Xiaomi Watch S1 Pro Review
Xiaomi S1 Pro watch
By Xiaomi
Despite the "Pro" name, Xiaomi's successor to the standard Watch S1 doesn't justify the higher price. It's true that the S1 Pro has a more classic look, but its lack of true smartwatch capabilities suggests it relies on the tracking experience to back it up. However, this lack of credible information and precise accuracy when it comes to fitness and health tracking leaves the S1 Pro short on two important fronts. Ultimately, the experience is quite difficult to recommend.
- Big and vivid screen
- solid battery life
- Cheaper than other flags
- Average accuracy in all key areas
- There are no real smartwatch features
- The design doesn't feel "pro".
The Xiaomi S1 Pro is the company's first real attempt to create a smart watch.
After arriving late to the party and not launching its first smartwatch outside of China until 2020, we've seen a few attempts from Xiaomi, but none quite as expensive as the S1 Pro.
Despite leading the world of budget fitness trackers for nearly a decade, the company has yet to find the same traction with its smartwatches.
Anticipated for its global launch at MWC earlier this year, the S1 Pro followed the Xiaomi Watch S1 that launched in 2022 - we found it offered mixed accuracy and fairly standard smartwatch features.
Unfortunately, not much has changed with the Pro edition, although there are some bright spots for those who want to strap a Xiaomi smartwatch to their wrist. Here's our full review.
design and presentation
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Xiaomi has updated the display for the Pro edition, and the 1.47-inch AMOLED display is more prominent than the standard S1 due to its reduced bezel size.
Although a sleek digital crown has been added in place of one of the S1's pushers, the case still measures 46mm. Although it feels a bit clunky, it works very well and is a very intuitive way to navigate menus and stats at a glance.
We think the design of the notch has also been improved, there is now a small gap between the bezel and it is smaller than the standard S1.
While there are definite improvements over its cheaper sibling, we're still not entirely convinced how it fares today.
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The screen is bright and the interface is very elegant, but the body also looks quite dated; In fact, it reminds me of some of Fossil's older smartwatches, like the Q Explorist.
With Samsung, Apple, Google and other big smartwatch players pushing their unique case designs, the S1 Pro is very generic.
We hope some of you love the beautiful barebones styles. However, we don't think it reaches the classic premium watch feel that Xiaomi is trying to convey.
The leather strap is relatively cheap, the stainless steel case and overall size remain rare for a watch that leans more towards fitness tracking than pure smartwatch capabilities.
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At least the S1 Pro is pretty durable. Xiaomi installed sapphire glass on the AMOLED screen and maintained high scratch resistance.
We usually find screens or cases with other hand ring scratches or gym noises, but they hold up very well.
We also recommend it for water, although, as we say, the design is not very practical for training.
We didn't test it in a pool environment, but even with the leather strap, it felt pretty solid after a shower, and there was no fogging or annoying screen.
Xiaomi has given the S1 Pro a water rating of 5ATM, which means it can withstand an equivalent water pressure of 50m.
Smartwatch Features
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If you were expecting Xiaomi to take a step forward in this area with the S1 Pro, prepare to be disappointed. Despite being designed as a smartwatch, the Pro still offers the essentials.
Alexa support is limited to on-screen displays, despite the presence of a speaker, and there are no third-party apps to add to the library of action options. Xiaomi Pay was also quite buggy and we didn't get past the initial setup screen.
Without a mobile option, that means the S1 Pro doesn't offer much more than your average fitness tracker.
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Notification support can be quite extensive when the screen and support texts and calls are enabled in the Mi Fitness app, but third-party notification support is limited to some China-only apps, which is TRUE. sympathy
The new MUIU Watch OS software, while not much different from the old one, is at least responsive and easy to use.
It's also backed by a beautiful set of watch faces that you can change and customize within the Mi Fitness app. Whether you prefer digital or analog faces, you're in for a treat here, and at least the S1 Pro looks like a smartwatch.
Accuracy of training tracking
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While we wouldn't be entirely surprised if the S1 Pro continues to ditch some smartwatch features, the specs show that it can offer a pretty solid tracking experience.
However, based on our testing, the accuracy of the attractive dual-rate GPS and heart rate monitor falls far short of the best options. There are some nice features for runners, like cadence estimates and step details, but for the most part it's the same exercise tracking experience you'll find on most other fitness trackers.
Comparison of heart rate monitoring
To begin with, the S1 Pro performed quite well in a good portion of the 10 exercises we recorded with it. During steady pace and strength training, they were generally within a few beats of the Garmin Forerunner 265 when we checked them in real time, and the post-workout averages also correlated well with the whoop, as shown below.
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However, it also had several unsolved mishaps.
