Xiaomi Mi Watch

The Xiaomi Mi Watch is a sports focused smartwatch released in December 2020. Xiaomi is one of the largest smartphone manufacturers in the world and their smartwatches are quite popular.

This is the global or international version of this smartwatch and it is officially called Xiaomi Mi Watch (Model # XMWTCL02). The version sold in China is called the Xiaomi Mi Watch Color Sports Edition (launched in October 2020) while the version sold in India is the Xiaomi Mi Watch Revolve.

While the Mi Bands that are manufactured by Huami for Xiaomi, this watch is not produced by Huami. The actual manufacturer of this watch is 70mai, another spin-off company from Xiaomi. 70mai is well known for their dash cams but are newcomers to the smartwatch space.

Unfortunately Xiaomi does not disclose the chipset used for the Mi Watch. While the watch responsiveness is OK, there are no animations when scrolling and refresh rate is below average. It has the same general navigation, fonts and UI as the Mi Watch Lite.

The watch is using a proprietary operating system. There are only a limited number of apps on the watch and no app store is available to add any additional apps. What you see, is what you get for apps on this smartwatch.

Design

The Mi Watch has a circular watch face design and looks attractive. The only thing that spoils the design is the “Home” and “Sport” text near the buttons. The watch is available in the following colors: black, blue and ivory. While the case is plastic, build quality is quite good.

This smartwatch is medium sized at 45.9 x 53.4 x 11.8 mm and weighs 32g. The 11.8 mm thickness is on the larger size but is still quite comfortable to wear.

The Mi Watch comes with a 22mm thermoplastic polyurethane interchangeable strap. The strap is comfortable and quality is acceptable for this low price point.

You can interact with the watch using the touchscreen and 2 physical buttons. The touchscreen works well but as mentioned before the refresh rate is not the greatest. The user interface is not the most modern and the lack of animations make it a bit less attractive than some other smartwatches.

The Mi Watch has a 5ATM water resistance rating which allows for swimming and showers. Salt water or chlorine could be problematic so make sure to rinse, wipe and dry the watch after swimming.

Screen

The screen of the Mi Watch is one of the highlights of this smartwatch. The 1.39″ AMOLED Touchscreen, with 454 x 454 pixels and 326 ppi pixel density delivers an a very good visual experience. Indoors the display is excellent while outdoors is quite good.

Xiaomi does not indicate what screen protection is provided which is disappointing. Since it is not a rugged watch, we expect protection to be limited. Investing is a screen protector may be a wise decision.

The watch has an always on screen option but this has a significant impact on battery life. The watch allows for custom watchfaces which is a nice feature.

Battery

The Mi Watch comes with a 420 mAh battery. Xiaomi claims that typical usage battery life is 16 days, watch mode battery life is 22 days and GPS mode battery life is 2 days. Real world battery life approaches 2 weeks which is very good when compared to other smartwatches.

Connectivity Features

From a connectivity perspective, the Mi Watch has limited functionality when compared to full featured smartwatches. The watch can only receive notifications and there is no ability to respond to notifications from the watch. Emojis are supported for incoming notifications.

Mi Watch Lite is also lacking a number of other connectivity features:

• Does not have WiFi
• Does not have a speaker and cannot answer or place calls via Bluetooth
• Does not have any usable internal memory
• Does not have a camera
• Does not have cellular connectivity

The Mi Watch does have a microphone. Alexa voice assistant is supposed to be released in February 2021 but as of the launch date, the microphone is not used for anything.

On the positive side, it does come with built-in GPS. GPS connectivity is not the fastest but accuracy is pretty good. Finally, Near Field Communication (NFC) is not supported, hence you cannot use this smartwatch to make payments.

Health and Fitness Features

The Mi Watch comes with 7 sensors: Accelerometer, Ambient light, Barometer, Compass, Gyroscope, Heart Rate Monitor (HRM), Pulse Oximeter (SpO2). These cover quite a bit of fitness functions and even some health areas. These sensors allow you to track the following 10 metrics: Blood Oxygen Level, Calories, Distance, Fitness Level, Heart Rate, Sleep, Steps, Stress, Swimming, VO2 Max.

Heart rate tracking is not the greatest when performing strenuous exercises. Also the blood oxygen level tracking is average at best. 117 different sports modes are included. Overall fitness tracking and health tracking is average. On the other hand, sleep tracking works well.

Xiaomi Wear App

The Xiaomi Mi Watch Lite uses the Xiaomi Wear app, a newer app. It does not work with the Mi Fit or Zepp apps. While the app has the basic functions and features, it is not the most refined or easy to navigate. Many features are still missing and the overall app rating is low. You can see how the Xiaomi Wear app ranks on our Smartwatch Apps Page.

Known Issues

As this watch has just recently been released, there are no common known issues.

Verdict

An average fitness focused smartwatch with good battery life and nice screen. Drawbacks are no notification reply ability, no 3rd party apps and no NFC. While it is a good attempt at a smartwatch, the companion Xiaomi Wear app is immature. Consider other smartwatches in this price range with a more robust and polished app.

Specifications

Published: January 04, 2021