More Xiaomi Mi Band 5 features leak: Amazon Alexa support, SpO2 tracking

The Xiaomi Mi Band 5 could be nearing launch, at least in Xiaomi’s home market of China. The last time we heard about the Mi Band 4 successor was just a few days back when it was spotted on a Taiwanese certification website. Now, more information about the upcoming fitness tracker has leaked thanks to folks over at Tizen Help.

According to the outlet, the Mi Band 5 will feature support for Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant. If true, this is the first time a Mi Band will get support for a smart voice assistant outside of China.

The addition of voice controls means you will probably be able to control other Alexa-enabled devices from your Mi Band. You might also be able to ask Alexa to read out your fitness stats to you.

Furthermore, the publication also reports about two new tracking features headed to the Mi Band 5. These include blood oxygen tracking (SpO2) and menstrual cycle tracking. Both of these features were absent from the previous Mi Band 4.

The last bit of news is a bit disappointing. The outlet goes on to say that the global variant of the Mi Band 5 — called the Mi Smart Band 5 — won’t get NFC. It’ll be limited to the Chinese model only so don’t expect to be making payments using your Mi Band anytime soon. Then again, Xiaomi’s Mi Band 4 and Mi Band 3 only supported the company’s own Mi Pay system, so the lack of NFC on the global version of Mi Band 5 was something we already expected.

That said, the Mi Band 5 should still be a pretty decent fitness band if it retains all the qualities of its predecessor. What we really want to see is an improved Mi Fit app, a more accurate heart-rate sensor, and an improved design. Will we get it? Let’s wait and watch.