The Mi Band 6 bracelet went through several changes when it was launched earlier this year. The display has also grown, new functions have been added, but at least here in Slovakia and the Czech Republic we did not get the long-awaited function - contactless mobile payments.
That is changing now, with the advent of a new affordable fitness bracelet with a label Xiaomi Mi Band 6 NFC. We will present its advantages or possible compromises in today's review.
Where did we buy it?
Fitness bracelet Xiaomi Mi Band 6 NFC provided by our Slovak partner for testing MiStores.sk. The bracelet with our coupon costs € 48, while delivery to the Slovak address takes only 1-2 working days.
Coupons for Xiaomi Mi Band 6 NFC can be found here
If you would like to save more, you can also order the Mi Band 6 NFC from European warehouses from our foreign partners. You will find all coupons in our article on XiaomiPlanet.sk.
Xiaomi Mi Band 6 NFC: Design and construction
At first glance, it is clear that not much has changed in terms of workshop processing. The design and dimensions are practically identical to the original bracelet Mi Band 6 a adjective "NFC" you will just find it on the box.
This includes the black plastic capsule housed in a black silicone strap, a magnetic USB charging cable and brief instructions for use.
The body of the bracelet consists of a large AMOLED display on the front, a microphone for entering voice commands on the side and a group of sensors with magnetic pins for charging on the back.
The bracelet is really well made, it measures only 47,4 x 18,6 x 12,7 millimeters. The only design difference compared to the original version without NFC is the gold stripe on the bottom of the silicone strap. The NFC version has it, the original version without NFC, on the contrary, it doesn't.
The technical specifications are almost identical
The vast majority of technical specifications of the new bracelet are identical to the original version of the Mi Band 6 bracelet. We also brought you a review on our website and you will find it at the following link. This chapter is a kind of recapitulation of what the new Mi Band 6 NFC offers us in its body.
The equipment includes a 1,56 ”AMOLED touch screen with really thin frames, a resolution of 486 x 152 pixels and a brightness of 450 nits. The advantage is also increased water resistance, even with 5 ATM certification. It will please Bluetooth 5.0 and connect with the famous mobile application Mi Fit or Xiaomi Wear.
The main attraction for buying a new bracelet is, of course, the integrated NFC chip. It enables contactless payments through selected services, which we will talk about more in the relevant chapter below.
There is also a 125 mAh battery in the bowels of the bracelet. It will ensure a total endurance per charge, in standard use, at the level of 14 days. The battery can then be charged via the magnetic USB charger included in the package.
Fitness gear and Amazon Alexa
The bracelet also impresses with its fitness equipment. In addition to the standard options for counting steps, calories burned or distance traveled, there is also a sensor for heart rate monitoring and a sensor for SpO2 monitoring of the amount of oxygen in the blood.
There are 30 different sports activities to choose from, and in addition to traditional ones such as walking, running or swimming, basketball, stretching or zumba are also available. 6 of them even support automatic tracking during the day. You can view your results in an environment with the support of the Czech language, diacritics and emoticons.
In addition to exercising, you can use the functions to control music playback or you can see the weather forecast. There is also a health index PAI, which was part of previous bracelets.
The manufacturer has also prepared support for sleep monitoring, menstrual cycle monitoring, stress levels, as well as practical breathing exercises. Amazon Alexa is part of the watch software in this case, but the function is not available in the Slovak / Czech localization. However, it may be available later, as in other regions.
NFC mobile payments are the most anticipated news
Payment by watch requires several settings. First you need an application We Fit link to xiaomi account. Without this account (for example, by logging in via Facebook) it will not be possible to add individual credit cards.
In the application menu there is then a menu for adding cards. In this menu, the application prompts you to create a six-digit numeric password. You will have to enter this password on the bracelet once every 24 hours and also if you unbuckle the bracelet.
Subsequently, Xiaomi will ask for your consent to the processing of your data, as well as the details of the card you want to attach to the application. After entering this information, it takes approximately two minutes to activate the card in Mi Fit. The app will then approve the supported card and you can easily start paying with a bracelet.
If we look at the payment itself, it takes place in several steps. The screen with your connected cards is located to the right of the base dial. To pay, you have to swipe to the appropriate screen where your cards are displayed.
