Xiaomi announced it’s making the jump to Wear OS for its new Watch 2 Pro. And in true Xiaomi fashion, it’s offering a surprisingly stacked set of features, including body composition analysis and dual-frequency GPS, for an attractive price: £229.99 (roughly $280) or £279.99 ($340) for the LTE version.
The big benefit of Wear OS is access to third-party apps via the Google Play Store as well as Google’s own suite of services like Wallet, Maps, and notably, Google Assistant. Previously, non-Samsung or Google smartwatches had to plod along without Assistant for months, so it’s nice to see a Wear OS watch finally launch with it. Xiaomi didn’t specify which version of Wear OS it was launching with. However, the fact that it’s powered by the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon W5 Plus means that even if it launches with Wear OS 3, it’ll likely be eligible for an upgrade down the line. For reference, the only currently available Wear OS 4 watch is the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 series.
For design, the Watch 2 Pro looks like your standard round-faced smartwatch with a 1.43-inch OLED display, 46mm stainless steel case, and a digital crown. It’s hard to say whether this will be a chonker from pictures alone, but Xiaomi is boasting 65 hours of estimated battery life. That should mean real-world multiday battery life, something that Android smartwatch makers have struggled to achieve. I’ve only ever gotten 65 hours on the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro.
On the health and fitness tracking front, the Watch 2 Pro supports 150 sports modes, stress tracking, blood oxygen levels, sleep, and high heart rate notifications. More interesting is the fact that it’ll support dual-frequency GPS and body composition analysis. The former is something that you currently find in multisport watches from Garmin and in the Apple Watch Ultra models, enabling greater precision for outdoor activity. The latter is something that, thus far, only Samsung has had on a smartwatch. Based on Xiaomi’s launch presentation, it appears as if the feature on the Watch 2 Pro operates much like Samsung’s version.
Xiaomi didn’t give an exact launch date or say whether it’d be available in the US (unlikely, given Xiaomi’s history). The Watch 2 Pro will be available in black with a fluoroelastomer strap and in silver with a leather strap.
