Xiaomi makes Wear OS switch
Xiaomi will launch the new Xiaomi Watch 2 Pro, with Wear OS, at an event in Berlin on 26 September.
The announcement was teased via the official Xiaomi and Wear OS Twitter/X account, although there were no concrete details, other than the launch date.
We first reported rumors about a Wear OS Xiaomi watch back in March 2023, and it seems the rumblings were right on the money.
And as we speculated at the time, Xiaomi jumping on Google’s platform feels like a good decision.
So, it’s of little surprise that Xiaomi is considering a move to Wear OS; especially given that the company hasn’t captured the smartwatch market as it did with the Mi Band fitness tracker.
Wear OS finally, like a mature and premium platform. And Samsung has seen excellent growth in Wear OS – and its smartwatches have gone from strength to strength.
And using Google’s platform for apps, payments, and music streaming will help Xiaomi stand out from Amazfit, Redmi, Huawei, and other Chinese phone brands that make excellent smartwatches, that are held back by a lack of connected features.
It’s also a double-edged sword, though. The greatest strength of Xiaomi’s mid-range smartwatches is that they offer two weeks of battery life. With Wear OS, we would expect single-day battery life.
Unanswered questions will be around whether Xiaomi uses the new Qualcomm Snapdragon W5+ platform, which has unlocked battery life gains for Mobvoi and its TicWatch Pro 5.
And will Xiaomi also run the newest Wear OS 4?
All those questions will be answered on Tuesday 26 September.