Xiaomi’s first Wear OS watch looks like a Galaxy Watch knock-off, may get MIUI skin

Ben Schoon | Sep 15 2023 - 6:55 am PT

We first reported early this year that Xiaomi was working on a new smartwatch running Wear OS 3, and it seems that watch is finally around the corner.

Xiaomi is no stranger to the smartwatch market, but the Chinese brand has never adopted Google’s Wear OS. Rather, it’s largely used lightweight operating systems to deliver wearables with strong battery life, but lacking apps and services that Wear OS’ Android base provides, at least in markets outside of China.

That may finally be changing, with the alleged “Xiaomi Watch 2 Pro.”

Official-looking renders of the device appeared on Twitter/X via a new account by the name of @MysteryLupin. The fact that this is a new account alone makes all of this information worth taking with a grain of salt, but the renders here don’t really seem to have any obvious red flags.

The “Xiaomi Watch 2 Pro” is said to run on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon W5+ chip with 2GB of RAM and 32GB of storage, which immediately makes this an appealing device based on its raw power alone. The post further details a 1.43-inch display, stainless steel and Gorilla Glass build, 5ATM water resistance, a rotating crown, optional LTE, and a whopping 500 mAh battery.

Again, on paper it’s all very compelling.

In terms of the hardware itself, the design is relatively basic. The body of the device splits the difference between classy and sporty, and really looks a lot like Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 4 Classic in a lot of ways. Charging appears to be handled by pins rather than wireless charging, which could be a benefit for charging speeds.

But, most interesting of all here is the software. The “Xiaomi Watch 2 Pro” is said to be running Wear OS with a MIUI skin on top. This wouldn’t be unprecedented, of course. While Wear OS blocked manufacturer skins for many years, that’s changed. Samsung has One UI on its watches, Mobvoi makes tweaks on TicWatch, and others have also taken liberties with the design.

We don’t know what Xiaomi has in store for the software, but the “Watch 2 Pro” is said to launch alongside Xiaomi 13T soon with a price of €349 in Europe. A US release is not expected.