(Pocket-lint) – The Xiaomi Watch S1 is a smartwatch that aspires to be a watch you possibly can put on on formal events and may nonetheless preserve it on while you’re mountaineering your method by means of a HIIT session.
The S1 sits at a value that sees it vying for a spot in your wrist in opposition to the likes of the Fitbit Versa 3. It really works with Android telephones and iPhones, providing options like correct out of doors monitoring, 24/7 coronary heart charge and blood oxygen monitoring, NFC funds and Amazon Alexa.
Xiaomi desires to show you do not have to spend massive to get an important smartwatch, so does it ship?
The Xiaomi Watch S1 is a well-built smartwatch with software program that is straightforward to become familiar with, runs easy and gives a pleasant array of options. There’s positively a number of little efficiency niggles right here and there is not something that massively stands out to make it a considerably higher possibility than watches round this value. It is a strong providing for Android customers for beneath £200, however there simply is not something right here that basically excites you about sporting it day-to-day.
- Good battery efficiency
- Good design for the value
- Strong health monitoring abilities
- Coronary heart charge efficiency
- Cannot reply to notifications
- Battery drop with heavy utilization
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Xiaomi Watch S1: Design and show
- 46mm chrome steel case
- 1.43-inch AMOLED show
- Leather-based or fluororubber straps
- 5ATM waterproof ranking
The Watch S1 gives a 46mm case that measures in at 11mm thick and comes with the choice of both a black or silver chrome steel case. The excellent news is that Xiaomi gives each color variations with the selection of leather-based and fluororubber straps, so you possibly can swap them out and in when you’ll want to train or smarten up.
Xiaomi vegetation a good-sized 1.43-inch, 466 x 466 AMOLED show with Sapphire glass layered on high to up issues on the sturdiness entrance, whereas two bodily buttons sit on the aspect of the case. The display screen is nice high quality, responsive to the touch and holds up properly for visibility in shiny out of doors gentle and you’ll set it to make use of it in an always-on mode.
A easy black bezel surrounds that show to provide it the texture of a extra traditional watch and meets the display screen to create a extra unified look. If you would like one thing that appears extra sporty, then the Watch S1 Energetic replaces the black steel case with a lighter, glass fibre-reinforced polymide.
Across the again is the place you may discover the sensors that care for the monitoring, so there’s an optical coronary heart charge sensor that may additionally ship blood oxygen information. That is additionally the place you may clip on the proprietary charging cradle, which helps wi-fi charging.
As a bundle, the Watch S1 comes with a 5ATM waterproof ranking, which implies you possibly can dunk this in water as much as 50 metres depth and it’ll survive to maintain telling you the time and monitoring your well being and health stats.
When you think about the value, the Xiaomi gives high-quality supplies, a powerful display screen and it is good to see it has included two straps right here as properly. Is it the best-looking smartwatch? No, nevertheless it’s a glance that may work for a lot of.
Xiaomi Watch S1: Health monitoring and smartwatch options
- 117 exercise modes
- Twin-band multi-system GPS
- 24/7 coronary heart charge monitoring
- Amazon Alexa
The Watch S1 has the entire key stuff you’d hope to search out on a smartwatch that guarantees to be your ultimate health companion. There’s the sensors you’d look forward to finding, plentiful exercise profiles and utilizing these options is sweet and simple to do on this watch. Simply hit the underside Sport bodily button and also you’re into that exercise monitoring display screen.
When it comes to sports activities monitoring, Xiaomi covers 117 exercise modes with 19 of these in the end providing you with richer stats throughout and post-activity. In order that’s issues like working, biking, pool and open water swimming and grabbing the skipping rope.
For out of doors health pursuits, you are getting dual-band, multi-system GPS, which may faucet into the 5 main satellite tv for pc programs to enhance accuracy on runs and rides. In actuality, it wasn’t essentially the most correct when monitoring distance, although it coped higher than quite a lot of watches when working close to tall buildings, which may impression on getting a powerful monitoring sign. Coronary heart-rate accuracy was strong exterior of placing it to the high-intensity check the place most optical sensors falter.
Switching to exercise monitoring and also you’re getting one thing that captures step counts, coronary heart charge, stress, blood oxygen ranges and sleep. Step counts and sleep information had been roughly in keeping with the Fitbit, Garmin watches and Oura Ring 3 we examined it in opposition to. It was a bit extra disappointing on the continual heart-rate monitoring entrance, the place BPM readings had been very excessive compared to different coronary heart charge displays. That casts doubt on the reliability of the guts charge variability-powered stress monitoring, whereas blood oxygen monitoring appeared dependable however not all that insightful.
As a smartwatch, the Watch S1 does tick the important thing bins of providing notifications, music controls, a pleasant array of watch faces and it additionally helps Bluetooth calling. There’s some massive extras right here like NFC funds, entry to a small assortment of what we might name mini-apps and you’ve got additionally received Amazon Alexa integration right here as properly.
These core options work properly. You’ll be able to’t reply to notifications, however they’re straightforward to learn and take up while you look down at them. The music controls work high quality too and if you wish to take calls out of your wrist together with your cellphone close by, you possibly can. The large extras are extra of a mixture bag. We struggled to arrange the NFC cost help and the app help is not mindblowing, although the Alexa help did work with out points in our testing.
Xiaomi Watch S1: Battery life
- 12 days in typical use
- 24 days in energy saving mode
- Makes use of wi-fi charging dock
Xiaomi talks about some massive battery numbers right here. On paper, this can be a smartwatch that may go nearly two weeks with out dropping it onto its wi-fi charging cradle. That’s provided that you utilize it in what Xiaomi deems as a typical utilization mode.
What’s typical utilization mode? Nicely, that is based mostly on Xiaomi’s personal lab testing and means utilizing the watch to trace coronary heart charge all day, doing half-hour of Bluetooth cellphone calls and monitoring two 30-minute GPS exercises per week amongst different issues.
In our testing, it was a mix of typical and heavy use and we discovered it lasted per week, even with extra time spent utilizing the GPS and having notifications firing regularly. In case you swap on options like monitoring blood oxygen constantly and utilizing the display screen in an always-on mode, these options will sap the battery faster.
There’s moreover a power-saving mode you possibly can allow, which provides you with simply in need of a month of battery life. That does imply it’s important to reside with out coronary heart charge and stress monitoring and never monitor any train utilizing the GPS – a reasonably limiting smartwatch life to get pleasure from that further battery.
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The Xiaomi Watch S1 is one other good possibility for Android customers that provides a superb mixture of health and smartwatch options wrapped up in a pretty design. It may not be higher than the competitors round it, however there is definitely extra to love than hate right here.
Writing by Michael Sawh. Enhancing by Verity Burns.
