly popped up in Indonesia’s telecommunications certification database. The listing appeared on August 12 and explicitly named the product as a smart ring before disappearing from the public database shortly afterwards.

Sitting right beside that certification was another Garmin fitness product carrying the model number AA5124. At the time, there was not enough information to connect the two with confidence. Now there is.

Garmin still has not announced the CIRQA Smart Ring, so there is a limit to how far we can take this. But if AA5124 belongs to the ring, as the growing regulatory trail now strongly suggests, the other 05124 variants are likely part of the same product family.

When could the Garmin CIRQA Smart Ring launch?

That is a lot of activity across several markets in a fairly short period. Regulatory approvals do not guarantee an immediate launch, but this is starting to look like a product moving through the final stages needed for commercial release.

Our guess would be a launch sometime in the final months of 2026, with October or early November looking like a reasonable window. Any later than that, and we are into the holiday shopping period.

Another option might be CES 2027 in Las Vegas. Garmin does not always save product launches for major trade shows, but CES would give it a very obvious stage for entering a new category. If nothing appears before the end of 2026, January starts to look like the next sensible window.

Either way, the recent filings suggest the CIRQA Smart Ring is getting closer. The main question now is whether Garmin wants it on sale before Christmas or prefers to make a bigger splash at the start of 2027.

This article originally appeared on Gadgets & Wearables, the first media outlet to report the story.

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Before getting to the wearables, the robots need a mention. Humanoid robots were easily among the biggest crowd magnets at Messe Berlin, and the biggest gatherings I saw were around the little rings where people could watch robots fight each other. For some reason, putting two robots opposite each other and letting them throw punches seems to be exactly what trade show visitors want to see!

Mobility was everywhere too. Electric scooters, e-bikes, powered mobility devices and various machines designed to help people move around occupied a surprisingly large amount of floor space. In some ways, that ended up overlapping with fitness tech more than I expected.

Smart rings and watches

Let’s start off with smart rings as they had a pretty strong presence. RingConn, Ultrahuman and several smaller brands were there, but they were mainly showing products that had already launched rather than announcing another generation of hardware.

Circular was the exception. It used IFA to unveil the Circular Ring 3 Pro and Ring 3 Slim, and there are some genuinely interesting changes here. Both bring haptic vibrations back to the finger and add NFC payments, while Circular has also made the hardware slimmer and pushed battery life further.

The Ring 3 Pro gets the bigger health feature list, including ECG, blood pressure trends and glucose trend estimates alongside the usual heart rate, HRV, temperature, sleep and activity data. Whether all of those health features ultimately live up to their billing will need testing, but Circular is at least trying to make the smart ring do something beyond the usual.

There was considerably less happening with traditional smartwatches. Samsung and Xiaomi had plenty of wrist hardware on show, but most of it was already familiar.

Motorola provided one of the more interesting exceptions with the Moto Watch Ultra. This is Motorola going properly back into Wear OS, with Wear OS 6, LTE, dual-band GPS and Polar providing much of the fitness platform.

It is a very different proposition from the lighter Moto Watch announced earlier this year. The Ultra is a full smartwatch, complete with Google apps, payments and cellular connectivity, wrapped around a 46mm stainless steel case and a very bright OLED display.

Screenless trackers had a strong show

IFA also reinforced something that has become difficult to ignore in 2026. Screenless fitness trackers are suddenly everywhere.

Actxa had one of the stranger examples with its Spark Band. It looks like a fairly ordinary screen-free health band, but it can produce an estimated glucose value in around a minute using optical PPG data and an AI model.

That does not turn it into a CGM, and Actxa isn’t positioning it as a device for diagnosing or managing diabetes. Still, glucose estimates from a $149 wristband are going to get attention, particularly if independent testing eventually shows that the readings are consistent enough to be useful for general wellness trends.

Luna was also at IFA with the Luna Band, which has now moved from its earlier preview phase into worldwide shipping for $149. There is no display, and the idea is to collect heart rate, HRV, temperature, sleep, training and recovery data while Luna’s LifeOS software handles most of the interpretation. I am testing that one at the moment, so look for my review in the weeks to come.

