Do you want a smartwatch with Wear OS, but your budget is limited? The Xiaomi Watch 2 that we look at in this review is one of the cheapest options. Curious what you get for less than 200 euros? Then read on!
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Xiaomi Watch 2 review
Wear OS is the most comprehensive operating system for smartwatches. This way you can install apps and watch faces from the Play Store. However, there are two disadvantages to the software. First of all, the battery life is shorter than simpler watches. The second thing is that these types of clocks are often quite expensive.
With the Xiaomi Watch 2, Xiaomi hopes to at least partly address these points. The watch has a relatively low suggested retail price of 199.99 euros. It is even available a little cheaper at some online stores. In addition, Xiaomi promises a battery life of 65 hours. That’s shorter than the OnePlus Watch 2, but longer than many other smartwatches with Wear OS. For example, the more expensive Google Pixel Watch 2 only lasts 24 hours.
So that sounds promising. In this review of the Xiaomi Watch 2 you can read whether the watch is really recommended!
Design is a bit boring
Xiaomi has clearly saved on the design. Unlike the Xiaomi Watch 2 Pro, this smartwatch does not have a rotating ring around the screen and only two buttons on the right side. The device simply looks a bit boring.
Also, the housing is not made of stainless steel, but of aluminum. This does have the advantage that it is quite light at 37 grams. The Watch 2 Pro is noticeably heavier at 54.5 grams.
In addition, the Xiaomi Watch 2 is also waterproof to a depth of 50 meters. We do not necessarily consider this design a disadvantage. However, the case is quite large with a size of 46 millimeters and quite thick at almost 12 millimeters. The Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 is clearly thinner at 9 millimeters. Especially at night, it feels like you have a modest brick on your wrist with this Xiaomi.
Display is sharp, but not very bright
The bezels around the screen of the Xiaomi Watch 2 are quite large. Despite the size, the display itself has a modest size of 1.43 inches. This is an OLED screen that looks good in most circumstances. The resolution of 466 by 466 pixels is perfectly fine, making images look sharp.
However, the maximum brightness is quite low with a maximum of 600 nits. We therefore sometimes had some difficulty reading the screen properly on sunny days. The Pixel Watch 2 reaches 1000 nits, while the Galaxy Watch 6 can even reach 2000 nits. This is also clearly an area where Xiaomi has saved money in order to be able to offer the clock for a lower price.
Fast chip for this money…
Xiaomi has not skimped on the hardware. The Watch 2 runs on a Snapdragon W5 Plus Gen 1 processor. In addition to being quite economical, it is also nice and fast, making the watch work very smoothly. 2GB of RAM is more than sufficient for a smartwatch and you can also get by with 32GB of storage.
There are of course a range of sensors built in to measure your health. This way you can read your heart rate and the oxygen level in your blood, important indicators for your physical condition. They seem to work quite accurately, just like the sleep monitoring. You can easily see (in the accompanying smartphone app) when you fell asleep, how deeply you slept and when you woke up.
…but tracking doesn’t work properly
There is something strange going on with tracking exercise. At first, the Xiaomi Watch 2 seems to keep track of how long you walk or cycle. However, the results are sometimes ‘corrected’ afterwards. We write that in brackets because it makes no sense. In the picture above you can see that we would have taken almost 27,000 steps on April 30. In reality there were at most half.
That’s a shame, because you buy a smartwatch partly to record your workouts. Xiaomi may be able to solve this problem with an update, but we cannot guarantee that. For example, if you are going to play tennis, you must let the watch know in advance. Otherwise he won’t keep the statistics (properly) at all.
The built-in GPS is accurate, although it can sometimes be a problem to determine your location indoors. By the way, there is no LTE variant of this watch with its own internet connection. You will therefore have to keep your smartphone nearby if you want to pay with Google Pay, for example.
Software is nice and bare
While Xiaomi’s smartphones are full of bloatware and extensively customize Android, the Watch 2 runs on a bare-bones version of Wear OS. It works clearly, with a ‘cloud’ of apps that can be adjusted as desired. As mentioned, you can easily download new apps from the Play Store, such as Spotify and WhatsApp.
The Mi Fitness app, in which you can read the information collected by the sensors, also works well. You can quickly see the latest results per category and can click on them for more detailed information.
Battery life is fine… for Wear OS
The Xiaomi Watch 2 has a battery capacity of 495 mAh. That is more than competitors such as the Pixel Watch 2 (306 mAh) and Galaxy Watch 6 (425 mAh). The battery life is therefore quite close to the promised 65 hours. Two full days of use, with heart rate and sleep measurements, is no problem. Somewhere halfway through the third day the watch needs to be turned on. Fully charging takes about 45 minutes.
If you mainly use your smartwatch for health measurements and care less about installing apps or watch faces, a fitness tracker like the Xiaomi Smart Band 7 remains a better option. Not only are these types of devices a lot cheaper, they also last much longer between charges. With the Smart Band 7, up to two weeks.
Conclusion Xiaomi Watch 2 review
Xiaomi has largely made the right considerations when creating the Watch 2. The design is simple, but nice and light and the hardware is fast enough for a smooth experience. For less than 200 euros you get a complete Wear OS experience, although the screen could have been a little brighter. This is offset by a good battery life for this category.
It is therefore a pity that the measurements of the sensors sometimes produce incorrect results. That is exactly why many people buy a smartwatch. Until this changes, it is difficult to fully recommend the Xiaomi Watch 2.
Buy Xiaomi Watch 2
Do you want to buy the Xiaomi Watch 2 after reading this review? The watch is available in black and silver. The smartwatch has a suggested retail price of 199.99 euros. You can now get it cheaper. Below you will find the best deals of the moment.
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