It's been a busy week for Chinese releases – but will they head West?
Xiaomi has launched a new version of its sporty smartwatch in China, in the form of the Mi Watch Color 2.
The original Mi Watch Color never made it out of China, and we’d be surprised to see this one head West either. It’s been a busy week for Chinese releases, with the Oppo Watch Free also landing there.
The Color 2 grows its display from 1.39-inch to 1.42-inch, with an 326ppi AMOLED panel 326ppi that should make for a crisp and bright experience.
There’s a choice of three case colors (white/blue/black) and six bands (white/blue/black and yellow/orange/green as optional extras.)
It features 117 built-in sports modes, and a heart rate monitor for keeping tabs on your workouts. And there’s dual-frequency GPSS (GLONASS and BeiDou) and it’s water resistant to 50m.
The PPG sensor is equipped with SpO2 for tracking of blood oxygen, and this powers the usual array of sleep and health monitoring.
There’s NFC on board for mobile payments, and the Xiao AI virtual assistant.
Perhaps the biggest story of the Color 2 is battery life. There’s a whopping 470mAh battery on board that promises 12 days away from the charger.
Xiaomi’s smartwatch strategy is certainly different from its fitness tracker approach with the Mi Band range.
It’s launched the Mi Watch Color in China, the Mi Watch Color Revolve in India, while Europe has seen the Mi Watch Lite and Mi Watch. The US hasn’t seen a formal release, unlike the Mi Band.
We certainly yearn for the simplicity and singularity of the Mi Band approach – and Xiaomi certainly hasn’t achieved the same recognition in the ultra-competitive smartwatch space.
