Xiaomi Mi Watch Revolve Review: Look No Further For A Compete Smartwatch That Doesn’t Break The Bank

The Xiaomi Mi Watch Revolve deploys the 22mm straps. On the underside of the watch are various sensors, including the heart rate sensor and the connectors for the charger. All in all, the Mi Watch Revolve weighs around 40 grams, which is featherweight sitting on the wrist. There is also something about this look, complete with the black dial, black band and once I switched to the Luxurious Business watch face. It feels as though all the elements have simply come together so well and the Xiaomi Mi Watch Revolve looks premium. There is absolutely no chance anyone will be able to guess the price tag is as affordable as this.

A Beautiful Piece Of Real Estate

The 1.39-inch display is the AMOLED real estate that works brilliantly for a smartwatch. This screen is bright, colourful and crisp. There is also the Always On display mode if that is what you want to keep active—honestly, I don’t. The raise wrist to wake the display option works pretty well for me, thank you very much. This is rated at 45nits of brightness, and while the screen is a bit reflective (more apparent in the darker watch faces), this still negates the bright sunlight induced glares and reflections quite easily. Yes, you may have to move your wrist ever so slightly at times to eliminate a really persistent reflection, but that’s about it. I have to note that this display seems to catch smudges a bit too easily though, and I found myself reaching for a really soft cloth to wipe this quite often. Nothing should spoil the good looks! There is also a lot of real estate available, which is great for fitness apps in particular. The touch response is consistent, and this screen looks colourful all through. That is how Xiaomi designed the interface of the Mi Watch Revolve, and it doesn’t disappoint.

Speaking of the interface, it is simplicity that in parts seems inspired with what we have seen before. Good thing that, because it breeds familiarity, which makes it easier for people to adopt a new gadget. In this case, a different platform as well. Swipe right or left on the beautiful watch face (there are as many as 110 options to choose from, though granular customizations seem missing) and you will toggle through widget screens that tell you your heart rate, body energy, sleep data, stress level and the weather details. All of these are beautifully laid out with easy to understand font styles and sizes. That being said, the app drawer isn’t perhaps the slickest to use. While laid out as simply as possible, the icons don’t always give you a hint of what a particular app is for. Maybe new icons could help in that regard.

Remember, this isn’t Google’s Wear OS, and therefore third-party apps are pretty much non-existent at this time. However, the Xiaomi Wear app (Android) and the Xiaomi Wear Lite app (for iPhones) does a slick enough job of keeping everything well synced. In fact, on the iPhone, the Xiaomi Mi Watch Revolve can plug in to the Apple Health app to keep all your wellness and fitness data in one place. It will also mirror the phone’s notifications including voice calls, which you can deny from the watch itself. The watch doesn’t have call handling capabilities though.

So Focused On Fitness, You’ll Have No Escape

This may be the ideal example of a piece of tech knowing you better than you know yourself. There is a lot happening on that front in the Xiaomi Mi Watch Revolve as far as fitness tracking goes, and a lot of it has to do with monitoring what you feel, rather than just tracking your fitness routine for when you are running or hitting the gym.

There is the heart rate monitor that uses a lot of intelligence developed by Firstbeat, an industry leader in heartbeat analytics. The watch will tell you if your heart rate is faster or slower than normal. As far as the heart rate detection is concerned, this is one of the most accurate out there, matching the Apple Watch point for point with heart rate detection. What also really helps you understand a trend is the helpful graph that you see on the watch itself. There is also the VO2 Max which collects the oxygen data for your body when you exercise. You can see this data by simply glancing at the watch screen during an activity. The Xiaomi Mi Watch Revolve also gets sleep detection, which will tell you how well you have slept through the night, the deep sleep hours and the different stages of sleep as well as how long they lasted.

And then there are my favorites.

Body energy monitoring returns a calculation and a figure of the energy value in real time, by understanding the various data and metrics that the Xiaomi Mi Watch Revolve and the gamut of sensors collect about a person’s health. For me, this worked out pretty accurately because the score that I saw pretty well matched how I was generally feeling at the time. There is also the Stress Monitoring, which takes heart rate variability stats and runs complex calculations to indicate when you may be stressed. If nothing else, a graph of this data just tells you how you are wasting your life, not that you can do much about it with bills to pay.

For those who will be using the Xiaomi Mi Watch Revolve to track their exercise routines, there are as many as 10 predefined activity modes that you can quickly choose from. These include running, cycling, treadmill, walking and swimming. Yes, the Xiaomi Mi Watch Revolve is water resistance, which means you can take this for a swim—though you might want to swap out that stylish leather band before you do! Each activity session, once finished, gives you a detailed report indicating how well you did on each metric.

Battery Lasts Long, Really Long

The Xiaomi Mi Watch Revolve has a 420mAh battery that really has long stamina. Xiaomi says this will last you up to 2 weeks. To be honest, I haven’t been able to test that claim since I haven’t had the watch for 2 weeks yet. However, in my limited experience with the battery tests thus far, three days of using this as a daily wear smartwatch resulted in just 7% of battery drain. That is with Always On display turned off, and everything else at default. Whatever it may be in the end in terms of actual days on a single charge, this will be in and around the 2 weeks ballpark for sure. And that is great for a smartwatch.

The Last Word: Doesn’t Get Much Better Than This And Doesn’t Break Your Bank

It really doesn’t get any better for smartwatches around the Rs 10,000 price point than the Xiaomi Mi Watch Revolve which is priced at Rs 9,999. I have said it before and I’ll say it again, the Xiaomi Mi Watch Revolve is significantly a more rounded package than any of the rivals. It looks absolutely brilliant, has a very good display and the software side of things seems nicely knuckled down. Top that off with extensive fitness tracking features, some cool stress and energy data add-ons and really good battery stamina, and I have to ask you this—show me a watch, that costs Rs 10,000 and offers all this in a premium package. I suspect you won’t really have a convincing answer.