The lack of a subscription is a big part of the pitch. The screenless category is getting crowded very quickly, so the interesting question now is less about whether a band can record HRV and sleep and more about which company can actually turn all of that information into something useful.

Speediance took a different route with its first wearable. This is another device I am currently testing. It uses greenteg technology to estimate core body temperature from the wrist, which made it one of the more unusual fitness trackers I came across at the show.

That has some obvious applications during longer or harder workouts, where rising internal temperature can become an important part of how the body responds to the session. Speediance is also building strength training into the platform, including exercise recognition, training volume, movement and velocity trends, which makes sense given the company’s background in connected gym equipment.

The same company also had its new Gym Monster 3 at IFA. It is obviously not a wearable, but a connected strength system with digital resistance, a large display, coaching and performance analysis belongs in this conversation just as much as another wrist tracker does.

Health and sleep tech went beyond another score

Withings didn’t launch another ScanWatch or smart scale at IFA. But it did make BeamO considerably more useful. Its new StethO Sense feature will analyse heart and lung sounds recorded by BeamO and return an interpretation within seconds.

That fills an obvious gaps in BeamO. The hardware already lets you record ECG, temperature and digital stethoscope readings, but recording a lung sound is only so useful if you then need somebody else to tell you what you just heard. StethO Sense starts moving BeamO from a collection device towards something that can help interpret the information as well.

DUVA ONE was another device that caught my attention, largely because it takes a different view of sleep tracking. Its earbuds monitor things such as heart rate, HRV, movement and sleep, while sensors in the bedside dock keep track of noise levels, light, temperature and humidity.

The clever bit is what happens next. Rather than simply telling you the following morning that something disturbed your sleep, DUVA ONE is designed to react during the night by changing noise cancellation or adjusting the audio being played.

That feels like a much more useful direction for sleep technology. We already have plenty of devices capable of telling us we slept badly. The next step is giving them some ability to do something while the problem is actually happening.

Soundcore had a similar idea with the new Sleep Earbuds 4 Pro, another device I think deserves a place on this list. The Pro earbuds put PPG sensors inside the ear to track heart rate, HRV and sleep, then combine that information with adaptive audio intended to help the wearer settle down and stay asleep.

The charging case is also unusually ambitious, with its own display for adjusting settings, setting alarms and checking sleep information without immediately reaching for a phone. Sleep earbuds are starting to look a lot more like proper wearables.

Tennis robots were one of the best parts of the show

Racket sports had a surprisingly strong presence at IFA, and this was probably my favourite part of the fitness side of the event.

Acemate was the standout. The company unveiled the S10 Pro, an upgraded version of its moving tennis robot that can track the ball, drive around the court and return your shots rather than sitting behind the baseline firing balls at you.

The Pro raises maximum ball speed to 75 mph and adds Serve, Battle, Drill and conventional Ball Machine modes alongside the existing Rally Mode. It also increases ball capacity, extends battery life and puts considerably more emphasis on analysis and structured training after the session.

Having recently spent a lot of time testing the regular S10, I already thought that machine was about as close as tennis robots currently get to having another person on the other side of the net.

The S10 Pro pushes the idea further again. On paper, I would put it among the most advanced consumer tennis robots currently heading to market, and at the top of that group. The combination of court movement, vision, ball tracking, serve analysis, rallying and match-style play puts it well beyond the traditional definition of a tennis ball machine.

Acemate wasn’t alone. Pongbot brought its new Aura to IFA, taking a somewhat different approach by making the machine much lighter and supporting tennis, pickleball and padel from the same platform.

Aura weighs around 7kg and combines programmable feeds with voice control, AI coaching and optional visual analysis. It is quite different from the Pongbot Pace S Pro I previously reviewed, which puts more emphasis on high-performance tennis drills and player movement tracking.

TENNIIX was there as well with its own vision-based tennis robot. Its Pro model uses cameras to track player position and movement so feeds can respond to what the player is doing rather than simply following a fixed sequence.

There were a few other tennis and racket-sport machines scattered around the show too. It is still a niche category, but the jump from “ball launcher with an app” to machines that can watch, react, analyse and simulate parts of an actual rally is happening surprisingly quickly.

