Xiaomi Watch S5 review

Introduction, unboxing

People emotion the Xiaomi Watch S models and with bully reason. They're affordable (€150 from Amazon), they're feature-rich and capable, but astir apt much important than thing else, they're great-looking.

Model five is nary antithetic and, this exertion argues, is adjacent prettier than before, making it adjacent much desirable. There's a noticeable uptick successful refinement and perceived prime and durability with this year's model. It's ditched the interchangeable bezel of the previous model, which astatine slightest means you won't suffer it. But don't worry, determination are antithetic bezels (four of them), depending connected the antithetic colour you spell for.

The Xiaomi Watch S5 we've got for reappraisal is the 46mm model, and it comes successful Black, Silver, Jungle Green (ours), and Ceramic Blue. Prices commencement from €180 for the Black and Silver, and €200 for the Jungle Green and Ceramic Blue.

Just similar before, the ticker ships successful a container with a strap and a two-pin magnetic charger, which ends connected a USB-A larboard (shame!). The non-universal charging puck means mounting the ticker down to complaint tin beryllium a multiple-try affair, but luckily the large artillery beingness means you'll bash it little than ever.

Design, display

The Xiaomi Watch S5 uses a premix of materials. Its show is immoderate signifier of scratch-resistant crystal, though not sapphire. The lawsuit is made of 316L stainless alloy connected each models. The Black and Silver models usage stainless alloy for the bezel arsenic well, portion the Ceramic Blue exemplary has a (you guessed it) ceramic bezel, and the Jungle Green exemplary uses a forged c bezel.

The Watch S5 has a refined physique compared to its predecessor. It's a spot smaller astatine 46mm and little heavy astatine 11mm. Much of that was achieved by slimming down the bezels by 40%, which has the upside of allowing for a somewhat larger show - 1.48-inch vs 1.43-inch connected the aged model. That means that connected the wrist, you've got a slimmer timepiece that's smaller and has a bigger display.

Like its predecessors, the Watch S5 has a classical plan with pronounced lugs connected either broadside that equine modular 22mm straps - nary proprietary mechanisms to woody with.

The exemplary we've got for reappraisal has a two-tone lawsuit decorativeness with a glossy mediate (frame, buttons, and lugs), and a matte bezel. The bezel has a layered design, which looks awesome and unique, though it's not to everyone's taste. It's besides a concentric ellipse with an embedded interior bezel.

That interior bezel has infinitesimal markers astir the borderline - a must-have for immoderate ticker enthusiasts.

The strap is simply a operation of fluororubber and woven nylon successful a beauteous greenish color.

The 46mm exemplary felt conscionable close for a fewer of america present astatine GSMArena. It's champion suited for regular-sized wrists and feels precise comfy to deterioration for some leisure and sports activities.

Xiaomi has matched the lawsuit and strap nicely with the default ticker face. The look of the Watch S5 conscionable feels right.

You get a rotating crown that's besides pushable, arsenic good arsenic a fastener underneath. They're not customizable, which is simply a shame. The crown itself is color-matched to the watch, greenish successful this case. It's a tasteful interaction which makes the plan much cohesive.

There's a talker grille conscionable nether the 2 buttons and a microphone spread connected the different side.

Buttons and a speaker

The show is premium. It's a 1.48-inch AMOLED with a 480x480px solution (also crisp astatine 323ppi), a precocious brightness mode of 1,500 nits, and a highest brightness of 2,500 nits.

We had nary issues with the surface adjacent successful the brightest of sunlit days. It's easy legible.

But conscionable arsenic important arsenic the surface specs is the ticker face. Xiaomi's default 1 for the Watch S5 was this editor's favourite choice. It's classy, classic, and has the astir important accusation (for me) - the time, the date, the battery, and 1 customizable slot.

There are hundreds of different faces successful the Mi Fitness app. Faces are neatly organized into Online and Local ones, and they're fundamentally each free. You tin browse faces done your phone, and tapping connected 1 volition amusement you whether it's customizable and which complications you tin alter. It's bully and extensive.

There's, of course, an always-on show for each ticker face.

Interface

The Xiaomi Watch S5 runs HyperOS 3, a proprietary software, which has everything you'd request successful presumption of features. You tin power your phone's music, get and reply notifications, and there's adjacent a distant shutter app (though you request to unfastened the camera app first).

Operating the ticker is elemental enough. A swipe from the apical brings down the notifications, and swiping up from the bottommost brings up the antithetic widgets (or cards) - weather, steps, bosom rate, sleep, etc. Swiping further than the widgets brings up the apps grid, but you tin besides bash that by pressing the crown.

Swiping from the near does nothing, portion a swipe from the close brings up the ticker look menu.

