Xiaomi Debuts Mi Watch Wearable

Chinese electronics company Xiaomi rolled out its first smartwatch dubbed the Mi Watch, which is said to look similar to the Apple Watch. The firm is competing with Apple for the lead position in the market for wearables, according to reports.

Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Wear 3100 4G chipset with four Cortex A7 cores powers the Mi Watch, which also offers eight gigabytes of storage and one gigabyte of RAM. The company notes that its smartwatch supports cellular connectivity, GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and NFC for payments.

The company claims the device should last for 36 hours on one charge in cellular mode. The Mi Watch has a square body with a button and crown like the Apple device, along with a 1.78-inch AMOLED display with an always-on capability.

The device runs the firm’s homegrown wearable operating system – MIUI for Watch – based on Google’s Wear OS. There are microphones inside its metal housing for taking calls and recording audio, as well as a loudspeaker to listen to incoming calls or music. The Mi Watch comes in a single size with a ceramic back, which is where a heart rate sensor and charging pins are located.

More than 40 popular Chinese apps, such as QQ Messenger and TikTok, are available for the Mi Watch. The firm’s XiaoAI assistant is the watch’s default virtual digital assistant. The Mi Watch will also help users track their performance while cycling, running and swimming, as well as their sleep and heart rate.

In separate wearables news, Garmin’s newest collection of vívomove hybrid smartwatches features the inclusion of health and fitness data along with text message notifications. Smartwatch models in the new lineup – vívomove 3/3S, vívomove Luxe and vívomove Style – have the look of a regular watch with real ticking hands. The smartwatch also includes calendar reminders, social media updates and more.