What I took away from IFA 2026

There wasn’t one giant wearable announcement that dominated IFA this year. In fact, many of the biggest names in sports watches and fitness trackers either weren’t there or had already launched their main 2026 hardware elsewhere. That has been a trend we’ve see in recent years.

But there was still a lot happening. Circular is trying to make smart rings more interactive, Speediance is bringing core temperature into a normal-looking fitness band, DUVA wants sleep tech to react during the night, and Acemate is trying to turn a tennis machine into something much closer to an actual opponent.

That may be the more interesting trend to come out of IFA 2026. Health and fitness technology is slowly moving beyond simply measuring what happened and giving you a score afterwards. More of these devices are starting to react, intervene or change the experience while it is happening.

And yes, none of them attracted quite as many people as two humanoid robots punching each other in a ring. Apparently some things are impossible to compete with. 

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The Journal gets much more personal

Custom Journal Behaviors are due in September or October. You will be able to create whatever you want to track, then see how it affects your Recovery over time.

WHOOP gives examples such as a no-phone morning, a stressful commute or trying a new supplement. But the real appeal is that you could make these much more specific to your own routine. That might be eating late, training in the evening, changing your caffeine cut-off time or testing a different recovery routine.

It removes one of the obvious restrictions of the WHOOP Journal⁠. Until now, the feature has been useful for finding relationships between behaviours and Recovery, but only if the thing you wanted to track already existed in WHOOP’s list.

Logging should get easier as well. You will be able to speak or type naturally to the Journal and tell WHOOP what you did. The app will identify the relevant behaviours and log them rather than making you work through them manually.

WHOOP is also merging Journal, Daily Outlook, Check-ins and Day in Review into one daily experience. You will start with the Journal, get insights and check-ins during the day, then finish with an evening reflection.

Live workout tracking is getting a rethink

November brings a much bigger update to Track Activity. WHOOP will start recommending activity targets based on your goals and recent data, although you will still be able to change those targets yourself.

The live workout screen is also being rebuilt. It will show progress towards your target, time accumulated in heart rate zones and other live workout metrics, along with improved map controls.

WHOOP is even adding pause and resume. It is hardly an exotic feature, but it means the app will finally be able to distinguish between Moving Time and total elapsed time when you stop during a run, ride or other workout. Activity Details gets an upgrade afterwards, with splits, target performance, Moving Time and more detailed workout stats.

WHOOP will estimate your one-rep max

Strength Trainer is getting another substantial addition in November. WHOOP will automatically estimate your one-rep max for supported weighted exercises, without requiring you to actually attempt a maximum lift.

Once you log your weighted exercises, WHOOP will use that information to estimate your current strength and track how it changes over time. It will also show how intense each set was relative to your estimated strength.

That builds nicely on the recent Strength Trainer overhaul⁠, which added muscular load, exercise history and personal records. One-rep max gives you another way to see whether you are actually getting stronger rather than simply accumulating more Strain.

WHOOP has also been experimenting with AI-generated strength workouts⁠, so there is an obvious direction forming here. The app increasingly knows what you have lifted, how hard it was relative to your current strength and how well recovered you are before the next session.

The final part of the November update is Community. WHOOP users will be able to follow friends and family directly without setting up a team, then see whatever Sleep, Recovery, Strain and activity information that person chooses to share.

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Doing something different

Plenty of wearables already track temperature, but most report changes at the skin rather than the temperature inside the body. Speediance says its first wearable will track core body temperature continuously, using technology supplied by Swiss thermal-sensing specialist greenteg.

The underlying CALERA system combines a skin-temperature sensor with a heat-flux sensor, which measures thermal energy moving out of the body. An algorithm then uses those signals to calculate an estimated core temperature, avoiding the invasive methods traditionally used in sport and research.

Core temperature can show how your body is responding as a session unfolds. Tracked over time, its daily rhythm can also reveal when your body is naturally best prepared to train.

It is not just a temperature band

Like its competition, the screenless tracker is being built around training, sleep, stress and recovery. It is designed to combine those signals into a daily readiness view, then suggest how hard to train and when to take things easier.

