Over the past few years, Android smartwatches have fallen into disrepair. There is some hope now that Samsung is on Wear OS again, but the only innovation so far is One UI on our wrists. We don’t know what the future holds for Wear OS 3.0, but Xiaomi’s new smartwatches are here now, offering similar hardware and fitness and health features without WearOS. Sure, watches like the Xiaomi Watch S1 and S1 Active lack Google Assistant, third-party apps, and any defined ecosystem, but they do offer the basics with incredible battery life for a very reasonable price. Starting at $199 for the S1 Active and $269 for the S1, these very well could make a great smartwatch for someone who values battery life and health tracking above all else.

Xiaomi Watch S1 & S1 Active

7.50 / 10

The Xiaomi Watch S1 and S1 Active are two of Xiaomi's newest non-WearOS smartwatches. They both have relatively classic designs with a very slimed down software. With great performance and fantastic battery life, both are a great value for a smartwatch.

Specifications
  • Brand: Xiaomi
  • Heart Rate Monitor: Yes
  • Notification Support: Yes
  • Operating System: Custom
  • Display Size : 1.4-inches
  • Case Material: S1: Stainless Steel; S1 Active: Plastic
  • Connected GPS: Yes, dual-band with GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, BDS, QZSS
  • Battery: 470 mAh
  • Price: S1: $269; S1 Active: $199
Pros
  • Fantastic battery life
  • Xiaomi Watch S1 comes with both a leather and silicone band in the box
  • Great prices
Cons
  • Xiaomi Watch S1 Active has a plastic body
  • No third-party software support
  • Doesn't work in the US

Design, hardware, what's in the box

The Xiaomi Watch S1 is a very good-looking traditionally styled watch. It comes with a 1.43-inch OLED display under sapphire glass, and the body is stainless steel. The back is made of plastic, which helps keep the weight down, though it does still clock in at 52g, the same weight as the 46mm Galaxy Watch4 Classic. The plastic back doesn’t feel as premium as the rest of the watch when you’re holding it, but you don’t feel that when it’s on your wrist. There are two buttons on the right side, but neither of them rotate to help you scroll through long lists.

The Xiaomi Watch S1 Active isn’t the prettiest fitness watch. It has the same 1.43-inch OLED display as the Watch S1, but it just uses normal tempered glass. The entire body is plastic with a metal bezel around the display. This brings the watch down to an absurdly light 36.3g, though I’m not convinced the weight is worth the material tradeoff, especially at this large size. Just like the Watch S1, it has two buttons on the side with a small speaker cutout in the plastic back panel.

Other than the design, the hardware across the two is the same. Both come with an optical heart rate sensor capable of doing SpO2, a 3-axis accelerometer and gyroscope, an air pressure sensor, a geomagnetic sensor, and dual-band GPS. Both have a 470 mAh battery, but they don’t have the same charging mechanism. The Xiaomi Watch S1 Active uses a magnetic dock with 2 pin connectors. The Xiaomi Watch S1, however, uses proper Qi charging. Every Qi wireless charger I’ve tested from the Pixel Stand to Apple’s MagSafe to Nomad’s BaseStation Pro AirPower style charger have been able to charge the Xiaomi Watch S1. This is the first time I’ve seen that in any smartwatch and I absolutely love it.

Watch S1 Active Wrist

In the box, both watches come with the charger and some paperwork. The Xiaomi Watch S1, not the S1 Active, comes with a comfortable leather band, plus an athletic silicone band. This means you won’t need to go out of your way to buy another band if you want to use the watch for fitness. This is, once again, the first time I’ve seen this on any smartwatch.

Software, performance, battery

The software on the Xiaomi Watch S1s is pretty bare-bones, and it’s identical between the two models. It has useful fitness features and mirrors Xiaomi phones pretty well. You get access to notifications, phone calls, weather, and music control. It has all of the basic features of most smartwatches, except there’s no app support.

Software UI Watch

The Watch S1 only has the basics, like weather, alarms, timers, a phone finder, and camera shutter control. There is support for Alexa as a voice assistant, but that's not very helpful if you're deep in the Google ecosystem. Features like Alexa and mobile payments, which only support Mastercard, are regional as well. In the United States, I wasn’t able to use either of these features.

The watches do support both iOS and Android using the Mi Fitness app. The feature set is identical between Xiaomi and non-Xiaomi Android devices, which is something that isn’t common on proprietary-OS watches, like Samsung’s old Tizen watches. One notable element of the device connection is how easy it is to switch devices. You don’t need to reset the watch—just download the app and hit connect. No resets, no settings, nothing. This is the holy grail of smartwatch pairing, and no other smartwatch I’ve used does this.

A smartwatch showing several app icons.

Even with all the bundled apps and features, the software on these watches makes them feel more like large fitness trackers than smartwatches. From notifications, to phone calls, to the weather, this is all stuff Xiaomi’s basic Mi Band 6 or any other modern fitness band, like a Fitbit Charge, can do. Nothing really makes this watch feel like a smartwatch other than the design. The lack of third-party app support and really user choice makes the watches feel like their missing something.

Because it’s such a light OS, the performance is great. There’s no stuttering or slowdowns. Everything loads almost instantly, notifications come in quickly, and there’s no touch latency that some smartwatches have.

Watch S1 Widgets

Battery life on the Xiaomi Watch S1s is also much longer than your average smartwatch. I’ve been getting between 5-7 days of battery with always-on stress, SpO2, and heart rate tracking. This is better than most smartwatches but becomes less worthwhile when you try to do anything advanced.

Should you buy it?

Yes, if you want a fancy fitness tracker with a few smartwatch features tacked on. I could see this being a great replacement for a Fitbit or a Huawei Watch, but it still doesn’t compete against the Galaxy Watch4 or Apple Watch. If you’re looking at a Fitbit for fitness tracking and want something that’s more watch-like, this is perfect. It has a limited feature set, good fitness and health tracking, and fantastic battery.

At $199 for the Xiaomi Watch S1 Active and $269 for the Xiaomi Watch S1, these are good values, but the Galaxy Watch4 could be around the same price on sale. That’s a more powerful device, but it also needs to go on the charger every night.

Buy it if...

  • You want a basic smartwatch that doesn't need to hit the charger every night.

Don't buy it if...

  • You want a more powerful smartwatch with app support.