Buying bread, paying for the bus or grabbing a soft drink without a wallet and without a phone. That is what Xiaomi’s new band promises, the Smart Band 10 Pro NFC, which arrives with a feature its family had been waiting for for years: being able to pay in stores from your wrist. It costs 79.99 euros (on Amazon it can be around 100) and, in Spain, it has fine print worth knowing about before buying it.
What is a fitness band
A fitness band is a thin, light strap worn on the wrist, like a small watch. It counts steps, measures your heart rate and records your sleep. It lets you exercise and keep an eye on your health without spending what a full smartwatch costs, which is bigger, heavier and much more expensive.
The Smart Band 10 Pro is the best-selling band in its category. The new version adds the letters NFC to its name, and with them comes the feature its siblings never had: contactless payment.
The big new feature: paying from your wrist
NFC is the technology you already use every day without realizing it. It is what lets you hold your bank card up to the payment terminal to pay without inserting it into the slot. It is also what phones and watches use to pay at the supermarket.
With this band you can do the same from your wrist: you hold it up to the terminal and the payment happens on its own. No rummaging for your wallet in your bag or pulling your phone out of your pocket. It is a simple gesture, but it changes the day-to-day life of anyone who goes for a run, hits the gym or travels light.
The fine print in Spain
Here comes the important part. In Spain, paying with the band does not work directly with the usual banks. Neither CaixaBank, nor BBVA, nor Santander have an agreement with Xiaomi to pay with this device.
To use it you have to install an intermediate app called Curve, which acts as a bridge between your bank card and the band. The process works once it is set up, but it is an extra step that many people will find complicated.
In practice: if you have the patience to set up Curve, you will be able to pay from your wrist. If not, that feature will end up almost unused and you will be paying for something you do not take advantage of. It is a pity, because the rest of the band is very good.
Screen and battery: what you notice most
The screen is bright up to 2,000 nits, a technical measure that on the street means one thing: it reads perfectly under the August sun. The body is now aluminum, slimmer and more elegant, and weighs only around 22 grams: you barely notice it on your wrist.
The battery is its great strength. Xiaomi promises 21 days of autonomy and, in real use with sleep tracking active, it settles around 17 or 18 days. Even so, it is a figure no smartwatch can match: most last a week at most. Fully charging it takes about an hour and a half.
For sports and health
The band measures your heart rate with an improved sensor, records your sleep and distinguishes its phases. It has 150 sport modes: running, swimming, cycling… And it withstands water down to 50 meters deep, so you can shower with it on without worry.
The built-in GPS maps your routes when you run or walk through the countryside, without needing to carry your phone. When you get home, the band syncs everything with the phone app and you see the summary of the session.
What it does not do
It is worth being clear about how far it goes. The band shows your phone’s notifications, such as WhatsApp messages, but does not let you reply to them. Nor does it have a microphone for calls. It is not a full smartwatch: it is an excellent band, but it is still a band.
Is it worth it?
If you are looking for a band for sports, sleep tracking and one that lasts weeks without charging, it is hard to find anything better at this price. And paying from your wrist, once set up, is a real convenience.
But if your only dream is paying at the supermarket from your wrist, wait. Until Xiaomi reaches an agreement with Spanish banks, payment requires Curve and your patience. The band is very good; the payment, in Spain, is only half there.
