Xiaomi Mi Watch overview: The greatest low-cost smartwatch?

You’re in all probability acquainted with Xiaomi’s wearables — the Mi Band line is without doubt one of the hottest health trackers in historical past. But surprisingly, the corporate remains to be comparatively new to the smartwatch world. It has launched just a few smartwatches in sure areas however most haven’t made their manner exterior China.

The Xiaomi Mi Watch is launching globally. This bare-bones, sports-oriented smartwatch gives a primary set of options — and in true Xiaomi vogue — an reasonably priced price ticket. Read our full Xiaomi Mi Watch overview to see if that is the correct finances look ahead to you.

About this Xiaomi Mi Watch overview: I used the Xiaomi Mi Watch for eight days operating software program model 1.1.42. It was paired to my Google Pixel 5 at some point of this overview. The Xiaomi Mi Watch overview unit was supplied to Android Authority by Xiaomi.

What it’s worthwhile to know in regards to the Xiaomi Mi Watch

Xiaomi die-hards may acknowledge this watch. It’s really the China-exclusive Xiaomi Mi Watch Color Sports Edition that was introduced in October. The wearable has been rebranded to “Xiaomi Mi Watch” for the worldwide viewers (to not be confused with the unique Mi Watch which debuted in November 2019). It’s additionally much like the India-exclusive Xiaomi Mi Watch Revolve however with a sportier design.

The Xiaomi Mi Watch’s primary draw is its worth level — it prices simply €99, which instantly competes with gadgets just like the Amazfit Bip S and Fitbit Charge 4.

It has a wide range of sports-tracking options, together with help for 117 completely different sport profiles. It comes with onboard GPS, an optical coronary heart fee sensor, sleep monitoring, in addition to an SpO2 sensor for monitoring blood oxygen ranges (extra on that later).

Xiaomi’s reputation with wearables is primarily because of the Mi Band line, so it’s no shock to see the deal with health and well being fairly than sensible options. However, that is nonetheless a smartwatch, so can it really compete with different smartwatches?

What I like in regards to the Xiaomi Mi Watch

Straightforward, no-frills design

I really actually like the easy, understated look of the Xiaomi Mi Watch. Sometimes, I really feel bizarre about exercising with an Apple Watch or Fitbit Sense as a result of they really feel extra like high-end watches that I don’t need to put in hurt’s manner. I don’t get that feeling with the Mi Watch.

The case is made from a soft-touch plastic that’s comfy and lightweight. There are two pushers on the correct aspect — one which pulls up the all apps display and one other for the exercises. They’re satisfying to press, and I’m all the time completely happy to see bodily buttons on fitness-focused wearables. Touchscreens usually are not enjoyable to make use of whilst you’re exercising.

I’ve average-sized wrists and I feel the Xiaomi Mi Watch is simply the correct match for me, however solely simply. Anyone with smaller wrists will in all probability suppose this watch is just too huge.

The AMOLED show is crisp and will get very shiny. I’ve had no bother viewing it open air in direct daylight. There’s an ambient gentle sensor too, so it’ll mechanically modify primarily based in your lighting situations.

Plenty of exercise monitoring options

Xiaomi included a number of health and health-tracking options within the Mi Watch. It has built-in GPS for precisely monitoring outside actions, in addition to an optical coronary heart fee sensor for all-day coronary heart fee knowledge. We’ll speak coronary heart fee in a bit. For now, let’s begin with GPS.

GPS efficiency is nice, not nice. The Mi Watch was capable of largely stick with my path on a four-mile outside run (see beneath), although it did veer off into the river at just a few factors regardless that there was minimal tree protection. I wouldn’t hesitate to trace my runs with the Mi Watch sooner or later, though it does take fairly a very long time to lock onto a sign.

Also, you’ll need to excuse the crude screenshot beneath. Xiaomi doesn’t allow you to export knowledge from its app and it doesn’t help Strava uploads. I used to be subsequently unable to export .match or .gpx recordsdata from the watch.

