Review of the Xiaomi Watch 2 Pro

Our Verdict

The Xiaomi Watch 2 Pro is a real statement of intent from the Chinese tech brand. Now utilizing Google Wear OS, it’s one of the better smartwatches available for Android users, with all the fitness and well-being features you could ever need and no extra charge for using them.

Reasons to buy

• Elegant design
• Fantastic display options
• Solid battery life
• OS Wear software

Reasons to avoid

• Screen smudges easily
• Slightly inconvenient charger placement
• Some issues with iPhone connectivity

These days, there are a lot of watches available on the market. Along with your Apple devices, you also have your Samsungs and Google Pixels. However, there is a company that produces fashionable smartwatches that you may not be familiar with. Xiaomi is that brand. We've become used to seeing some very stylish smartphones come out of the firm, considering it was only in the tech industry for a little more than 10 years. With the launch of the Xiaomi Watch 2 Pro, it has now really made an impact in the smartwatch space.

The capabilities of this watch clearly surpass those of the company's first, and it is the first Xiaomi product to incorporate the Google OS Wear software. It has a sleek look and an array of features that make it rival some of the more recognisable brands we've listed, much like some of the top Xiaomi phones. But that's just the very beginning. See our whole assessment of this alluring watch below for our complete opinions.

Cost and accessibility

Even though the Xiaomi Watch 2 Pro was introduced earlier this year in Europe and other areas, it is still not easily accessible in the US as of this writing. Although we're not completely sure whether an official US release is planned, you can always import one if you're really want to get your hands on one. Via the official Xiaomi website, you can get one in the UK or Europe for around £289.99 or €269.99, respectively. That comes to almost $290 at the current exchange rates, excluding import duties.

Depending on your preferences, you may choose between silver and black for colours. Although I like the chic black look, both are really elegant and come with simply swappable rubber straps.

Specifications

Attributes

The Xiaomi Watch 2 Pro has capabilities that go above and beyond what you would anticipate from a contemporary wristwatch. With simply a button press, it measures your body temperature, stress levels, body composition, heart rate, fitness, and sleep. It even goes above and above by including a timer for properly washing your hands and a breathing feature in case you ever need a minute to ground yourself. This device can basically tell you all you need to know about yourself, apart from your height and weight, and it can even soothe you if the findings fall short of your expectations.

Because the Watch 2 Pro runs Google's Wear OS software, you can access a plethora of Google applications, like YouTube Music, Maps, and Assistant, right from your wrist. Asking Google to tell me the weather where I am now and receiving a comprehensive response complete with a visual depiction seems like the epitome of 2023. For efficiency enthusiasts like me, it's a huge time-saver, and you can use it for everything from making phone calls to setting alarms without ever touching your device.

Even while the switch from Xiaomi's MIUI Watch OS technology to Wear OS makes the gadget seem a bit less special, it's a wise choice. Xiaomi's use of Wear OS, the greatest smartwatch operating system, facilitates easy comparisons between the product and others like the Google Pixel Watch. That's not all that awful, however, since the Xiaomi Watch 2 Pro offers fewer capabilities that are locked behind paywalls and is more remarkable overall.

Of course, tracking your workout is one of the main benefits of wearing a wristwatch. To tell the truth, I'm not exactly Mr. Fit. All I'm talking about is Mr. Walk. Nevertheless, in order to try out a few of the various workout-tracking options, I did push myself to use those muscles. This gadget is a terrific method to keep track of all that data if you place a high value on your health and fitness, as virtually everything in contemporary life appears to suggest, without having to schedule a tonne of tests with a doctor.

It's also important to note that there are a plethora of alternatives available for tracking specific activities, ranging from regular exercise regimens like swimming, walking, and jogging to more daring hobbies like kayaking, tennis, and Muay Thai. You may even monitor how your body reacts while playing chess. This watch can tell you the effects of anything you're doing on yourself.

It seems that chess causes me anxiety. I now attempt to maintain my composure even when my queen is being attacked thanks to the knowledge I've gained from utilising this gadget. It may not seem like much, but lowering my stress levels also lowers my heart rate, so understanding how my body responds to different activities might help me modify my behaviour. I'm all for it, since that tale alone demonstrates just how much this user-friendly wristwatch may improve your wellbeing.

Construct and exhibit

I've been trying for a long time to refrain from using the word elegant in reviews, but I'm at a loss for words this time. This is a truly elegant item. You may mistakenly believe at first appearance that it's merely an upscale everyday watch. It has two bump buttons on each side of the spinning adjuster button on the side, a circular clock face, and two other buttons. It's not attempting to seem very futuristic or high-tech. There isn't really any kind of design trick at all. Simply said, it's a sophisticated piece of equipment with a strong construction and decent water resistance down to 50 metres.

