Xiaomi’s smartwatch lineup has matured rapidly, and the Watch 5 represents a bold step into the premium segment. With a refined design, upgraded internals, and a switch to Google’s Wear OS, the Watch 5 feels like a product that’s finally ready to compete head-on with the likes of Samsung and Apple.
Compared to the Watch S4, Xiaomi has made meaningful improvements across the board—especially in build quality, battery life, and health tracking. It delivers a more refined experience with longer runtimes, a tougher build, and smarter health tracking.
The polished 316L stainless steel frame and double-sided sapphire crystal glass not only elevate the aesthetic but also improve durability. The 1.54-inch AMOLED display now reaches a peak brightness of 1500 nits, making it easily readable under Singapore’s harsh midday sun. Battery life is another area where Xiaomi has pushed boundaries.
The Watch 5 houses a 930mAh silicon-carbon battery, delivering up to six days of regular use and an impressive 18 days in power-saving mode. This is a significant upgrade over the Watch S4, which typically lasted three to four days.
Health and fitness tracking has also seen a notable evolution. The watch can track over a hundred activities, including esports and board games, giving passive gamers a view of their energy consumption over these emotionally intensive activities.
The Xiaomi Watch 5 introduces an EMG sensor, allowing gesture-based controls by detecting muscle activity. Users can simply snap their fingers, shake their wrists, pinch their fingers or rotate their wrists to invoke commands and run apps.
Standard metrics like heart rate, SpO2, sleep tracking and stress monitoring are available for analysis. Apart from tracking pace, heart rate and calorie burn rate during runs, the watch tracks elevation, pace, cadence, stride, vertical amplitude, and ground contact time (GCT).
The shift to Google’s Wear OS opens the door to a richer app ecosystem, including Google Maps, Wallet, Calendar, Play Store access, and Gemini Smart Assistant. Just install the Mi Fitness app on any Android smartphone, and data will be synced both ways, providing full access to all your fitness data, customising watch faces, and personalising alerts.
In daily use, the Xiaomi Watch 5 feels snappy; its large screen provides ample data at a glance during workouts or when reading messages. The rotating crown and side button offer tactile feedback, while the gesture controls—though still a novelty—hint at Xiaomi’s ambition to redefine smartwatch interaction.
You can install many native apps, like WhatsApp,p to get access to chat history on your wrist. As for battery life, it can confidently last 5 days in smart mode, but could stretch to 6 if you don’t use the watch regularly.
For those entering the Xiaomi ecosystem for the first time, the Watch 5 offers a premium experience at a competitive price point. With its blend of luxury design, extended battery life, and advanced health features, Xiaomi has crafted a smartwatch that’s both stylish and smart, that embraces our urban lifestyle.
Xiaomi Watch 5 is retailing at S$349 and is available at all Xiaomi stores or the Xiaomi online store.
