Editor’s rating: 3.5/5 Xiaomi has become really serious about the Smartwatch business in recent times. That is precisely the reason why they have launched their third smartwatch in India – the Mi Watch Revolve Active – within a short time frame of less than a year. Earlier, Xiaomi introduced its Mi Watch Revolve last November followed by an affordable Redmi Watch. Setup & software Fitness Battery life Xiaomi’s new Revolve Active integrates several upgrades including a blood oxygen monitor aka SpO2 tracker. To justify the ‘Active’ moniker, several new activity-tracking modes have also been added and the Watch serves as a more sporty option. This new Xiaomi smartwatch is available at an asking price of Rs. 8,999 for the time being. Is it worth the money? Let’s address that and more in our Mi Watch Revolve Active review. Note: Xiaomi offers Mi Watch Revolve Active as Mi Watch Color Sports in China and Mi Watch in Europe and other international markets. This article can also be read as Mi Watch Color Sports review or Mi Watch review. The Mi Watch Revolve Active scores well with its no-frills design. In fact, it looks better than its direct competition, Realme Watch S Pro, which is also a touch more expensive than this one. Xiaomi has followed the tried and tested template of a circular dial with two buttons on the side. I find this minimalistic look appealing. These two buttons positioned on the right side are labelled ‘home’ and ‘sport’. The home button at the top is configured to take the user to the home screen or app drawer. Pressing the sports button can open the workout menu, or you may customize it to open any particular workout of your choice.
Watch Charging cableAnd some paper leaflets with instructions.
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Mi Watch Revolve Active Review: Design and DisplayMi Watch Revolve Active Review: Setup and SoftwareMi Watch Revolve Active Review: Fitness and Health TrackingMi Watch Revolve Active Review: Battery LifeShould you buy the Mi Watch Revolve Active?Pros -Cons
The 1.39-inch AMOLED display is sharp, vivid, and offers good legibility in all lighting conditions. It has an ambient sensor built to automatically adjust brightness and during the course of this review, we didn’t feel any need to manually intervene. The watch case has a matte finish and is made of Glass-fiber reinforced polyamide which offers excellent stiffness and strength while keeping the weight in check. The watch tips the scale at 32 grams without straps and at 54 grams with straps included. Users further have the option to swap straps easily by using a quick-release pin. It is comfortable to wear while maintaining a classy, elegant look. On the flip side, Xiaomi has packed several sensors to track your heart rate and blood oxygen saturation level (SpO2). You will also find the pogo connectors here for charging. Speaking of which, there is a cute, adequate length magnetic charging cable that you can plug into any USB-A port charger. Xiaomi further assures of 5ATM (up to 50 meters underwater) water-resistant so if you are into water activities, you will find the Watch Revolve Active to be a useful companion. One of the good things about Mi Watch Revolve is its seamless setup process. All you need to do is download Xiaomi Wear app on your Android phone or the Wear Lite app on your iOS device to get the process started. Open the Wear app, login or create a Mi account. Next, tap on profile and then go to Add device and select Mi Watch Revolve Active option. There are four pre-installed watch faces while many more can be added from the Mi cloud library via the Xiaomi Wear app. That’s not all, there’s also the Always-on display where Xiaomi uses smart algorithms and a gyroscope to wake up the display every time you raise your wrist to check the time or perform any other action. The watch also notifies you about incoming calls but sadly due to lack of a speaker you can’t really take calls on the watch itself. Another disappointment I have with the Mi watch is that one can’t really download apps on the watch. This new smartwatch from Xiaomi is mainly targeted at fitness enthusiasts. The watch comes with various fitness and health-tracking features including a dedicated 12nm Airoha GPS chip. There are 17 core activities pre-configured in the watch and a user can add many more via the companion app. Just as the chartbuster Mi bands, the Mi Watch Revolve active smartwatch also employs Garmin owned Firstbeat’s advanced analytics and algorithms for accurate fitness tracking. In my testing, it managed to measure my step count accurately. That’s not all, it also offered analytics like workout intensity, graphical representation of height elevation, heart rate and much more via the companion Wear app. During my lazy outings, GPS managed to map my route without depending on my phone. The watch also features a SpO2 sensor along with a heart rate sensor. SpO2 and heart rate readings from the Mi smartwatch matched with the pulse oximeter we own two out of three times. Sleep tracking also felt more or less accurate. Xiaomi ships the Revolve Active watch with a 420mAh inbuilt battery which is claimed to last for 14 days on a single charge. During my usage, I was able to get one-week mileage while 3 percent left in the reserve. During this week-long usage, I kept heart rate monitoring and raise to wake features enabled. Those numbers are impressive on any count but the use of different workout modes and longer GPS tracking could alter them drastically. It is worth pointing out that it took me more than 1.5 hours to fully refill the battery from a dead state.
Should you buy the Mi Watch Revolve Active?
Yes, if you are looking for a smartwatch under Rs 10,000. The Mi Watch Revolve Active is one of the best value for money smartwatches in its segment. Of course, it will face the heat from challengers like the Realme Watch S Pro (review), Amazfit T-Rex Pro (review), but with its appealing design, crisp screen, and reasonably accurate activity tracking it’s well equipped to take on the challengers head-on.
Reasons to buy
Simple, elegant designExtensive activity tracking Impressive battery lifeAlexa support works well
Reasons to not buy
Can’t install apps on the watchNo calling feature
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