Xiaomi has officially announced the Watch 2. The new wearable bears a striking resemblance to the Galaxy Watch series but differs in that it supposedly gets up to 65 hours of battery life on a single charge.
Xiaomi’s Watch 2 runs Wear OS and competes against a couple of competent options on the market. From a design perspective, it looks similar to the Galaxy Watch series. The two buttons on the right side are similar in shape and size, while the band connectors have the same profile as those on the Galaxy Watch 6. Another competitor that comes to mind is the Pixel Watch, which runs stock Wear OS 4 and carries a lot of the same features. Xiaomi did release the Watch 2 Pro last year, though this looks like a more affordable option.
Internally, the Xiaomi Watch 2 runs on a Snapdragon W5+ Gen 1 SoC built on a 4nm process. That’s paired with 2G of RAM and 32GB of internal storage for songs and small media. That setup powers an array of sensors that we see on many smartwatches, including an optical heart rate sensor. It tracks not only heart rate but also blood oxygen. With that, the Watch 2 also calculates tress levels. Nothing new, but nice to see nonetheless.
What stands out about Xiaomi’s Watch 2 is the battery life. On a single charge, the company claims that the Watch 2 can last up to 65 hours, blowing past what the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro could famously handle at around 30 or so. On the surface, it doesn’t look like there are any tricks to make this work, similar to what the TicWatch Pro 5 does with two separate screen types.
The internal cell looks like a simple 495mAh battery. It’ll be interesting to see what real-life usage looks like. It’ll be an impressive feat if it’s anywhere near 65 hours and allows the user to use many of the same features found on high-end smartwatches.
The Xiaomi Watch 2 is coming in at a price point that undercuts both the Galaxy Watch series and Pixel Watch 2. At €199 for the base variant, the Watch 2 could be an excellent device to hand on wrist.
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