The coldest days of 2024 are behind us here in South Africa and, as warmer times approach, it has never been a better time to get back into the world and continue towards more activities, workouts, and more fun in the sun.

If you don’t have a personal trainer or gym buddy to get you going, Xiaomi has you covered with the next best thing: a pair of smart wearables in the form of the Xiaomi Smart Band 8 Active and the Xiaomi Smart Band 8.

These innovative wearables have a focus on health-tracking, exercise assistance, and customisation to suit your lifestyle.

The Xiaomi Smart Band 8 Active has a 1.47 inch TFT display which you can change up with more than 100 watch faces. The main body is less than a centimetre tall (yes you read that right – just 9.99 millimetres) so combine that with its low weight, comfortable strap and a battery that can last for up to two weeks and you have a wearable you will forget you’re wearing.

Oh and if you do really forget that you’re wearing the Xiaomi Smart Band 8 Active when you jump into the pool, you’ll be thankful to have water resistance up to 50 metres.

You may forget it, but the Xiaomi Smart Band 8 Active is hard at work at all times. This wearable can track activities in more than 50 sports modes and 10 professional workout modes using a variety of sensors, including all-day heart rate and SpO2 monitoring. Optimise all aspects of your health with these sensors, even your sleep, as advanced sleep tracking can provide you with valuable data to make sure you’re resting and recovering properly.

If you need a bigger display and more customisation options, look no further than the Xiaomi Smart Band 8. The 1.62 inch AMOLED touch display housed in a 2.5D reinforced glass case body, will challenge your perceptions of just how great a small screen can look. It’s bright enough to see anywhere with 600 nits of automatic brightness and the high refresh rate is always smooth.

On that bright and smooth screen you can enjoy more than 200 watch face options as well as many apps and fitness / health tracking options. Using a combination of accelerometer, gyroscope, PPG heart rate sensor, ambient light sensor and more, the Xiaomi Smart Band 8 can keep track of more than 150 fitness routines. Once you’re finished working out, the Professional Workout Analysis and All-Day Health Monitoring can give you a clear picture of where you are and how you can improve.

All of this functionality can go for up to 16 days on a single charge with normal use. You can also dedicate some of your battery life to use the always on display option for the screen and, even then, you’re getting six full days of use.

With so many features and so much to offer on your fitness and health journey, you may be surprised to learn just how affordable the Xiaomi Smart Bands are. Right now you can pick up the Xiaomi Smart Band 8 Active with a RRP of R599 and the Xiaomi Smart Band 8 with a RRP of R999.

Xiaomi has been hard at work in the South African market these past few years to bring in the best tech at the lowest prices, and these two wearables are a real showcase of this.

Shop for your Smart Band, and the rest of the Xiaomi family, on Takealot and the mistore.africa online store.

Before you checkout and wait for the delivery, browse through the many strap options available to customise the Xiaomi Smart Band 8 to truly make it yours.

New straps are available for as little as R99 each with colours like Olive, Pink and Orange available right now. You can pick up extra straps not just to change the colour and overall look of the Xiaomi Smart Band 8, but also the material. While we really love the default black strap for working out, we can’t deny the elegance of the Chain Strap (available in both white and black) which turns your fitness wearable into a high class accessory for nights out.

The Braided Straps in Checkered Green, solid green, solid yellow, and black / white duo round out the strap offerings, giving you more options for look mixups and feel changes on your wrist.

We love the ability to completely swap out the look and feel of this wearable on the fly, effortlessly blending into the office, the gym and nightlife all at once.