With a peak brightness of 600 nits and a resolution of 466 x 466 pixels, the 1.43-inch AMOLED screen is bright enough to discern details in any lighting condition. It does, however, smudge a bit too quickly for my taste, and I have to continuously wipe away fingerprints to keep the clock face from being obscured. Your main worry should be fingerprints, however, since there is very little possibility of damaging the display unless you are really unfortunate, clumsy, or both. This is because the bezel is cleverly positioned to rise just over the glass.

But for me, the real selling point of this wristwatch is the screens. I've been avoiding smartwatches for a while since I've always liked analogue watches with their classic clockfaces. You may have that with this gadget, which comes in over 20 different designs ranging from more sophisticated displays to traditional timepiece-like styles. Of course, you can have the digital clockface if that's what you like, but for an old fogey like myself, having something on my wrist that resembles an analogue watch yet has all the features of a contemporary smartwatch is fantastic.

The way this smartwatch is designed for charging is the one thing that bothers me. Xiaomi's decision to use a two-pin charger that attaches to the back of the handset means that charging the battery requires precise positioning and may sometimes feel unstable. Furthermore, compared to the comparable charger of a device like the Apple Watch or Google Pixel Watch, it is much simpler to accidentally remove it from the two-pin without being seen. Though it wouldn't stop you from buying it, I wish Xiaomi smartwatch chargers were more ergonomic in the future.

Electricity

One thing about Xiaomi gadgets you can count on is their exceptional battery life. But it's possible that Xiaomi overstated the battery life by 65 hours in their calculations. It really is dependent upon your use. You're more likely to see the 48-hour marker if you play with the gadget often throughout the day and have it set to "always on" in the settings. It could be a bit less if you're using it for many exercises, but as long as you charge it once every two days, there shouldn't be much chance of it dying on you in the middle of the day.

Thankfully, charging it takes very little time to restore it to 100%. I often noted that a full charge took around 50 minutes. With all of its sleep-tracking features, you really don't want to take the watch off to charge overnight, so it's handy to be able to take it off for a short while in the evening—less than an hour—and return to find it charged and ready to go for the following several days.

Performance

With its Qualcomm Snapdragon W5+ Gen 1 CPU, the Xiaomi Watch 2 Pro performs well on a daily basis. It tracks your actions like any fitness tracker should, logging even the smallest information to assist in creating comprehensive reports and reacting fast to any input, whether it be voice commands or physical button pushes. Put simply, it functions with the same elegance as it seems.

Although we have previously discussed every fitness aspect of this wristwatch, it is still important to note how precise and sensitive they are. If you use it for a walk or jog, it not only measures your steps and speed but also your heart rate, average pace, and the height of your activity. It also creates a mini-map of the area you've covered. Even better, there are congratulatory alerts that you get when you hit particular activity milestones. These are a great way to get a little pick-me-up while you're walking your dog in the pouring rain for 45 minutes.

The Xiaomi Watch 2 Pro provides a very astounding amount of data about your sleeping habits, even if Pokémon Sleep could be a more enjoyable method to monitor your sleeping hours. Every morning, you awaken to a comprehensive report detailing your previous night's sleep, including the amount of light, deep, and REM sleep you had just experienced as well as your average heart rate throughout that time. That's a comforting rating of "good" when I wake up since I have a hard time sleeping and often feel that the sleep I'm receiving isn't as healthy as it might be.

I have nothing but praise for the Xiaomi Watch 2 Pro if you're searching for a smartwatch that combines a plethora of functionality with a sophisticated design. It feels good on the wrist, makes good use of Google OS Wear—a feature Google would wish to consider—and, best of all, none of the fitness or wellness functions are extra expensive. It's a real all-arounder that doesn't really reinvent the smartwatch, but it does everything else well, and I can't think of much more I could possibly want for.

The main disclaimer is that, if you're an iPhone owner, the connection between these two gadgets is still not as simple as it is with the Apple Watch 9. While most smartwatches work better with Android technology than their iOS counterparts, so Xiaomi isn't entirely to blame for this. However, using the Watch 2 Pro in conjunction with a device from Samsung, OnePlus, or Xiaomi allows you to take advantage of more features and has better connectivity.

Options

If you're still having trouble finding the perfect smartwatch after reading our review of the Xiaomi Watch 2 Pro, have a look at some of the options below.

The issue with this substitute is that maximising the benefits of the Google Pixel Watch 2 is contingent upon your willingness to make post-purchase payments for its most advanced capabilities. But if you own a Google Pixel handset, you may be better off getting the corresponding watch—Google is now providing certain discounts and offers that include the FitBit Premium model. It may depend on your preferences about the devices' designs and screens as well as your financial situation since the Google gadget itself is also somewhat more costly.

Series 9 Apple Watch

The Apple Watch Series 9 is a clear choice over the Xiaomi Watch 2 Pro if you're an iPhone user. Although I'm not a big fan of the square clock display, the Apple Watch S9 is still an amazing gadget with one of the greatest wearable processors available and a significant advance over previous Apple watches. The company's fluid operating systems allow the Watch 9 to work seamlessly with any iPhone device, making it seem somewhat more natural than any Android counterpart. This is the Watch 9's main selling point, however.