Xiaomi Mi Watch: Can it be a cheap alternative to the Apple Watch?

At its China event, Xiaomi announced its first smartwatch, the Mi Watch, alongside the Mi CC9 Pro smartphone and Mi TV 5 series. The smartwatch looks much like an Apple Watch and comes in an elegant four-sided curved design, eSIM and offers robust performance, long-lasting battery life, and immersive viewing experience.

The Mi Watch is available for pre-booking in Mainland China in Black and Silver color options and will go on sale on November 11 via official Xiaomi channels. The smartwatch carries a price tag of CNY 1,299 while the Mi Watch Special Edition is priced at CNY 1,999. Pre-orders for the Special Edition will begin around mid-December with a limited offering of 30,000 units worldwide.

Mi Watch specifications 

The Xiaomi Mi Watch sports a 1.78-inch AMOLED square screen with 368 x 448-pixels resolution, 326 PPi pixel density and is protected by the Corning Gorilla Glass 3. The smartwatch features an aluminum alloy body and removable fluoro rubber strap. The Special Edition utilizes sapphire glass as the screen material and stainless steel strap and stainless steel frame.

Image Credit: Xiaomi

The Mi Watch is the world’s first wearable to sport a Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 3100 chipset coupled with 1GB of RAM and 8GB of onboard storage. The standard version draws power from a 570mAh battery while the Special Edition is powered by a 590mAh battery that lasts up to 36 hours on a single charge. Additionally, with an eSIM (4G), users can make phone calls and connect to the internet effortlessly without having the need to insert a physical nano-SIM.

As for the software, the Xiaomi Mi Watch operates on MIUI For Watch which is a customized version of Google’s WearOS platform. It offers more than 100 personalized dial plates and 40+ of the most used downloadable apps. The watch also integrates XiaoAi AI Assistant to voice control Xiaomi smart home appliances, phone calls, music, and set alarms, reminders and more functions.

Image Credit: Xiaomi

Coming to the health and fitness tracking features, the Mi Watch supports 10 professional sports modes including outdoor running, outdoor walking, cross-country, mountain climbing, indoor running, outdoor cycling, indoor cycling, swimming pool, open water swimming, and free movement. It also incorporates a built-in six-axis sensor and a 3rd generation heart rate monitor (HRM) sensor, Stress Monitoring, Body Energy Monitoring to monitor and control physical health.

The Xiaomi Mi Watch is also equipped with independent speakers and supports Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n; Bluetooth v4.2; NFC and popular Chinese payments apps including Alipay.

Image Credit: Xiaomi