During the outdoor recovery below, the S1 Pro recorded our heart rate during a hill section, but then stayed at that heart rate for the rest of the workout.
This resulted in an average BPM for the session of 170 BPM, not the 146 BPM recorded by Garmin and Whoop.
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We've had similar experiences with strength training.
After our heart rate dropped significantly mid-workout, it failed to recover and put the rest of the workout in the 100 BPM range and well below the average of our other machines.
Instinctively, this sounds like a software bug that Xiaomi might fix with a future software update, but for now, be aware that heart rate monitoring during exercise can cause weird hiccups.
Dual frequency GPS accuracy
Initially only available on premium sports watches, dual-frequency GPS is finding its way to mid-range devices like the S1 Pro.
However, although the watch communicates with GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, BDS and QZSS satellite systems, the application here is not completely stable.
Location lock was fast and everything was marked during outdoor training, but in some cases distances were significantly underestimated.
The two races we followed were on our Garmin and cheering, but the other two were half a mile away.
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If you go back and look at the browser worm, the level of detail is not in the same range.
Take the example above. While the Forerunner 265 pinpoints exactly where we walked on the pavement, the S1 Pro puts us close.
And we can honestly say this is one of the most generous examples we can use, most of the lines the browser draws are even further away from where our browsing is actually happening.
When we reviewed the Watch S1 last year, it was a very similar story. So overall, it's disappointing that Xiaomi hasn't found a way to improve longevity since then.
Condition monitoring capabilities and accuracy
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The S1 was a device packed with health features, and Xiaomi improved things for the Pro version by adding a skin temperature sensor.
As a package, this means the Pro can measure your SpO2 level, track your sleep, provide stress alerts and read spot temperatures.
Surprisingly, most of these are turned off by default, meaning you'll need to visit your device's settings in the My Fitness app to get basics like sleep stages.
Once you get past that hurdle, our tests have shown that blood oxygen readings and calorie burn estimates are in line with what you'd expect from the likes of Whoop and Oura.
Resting heart rate readings were above our usual baseline, though Xiaomi takes them from a random point in the day when you're considered inactive, rather than your heart's lowest BPM or average BPM throughout the day.
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Despite the good accuracy here, we'll see that none of this is particularly important.
Unlike the best health watches, tracking this information has no ill effects. With no recommendations or daily trends highlighted, this means that something like a bad night's sleep is isolated from the rest of your health knowledge and you have to make it up yourself.
It's also quite difficult to get a lot of information into the My Fitness app, it suffers from the same inaccessible feeling as Apple Health, and unsurprisingly lacks much inspiration.
An example of this is something like surface temperature data. As long as the readings are properly logged, there is nothing to clean up, and it relies on manual readings to complete them, just like in other areas of the application.
Heart rate variability and ECG readings are also missing, but everything seems to be overcooked on Xiaomi's part.
Accuracy of sleep tracking
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This general theme portrays the S1 Pro's sleep tracking pretty well. We compared our night's sleep to Oura and Garmin and found the overall picture to be accurate, but lacking the true detail of those other platforms.
For example, the final figures for restful sleep and light sleep are usually in the same range as shown above, but the stages of sleep are less precise. By recording certain sleep stages, you wake up after a long period of time and surprisingly, Xiaomi is reluctant to record wake-up times here.
As shown below, many of our tests do not distinguish between "deep" and "REM" sleep, only selecting one or the other.
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We don't pay too much attention to the sleep phase accuracy of a wrist tracker, but it's also true that the experience here doesn't seem as well thought out as we've seen in others.
For those who want the basics, like full time in bed, this will definitely be enough, but that level of knowledge is also available in off-the-shelf trackers for a fraction of the price.
battery life and charge
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For all the S1 Pro's weak points, battery life is one area that's hard to argue with.
Xiaomi promises 14 days here, and in use it feels like a leap from the standard S1.
However, if you want to get the most out of the 500mAh unit, you'll need to be strategic. As mentioned, some tracking features are disabled by default and require a break from this 14-day trial to enable them.
The always-on display is another feature that will beat those battery expectations.
Without GPS training we would see a daily drop of around 5-10%, which would be around 10-11 days. However, with a 10% discount on dual frequency monitoring time on your own, that's a big factor in how long you can expect it to last.
We were only able to get the S1 Pro after 8 days as we saw a lot of outdoor training.
However, we have the always-on display and all the tracking functions, which we would really appreciate, although we'd bet that would be even less so if Xiaomi installed some proper smartwatch capabilities.
If you're having battery issues, S1 Pro fast charging should fix it. If you drop the S1 Pro into the charging dock for about 20 minutes, you'll see it gain about 40%, so you hardly have to suffer here. .
Xiaomi Watch S1 Pro #small box on test
Labels: Xiaomi
posted by Admin @ March 31, 2023
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