Xiaomi Mi Watch Revolve Review: A classy smartwatch with incredible battery life but a few caveats

Xiaomi seems to be upping the ante in the smart wearables market. The Chinese device maker recently introduced a new smartwatch in India, in the form of the Mi Watch Revolve. Xiaomi’s latest smartwatch is its most premium offering in the smart wearables game and will set you back Rs 10,999. The Mi Watch Revolve packs some interesting hardware paired with excellent features on the software front while maintaining a pretty competitive price. So, without any further delays, let’s take a more in-depth look at the Mi Watch Revolve.

Design and Build 

First, let’s talk about the design of the Mi Watch Revolve. In a world where almost every budget smartwatch seems to be taking their design cues from Apple, it is nice to see that Xiaomi has opted for the classic analogue watch aesthetic. The Mi Watch Revolve is massive, with a 46mm case size, the watch looks quite big on the wrist. It is worth noting that it may not look so good if you have a slender wrist.

The Mi Watch Revolve is available in Midnight Black and Chrome Silver. The quick-release strap on the watch is 22mm in width and arrived with a Neptune Blue strap. There are two buttons on the Mi Watch Revolve. It is worth noting that the strap can easily be swapped for any standard 22mm strap. The design of the Mi Watch Revolve evokes a feeling of class and elegance, with its classic circular design and digital faces.

The Mi Watch Revolve weighs 40 grams and is quite comfortable while using during sleep. Additionally, the smartwatch is rated 5ATM water-resistant, which means you should have no trouble tracking your activity in any weather. Lastly, the raised chamfered edges feature two buttons that evoke a classical watch feel. The button on the top takes you to the app menu, while the second one can be customized as a shortcut key for most watch functions.

Display

Xiaomi’s premium smartwatch sports a 1.39-inch AMOLED display and is one of the best we’ve seen at this price. The touchscreen input is quite responsive, while the panel itself is pretty bright. I had no issues looking at the watch under direct sunlight. Another great addition here is the integrated auto-brightness function which dims the display in the dark and increases the brightness in bright surroundings and under direct sunlight.

Another handy feature is the always-on display, which doesn’t really drain the battery that much. You also get a number of different analogue and digital watch faces.

Battery Life

The Mi Watch Revolve packs a 420 mAh battery that can deliver up to two weeks of battery life. However, Xiaomi’s two-week claim is rather optimistic and in real-world usage, you will find yourself reaching for the charger after eight to nine days. But when you consider, the Mi Watch features an always-on display; the battery life is quite impressive.

The included charging cradle uses magnets to align the watch. The cradle is built in a way that makes it simple to drop the watch. The Mi Watch Revolve charges through contact pins and takes around two hours to top-off.

Features

The Mi Watch Revolve is pitched as a well-rounded fitness device, with 10 sports modes out of the box. You can choose between outdoor running, pool swimming, open water swimming, trekking, treadmill, outdoor cycling, indoor cycling, freestyle workout, and trail running. You can get data from a selected mode on the watch itself after your workout ends. You can also study the data on Xiaomi’s Wear app.

It is quite easy to start a workout mode. All you need to do is open the app drawer and tap the workout tray and select the activity of your choice. The built-in GPS ensures you can track outdoor activity like running or cycling, so there is no need for a phone. It does take a little bit of time for the GPS to get going, but once you latch on to a signal, the watch tracks your movements pretty accurately. The Mi Watch Revolve does a good job of tracking your heart rate, with the sensor sitting on the back of the watch. Heart rate tracking does take a bit of time to register a change in heart rate, which is noticeable while exercising.

Apart from tracking general fitness activities, the Mi Watch Revolve also features different stages of sleep tracking. The different sleep tracking modes include Deep Sleep, Light Sleep, REM (Rapid Eye Movement), and Awake. I found sleep tracking to be quite accurate at distinguishing between the different sleep patterns. You are also assigned a sleep score which gives you a better understanding of your sleep patterns.

Another benefit of the Mi Watch is the ability to track stress and overall energy. For tracking stress, the watch measures heart rate variability when you are stationary for a long duration. Using this data, the watch provides an overall score, which shows if you are relaxed. Now, the overall score only provides an estimate on whether you are stressed or not and shouldn’t be considered as a reliable way to measure stress.

Another great addition to the Mi Watch Revolve is its ability to show ‘energy levels’. The smartwatch does this by assigning you an energy score by using sleep data, workout information, and heart rate variability. Again, this is just another good feature of the watch and by no means accurately measures energy levels. However, you will find slight deviations in your score on days you do not work out or are sleepless.

The Mi Watch Revolve also features a built-in compass and can display elevation and atmospheric pressures. The Mi Watch Revolve can also do the general smartwatch stuff, like getting notifications for incoming calls and messages. You won’t be able to replay to messages or take calls on the watch though. There’s an alarm, stopwatch, and timer function built into the watch itself. You have a torch app, that lets you convert the watch into a small torch. You can also control music playback on your phone through the watch.

Software

To use the Mi Watch Revolve, you will need to install Xiaomi’s Wear App on Android or Xiaomi Wear Lite App on iPhone. The process of pairing the watch with your smartphone is quite simple, while the watch maintains a steady connection thanks to its Bluetooth 5.0 support. The Wear app is divided into three sections, which provide health information, device controls, and lastly, a personal profile. The app also allows you to enable notifications and download and enable watch faces.

Verdict

At its current price of Rs 9,999, the Mi Watch Revolve is one of the best-looking smartwatches under 10,000 rupees. It has a vibrant AMOLED display and an incredible battery life. The Mi Watch Revolve also has a ton of fitness tracking features, although not many of them are unique to the watch.  A lot of fitness tracking features are available on the Mi Band 5. There’s also a fair bit of stuff that’s missing here.

The strongest area of the Mi Watch Revolve was its design. You should find other feature-rich smartwatches at this price, but we couldn’t find one that is so well designed. What you get with the Mi Watch Revolve is a smartwatch with essential features that most people desire, however, with a few compromises. Samsung, Apple, and Oppo would be more ideal alternatives for those who demand more features, but those will cost you quite a bit. For a first attempt in the smartwatch segment, Xiaomi has done a pretty good job with the Mi Watch Revolve, and it is certainly worth the price.