MWC 2024: Xiaomi Watch 2 makes global debut with WearOS 3, looks promising
At MWC 2024, Xiaomi showed off a set of new smartwatches catering to different price points. One of them is the Xiaomi Watch 2 which I used for some time. It comes with the latest WearOS 3 operating system and a generic round dial design. This is the company’s flagship offering, which looks quite promising, but it isn’t coming to India for now.
Xiaomi already sells a few smartwatches in India under the Redmi branding, and of late, we haven’t seen it launching a Xiaomi-branded watch in the country. The current portfolio of Xiaomi India suggests that it is currently focusing on only offering budget watches under Rs 5,000 because it has been reported that the budget category is seeing growth in terms of shipments. Counterpoint reported that 54 per cent of India’s smartwatch market was under the retail price band of Rs 2,000, registering over 3x growth.
But, this doesn’t mean that flagships aren’t selling. Apple and others are dominating this space. However, it seems that Xiaomi isn’t that confident about launching its high-end smartwatches in India, considering this year’s new Xiaomi Watch 2 is also coming to the Indian market unless the brand changes its decision later.
The Xiaomi Watch 2 has a generic design that you see on most watches, but looks great on hands. It features a round dial and is available in both plastic and metal chassis options. While this is Xiaomi’s flagship smartwatch, the build quality is seemingly not that great as I was getting a plasticky feel even with the metal variant. It feels as if it is a watch under Rs 10,000, but the actual cost of it is EUR 199 (around Rs 17,896). Xiaomi must have done this to make it lightweight and easier to wear all day, something that is evident here.
One of the things that I liked here is that Xiaomi is selling it with different strap materials, including nylon, silicone and leather. These are easily replaceable as well. Since this is a WearOS watch, you get a Play Store to download third-party apps on the watch and the best part is you get 32GB space here. So, you don’t have to worry about space getting filled fast. There are all sorts of regular apps like Maps, Google Pay, Google Assistant, YouTube Music and more. In terms of getting phone data on the watch, you are getting pretty much everything you expect to see on a high-end watch and the experience is solid.
The display is smooth to touch and it didn’t crash while navigating. The colours look good and the text is also sharp. There are all sorts of features to customise the watch for a great experience – like adjusting brightness, Always On Display (AoD), how you want to see apps and notifications, sleep mode and more. It supports Bluetooth calling as well and one can connect the phone’s internet to the watch as well. There are up to 150 sports modes, heart rate monitoring, sleep tracking and other features as well. All-in-all, the Xiaomi Watch 2 looks quite promising and we would love to test it in India only if the company changes its mind and brings it to the country.