The exercise side sounds more ambitious than basic activity tracking. Speediance says the Strap will support endurance and strength sessions, recognise exercises and track movement patterns, training volume and velocity trends. The aim is to estimate changes in strength capacity and fatigue rather than simply count workouts.

That puts it in the same broad category as WHOOP, Polar Loop and the growing number of discreet bands covered in our screenless fitness tracker comparison. The temperature system is the obvious differentiator, while Speediance’s background in connected strength equipment gives it a potentially useful route into workout data that general-purpose wearables often handle poorly.

Speediance says the main activity and recovery data will be available without an additional charge. More advanced AI planning and longer-term analysis will sit inside the optional Wellness+ service. But that kicks in only in the second year, so the first 365 days include all the advanced insights for free.

Launching soon

Speediance first showed the Strap as a prototype at CES in January and said it planned a Kickstarter campaign for the spring, with Standard and Pro versions to follow. By the time of its FIBO appearance in April, the company was still calling it a prototype and said test samples would depend on production progress.

The project has now obviously moved forward. However, Speediance has not confirmed the current price or a retail release date. So those details should remain in the unknown column for now.

The bigger question is whether core temperature changes the daily experience or ends up buried among the usual readiness graphs. If the Strap can measure it consistently and use it to make training advice more specific, Speediance may have found a credible way into a crowded category. I do have a test unit on hand so will be putting this new metric to the test. Look out for my review to come in the near future.

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I stopped by Luna’s stand at IFA in Berlin to see the Band in person. A full review will follow in the coming weeks, once I have had enough time to find out how well the tracking and LifeOS coaching hold up away from the show floor.

The waitlist phase is over

Luna first showed the Band at CES earlier this year, so this is not a brand-new product reveal. The news from IFA is that regular worldwide shipping has started, following a waitlist that Luna says attracted more than 100,000 people.

The company also says its first limited drop sold out. US orders are now listed as shipping immediately for $149, including taxes and delivery, while Luna has announced a price of €149 in other supported markets.

That lands it right in the middle of the growing screenless tracker market. It costs more than the $99 Fitbit Air but less than the $199 Garmin CIRQA, and it does not come with the ongoing membership required by WHOOP.

We recently compared the main options in our screenless fitness tracker buying guide. Luna Band can now join that group with a fairly straightforward pitch: wear it all day, let it collect the data and leave the interpretation to the app.

Small tracker, plenty going on in the app

The Band weighs 24 grams and can be worn on the wrist or upper arm. There is no display, although a vibration motor handles alarms, prompts and other nudges without trying to turn the device into a tiny smartwatch.

It tracks all the usuals, including heart rate, HRV, blood oxygen, skin temperature, sleep and daily activity. Workout features include VO2 max, training load, heart-rate zones and more than 60 sports modes, with automatic detection for a few.

There is no GPS inside the Band, so it uses a connected phone when a route is needed. Luna claims up to ten days of battery life, a one-hour charging time and 5 ATM water resistance.

The hardware is only half of the idea. Luna’s LifeOS software takes the readings and uses them to build a daily plan.

Its Micro Apps cover things such as caffeine timing, hydration, jet lag, fitness age and circadian rhythm. Luna says adding a goal can change what the Band measures, how often it takes readings and the guidance shown in the daily calendar. That sounds useful, but it is also the part that needs the most testing.

We will put those claims to the test

This will not be my first time testing one of the company’s devices. I reviewed the Luna Ring 2 earlier this year and came away fairly impressed by its sleep tracking, battery life and clean app, although exercise heart rate was its obvious weak spot.

The Band gives me an interesting point of comparison because it moves Luna’s sensors from the finger to the wrist or upper arm. The upcoming review will look at whether that helps with workout heart rate while keeping the useful sleep, recovery and coaching features I found on the ring.

There is plenty to like on paper, particularly the ten-day battery claim and lack of a required subscription. For now, the important bit is that Luna Band has moved beyond the waitlist and can finally be ordered in most countries.

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That is a pretty different pitch from the usual morning sleep score. Fitnexa is also using IFA to introduce DUVA as a new sleep technology brand, with DUVA ONE becoming the first product under that name.

It is trying to do something with the sleep data

The idea is fairly straightforward. DUVA ONE tracks heart rate, HRV, movement and sleep stages from the earbuds, while sensors built into the dock monitor noise levels, light, temperature and humidity in the room. The system can then look for links between the two.

