Xiaomi Watch S3 Smartwatch Review with 14 days battery & Strava

The Xiaomi Watch S3 is the newest reasonably priced smartwatch from the Chinese language tech large. It gives a powerful set of options at a really aggressive worth level. With a modern design, lengthy battery life, and assist for well-liked health platforms like Strava, this watch goals to be the right companion for health lovers on a funds.

To keep away from confusion, it’s value stating that the Watch S3 runs Xiaomi HyperOS, however this isn’t the identical Android-based HyperOS you discover on the Xiaomi 14; it’s as a substitute a characteristic OS that has restricted customization. That is what permits it to be each reasonably priced and have an incredible battery life. It’s the Xiaomi Watch 2 that runs the fully-fledged WearOS smartwatch OS.

Specification and Options

Show:Dimensions:Strap:Fluororubber 140 mm-210 mmBlack or Silver (different colors bought individually)Battery:Charging:2-Pin magnetic charging dockSensorsHeart charge sensor (with blood oxygen sensor), accelerometer, gyroscope, digital compass, barometer sensor, ambient gentle sensor, corridor sensorMicrophone: SupportedSpeakers: SupportedBluetooth: Bluetooth 5.2Satellite Positioning Methods: BeiDou, GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, QZSSNFC: Sure, region-specific

Design and Construct High quality

The Xiaomi Watch S3 contains a traditional spherical watch design, and my pattern is black. The construct high quality is respectable however doesn’t really feel as premium as many different, way more costly choices from the likes of Huawei or Garmin.

The general look is good. It appears like a standard watch and I a lot desire the looks of this than most of the good band fashion smartwatches you may get.

Xiaomi has then launched a novel design characteristic that lets you swap out the bezel of the watch. This provides you a bit extra flexibility with the looks. The black mannequin comes with a plane-black bezel as default, however I used to be additionally despatched a numbered bezel, making it look extra like a pilot or army watch. While you connect the bezel, the watch additionally modifications the watch face to match the strap.

I used to be additionally equipped two extra straps, one blue and black, one inexperienced and black, that are each created from calf leather-based and make the watch look a bit extra premium.

To cost the watch, you, sadly, have to make use of a proprietary magnetic connector. I discover these simpler to cost watches than QI wi-fi however I desire the comfort of with the ability to cost with completely different wi-fi fees.

Set Up and Mi Health

Organising the Xiaomi Watch S3 is an easy course of. After downloading the Mi Health app in your smartphone, you may pair the watch by way of Bluetooth. The app lets you customise watch faces, handle notifications, and sync your health information.

The Mi Health app gives a complete overview of your every day exercise, together with steps taken, energy burned, and sleep high quality. It additionally gives guided respiratory workouts and menstrual cycle monitoring for feminine customers.

Strava and Third-Occasion Knowledge Export

Most people who find themselves eager on outside health will use Strava. I’ve at all times mentioned that Xiaomi is the most effective model to select from if you need an reasonably priced watch that additionally integrates with Strava.

Issues have modified a bit, with Huawei now supporting Strava negatively moderately than having to make use of the HealthSync app, which was at all times a bit hit and miss.

Nevertheless, except you go for a correct smartwatch or a fitness-focused model like Garmin, I feel Xiaomi are nonetheless the most effective for Strava integration.

Moreover, this may be linked to Google Match and Suunto.

Watch Apps and UI

The Xiaomi Watch S3 runs on a proprietary working system that provides a easy and intuitive person interface. The watch face will be customised with numerous pre-installed choices or by downloading extra faces from the Mi Health app.

Swiping from the watch face reveals a spread of widgets, together with climate, music controls, and health stats. The watch additionally helps notifications out of your smartphone, permitting you to learn messages and see incoming calls instantly in your wrist.

Whereas the Watch S3 doesn’t assist third-party apps like a full-fledged smartwatch, it does supply a collection of built-in apps for monitoring exercises, monitoring well being, and extra.

The watch additionally has NFC and helps Xiaomi Pay. That is at the moment restricted to simply Curve and UAB Zen, however it’s a handy characteristic for those who use one in all these banks.

Health Monitoring

The Xiaomi Watch S3 excels in health monitoring, providing assist for over 110 sports activities modes, together with operating, biking, swimming, and extra. The watch makes use of its numerous sensors to precisely observe your exercises, offering information reminiscent of coronary heart charge, tempo, distance, and energy burned.

For outside actions, the Watch S3’s GPS performance lets you observe your routes and look at them within the Mi Health app. The watch additionally gives real-time steering throughout exercises, reminiscent of alerting you whenever you attain a sure distance or in case your coronary heart charge exceeds a set threshold.

