XIAOMI MI WATCH REVIEW: EXCELLENT AUTONOMY AND AMAZON ALEXA

Xiaomi has decided to enter the world of smartwatches with the Mi Watch (although in Italy we have seen the Lite first). The Chinese company has always had particularly high ambitions, giving life to products of various kinds. There were therefore many waiting for the company's arrival in the world of smart watches, also given the excellent results at the smartband level ( who said Mi Band 5? ).

Put simply, the hype from fans was a lot. We have had the opportunity to put Mi Watch under stress over the last few weeks, discovering its strengths. The price? 129.99 euros through the official Xiaomi website .

Design and ergonomics

Mi Watch arrives in an elongated package that shows an almost life-size render of the smartwatch at the front. The content is no frills: manuals and magnetic charging base with USB cable. The weight of the smartwatch itself, without the strap, is just 32 grams. On the sides there are two physical buttons, Home and Sport, while on the back there are all the sensors of the case. The dimensions, excluding strap and protrusions, are 45.9 x 53.35 x 11.8 mm and the case is made of glass fiber reinforced polyamide.

The strap is finished of TPU and has an adjustable length from 130 to 220 mm. The comfort is excellent: the strap tightens well and the "feather" weight is definitely an advantage.

The design is well contextualized in the world of smartwatches and there are different colors available. The one we tried is the classic Black, but there are also Beige and Navy Blue versions on the market. In any case, the product particularly winks at sportsmen , since it is not exactly the most elegant smartwatch we have tried.

The target is therefore precise and this could make those looking for a more "refined" experience turn up their noses, but on the other hand it is a product that does not cost too much and does exactly what it has to do. More than the look, what counts here are the possibilities offered at a sporting level and in fact there is water resistance up to 5 ATM, which enables, for example, the use for swimming.

Xiaomi Mi Watch software and user experience

Mi Watch is a simple smartwatch to use , as its proprietary operating system focuses on this aspect. Xiaomi's solution performs this task very well. To be clear, it is good to give a practical example about how the OS interface is managed. Once the connection with the smartphone is terminated, which is carried out using the appropriate Xiaomi Wear application, the user experience starts from the watch face, or the main screen, with the availability of over 100 quadrants, quite varied in type.

Just to give an example, you can quickly switch from a futuristic watch face that only shows day and time to another inspired by Windows XP that instead highlights heart rate, steps, calories and remaining battery charge. In short, the possibilities for customization are certainly not lacking.

Instead, by swiping from right to left from the main screen, by default you will find, in order, the graph of the constantly monitored heartbeat, energy statistics, report of the last sleep, details on the weather, stress analysis, monitoring SpO2 , a music player for your smartphone and a report of steps, calories and the number of times you "answered correctly" the reminder to get moving.

To get more information on what is shown in the various screens, press the icon at the top. In this way, more specific data can be obtained, such as weather forecasts for the next few days, sleep distribution and more detailed statistics in general.

Swiping your finger from top to lowermost from the main screen activates the notification curtain, similar to what happens on a smartphone. App notifications are not interactive , they can simply be read. In any case, the applications involved must be chosen from the smartphone and then Mi Watch will vibrate and show the notification on the screen. The alert will remain available until you press the physical Home button, while the previous notifications can be recovered from the appropriate drop-down, which also has a "Clean" button. There is also the possibility to see incoming calls through the smartwatch, but then to answer you have to use the smartphone.

By swiping from bottom to top, what we can define as a toolbar appears. The latter allows you to activate the flashlight (the screen turns white), enable the display activation with the movement of the wrist, set alarms, activate the "Do not disturb" mode, make the screen always active and access the general settings. In the latter case, features such as automatic adjustment of the display brightness, as well as automatic training detection can be enabled.

There is also the options to set a password, choose the time to deactivate the screen, select the vibration mode (if "Standard" or "Enhanced"), set the language and restart, shut down or reset the system. Don't underestimate the feature called "Always on screen", which is basically Always On . The latter allows you to choose between 8 themes available by default. However, note that some features, such as "Raise to activate", are disabled if you have the Always On active.

