Our readers have given us some ideas for the Xiaomi Mi Watch review. This has sometimes led to different results depending on whether the wearable is connected to an Android device or an iPhone. The differences aren’t just related to Alexa. Especially when it comes to health metrics, it’s not all good news.
Xiaomi MiWatch
Processorn.a.
Screen 1.39 inch, 454 x 454 pixel 326 PPI, full-touch, AMOLED, glossy: yes
hard disk.a.
Weight32g
Price119 Euro
Note: The manufacturer may use components from different suppliers including display panels, drives or memory sticks with similar specifications.
Enclosure and Connectivity – Support for four satellite systems
Xiaomi currently offers two smartwatches: The cheaper Mi Watch Lite and the current Mi Watch, which is a little larger and has a round design compared to the angular Mi Watch Mi Watch Lite.
The straps, each in black, dark blue or beige to match the color of the case, have a quick release mechanism and can be replaced with a universal 22mm strap. Xiaomi itself offers alternatives in olive green, yellow and orange.
The plastic case weighs only 32 grams (~1.13 oz) and is 5 ATM water resistant. Its swimming ability and the integration of GPS, GLONASS, Galileo and BDS satellite navigation systems enhance the watch’s suitability as a sports watch. Thanks to its barometric pressure sensor, it also records routes with altitude information.
The Mi Watch has a microphone for using a voice assistant, but it lacks a speaker. In addition, the smartwatch displays information from the Internet through the AMOLED screen. The latter has a diameter of 1.39 inches and a comparatively low pixel density of 326 ppi. This is noticeable, for example, in the detailed watch faces, which Xiaomi’s watch does not render as finely as Xiaomi’s watch (459 ppi) Mobvoi’s TicWatch Pro
Installation and manipulation – The Mi Watch talks to Alexa
The Mi Watch connects to iPhone and smartphones with Google’s Android system. The corresponding application is called “Xiaomi Wear” in the Play Store and “Xiaomi Wear Lite” in the Apple App Store, but its structure and functionality are almost the same.
Both apps load additional watch faces onto the Watch and manage some of the Watch settings as well as the user account. When creating the account, Xiaomi also assigns the user a unique identifier in the form of a nickname. This nickname can only be changed in the user settings on mi.com.
Vertical gestures open smartphone notifications as well as a quick-access menu to activate do not disturb mode or set the alarm clock.
Horizontal gestures switch between the time display and a total of eight widgets, including several informative widgets for health tracking and smartphone music player controls
The smartwatch also triggered the camera of the tested iPhone or Android smartphone, but it does not show a preview; the remote is in the app overview which can be opened using the top button. The bottom button activates the training app or directly an individually assigned training mode
Unlike the Mi Watch Lite, whose touchscreen was often slow to respond, the Mi Watch responds immediately to touch inputs
Phone and Notifications
During the presentation of the Mi Watch at the end of September last year, Xiaomi mentioned the visualization of emojis as one of the highlights; Xiaomi uses the OpenMoji library, which left many gaps in our tests and didn’t display a large number of emojis. On top of that, the iPhone partially cuts out sender names, as a reader also reported, and it doesn’t show the corresponding app icon for all apps.
We were unable to determine these design flaws in Android. In order for the Android smartphone to send notifications, we first had to grant the Xiaomi app background permissions and prevent the phone’s resource manager from terminating the app to conserve battery power. Users who need help with this can get it directly through the Xiaomi Wear app. In our review, the instructions were tailored to the connected smartphone, which was an Honor V20 in our case.
The Mi Watch notifies incoming calls including caller ID. You cannot accept the call, but you can reject it or silence it.
