We could see a minor upgrade to the Xiaomi Mi Band 6 incoming, if a new leak is to be believed.
The Xiaomi Mi Band 6 was launched back in March 2021, but only the standard version made it out of China.
But it seems a Mi Band 6 NFC could be on the way, after a certification was spotted at Italian regulators. That’s according to Italian Xiaomi watchers XiaomiToday.
The listing mentions model number XMSH16HM, which matches that of the NFC version of the band on sale in China.
And that means we’d expect to see a European-wide release, as companies very rarely release products in sole European states.
It would allow for contactless payments from the wrist, which would be a huge addition to Xiaomi’s flagship fitness tracker.
There’s precious little information about any other features, or whether this could mean some kind of ‘Pro’ version. But given global NFC versions of Mi Band devices have followed the standard band for most generations, this isn’t too much of a surprise.
The Mi Band 4 NFC got an outing in Russia, while the Mi Band 5 NFC did get a wider release. Hopefully this means that Xiaomi has its eyes on an even larger roll out this time out.
The company has historically partnered with Mastercard for payment support, so that could bring the potential for wrist-based payments to millions of users.
Having access to payments on the wrist is a seriously compelling reason to keep wearing a device, as we head back onto public transport networks and emerge into the world as the pandemic eases globally.
So this would put Xiaomi’s flagship on par with features offered by Apple, Fitbit and Google – we just wish this would land on Mi Bands from launch. Maybe next year, eh?
Via: NotebookCheck
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James is the co-founder of Wareable, and he has been a technology journalist for 15 years.
He started his career at Future Publishing, James became the features editor of T3 Magazine and T3.com and was a regular contributor to TechRadar – before leaving Future Publishing to found Wareable in 2014.
James has been at the helm of Wareable since 2014 and has become one of the leading experts in wearable technologies globally. He has reviewed, tested, and covered pretty much every wearable on the market, and is passionate about the evolving industry, and wearables helping people achieve healthier and happier lives.