Since we found out that Xiaomi is working on a real smartwatch, Android based, I was very excited to see what it would be like and if it would be as powerful as their previous wearable devices. In the last week and a half I've had a lot to catch up on in terms of Android Wear OS, as I've never really looked into the subject as I've never owned a device like this. But now that everything is in place, let's dive into the mysteries of the Xiaomi Mi Watch smartwatch.
Xiaomi Mi Watch Specification
Two versions have been produced and are available for purchase, Standard and Premium editions.
Clock, mains charger, dock with USB cable, product description
At first glance, the Mi Watch is almost identical to the Amazfit smartwatches, you can change the Watchface, it measures your sports activity, heart rate, notifications, etc. Now that's a bit more complicated. Since it's not a custom system that handles custom apps, but an Android OS, you have a lot more freedom to use apps other than the factory pre-installed ones that you'd like on a phone.
MIUI For Watch
One of the interesting features of the clock is its surface. Compared to the basic Android Wear OS, the interface has been redesigned, with a grid of icons instead of a single row of app lists, like on a phone, so they look a bit similar, but there's almost no indication of it, that MIUI would be. XiaoAI, the artificial intelligence developed by Xiaomi, is integrated into the watch system, so Chinese fans can control almost everything by voice: receive, reject, initiate, read, write messages, smart home control, call a taxi, buy a ticket, and much more. Now, this will only partially or never come to us, because even if the global version does come, we won't be able to use the full Google services at home.
Speaking of Google
...unfortunately, at the moment I can't get the Play store, Maps or any other Google app to work, some of them start but don't work fully, some don't start at all. But English keyboard can be installed and used, at least to reply to messages or search for something, we can do it in English, not Chinese.
However, a big red dot for the Mi Watch is that all the Hungarian accented characters in the notifications are displayed perfectly, the Android Wear OS is not lacking in this, like Amazfit products.
Making phone calls is infinitely easier. All contacts and call logs from the phone are synchronised with the watch and from then on you don't need the phone to make or receive calls. The watch has 2 microphones and a speaker phone, the call quality in quieter environments is perfect, but in noisy places like a car it is a bit unintelligible for both parties. As long as no eSIM is activated, it uses the Bluetooth connection for calls, so you need to be within at least 10 metres for it to work.
I have successfully subscribed to the eSIM service with T, but it is currently completely unnecessary. The service has only just been activated on the watch with the first OTA update and is only available in the Chinese region, with China Mobil, China Telecom operators, and only in the provinces of Shanghai, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Chengdu, Shenzhen, Wuhan, Hangzhou, on a trial basis. So we have to wait for the global version, or at least the basic Android Wear OS, which can be installed on the Chinese watch.
Smart home control is fun, but not all-encompassing. Mijia's watch app is nowhere near what you're used to on your phone. Lights are easy to manage, on/off, colour selectable, etc, but e.g. Gateway, motion sensor only sends log, not even temperature sensor is visible. There is room for improvement!
Pair your Mi Watch with your phone
We've now come to the hardest part of using the watch, as it's not easy to get the right apps. You need three things, Xiaomi App store, Chinese Mi Watch app and Chinese Google Wear OS app. Let's switch our phone to ENGLISH! We have links to help you download:
The Xiaomi App Store isn't essential, but it's useful for updating apps so you don't have to hunt for them online later. You can search for the Mi Wear app in the App Store using the following characters: 小米穿戴 . If both are up, let's start using Mi Wear.
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After opening Mi Wear, you'll be prompted to sign in with your Mi account, then after clicking the "Add device" button, select the "Mi Watch" menu and wait for it to find the watch via Bluetooth. Oh yeah, BT should be on. Once that's done, it will jump to the Google Wear OS app and continue connecting. Accept everything (i agree, ok, etc), but if by chance it fails to connect, delete the watch from the BT list because it won't work, just like Amazfit stuff. If we succeed, during the process the Google app will ask for permissions to our data, call log, contacts, sms, events, notifications, etc, everything will be enabled. It takes about 5 minutes for the whole process to complete, then it will hand the baton back to the Mi Wear app. From there, we just have to go through the initial tutorial on the watch and start getting acquainted, setting up, etc.
Mi Watch update
An OTA update came this week, which improved the watch slightly and fixed a few bugs, based on user feedback. We'll cover this and the clock settings in a future article/video.
