The Xiaomi Mi Watch Lite got a pretty stealthy announcement of its availability here in Malaysia a few days ago. We actually got this Mi Watch Lite a few days prior to the announcement, so now, we’re going to share our experience with you.
Before we begin, This is actually a rebrand of the Redmi Watch. One way to confirm this is by looking at the back of the box – the model name is unchanged. Thanks to Lim Reviews for pointing this out!
The Mi Watch Lite is simple and pretty nice in terms of design. It’s squarish in design, has a single button on the right side, and the strap is made mostly out of rubber.
Quick complaint – I really don’t like the materials used to make this strap. It’s too rubbery and it grips on my skin and on itself too much to the point where it’s difficult to even wear it.
Luckily, we can replace the strap by pressing on the little button and pulling it away from the watch.
On the specs sheet, Xiaomi listed the Mi Watch Lite with a 1.4-inch touch screen with a resolution of 320×320. It’s pretty bright but by default, the brightness level is locked at level 3 out of 6. You can change it to auto-brightness, too.
On the specs sheet, it also says that it’s a TFT LCD screen. Now, I have no idea why Xiaomi didn’t just state it as an IPS LCD because realistically, that’s what they’re using. TFT is an umbrella term that can mean either IPS or TN.
And how do I know it’s an IPS LCD screen? Because of viewing angles. It’s really good if I look at it from side to side, but the same cannot be said when I’m viewing from top to bottom. It’s a decent IPS LCD screen, but definitely not the best.
This also means that you can’t get extra battery life by using a watchface with mostly black color.
Speaking of watch faces, there are lots of watch faces to be downloaded via the new Xiaomi Wear app. There are a handful of watch faces that are split into a few categories to choose from, and the interface works as of now. It definitely needs a search bar in the near future when more watch faces are added.
And overall, the new Xiaomi Wear app has a very clean dashboard that tells me what’s up and I can also sort those items according to how you like it. And it’s also smart enough to automatically hide whichever features are not available on the Mi Watch Lite, like SpO2 and ECG.
It also automatically detects my sleep quality if I wear it and go to sleep. I don’t have to press anything and it just detects automatically.
Now, the Mi Watch Lite does have quite a lot of features built-in. The UI of the Mi Watch Lite is actually quite good. Please watch our video at the top of this review because it’s easier to show in the video.
And battery life – I’d consider myself to be a relatively heavy user. The Mi Watch Lite for me, I get hundreds of notifications in a day, with brightness level at 50%, it depleted 13% depletion in day 1, then 31% on day 2. I’ll say that the battery can last for about 4-5 days before needing a charge.
I do like the charger too. It’s not magnetic, unfortunately – but once the Mi Watch Lite is snapped into the charger, it becomes something like a bedside clock.
And yet the Mi Watch Lite is priced at only RM249 officially. There was a promotion whereby the Mi Watch Lite is only at RM199. Some commenters have voiced that it’s not really worth the price premium from the Mi Band 5, but that really depends on what you are looking on from a band.
The Mi Watch Lite is a fitness band but in a square shape instead of the usual Mi Band shape. It has a bigger screen, but in terms of functionality – they’re about the same.
Where to buy? (Affiliate links)
Like our Facebook Page here at NasiLemakTech.com for more news and in-depth reviews! Also, join our Facebook Group for insightful information and memes!
Subscribe to our YouTube channel too!
