It has been rumoured for a while that Xiaomi would release its own smartwatch this year and we have seen images of it leak in the past few days. Overnight they launched their first smartwatch, the Mi Watch.
The new Mi Watch has a design that is very obviously based, not even loosely but pointedly, around the design of the Apple Watch which has been very successful for Apple. The frame is a matte surface which is claimed to be scratch resistant and houses a button on the top right side of the device with a button below that.
The watch includes a 1.78-inch AMOLED display (curved along the edges) powered by Snapdragon Wear 3100 and is reported to have 1GB of RAM, which has made a world of difference to Fossil’s smartwatches, and 8GB of onboard storage. It has a decent 570mAh battery which Xiaomi say can last for 36 hours while on LTE connectivity.
Xiaomi have included eSIM capabilities for LTE use but for those who just tether it to your phone there is Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n 2.4GHz, Bluetooth 4.2. Of course there is also GPS included as you would expect a device from Xiaomi to not miss out on any hardware capabilities.
Xiaomi have apparently either skinned Google’s Wear OS or forked it into their own MIUI for Watch interface. Either way it is different in it’s software design language to all other Wear OS smartwatches. It is suspected it is a launcher on top of Wear OS and thus Wear OS apps should be compatible although Xiaomi did announce that the watch currently supports only 40 apps.
Physical activity can be tracked by the watch automatically, measuring heart rate and VO2 max. It also supports FIRSTBEAT for those into accurate and in-depth health data.
Pricing-wise it will roll in at just CNY1,299 (AU$261) and will be available from November 11 for China’s 11/11 sales. There is also an “Exclusive” SKU which has a sapphire glass top, stainless steel bezels and stainless steel strap and is priced at CNY1,999 (AU$400) but will not be available until mid-December.
It is unclear whether the new Mi Watch will be making its way to other markets but given Xiaomi’s official foray into Australia this year we hope they cap it off with the release of the new smartwatch here.
Do you want a smartwatch that looks like an Apple Watch? Is this for you?
it says it runs on Xiaomi MIUI but with war os on top of it, really hope this comes to australia, keen to try it out
Depends on whether it supports Wear OS apps.
Would be keen to check it out, have used Samsung watches for years and like that they just look like watches, but am interested to see how this one performs