Step monitoring and calorie burn have been in keeping with the outcomes from my Fitbit Charge 4 and Garmin Fenix 6 Pro.

Detailed exercise evaluation from Firstbeat

I’ve some points with the best way Xiaomi’s new Wear app handles exercise knowledge, however post-workout evaluation on the watch itself is unquestionably a constructive. Xiaomi is utilizing Firstbeat, the now Garmin-owned analytics firm, to offer evaluation after you end an train.

After your exercise, you’ll see your whole time, energetic and whole calorie burn, steps taken, common cadence, tempo, velocity, coronary heart fee, coronary heart fee zones, coaching impact, VO2 max, restoration time, and vitality consumption, in addition to tempo, coronary heart fee, and cadence graphs. This is a large step up from what you’d usually get out of your Mi Band.

Also learn: Fitbit vs Garmin: Which ecosystem is best for you?

Long-lasting battery life

Xiaomi claims the Mi Watch can last as long as 16 days on a single cost. I feel it may well get near that, however my utilization patterns recommend I’ll get simply over two weeks of battery life. This is with the always-on show turned off, monitoring a handful of outside actions with GPS, all-day coronary heart fee monitoring, and sleep monitoring. Turn on the always-on show and also you’ll get a couple of week on a cost.

Sleep monitoring

Sleep monitoring is without doubt one of the Mi Watch’s sturdy fits. It retains observe of your deep, gentle, and REM sleep and shows this data in an easy-to-read graph within the Xiaomi Wear app. Accuracy has been spot-on for what I’ve skilled over the previous week, and the Mi Watch has been in keeping with my Fitbit Charge 4.

If I had one gripe, I feel Xiaomi might do some extra explaining on how the sleep rating is calculated. You’re awarded 0-100 sleep factors every night time. However, there’s no indication as to how this rating is calculated or how a lot, say, waking up in the course of the night time impacts the general rating.

What I don’t like in regards to the Xiaomi Mi Watch

Underbaked SpO2 sensor

SpO2 sensors — or blood oxygen sensors — are all the fad in 2020. Garmin and Fitbit gadgets have had them for years. The Apple Watch simply bought one, so naturally, everybody else is enjoying catch-up. Unfortunately, these sensors are sometimes underbaked and are nothing greater than a flex on the spec sheet.

Taking an SpO2 studying on the watch is easy. Open the SpO2 app, faucet Measure, and maintain nonetheless for about 20 seconds. Afterwards, you’ll get a blood oxygen share (probably from 90%-100%) and a coronary heart fee studying throughout that point. That’s about it. Tap on the “?” icon and also you’ll see a long-winded rationalization of what SpO2 is.

What do you do when you’ve gotten a lower-than-normal SpO2 studying? Go do the physician? Wait it out to see in case your ranges finally rise? There isn’t any indication within the Xiaomi Wear app or on the watch itself of how folks ought to use this data as soon as they take a studying. This, sadly, is the downfall of cheaply carried out SpO2 sensors this 12 months.

Nevertheless, Xiaomi does declare that its SpO2 sensor just isn’t a medical machine. If you’d prefer to be taught extra about medically validated SpO2 sensors, try our protection of the Apple Watch Series 6, the Withings ScanWatch, and the Fitbit Sense.

Poor coronary heart fee monitoring

Heart fee efficiency is, nicely, very troublesome to unpack. Xiaomi’s app just isn’t consumer pleasant if you wish to dig into your stats. From what I can inform although, the Mi Watch’s coronary heart fee sensor struggles with larger depth intervals of exercise. Multiple high-intensity sprints on this run have been virtually utterly missed by the Mi Watch. When it did handle to lock onto my rising coronary heart fee, it was persistently 10bpm beneath what my Garmin Fenix 6 Pro was reporting.

