Xiaomi Launches An Apple Watch Clone For Half The Price

Xiaomi has officially launched a new smartwatch called Mi Watch. Although during the past years, Xiaomi has launched many wearable devices under the brand names Mi Band and Amazfit, it can be considered that the Mi Watch is the first smartwatch that Xiaomi really invested in and is capable of competing with Apple Watch. Along with that, the device also costs significantly higher than Xiaomi's previous smartwatches.

It can be said that Mi Watch is a complete copy of the Apple Watch in terms of design. This watch has a square face with a crown and a button on the right side just like the Apple Watch. Mi Watch's scroll button helps users navigate through the interface. Besides the two buttons above, users can also interact with the Mi Watch through the 1.78-inch AMOLED screen.

The bezel of the Mi Watch is made of aluminum. The Mi Watch comes with a rubber strap, which according to Xiaomi is skin-friendly and hypoallergenic. The Mi Watch comes in two colors, Silver or Gray, while the included straps come in Black, White, Silver, and Blue.

In addition, the Mi Watch also has a special version with a screen made of scratch-resistant sapphire glass, paired with a steel bezel and steel strap.

The Mi Watch uses the Snapdragon Wear 3100 4G chipset. It is not the first smartwatch with the Snapdragon Wear 3100 chipset but is the first smartwatch with the Snapdragon Wear 3100 4G chipset.

Due to 4G support, Mi Watch can operate independently without a smartphone. For example, users can leave the smartphone at home and out on the jogging track with the watch and still be able to receive messages or calls. To be able to do this, the device is integrated with eSIM, just like the Apple Watch. However, it is not clear whether Xiaomi will limit the activation of the eSIM in China only.

Along with 4G connectivity, the Xiaomi smartwatch has a very large battery capacity compared to a smartwatch, 570mAh, and it is higher than all current products such as Huawei Watch GT 2, Galaxy Watch Active 2 or Apple Watch Series 5.

In an unexpected move, it uses Google's WearOS platform. However, Xiaomi has been tweaking the interface on its new watch and calling it "MIUI for Watch". The brand also replaced Google Assistant with its own XiaoAI virtual assistant.

MIUI for Watch has its own app store with more than 40 apps at the moment. However, many of these apps were made exclusively to serve Chinese users (QQ, WeChat). Hopefully, it will change when this watch is launched in the international market.

The Mi Watch is priced at 1299 CNY (around Rs. 13,200) in China and will be sold on 11 November. In December, Xiaomi will continue to sell another special edition of the device with a screen made of scratch-resistant sapphire glass, steel bezel, steel strap at a price of 1999 CNY (around Rs. 20,300).