You can see your connected card on the screen as well as the button to activate the payment. After pressing it, the watch will offer you a 60-second window for making a payment. So, for example, you can make two quick transactions in a row. The timer is calculated and displayed by the watch itself, and you simply attach your display to the payment terminal. You can also view the entire successful payment process on the attached video.
Supported payment cards
At the same time, payments are nothing new, several generations of bracelets have been supporting them in China via the AliPay service, and for several months now, payments have been working in selected European countries such as Belarus and Ukraine, thanks to cooperation with Mastercard.
According to the available information, the agreement with Mastercard also a key element for payments in other European countries, including Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Xiaomi Slovakia even stated that it plans to conclude contracts with Slovak banks for bracelet payments by the end of 2021.
We tried to upload to the application directly Slovak payment cards Mastercard, VISA, as well as meal cards Ticket Restaurant and Up Déjeneur. In either case, however, we have not yet been able to configure via the Mi Fit application and the application has given us error messages. However, we found an alternative solution, which we will introduce in the next chapter.
Curve Card - How to do it?
Thanks to our readers as well as information from abroad, we found that an alternative to the possibility of directly uploading a supported card to the Mi Fit application can be Curve International Service.
If you don't know this service yet, know that it is a project that started in the UK in 2016. Curve is essentially a payment card that can integrate your various other payment cards.
In your wallet, whether physical or mobile, instead of various payment cards from different banks, including international ones, you will only need one, the one from Curve. As such, the service offers various advantages for its clients, in the form of more favorable exchange rates when paying abroad to various "cashback" actions for your purchases.
It is thanks to the creation of the account resp. Curve cards We also managed to activate contactless payments on the Mi Band 6 NFC bracelet. As a first step, you need a Curve account. You can create it easily, in a few steps, via the Curve mobile app (available in the Play Store for Android and the App Store for iOS). It only takes a few minutes to create an account and then the service will prompt you to add the first card.
The Curve account supports the vast majority of Mastercard cards, but also VISA (we in the newsroom have tried cards from Tatra Bank, VUB Bank and 365th Bank). However, Curve does not support Maestro cards or meal cards (such as Ticket Restaurant or UP).
If you have an active account and your card is added to your account, the application will offer you the electronic form of your basic Curve card from the very beginning. You can add it to, for example, Google Pay, Apple Pay, or, as in our case, yes, also to the Mi Fit application instead of standard direct cards, which are not yet supported.
You will find the details of the Curve card in your Curve application, Curve will send you a physical card to the address you have specified within two weeks and will also ask you to verify your identity by means of a document (eg identity card). The next steps, ie uploading the card details to the Mi Fit application, as well as the payment itself, are already identical in comparison with adding the card directly, ie with the procedure we described in the chapter on mobile payments.
Sample real payment:
Officially also in Slovakia
At the time of writing, Xiaomi Slovakia has already provided an official opinion on fitness bracelet payments Xiaomi Mi Band 6 NFC. According to the above information, it is possible to use Mastercard payments from mBank from Monday, November 22, 2021. It is the customers of this bank that should know how to upload their Mastercard payment card to the Mi Fit application directly.
Other Mastercard holders, clients of other banks or VISA cardholders do not yet have this option and will have to use a third-party workshop solution, such as the aforementioned Curve service.
Price and availability of a new fitness bracelet
Fitness bracelet Xiaomi Mi Band 6 NFC is already sold in Slovakia. The official retail sale price stood at € 51,90. However, if you want to save a little more, you can use the discount coupon from our partner MiStores.sk.
Coupons for Xiaomi Mi Band 6 NFC can be found here
Final rating: Xiaomi Mi Band 6 NFC
If we look at the price-performance ratio, this is a very good fitness bracelet with a quality AMOLED display, wide support for fitness functions and a bonus in the form of contactless payments.
A certain disadvantage may be the fact that payments do not support previous versions of bracelets. Not even the original Mi Band 6. So if you want to pay contactlessly, you will have to buy this new bracelet with NFC support.
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Hello, you are writing that you have successfully connected VUB card, I am trying to add cards, I received a verification code from SLSP Visu, I received a verification code, but when I try to add Visu repeatedly, VUB writes it could not send your code and I have a payment of 0 euros in transactions. Did it work for you without any problems? should I contact the bank, something is blocking the bank?
Hello, are you connecting via Curve or directly via Mi Fit? Try contacting the bank, we do not know where the problem may be.