We know Xiaomi knows how to make good fitness trackers, but it’s yet to fully show its cards on the smartwatch front.
It’s built smartwatches for kids, but only launched them in China. Its foray into wearables has largely been led by the Mi Band.
Essential reading: Best Wear OS watches to buy now
That could soon change though if the latest rumors are to be believed. Xiaomi could be prepping a smartwatch to rival the Apple Watch and the best that Samsung, Fitbit, Garmin and others have to offer on the wrist.
So what do we think we know about this upcoming device? We’ve pulled together the speculation that suggests it could be on its way.
Would you like to see a Xiaomi smartwatch? What features would you want? Let us know in the comments below.
Xiaomi smartwatch: Design
Now, we don’t have any indications of how this Xiaomi smartwatch will look. What we do know is that Xiaomi usually turns to off-shoot Huami to build its Mi Band fitness trackers. That’s the same brand that makes the Amazfit brand of smartwatches including the ones above and further down below.
If Xiaomi is making a smartwatch, it’s not too ridiculous to think that it will once again look to Huami to help with things on the design front. In its Verge, Stratos and Bip ranges among others, Huami’s got a decent track record of making attractive devices that don’t cost a bomb to own.
Xiaomi smartwatch: Wear OS
Our first hints towards an incoming Xiaomi smartwatch came courtesy of some digging done inside the code in Google’s Wear OS companion app. That’s where references to ‘Mi Wear’ and ‘Mi Watch‘ were discovered.
Given Xiaomi’s use of “Mi” for its Mi Band series of trackers, this makes it seem the company could well be planning to use Wear OS for its smartwatch. That’s a pretty surprising development, to say the least – at the moment, more manufacturers are stepping away from Wear OS than are picking it up.
Although the watch could run on Wear OS, it’s looking like Xiaomi will have its own companion app to handle customisation and settings.
Earlier this year, evidence was found of a companion app being developed under the codename Baiji. Now, it looks like that codename has changed, replaced by the name Mi Wear. So, all in all, there are a fair few possible names bouncing around for the upcoming smartwatch.
There hasn’t been a new hardware partner for the smartwatch platform for a while now. Fossil Group and its many fashion brands dominate the most recent Wear OS watches, so the arrival of a big tech name like Xiaomi would be an interesting development for Wear.
Xiaomi smartwatch: Features
In terms of other possible features, the original report about the possible existence of a Xiaomi smartwatch suggested that the watch could include a smart assistant and have NFC. The watch is also rumored to come packing eSIM card support for LTE/4G connectivity.
So it sounds like we can expect a pretty feature-packed smartwatch if the rumors prove to be true.
Xiaomi smartwatch: Release date and price
When will that Xiaomi smartwatch launch? According to apparent intel from a blogger station, it’s set to launch in October this year. That’s likely to be a launch in China first at least.
The same source noted that Xiaomi recently trademarked a few new product names, including “Millennium MIX ALPHA”, “Millet MIX Alpha” and “Millet Watch COLOR”.
Could one of those offer up a hint as to the name that Xiaomi will choose for its first smartwatch? Maybe we won’t have long to find out.
This article was originally posted on Wareable.com