So if a sudden noise coincides with movement or a change in your heart rate, for example, DUVA ONE has more context about what may have caused the disturbance. Fitnexa says the system can then react during the night by adjusting noise cancellation or changing the audio playing through the earbuds.

That is the part I find more interesting here. Plenty of wearables are very good at showing that you woke up at 3:17am, but that information is not especially useful at 8am if the thing that woke you has already happened. DUVA ONE is essentially trying to move some of that decision-making into the night itself.

I reviewed Fitnexa SomniPods 3 recently, and there is some obvious overlap between the two products. SomniPods 3 already combine sleep audio, ANC and sleep detection, but DUVA ONE pushes much harder into sensing and automatic intervention rather than simply being earbuds designed to make sleeping in a noisy room easier.

The charging dock is doing a lot of the work

The bedroom monitoring is particularly interesting because it does not all happen inside the earbuds. The DUVA ONE dock measures ambient noise in decibels alongside light, temperature and humidity, giving the system another layer of information to work with while you sleep.

There is an obvious privacy question whenever something sitting next to your bed starts monitoring sound. Fitnexa says the dock only measures sound levels and does not record, store or transmit ambient audio. Users will also be able to disable monitoring and wipe the collected data.

The earbuds themselves combine passive isolation with active noise cancellation for up to 42 dB of total noise reduction. Fitnexa says the system can dynamically change the noise reduction and adjust relaxation soundscapes or guided audio depending on what is happening during the night.

That is quite a different approach from something like QuietOn 4, which is deliberately much simpler and focuses almost entirely on shutting out noise. It is also a step beyond the sound-masking approach I found with the Ozlo Sleepbuds. DUVA ONE is effectively trying to combine those ideas with biometric data and room sensing.

They are tiny, which is rather important for sleep earbuds

Fitnexa has kept the earbuds very small. Each DUVA ONE bud weighs 3.3 grams and has a 9.9 mm profile. There are two different ergonomic ear-tip designs, plus several tip and wing sizes.

Battery life is rated at up to 15 hours from the earbuds, which should comfortably cover a full night even with some margin left over. The charging case provides up to five additional full charges, so this should also be fairly easy to travel with without constantly looking for a USB cable.

There is also a private in-ear alarm. It gradually wakes the person wearing the earbuds without blasting an alarm through the room, which is a small feature but one that makes plenty of sense if you share a bed with someone who gets up at a different time.

There are still some important blanks. Fitnexa has not announced pricing or a firm retail release date for DUVA ONE, so for now this is an IFA unveiling rather than something you can order tomorrow.

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That does not mean Oura handed customers $84.4 million or that every Ring 4 has a faulty battery. It does show that the problem became expensive enough to leave a very noticeable mark on the company’s accounts.

Ring 4 replacements pushed warranty costs higher

Oura spells it out in its newly public IPO filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission⁠. Certain Ring 4 production cohorts experienced battery performance issues, leading to more warranty claims and higher costs as affected rings were replaced free of charge.

Some replacements were even provided outside the normal warranty period. Oura generally offers a one-year limited warranty, except in places where local law requires longer coverage, so that detail suggests the company did not always draw a hard line once the first year had passed.

The filing does not identify the affected batches, sizes or purchase dates. It also does not reveal how many rings were replaced, so Ring 4 owners still have no simple way to check whether their device belongs to one of those cohorts.

Battery complaints are not new territory for the company, and we previously covered battery drain reported by owners of earlier Oura generations⁠. This disclosure is different because it comes directly from Oura and attaches a substantial financial figure to problems with the Ring 4.

Oura’s wider numbers are strong

The battery disclosure sits inside a much bigger IPO story. Oura confidentially filed to go public earlier this year⁠, but the newly released paperwork gives us the first proper look at its finances.

Revenue reached $1.21 billion during the nine months ending June 30, 2026, up 74 percent from the same period a year earlier. Net income climbed from $1.6 million to $60.8 million, while the company sold 3.1 million rings during those nine months.

