The market for so-called wearables, wearable technological devices, seems to know no crisis: it is currently worth around $ 1 billion, but it is expected to grow very strongly over the next 5 years, even going so far as to increase its economic importance tenfold.
Companies know this and continue to offer new products, including futuristic glasses, jackets (like that of Levi’s and Google that we tried at the end of 2019) and above all smartband and smartwatch, more or less all sharing the same goal: to make it easier and faster interaction with our smartphone. Because the so-called “smart watches” were born for this, starting from the first, which was called Pebble and arrived on the market in 2012 (its story, good and bad together, we told it here), up to what for now is the last, that is the new Xiaomi Mi Watch. Than compared to the old Pebble it can do much, much more. Even too much, too.
Xiaomi Mi Watch, how it is made and how much it costs
The Mi Watch, which supports but does not replace the Mi Band, which the Chinese company considers a smartband and has arrived at version 5 (photo) it is equipped with a beautiful 1.39-inch Amoled screen, to the touch it gives a nice feeling of solidity and is equipped with sensors such as Gps, di brightness, barometer, gyroscope and accelerometer; it can also detect the heartbeat and also record the oxygen saturation levels of the blood (image below). That in the era of coronavirus, it doesn’t hurt.
The Mi Watch is also capable of measuring the oxygenation level of the blood
Obviously, the smartwatch connects to the smartphone and is able to warn with a vibration (of modifiable intensity) of the arrival of phone calls, text messages, emails and much more: the initial configuration, between downloading the latest software version, installation and pairing with the phone, a OnePlus 8 Pro, was more complicated than expected, but then we no longer had any problems. The Mi Watch can be bought online, on the Xiaomi website or even on Amazon, and costs 130 euros (129.99, to be precise); there is also a Lite version, with a differently shaped screen and fewer features, which costs about half as much.
Xiaomi Mi Watch, what we really liked
The first advantage that catches the eye is, quite obviously, the display tactile: well defined, pleasant to look at, always legible even in direct sunlight, it should also be quite resistant, even if at the end of our test we unfortunately noticed a small scratch in the lower right part of the dial.
Lots of available functions, from the monitoring of sleep to that of stress levels, to those dedicated to sports activities: at the bottom there is a physical button through which to communicate to the watch what we are doing (walking, running, cycling, swimming and so on ), but the smartwatch can recognize these activities on its own. And it does so with pleasing precision and reliability.
In the ten days we have had it in use, the battery life it seemed very good to us: we did not reach the promised 16 days of autonomy, but we needed to recharge it so few times that we forgot them. And then, the recharge is really fast and to get to 100% it takes a few tens of minutes.
The screen that groups all the icons is a bit like the Apple Watch
Xiaomi Mi Watch, what we liked little
The first flaw that catches the eye, it does when the first advantage (the screen) does: let’s talk about the strap, which in our version was blue. The problem is not so much that it is a bit plasticky and “cheap”, but that it is not very… collaborative. It’s tricky to fasten, it resists, and the two buckle latches keep moving back and forth, despite one of them having a clever notch that should keep it in place. It just doesn’t work, or it works badly. And so it’s a constant moving it forward and then back, and then back again and then forward again.
However, the biggest problem, at least from our point of view, which we have always believed that smartwatches and smart bands should be as less intrusive as possible, even from an economic point of view, is the price: 130 euros are too much for what is still a smartphone accessory. Honestly, they seemed to us the 99 euros of the promotion are more “centered” valid only on the first day of sale: at that cost there, the Mi Watch is absolutely recommended.
Two alternatives to consider
For this reason, if you are thinking of buying a smartwatch or a smart band, this is the case with also evaluate the excellent Mi Band 5, also from Xiaomi (which costs about 40 euros), or the AmazFit Bip or Gts, on sale respectively for less than 60 and less than 100 euros.