Xiaomi has been known for several years as one of the largest players in the field of wearable products, when the company recently launched the watch.Mi Watch Lite The new one in Israel, when it comes with a 1.4-inch square screen, monitors 11 different sports activities and a battery life of up to 9 days.
The Mi Watch Lite was launched worldwide last December as an upgraded version of the Redmi Watch, with a major change in the form of a built-in GPS component for better tracking of sports activities. The watch managed to set in my opinion a new record in the speed of product arrival in the country, when it became available for sale already that month.
This is one of the cheaper watches of the company, designed for the novice user who is interested in a basic but good smart watch without the need for too much financial investment. In this review I will try to examine whether the watch actually meets the expectations and needs of the average user. It should be noted that Shiomi has chosen to use a new manufacturer in the watch in contrast to previous products mostly manufactured by Huami such as the Mi Band 5 straps.
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Mi Watch Lite (Photo: Jan Langerman, Gadget)
A closer look – Mi Watch Lite
As with any other wearable product, the screen of the Mi Watch Lite is the main tool we will use to receive the information from the watch and also to activate the built-in functions. In the case of the Mi Watch Lite, the watch comes with a 1.4-inch square TFT LCD screen with a resolution of 320 × 320 and rounded glass (2.5D) of an unknown type.
While it is hard for me to say that this is an excellent screen in light of the use of the TFT LCD compared to the AMOLED, which can be found in the Honor Band 6 we reviewed recently, the display itself is reasonable even in relatively direct sunlight and can be seen from the attached photos. A fairly large and useful feature that Shiomi has incorporated in the Mi Watch Lite is a lighting sensor that can be seen at the top of the screen that automatically changes the lighting level of the screen depending on the surrounding lighting.
The body of the Mi Watch Lite is made of black plastic with a matte finish with an overall weight of 35 grams along with the strap, when it comes with 5ATM waterproof. The frame of the watch is very clean and comes with a single metallic button used to control the watch.
One of the drawbacks that can be found in the watch is Shiomi’s choice to use non-standard straps, and while the strap can be easily replaced by pressing its latch button on the back of the watch, it would have been better to see the company use a standard watch strap.
Full technical specifications:
- screen – 1.4-inch TFT LCD and 320 × 320 resolution.
- strip – Non-standard.
- Sensors Pulse measurement, sleep, steps, barometer, compass, location.
- Location GPS and GLONASS.
- Sports tracking – 11: Walking, walking in the field, running outdoors, cross-country running, treadmill, cycling, exercise bike, swimming, swimming in the pool, cricket and free practice.
- battery 230mah for up to 9 days of use according to the manufacturer.
- resistance – Water resistance in the 5ATM standard (depth 50 meters).
- size – 41x35x10.9 mm, 11.9 mm with sensor bulge.
- Weight – 21 grams without the strap, 35 grams with a strap.
It should be noted that at least on the importer’s website in the country, the watch is set to not be designed for water sports and diving even though it is set to 5 ATM and has swimming tracking functions. In addition, sleep tracking is relatively basic with limited sleep detection in the range of only 9 to 21 and only continuous sleep, when after waking up once the clock will not continue to monitor sleep.
Interface – Mi Watch Lite
The use of the Mi Watch Lite watch is quite simple and convenient, when like other straps and smartwatches it is mainly based on gestures:
- Shifting left or right from the main clock display will go through the various “widgets” that include: heart rate measurement, last sleep mode, weather, media control and daily activity summary.
- Moving up from the main clock display will open the quick settings of the clock that allows: turning on a flashlight, automatic activation of the display with hand raising, screen lock, “do not disturb” mode, fixed screen operation for 5 minutes and quick access to the clock settings.
- Shifting down from the main clock display will open the notifications pane from the mobile device with the option to open the notifications to full view, while after the latest version update, support for notifications in Hebrew has been added.
The single button on the right side of the Mi Watch Lite watch serves as the on / off button of the strap, as well as the menu and back button. Pressing the button from any screen will take us back, while in the main screen pressing the button will open the full options menu of the watch with a relatively minimalist display of 9 icons on each screen including: start fitness activity, fitness activity history, daily activity summary, pulse measurement with extended information, Extended sleep information, breathing exercises, compass, barometer, media control, stopwatch, timer, alarm clock, flashlight, find phone, alerts, weather and settings.
Unlike watches and other smart straps that allow basic tracking of fitness activities, the Mi Watch Lite comes with a built-in GPS and GLONASS-based location system that allows for more accurate tracking of activity even without a mobile device near the device. The position chip provides a fairly accurate position on the map at the end of the activity without significant deviations, when after selecting a fitness activity it takes the clock about two minutes to reset on the position independently. Before the start of the fitness activity, you can even add goals such as activity time, distance and more.
The interface itself is convenient and simple even without a full Hebrew interface, but there are a number of bugs in the watch’s firmware, such as an additional incoming call alert a few minutes after the end of the call or “tapping” of incoming alerts on the screen even after using the button to return to the main screen. Updating the version that brought the Hebrew support included an unspecified bug fix, and it may have resolved the issues I personally encountered or it may even be a local issue in my case only.