As I’m coaching for a marathon, I’ve largely been operating outside lately.

In my testing, I used the Garmin Fenix 6 Professional paired with the Garmin HRM Professional chest strap for correct coronary heart charge monitoring and the Stryd foot pod energy meter for extra correct pace measurements and extra metrics.

Coronary heart Price Accuracy

The Xiaomi depends on a wrist-based optical coronary heart charge monitor, which is notoriously susceptible to inaccuracies because of the awkward placement. In my case, I’ve very skinny and furry wrists. I additionally discover that there isn’t quite a lot of flex with the strap, I can get it becoming snugly however slightly tighter could enhance accuracy.

Whereas the sensor itself can be extremely correct, the wrist placement will usually trigger inaccuracies. From my expertise with my very own physique, that is true for many watches, however my companion doesn’t have the identical points.

The Xiaomi watch carried out OK on an 8.5-mile run. Wanting on the information plotted in opposition to one another, you may see that the Xiaomi struggles at first and finish of the run, however it’s comparatively correct within the center.

Wanting on the center elements, the utmost distinction in readings is 7bpm, which isn’t perfect for a critical beginner athlete, however is suitable for extra informal health lovers.

In the direction of the tip of the run, issues went extra awry. Xiaomi constantly reads round 170 bpm vs 160 bpm. Whereas a 10bpm distinction doesn’t appear vital, there’s a vital distinction in effort between operating at 160bpm and 170bpm.

The common HR isn’t too unhealthy, with only a 4bpm distinction.

I’d find it irresistible if Xiaomi or different manufacturers allowed you to pair HR sensors with good watches for extra correct measurements.

GPS & Distance Accuracy

The Xiaomi helps BeiDou, GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, and QZSS dual-band GNSS methods with assist for L1 and L5. That is fairly a sophisticated GNSS characteristic that enables methods to make use of a number of frequency bands, leading to extra constant tracklogs and improved positioning when utilizing the machine in difficult environments.

Technically, it’s extra correct than my Garmin Fenix 6 Professional, as multi-band GNSS wasn’t used till the Fenix 7 sequence.

For my runs, each watches carried out nicely with no apparent errors. Residing in a coastal city means there are few environmental obstacles that might trigger issues with the GPS/GNSS.

Xiaomi did observe an extra 30 metres, however I think this can be a person error, as I ended the watches at completely different occasions.

Operating Metrics

Garmin is clearly the most effective model if you wish to observe as a lot data as potential. With the HRM-Professional and/or Stryd, I get superior operating metrics reminiscent of energy, floor contact time, vertical oscillation, and many others. As a lot as I like all of the numbers, I solely actually care about energy and correct pace measurements.

Xiaomi gives greater than sufficient information for many health lovers. For operating, this consists of:

PaceBPMStepsCaloriesElevation GainElevation LossPace per KMCadenceStride LengthTraining Impact, which incorporates VO2 Max, coaching load and restoration time.

Total, I feel the Xiaomi Watch S3 does a wonderful job of health monitoring and it really works nicely for informal and critical health lovers alike.

Well being Monitoring

Along with health monitoring, the Xiaomi Watch S3 gives a spread of well being monitoring options. The watch can repeatedly monitor your coronary heart charge all through the day, alerting you if it detects any abnormalities. It additionally helps blood oxygen (SpO2) monitoring, which will be helpful for assessing total well being and health ranges.

The Watch S3 additionally gives sleep monitoring, utilizing its sensors to analyse your sleep patterns and supply insights into the standard of your relaxation. It may well observe deep sleep, gentle sleep, and awake time, in addition to present a sleep rating that can assist you perceive how nicely you’re sleeping.

Sleep monitoring seems to be good. Along with my Garmin, I exploit the Withings Sleep Mat, and the three methods report completely different outcomes. For instance, my most up-to-date night time’s sleep was reported as:

Xiaomi:Length: 7 hours 31 minsDeep Sleep: 3 hour 27 minsLight Sleep: 3 hours 37 minsGarmin:Length: 6 hours 54 minsLight Sleep: 5 hours 47 minsTimes Awake: 40 minutes (5 or 6 trying on the graph)Common HR: 51 BPM (Garmin reviews resting HR not common)Withings:Length: 7 hours 15 minsDeep Sleep: 1 hour 3 minsLight Sleep: 5 hours 2 minutes

Sleep monitoring is notoriously inaccurate as wearables can’t actually determine in case you are asleep or what stage of sleep it’s. However, it’s nonetheless good information to have and can provide some perception into your bodily situation for the day.