So far we have deliberately skipped the presence of the Amazon Alexa icon in the toolbar, since this possibility deserves a separate study. In fact, we received the appropriate update to firmware V.1.2.52 on February 15, 2021. After carrying out a quick configuration using the Xiaomi Wear app, the voice assistant is activated simply by pressing and holding the physical Home button. After that, it is possible to give the classic voice commands to Alexa, making the most disparate requests.

However, it is important to make a clarification: Mi Watch does not have an integrated speakerand this means that the assistant responds only in text or at most, in the event of alarms and reminders, by vibration. In any case, Alexa is an important added value in everyday life. The fact that Xiaomi has managed to introduce support for the Italian language before other brands that have been promising it for a long time is a great start in terms of support. Also consider that the aforementioned update also brought with it the possibility of controlling the shutter button of the smartphone camera from Mi Watch, as well as that of disabling the automatic pause that the watch performed by itself during training when the user stopped. Two other quadrants have also arrived: in short, everything bodes well for the future.

At this point, some of you will surely be wondering if the system navigation takes place only by scrolling the various screens sideways: the answer is no, since just press the physical Home button to access a new world of possibilities. Xiaomi has in fact implemented a sort of "drawer", similar to what happens on the smartphone side. Using the appropriate icons, it is therefore possible to access the 117 sports modes , the training history, the calories consumed, the heart rate and all the other available functions.

For example, here you can find features that go beyond those accessible by swipe, as we find timers, breathing exercises, control of the shutter button of the phone's camera, stopwatch, air pressure, compass and smartphone search (yes makes the latter ring to find it). In short, the interface is "clean", quick to use and places the user experience halfway between the classic one of smartwatches and that of smartphones. Difficult to find something similar in the price range in which Mi Watch is contextualized.

Coming to the sporting use of the smartwatch, just press the physical Sport button to quickly start one of the myriads of activities available. In case you are wondering, there are 17 basic sports modes available, but then you can add another 100 by selecting them by categories: water sports, outdoor sports, training, dance, boxing, ball sports, winter sports, recreational sports and other sports. In short, what is certain is that you will not find yourself without a choice.

We used GPS mainly with outdoor runs and walks and never encountered any particular problems. Recall that there is a built-in 12nm GPS chip(GPS, GLONASS, Galileo and BDS). Also excellent monitoring of sleep and heartbeat, while the data relating to stress and energy may sometimes seem not the most accurate (but it is also difficult to make adequate estimates on this).

On the other hand, we can assure you that the 1.39-inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 454 x 454 pixels is excellent and fulfills its task well, since it is easily visible under sunlight. No problem even with regards to the Bluetooth 5.0 connection, which has always proved to be reliable and also allows a certain margin of maneuver.

For the rest, the 420 mAh battery guarantees a granite autonomy. The manufacturer estimates 16 days: putting him under stress the results drop. Probably using it in "normal periods" will reach close to 10 days, but we are always on excellent values and a certain type of user will certainly reach the estimated days, since a lot depends on the use. However, a full charge with the magnetic base takes several hours.

We conclude the analysis by going into the details of the official Xiaomi Wear application for smartphones. The latter allows, as usual in the smartwatch field, to manage all the features of the device. The main page shows your steps and calories for the day at the top, as well as your last activity and sleep tracking data. Further down you can get more information on the remaining "fields", from heart rate to stress, via SpO2 . By pressing on the "Workouts" tab, you can get detailed information about GPS and physical activities, as well as set the metronome.

From the "Profile" section you can manage the Mi Watch settings, from the synchronization of the dials to the choice of apps for which to show notifications, passing through the Amazon Alexa configuration and the display of incoming calls. There is also the possibility to configure weather updates, as well as to reorder the widgets.

For the rest, you can reprogram the physical button Sport, for example, assigning it to a certain activity that you usually do often. Finally, the Xiaomi Wear app is also useful for making firmware updates. The software itself is excellent, even if there are some imperfections. For example, during our test we found notifications related to the update of the weather that did not want to know about disappearing on the smartphone, even after that operation had been completed. In short, there is something to file.