Charging and battery life – Mi Watch Lite
As with any other wearable product, one of the most important things in the strap is the amount of time it can be used between charges. In the case of the Mi Watch Lite, which comes with a 230mAh battery, the company declares a usage time of up to 9 days in normal mode or 10 hours of use with continuous GPS for tracking sports activities. My test shows that the watch manages to reach a battery time of 7 ~ 8 days in normal use, a little less than the official time but more than enough for normal use between charges.
A small but rather interesting feature in the Mi Watch Lite is related to its charging, and although Shiomi chose to use an “old” and large charging device for charging the watch instead of a magnetic charging cable, especially when it comes with a non-standard cable placement that does not allow the charger to lie on the table, Because its use is intended to be on the side in advance when while charging the watch display rotates and shows the time and state of charging of the watch.
Mi Watch Lite control app
Unlike Shiomi’s previous straps and watches, the new Mi Watch Lite watch does not use the Mi Fit app but a new app or actually 2 different apps. While Android users like me use Xiaomi Wear, iOS users should use Xiaomi Wear Lite. Since I have an Android device I will only go over the Xiaomi Wear version Which does not come in the Hebrew language.
Like many smartwatch and strap apps, the Xiaomi Wear is divided into 3 main screens:
- “Status” (Status) – The main screen of the app that displays the various metrics including steps, calories, sleep, fitness activities, heart rate and standing (yes, a weird metric).
- “Workouts” – Training screen displays short information about the last training performed and allows you to start one of 4 training sessions, while the clock allows 11.
- “Profile” – The settings screen of the watch and the app, which allows you to select the watch display, decide which apps to receive alerts on the watch and more.
Selecting any of the views on the watch’s main screen in the app allows for an expanded view of steps, sleep, heart rate and more when rather strangely the control over the amount of steps and daily caloric target is done from the status screens and not the settings screen. In addition, the training screen does show a brief status of the last training, but complete information and training history are only available from the main screen.
After checking out quite a few watches and straps resulting in a fairly respectable collection of apps, it can be said that the Xiaomi Wear app is one of the weak points of the watch regardless of the lack of a Hebrew interface. As of version 2.2.2i, the app does not allow full control of the watch, with some settings being usable only from the watch itself and not through the app. Unfortunately I can not give an opinion on the iOS version of the app, the Xiaomi Wear Lite. Shiomi is likely to improve the app in the future, but at the moment it can be said that it is not “properly baked” compared to the old Mi Fit.
Clock displays – Mi Watch Lite
As with watches and other fitness straps, one of the important features is the ability to adjust the main watch display. In the case of the Mi Watch Lite, you can switch the clock views through the settings or by long-pressing the main screen with the option to select 5 built-in clock views, one of which is modular that allows adjustment of the information displayed on the display.
Another option for changing the clock views is through the dedicated settings menu in the Xiaomi Wear app that allows you to choose from a large collection of online clock views, a collection that is updated with the clock display for the new year that was not available when the watch was received.
Selecting Clock Displays – Xiaomi Wear App
English – Mi Watch Lite
Upon receiving the Mi Watch Lite watch for review it did not support Hebrew at all, with the expectation of adding Hebrew support only in the first quarter of 2021. Despite this, a version update that arrived on the day I was supposed to write and finish the review added support for displaying Hebrew alerts with version 4.1. 08, so that the situation in the morning of the 1.1 in which the clock displayed only an inverted text in Hebrew, after the update at noon it was possible to read alerts in normal Hebrew on the clock.
Bottom line – what we thought of the Mi Watch Lite
It must be said that I had to recalculate the final opinion of the Mi Watch Lite watch with the latest version update which added support for Hebrew notifications on the watch, as well as fixing a number of bugs that were relatively disruptive to its daily use. However, the biggest problem of the watch is less related to the watch itself but to the app it uses, which also does not come in Hebrew, which makes its use relatively problematic for some users.
While this is a basic smartwatch, it manages to surprise in several areas, especially with its built-in and useful lighting sensor and accurate GPS sensor that also uses the GLONASS system. Although Shiomi chose not to incorporate additional features such as measuring blood oxygen saturation or magnetic charging, it is ultimately a basic and inexpensive smartwatch that makes it a good solution for users looking for an inexpensive smartwatch with location tracking capability, and willing to wait for a future update to the watch app , Which in my opinion will significantly improve the experience of using it.
The Mi Watch Lite watch is available for sale in Israel at a price of 349 NIS (one year warranty, Hamilton official importer)
What did we like?
- Clean and good look.
- Reasonable display in the sun.
- Support for added Hebrew alerts.
- Accurate location tracking.
- Good battery life.
- A variety of clock views.
- price.
What not?
- There is no full Hebrew interface on the watch.
- Problematic mobile application without a Hebrew interface.
- Non-standard watch strap.
- Large and bulky charging device.
- Basic TFT screen.
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