Xiaomi Watch S5 – watch with luxurious appearance and long battery life

Three weeks of battery life

The appearance and battery life can be said to be the focus of the Xiaomi Watch S5.

Earlier this year, Xiaomi released the Watch 5 with 5 days of battery life, which is remarkable for a watch with Wear OS. The Xiaomi Watch S5 promises three weeks of battery life, but this is of course due to the fact that it has a simpler system where you cannot install apps. The Xiaomi Watch S5 actually has more in common with Xiaomi’s popular activity meter Smart Band, which costs under a thousand, than with the Xiaomi Watch 5.

Compared to a cheap activity meter, at least you get a large screen in a luxurious package with the Xiaomi Watch 5. The frame is made of stainless steel. Xiaomi does not say what the glass is made of, but given that the frame was made with raised edges to protect the screen, the glass is probably not of the more durable kind. The included bracelet is made of genuine leather. It uses standard watch strap attachment so you can buy a new strap at any watch store.

The screen is large with almost 1.5 inch diameter and thin bezels all around. It has a maximum brightness of 2500 nits and thus works well for reading even in strong sunlight.

According to Xiaomi, the battery life of three weeks is for light use. I’m actually getting significantly more than that, but it turns out that’s partly because many of the watch’s features were turned off. Xiaomi has a habit of doing that, and I have to, for example, go in and turn on sleep measurement, blood oxygenation measurement, stress measurement, movement break reminders and more manually.

Sleep advice

It is precisely the sleep measurement that Xiaomi highlights as particularly advanced. In addition to getting the different sleep stages, you also get an analysis of what they mean. I compare with the sleep analysis from Google Health Premium with a Fitbit meter, and get fairly consistent results about the different sleep stages. Google’s AI-based analysis is more easy to understand, Xiaomi’s is more of an enumeration of what was good and bad about the night’s sleep. Xiaomi’s analysis, on the other hand, contains concrete and useful suggestions on how sleep can be improved.

Of course, the watch also measures heart rate, number of steps, calorie consumption and other health measures. Three bars for calories, steps and movement breaks act as daily goals to keep you motivated. You can also log training sessions of a wide range of types. For example, in the case of a logged run session, in addition to heart rate zones and a map, you also get step length variation, cadence, height changes along the run and more. The information feels mediocre, and if you use other training services, they can be synced outside of Xiaomi’s app to Health Connect, Strava or Suunto. The results feel accurate but I can find that sometimes the heart rate is measured a little low for me if I compare to the Fitbit and my experience.

Notifications but no responses

I can get the phone’s notifications to the watch, either by mirroring the phone’s notifications, which I wouldn’t recommend, or by choosing which apps are allowed to send notifications to the watch. Unfortunately, there is no way to reply to messages directly from the watch. Many clocks otherwise allow you to choose between pre-entered answers, but that option is not available here. Other features you’ll find in more advanced smart watches that are missing here are the ability to stream music to headsets or to take phone calls from the watch. There is a variant of the watch with space for a SIM card, but it is not sold in Sweden.

However, you can actually make payments with the watch. The Xiaomi Pay app has a short list of supported Swedish banks, but it includes Curve, SEB and Swedbank.

Depending on what you want out of a watch, the Xiaomi Watch S5 could definitely be worth buying. The battery life is in itself an advantage over a simpler activity bracelet, in addition to the watch being prettier. But I really miss the ability to respond to notifications.