Limited smartwatch options

The Xiaomi Mi Watch is a smartwatch in probably the most primary sense of the phrase. There aren’t any third-party apps or watch faces. There’s no app retailer both.

Xiaomi says there are “over a hundred” watch faces accessible. I rely 84 within the Xiaomi Wear app on the time of writing. Unfortunately, none of them are customizable, so what you see is what you get.

The watch will present smartphone notifications, too, however like different low-cost smartwatches, they go away lots to be desired. You can’t reply to messages from the watch, and you may’t even increase emails to learn something greater than the topic line. Dismissing notifications out of your watch additionally doesn’t dismiss them in your telephone.

To Xiaomi’s credit score, there are a handful of primary pre-loaded apps on the watch itself. It comes with an alarm app, a timer, a stopwatch, a climate app, and a “find my phone” characteristic. Xiaomi additionally says there’s presupposed to be a digicam shutter app and Amazon Alexa help, however these aren’t accessible on my Xiaomi Mi Watch overview unit. The firm mentioned it’s working to deliver the voice assistant to the watch by the top of February 2021.

Related: The greatest smartwatch offers we might discover

Everything might be extra polished

There seem like a handful of translation and conversion points with the Mi Watch and Xiaomi Wear app. Here are just a few which were bugging me:

• Despite setting my clock preferences to 12-hour time on the Mi Watch, the app doesn’t acknowledge that desire and exhibits every part in 24-hour time.
• The app doesn’t allow you to change models of measurement, so I’m caught with the metric system when viewing my exercise stats. I discovered this to be an even bigger burden than I initially thought. Converting miles to kilometers for distance is one factor, however that additionally messes up my tempo stats.
• As far as I can inform, there’s no choice to vary from Celsius to Fahrenheit for climate updates.

Xiaomi Mi Watch specs

Xiaomi Mi Watch overview: Price and competitors

The Xiaomi Mi Watch is now accessible from choose retailers and mi.com in Mexico, Indonesia, and Thailand. It will quickly be accessible in Western Europe and within the UK by way of native retailers and mi.com. We additionally anticipate it to reach on Amazon, so we’ll embrace a hyperlink to that retailer as nicely.

There aren’t many smartwatches that hit the €99 candy spot, although the Amazfit Bip S involves thoughts. It is barely cheaper than the Mi Watch. However, we did run into fairly just a few connectivity points with our unit.

The older Amazfit GTS can be across the identical worth. You miss out on SpO2 monitoring although, and once more, connectivity points have been prevalent throughout our overview interval.

There’s additionally the model new Amazfit GTR 2e. While world pricing particulars have but to be introduced, Huami’s new reasonably priced watch has most of the identical specs because the Mi Watch.

Spend a bit extra, and also you’ll be in spitting distance of the Fitbit Charge 4, at the moment our favourite health tracker. It’s gentle on the smartwatch options, however it does have a strong characteristic set for its measurement and worth level. Plus, it connects to the Fitbit app, which is miles higher than the Xiaomi Wear app.

Xiaomi Mi Watch overview: The verdict

Like virtually each single Xiaomi product, the Mi Watch represents among the best values you may probably get on this worth vary. I actually don’t suppose you’ll discover a higher trying or all-around higher expertise for €99. The exercise evaluation knowledge and onboard GPS are huge positives you gained’t usually discover on a tool this low-cost.

However, there clearly are issues Xiaomi must work out. I’d prefer to see extra smartwatch options and a totally realized voice assistant on the watch. The blood oxygen sensor is just too bare-bones to be really helpful too. And for as good because the Xiaomi Wear app appears to be like, it might use some sprucing. Luckily, all of this stuff might be mounted with software program updates.

Ultimately, in case you’re on the lookout for a strong, no-frills wearable for €99, you gained’t do significantly better than the Xiaomi Mi Watch.

Next: The greatest Fitbit smartwatches and health trackers you should purchase