Xiaomi’s first ever smartwatch will cost £145 and looks rather familiar

Chinese tech mogul Xiaomi has unveiled its first ever smartwatch. It’s called the Mi Watch, and it’s a custom Wear OS device that shares a few striking design similarities with the Apple Watch – with its curved square body and tactile digital crown clearly echoing the aesthetic sensibilities of its U.S. rival. On the hardware front, the Mi Watch sports a 1.78in AMOLED display that should be tough enough to withstand daily bumps and scrapes, and is powered by a Snapdragon Wear 3100 4G chipset in combination with four Cotrex A7 cores. A 570mAh battery should keep it ticking over for around 36 hours on a single charge, but that depends on how much you use the Mi Watch’s other features, which among other things includes a range of lifestyle and fitness trackers, payment apps, and support for maps and music playback. Right now, the smartwatch is only being readied for release in China, but at around £145 a pop, here’s hoping it eventually lands in the West.

Chris Kerr Contributor, Stuff.tv

About

I’m a freelance games and technology journalist currently mashing my keyboard in the name of fine institutions like Stuff, where you'll usually find me waxing lyrical about the latest mobile morsels. I've also been known to cook up some decidedly delicious reviews from time to time, and was once dubbed 'the games industry's answer to Nigella Lawson' by someone probably somewhere.

Areas of expertise

Video games, computing, smartphones, home entertainment, lamps