Oura also had five million paid members by the end of June, twice as many as a year earlier. Membership revenue rose 121 percent to $240.5 million and carried an 89 percent gross margin, with weighted-average 12-month member retention sitting at approximately 85 percent.

Hardware still generated 80 percent of revenue, so manufacturing problems can quickly become costly even with a healthy subscription business behind them. Oura says the Ring 4 warranty increase was tied to earlier design, manufacturing and supplier factors, while testing and quality-control work has since been expanded.

What Ring 4 owners should take from this

Owners seeing a sudden drop in battery life have a stronger reason to contact Oura support, however, even if the standard warranty has recently ended. The company has now confirmed that some affected devices were replaced outside that period, although it has not promised the same treatment in every case.

The newer Oura Ring 5 launched in June⁠ with redesigned hardware, and Oura says it continues to monitor its performance. The filing also warns that current or future generations could experience other quality issues, which is standard risk language but worth noting after such a large warranty increase.

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There are four versions this time, including a new all-metal model alongside the regular, NFC and Ceramic editions. It is basically Xiaomi taking an already very good cheap fitness band and tightening a few screws rather than trying to do anything dramatic.

Quite a bit of this had already leaked a few days ago, so there are not many huge surprises for those who have followed the news. But we can finally separate the real stuff from the pre-launch noise and speculation.

The display is brighter, but Xiaomi hasn’t made it bigger

Xiaomi has stuck with a 1.72-inch AMOLED display, which is the same size used on the Smart Band 10. The 2mm borders remain as well, although peak brightness has jumped from 1,500 nits to 2,000 nits.

That is probably the display upgrade that makes the most sense. The screen on the Smart Band 10 was already very good, so making it easier to see outdoors is more useful than adding a fraction of an inch and making the whole thing larger.

The body has slimmed down too. Xiaomi lists the new model at 9.99mm thick and 15.58 grams without the strap, compared with 10.95mm and 15.95 grams for the standard Smart Band 10.

The weight difference is basically nothing, but losing almost a millimetre of thickness could be more noticeable. These bands are already tiny, and anything that makes one sit flatter against the wrist should help when wearing it overnight.

Sleep HRV is probably the upgrade to pay attention to

The more interesting change is sleep HRV monitoring. This was one of the obvious omissions when I reviewed Smart Band 10, particularly as Xiaomi was already collecting plenty of heart rate, sleep and stress data without giving you HRV alongside it.

Smart Band 11 now measures HRV during sleep, with Xiaomi also talking about AI-powered sleep interpretation and recommendations. We saw this in the leaked advertising material, but it is now part of Xiaomi’s official pitch for the device.

That could make the health side of the band more useful rather than simply adding another number to Mi Fitness. Nightly HRV becomes much more interesting once the software builds a personal baseline and starts showing how readings are moving relative to your usual range.

The rest of the health package is fairly familiar. There is heart rate, blood oxygen, stress and women’s health tracking, along with more than 150 sports modes. Xiaomi is also sticking with 5ATM water resistance.

Battery life remains quoted at up to 21 days. There is no increase over Smart Band 10, but that is hardly a complaint when Xiaomi is still getting close to three weeks on paper from something this small.

There are now four Smart Band 11 versions

The range itself has become a little more interesting. There is the regular Smart Band 11, an NFC version, the returning Ceramic Edition and a new All-metal Edition. The latter uses a Unibody metal construction and gives Xiaomi another option for people who want the band to look a little less like a basic fitness tracker.

The NFC model supports features such as offline payments and digital cards, although availability of those services will depend heavily on the country. That has always been the catch with NFC on Xiaomi’s bands, so I would not assume the Chinese feature set will carry over unchanged when the global version arrives.

Smart Band 11 also runs Xiaomi HyperOS 4. Xiaomi is highlighting integration with Mi Home devices and Xiaomi cars, while its promotional material makes a surprisingly big deal of improved compatibility with Apple’s ecosystem, including notifications across devices and support for Apple Shortcuts.

Chinese pre-orders start at CNY 289 for the standard Smart Band 11. The NFC model starts at CNY 339, while the Ceramic Edition and new All-metal Edition are priced from CNY 399. There is no global launch information yet.

Source: Weibo (via Notebookcheck)

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