Until now powered by the proprietary MIUI Watch operating system, Xiaomi’s connected watches enjoy better autonomy than competing brands under Google Wear OS (Samsung Galaxy Watch 5, Pixel Watch, etc.), but are cut off in return compatibility with many applications from the Play Store.
A thorn in the side of the Chinese manufacturer who would therefore consider adopting Wear OS for a future watch. From there to imagining a Xiaomi Watch S3 (the Watch S2 having already been released in China) under Wear OS 3, there is only one step… which we will not cross yet. Choosing Wear OS seems somewhat risky, even though MIUI Watch seems to have reached a certain maturity and meets most of the uses expected of a connected watch. Especially if Xiaomi fails to preserve battery life more than its competitors using Wear OS. Remember that the Xiaomi Watch S1 watch can work for 12 days in connected mode, where most models under Wear OS do not exceed two days under the same conditions of use.
We could nevertheless settle for a short week of endurance, or even three or four days to take advantage of the refinements of Wear OS and the many apps compatible with this system. A goal that could perhaps be achieved by Mobvoi’s next watch, the TicWatch 5 Pro revealed last January. The latter should indeed integrate the latest Snapdragon W5 Gen 1 chip from Qualcomm, which is supposed to be more energy efficient. We therefore look forward to it, hoping that good autonomy for a watch under Wear OS is not just a mirage. In which case a Xiaomi watch under Wear OS would indeed make sense.