There are immoderate elaborate gestures connected the Xiaomi Watch S5, similar pinching and snapping your fingers. Honestly, it's not precise useful. You request to acceptable up the snapping motion by snapping your fingers (duh). Well, the ticker recognized 2 snaps retired of 20 - and those were immoderate beardown snaps. It's conscionable not precise delicate and good thought out.

You tin person a honeycomb of app icons, person them with substance nether the icon, oregon conscionable usage a database of apps.

Pressing the bottommost fastener brings up the speedy toggles, which are rearrangeable. There's nary mode to customize either fastener to bash thing different, which is precise limiting.

The Xiaomi Watch S5 adjacent offers NFC payments connected your wrist. You request to pin-lock the ticker for security, and adhd the cards done the Mi Fitness app connected your phone. Currently, Visa and Mastercard are supported, and you tin cheque which banks are supported successful your region.

Health and fittingness tracking

Xiaomi watches person ever been stellar astatine fittingness tracking, and the Watch S5 is nary different. You've got much than 150 sports modes, with elaborate options similar aggregate types of moving and swimming, dance, combat sports, and adjacent committee games similar cards, chess, and checkers. There's a moving manager and a skis mode, favorites of this editor.

Like the exemplary earlier it, the Xiaomi Watch S5 has dual-band positioning with enactment for GPS, Galileo, Glonass, BeiDou, and QZSS. Xiaomi claims the caller ticker is some faster to fastener onto a awesome and much accurate. In my testing, GPS fastener took astir 6-7 seconds, and representation information was highly accurate.

Xiaomi says its caller four-LED, four-PD bosom complaint and humor oxygen sensor, combined with an upgraded algorithm, provides a 98.40% bosom complaint accuracy. The ticker tin besides show your humor oxygen passim the day, ticker retired for your accent levels, connection breathing exercises, and way women's cycles.

Like the Xiaomi Smart Band 10 Pro, the Watch S5 yet has amended slumber tracking, acknowledgment to an upgraded slumber tracking algorithm. This has been a gripe of this exertion before, wherever I'd get over-estimated heavy slumber numbers from Xiaomi wearables. Whereas with the Smart Band 10 Pro and the Watch S5, I'm getting numbers that are successful enactment with different wearables from Samsung and Huawei.

Sleep tracking and workouts

Battery life, charging

Probably the biggest betterment connected the Watch S5 is to the battery. The caller exemplary has gone from a 486mAh connected the Watch S4 to 815mAh - that's a 67.7% uptick successful capacity. Xiaomi achieved this by adding silicon (15% silicon content) to the caller Surge Battery.

Claimed maximum endurance is 21 days, with 14 days of mean use, and up to 9 days with the always-on show enabled. My investigating included raise-to-wake active, 5 workouts per week (it's shot season), regular slumber tracking, and wearing the ticker each time astatine enactment and astatine home. Basically 20+ hours of having the ticker connected my wrist. I got an awesome 15 days of endurance from a azygous charge! It's existent forget-about-it artillery life, and it's (in this editor's opinion) a must-have for immoderate watch, beryllium it astute oregon not. No notes!

Verdict

Objectively, there's precise small to kick astir here. We similar the mode the Xiaomi Watch S5 looks, and it's built precise well. Yes, it mislaid the swappable bezels, which were a unsocial selling point, but it comes successful 4 chiseled finishes that should screen everybody's tastes. I'm successful emotion with the Jungle Green model. Of course, this is simply a ample 46mm ticker champion suited for normal-to-large wrists; Xiaomi should hurry up and merchandise a smaller, perchance 41mm Watch S5 model, akin to what it did with the Watch S4 series.

Having utilized some this ticker and its predecessor, I tin accidental that the caller exemplary has a perceivable betterment successful physique prime and feel. What hasn't changed is its exhaustive database of features and abilities - there's hardly thing this ticker can't do, and thing it can't bash well.

Xiaomi should get each the praise successful the satellite for the betterment successful artillery life! The Watch S5 has adjacent to 70% much artillery capableness without weighing noticeably much - impressive! And, arsenic expected, the bigger artillery yields amended endurance, which is much than welcome!

Pros

• Feels amended built and nicer than its predecessor; non-removable bezel whitethorn beryllium a positive here
• Four exemplary choices - thing for immoderate taste
• Excellent bundle for a tenable price
• Display is agleam and legible
• Forget-about-it artillery beingness - much than 14 days with tracking and notifications.
• Extensive wellness and fittingness tracking capabilities.
• Seemingly much close wellness tracking than predecessor.
• Standard 22mm bands
• The ticker works with each phones, NFC payments (region and slope dependent).

Cons

• There's nary smaller exemplary (yet).
• Some mightiness lament the non-swappable bezels (not us).
• Non-customizable buttons.
• USB-A charging cablegram with two-pin plan is annoying successful 2026.