I’ll admit, when it comes to wearables, Xiaomi isn’t the first brand that springs to mind. In fact, it’s so far out of my radar that when the brand presented its Xiaomi Watch S3, I was dumbfounded to learn that the company does make smartwatches that actually look like watches.
With the Xiaomi Watch S3 incoming, not only did Xiaomi surprise me with their offering but it exceeded my expectation with just how customizable the smart device could be.
With a price point of just (local SRP), and a wide range of options to mix and match the design, should the Xiaomi Watch S3 take space in your daily fashion repertoire?
Geek-sthetic
The Xiaomi Watch S3 adopts a more traditional watch design as opposed to the rectangular watch bands that smartwatches are more known for. This already is a good sign for me, but the brand took the sleek, cylindrical brushed-metal aluminum frame and added a slew of customizable concepts towards it. While changing the watch bands isn’t necessarily novel, the ability to quickly change the bezel is – and that’s what the Xiaomi Watch S3 offers compared to its competitors.
With 4 different creative bezels accompanied by their respective leather bands, there’s a myriad of combinations and style codes just waiting to be unlocked. The specialized bezels also comes with their exclusive watch face. Simply replace the stock bezel with the new one and the your Xiaomi Watch S3 automatically will automatically change its watch face as well.
Now, with just one watch, you can literally mix and match the bezels and the straps to your wardrobe.
Jumping from this, the Xiaomi Watch S3 has a large 1.43” AMOLED display (466×466 resolution with 321PPI) that should give you enough real estate to check notifications, messages, emails, and other health and sports information, right on your wrist.
At 47mm diameter, the watch might seem all too big (or heavy) but because of the aluminum frame, the entire thing weighs just around 44g (sans the elastomeric bands it comes right out of the box with).
Personally, I’m excited to try out the other bezel outboxes particularly the Rainbow, the ceramic Gradient Green, and (of course) the Yellow. That should really zhuzh-up my daily wear.
Sports & Fitness Tracking
On the health and sports tracking side, the Xiaomi Watch S3 has more than 150+ sports mode to accurately monitor your every activity. There’s also a constant heartrate and blood Oxygen monitoring capability as well so the smartwatch can give you the most current update on your heart health whenever you engage in any strenuous physical activity.
Whether you’re a light jogger, expert golfer, into snowboarding and skiing, or into free diving the Xiaomi Watch S3 should be able to keep up with you. And yes, despite the fact that you can remove and replace bezels, the smartwatch can go up to 5ATM under the sea.
Lastly, the Xiaomi Watch S3 has a quirky sleep animal function where after 7 days of tracking your sleep cycle, the watch assigns a sleep animal that best represents your sleeping pattern. Are you a night owl, or a Brown Bear, or a Koala perhaps? It’s a fun way to track your health and see areas where you can improve on.
Everyday Reliability
As always, having all these features mean nothing if your watch can’t keep up with you throughout your day, or in the case, your week before the need to top up on juice. Luckily, the Xiaomi Watch S3 is equipped with a large 486mAh internal battery that should last you about 2 weeks with typical use. If you turn the AOD (always-on-display) mode, your battery life could get cut in half (depending on how many functions are turned on within the AOD mode).
If there is one thing that we wish could get updated, we’re hoping that you can create pre-set replies on your watch that you can send to your instant notifications. While it’s great that you do get updated on messages and emails, there’s no way for you to reply via your smartwatch. If other smartwatch brands can do it, we’re confident that Xiaomi can follow suit as well.
Final Geek Lifestyle Recommendation
If you’re in the market for a very competent smartwatch that can easily fit your ever-shifting fashion style, then the Xiaomi Watch S3 might just be the watch for you. Unlike other smartwatches (or watches for that matter), the Xiaomi Watch S3 becomes an economical choice because you just have to decide whether you want to get a black based smartwatch or a silver one and then just purchase as much outerbox bezels and straps as you can.
The great thing about this is, you don’t have to keep on re-learning a new OS or getting used to new functionalities. There’s a convenience in getting settled into ecosystem instead of carrying several watches (and smartwatches).
With the stunning outer bezels and straps as well, you can definitely dial into style with the Xiaomi Watch S3.
The Xiaomi Watch S3 retails for just PHP 6,999 making this one of the most affordable (and sensible) smartwatches out in the market to date. With a robust set of health and sports tracker and the fact that you can swap-out the bezels and straps to create a truly unique look, the Xiaomi Watch S3 is poised to be your style companion for the year. The replacement bezels retail at Php 749 for the Ocean Blue Stainless Steel Bezel, Php 1729 for the Dual-Tone Ceramic Green and Chrome Yellow Bezels, and Php 1859 for the Rainbow Bezel with accompanying leather straps setting you back for Php 649 for each of the respective colorways.
For more information, head over to Xiaomi’s official social pages and check their official page as well for order details.
Xiaomi Watch S3 Specs:
- 47mm: 47 x 47 x 12mm
- 1.43” AMOLED color screen (466×466) with 326 PPI, 74% Screen-to-body ratio
- 44 g (excluding the strap)
- Colors: Black/ Silver
- Case: Aluminum Alloy
- Strap: Black Elastomeric Strap
- Outbox strap/bezel options: Chrome Yellow, Ocean Blue, Dual-tone Ceramic, Rainbow
- Sensors – Heart rate sensor (with blood oxygen sensor), Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Geomagnetic sensor, Atmospheric sensor, Ambient light sensor, Hall sensor
- Main Button, Function Button
- IP68 Rated (5 ATM Water Resist)
- NFC/ Bluetooth (2.4 GHz, supports BT5.2), Dual-Band GNSS
- 15 Days Battery Life (standard) 486mAh battery capacity
- Xiaomi HyperOS, Android 8.0 and iOS 12.0 and above
- PHP 6,999 SRP