Xiaomi, which competes with Apple for the topposition in the wearable market, today made thecompetition a little more interesting.
The Chinese electronics giant has launched in itshome market its first smartwatch, called the MiWatch, which looks strikingly similar to the AppleWatch.
The Mi Watch, like the Apple Watch, has a squarebody with a crown and a button. It sports a 1.78-inchAMOLED display (326 ppi) that offers the always-oncapability and runs MIUI for Watch, the company'shomegrown wearable operating system based on Google's Wear OS.
Inside the metal housing — aluminum alloy with a matte finish — are microphones on twosides for recording audio and taking calls, and a loudspeaker on the left to listen to music orincoming calls. The Mi Watch, which comes in one size — 44mm — has a ceramic back, whichis where the charging pins and a heart-rate sensor are also placed.
The company says its first smartwatch supports cellular connectivity (through an eSIM), Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth and NFC for payments. The Mi Watch should last for 36 hours on a single chargeon cellular mode, the company claimed.
The Mi Watch also will help users track their sleep, performance while swimming, cycling andrunning, and also measure their heart rate.
More than 40 popular Chinese apps, such as TikTok and QQ Messenger, are available for theMi Watch on day one. The company's own XiaoAI assistant is the default virtual digitalassistant on the watch.
The Mi Watch is priced at CNY 1,299 ($185) and will go on sale in the country next week. There's no word on international availability just yet, but if the past is any indication, Xiaomiwill likely bring the device to India, Singapore, Indonesia and other markets in comingquarters.