Among the options will should be enabled inside every metric’s settings. For instance, I needed to swap on all-day SpO2. For my Garmin, I usually depart issues like SpO2 switched off because it has little profit however reduces the battery life. For Xiaomi, the battery life is so good that I depart all the pieces switched on.

Battery Life

One of the crucial spectacular elements of the Xiaomi Watch S3 is its battery life. With typical utilization, the watch can last as long as 15 days on a single cost. Even with the always-on show enabled, which lets you see the time and your stats at a look, the watch can nonetheless last as long as 5 days.

In my case, with AOD off, I used to be getting round 14 days of use with a number of hours of GPS monitoring per week and round an extra 7 hours of normal health monitoring.

This lengthy battery life is a big benefit over all fully-fledged smartwatches, which frequently require every day charging. It additionally outlasts the Garmin Fenix 6 Professional by a substantial margin.

With the Watch S3, you may put on it repeatedly for weeks with out worrying about operating out of energy.

Value and Various Choices

The Xiaomi Watch S3 is obtainable for simply £120 direct from mi.com. It is available in silver or black and has the corresponding pixel.

On the time of writing, I couldn’t discover any listings for the extra bezels and straps.

Xiaomi then has the Watch 2 and Watch 2 Professional, that are each powered by Put on OS. These are dearer and have a a lot shorter battery life, however they’re absolutely purposeful smartwatches that may set up apps.

Huawei has the Watch GT 4, which has nicer {hardware} and higher GPS, however prices from £230. The older GT 3 is obtainable on Amazon for simply £150.

Honor has the Watch 4, which is obtainable for simply £100, however I’d say this sits someplace between the Xiaomi Good Band 8 Professional. and the Watch S3.

The Fitbit Versa 4 is value contemplating at £150. I desire Fitbit for well being and health monitoring, however the watch isn’t as engaging, and so they attempt to drive a subscription on you.

Then the Amazfit GTR 4 is £200

Lastly, for health lovers, Garmin is the most effective model, however you pay for it. The Venu 3 is £450, and the Venu 2 is £280. The closest-priced choices are the actually ugly Venu SQ at £110 or the Forerunner 55 at £150.

Total

I feel the Xiaomi Watch S3 is an excellent reasonably priced smartwatch.

Wanting on the competitors, it undercuts many of the different selections for a smartwatch and comes shut in worth to the cheaper-looking band-style smartwatches. The Garmin Venu SQ is cheaper and can in all probability have higher health options, however I feel it’s fairly ugly and makes use of a much less engaging LCD show with a a lot shorter battery life.

The general construct high quality and look is probably not nearly as good as these of the Huawei Watch GT 4, however it’s engaging sufficient, and you’ll tweak the looks with the bezels and straps.

Equally, it could not have fairly the identical superior options as Huawei, Fitbit or Garmin, however it’s priced accordingly, and it has all of the necessary options I need.

For a very long time, I’ve really useful Xiaomi GPS-equipped watches as probably the most cost-efficient method to observe outside actions with Strava, and this stays true right here.

Much like the competing choices, which lack a fully-fledged smartwatch OS, the battery life is phenomenal. With the all-on show switched off, I used to be getting near 14 days of utilization, and that’s with a number of hours of GPS sports activities monitoring per week.  Total, I’d say the Xiaomi Watch S3 stands out as the most effective smartwatch at this worth level and I feel it’s a nice possibility for anybody searching for reasonably priced health monitoring with Strava assist.

I’m James, a UK-based tech fanatic and the Editor and Proprietor of Mighty Gadget, which I’ve proudly run since 2007. Enthusiastic about all issues expertise, my experience spans from computer systems and networking to cell, wearables, and good dwelling gadgets.

As a health fanatic who loves operating and biking, I even have a eager curiosity in fitness-related expertise, and I take each alternative to cowl this area of interest on my weblog. My numerous pursuits enable me to carry a novel perspective to tech running a blog, merging life-style, health, and the newest tech traits.

In my tutorial pursuits, I earned a BSc in Info Methods Design from UCLAN, earlier than advancing my studying with a Grasp’s Diploma in Computing. This superior examine additionally included Cisco CCNA accreditation, additional demonstrating my dedication to understanding and staying forward of the expertise curve.

I’m proud to share that Vuelio has constantly ranked Mighty Gadget as one of many high expertise blogs within the UK. With my dedication to expertise and drive to share my insights, I intention to proceed offering my readers with participating and informative content material.

Final replace on 2024-03-10 / Affiliate hyperlinks / Photographs from Amazon Product Promoting API