The Redmi Watch is official – the first smartwatch from the Xiaomi-subsidiary, which somehow manages to turn out wearables cheaper than its parent company.
The Redmi Watch brings a pretty basic spec and design, but grabs the headlines with its $45 price point.
On board is a 320 x 320, 1.4-inch, display at 323ppi, which again is excellent at this price.
It comes in three colors: black, white and blue. It also boasts a massive 12 day battery life.
We’re unlikely to see the Redmi Band head West, but the price is 299 yuan – which translates to around $45. We’re also certain to see it land in India and other territories.
Of course, a quick trawl of Amazon will reveal plenty of terrible, Chinese-made smartwatches for or less – but the difference isn’t hardware, it’s software. With a link to the Mi App, the Redmi Watch has the power to deliver a decent experience at such a modest cost.
While nothing has been confirmed, we’ve seen the identical looking Mi Watch Lite pass through the FCC. So we should see the same device hit the US and Europe, just under the Xiaomi brand.
We’re also still waiting on a full reveal of the full global edition of the Xiaomi Mi Watch Color Sport, too. While that brand has been on sale in China for much of the last year, the company revealed a round-faced smartwatch was heading to Western wrists at some point in 2020, with an equally alluring $100 price.
Add to that the Ticwatch GTX at and the Amazfit Bip S at and there’s a lot to choose from in the sub-$100.
How we test
James is the co-founder of Wareable, and he has been a technology journalist for 15 years.
He started his career at Future Publishing, James became the features editor of T3 Magazine and T3.com and was a regular contributor to TechRadar – before leaving Future Publishing to found Wareable in 2014.
James has been at the helm of Wareable since 2014 and has become one of the leading experts in wearable technologies globally. He has reviewed, tested, and covered pretty much every wearable on the market, and is passionate about the evolving industry, and wearables helping people achieve healthier and happier lives.