Nowadays, it seems like every smartphone manufacturer has its own line of smartwatches. Some, like the Apple Watch, are a major selling point because they become part of your ecosystem. However, there are others who, while they benefit from connecting with their own brand, are still incredibly capable on their own. So what makes a watch like this stand out? With the new Xiaomi Watch S3, Xiaomi can stand out any way they want.
The Xiaomi Watch S3 comes installed with their brand new HyperOS, replacing MIUI in the Xiaomi ecosystem and the Google Wear OS, which existed in previous Xiaomi watch models. The biggest change that the OS brings to the Xiaomi Watch S3 is gesture-based controls, allowing you to reject phone calls, check the weather or even take photos from your phone with a simple flick or shake of the wrist.
Like virtually every smartwatch, the Xiaomi Watch S3 comes with a number of pre-installed watch faces with access to plenty more via the Mi Fitness app, where both free and paid watch faces are available to download. The variety of styles covers everything from the sporty to the fancy and everything in between, and they all look fantastic on the smartwatch’s 466×466 1.43” AMOLED display with 600 nits brightness.
But that’s not the only way you can customize the look of the Xiaomi Watch S3. Every bit of this watch can be changed to fit your style. Xiaomi has released a number of interchangeable bezels and straps, all of which match up with specific watch faces to create a complete look, from the Chrome Yellow to a black/green gradient that matches their respective straps perfectly. You can also mix and match combinations of straps and bezels and watch faces for hundreds of personalized combinations.
“The Xiaomi Watch S3 comes installed with their brand new HyperOS, replacing MIUI in the Xiaomi ecosystem and the Google Wear OS…”
The Xiaomi Watch S3 comes packed with sensors as well, including a heart rate sensor (with blood oxygen sensor), gyroscope, accelerometer, barometer and more. There is also a dual-band GNSS system to help support all of its features, from the aforementioned gestures to the phenomenal fitness tracking, covering over 150 sports modes. The Xiaomi Watch S3 comes with ten built-in running courses to give you some structured exercise, or you can go it on your own, and the watch will recognize that you are working out and start recording the data for you. It can even give you a vitality score, evaluating your progress as you go on your fitness journey.
There is even a feature on the Xiaomi Watch S3 that can detect a fall and even call for emergency services. They warn on their website that high-impact activities can trigger it (you can tell your watch that you are okay with not making the call). I’d have tested this feature for you, but my age talked me out of it.
The Xiaomi Watch S3 also comes with all of the hands-free features that you come to expect, like NFC payment and taking phone calls, but it is missing one thing that makes a smartwatch so, well, smart. That is the lack of ability to install apps on the watch. There is plenty to make the watch great, and you still get notifications for the applications in question, but having things like Spotify, WhatsApp, and other third-party apps is not an option right now.
“I never connected the Xiaomi Watch S3 to its charger (which feels light and cheap but works very well) before the 14-day mark…”
One place where this watch shines, where virtually all of North America’s major players simply fail to match up, is in its battery life. The 486 mAh battery will net you at least two weeks of battery life for the casual user (meaning someone who uses the watch normally, not letting the screen stay on all day). This is my smartwatch wheelhouse. I never connected the Xiaomi Watch S3 to its charger (which feels light and cheap but works very well) before the 14-day mark, and I probably could have squeezed another day or two out of it before the battery died.
So I passed the watch on to my wife, who makes much better use of it as a runner who trains for triathlons. Not only does she love the way it seamlessly records your exercise data, but she was able to manage as many as ten days without having to charge the battery. Samsung, Google and Apple need to be put on notice that it is possible to give a smartwatch a long battery life while still doing a lot of heavy lifting.
Nailing down a standard price for the Xiaomi Watch S3 is a tough task because they don’t sell the products on their website, nor do they offer an MSRP, so you need to check the price from point of sale to point of sale. From what I could gather looking at the most common price among different sites, you can get the Xiaomi Watch S3 for $159 USD, which is cheaper than I was able to find Samsung Galaxy Watches and Apple Watches as many as two generations old. The Xiaomi Watch S3’s battery life, intuitive user interface and smart functions more than justify its already low price, and its compatibility with watches outside of its Xiaomi ecosystem only sweetens the pot.
