Xiaomi Watch S1 Active review, sport at your wrist

Xiaomi Watch S1 Active review

The new Xiaomi 12 Pro, Xiaomi 12 and Xiaomi 12X arrive on the Italian market accompanied by two new smart watches that renew the Chinese company's wearable proposal. Wearable products are entering a sector increasingly populated by valid specimens, will they be able to stand out?

Today I am talking about the Xiaomi Watch S1 Active that will meet the taste of those who want a watch with classic shapes, with the intelligence of a sportwatch that winks massively at fitness. Will it also convince from the point of view of its usefulness to monitor our daily life?

Enterprising training partner

And I have just scratched the surface because, in addition to having a very long list, at the bottom you can choose to enter another sub-list and decide to add other sports and / or activities present here by making them active together with the "main" ones. Real categories, which contain others within them. For example, if we select outdoor activities we will find parkour, if we select training we will find most of the exercises that usually take place in the gym and, again, if we select dance there will be zumba, street dance, etc. And I could go on like this for hours, mentioning them all!

The list of activities does not remain there helpless, it can only be activated if you activate it. It happened to me very often to carry out an activity and the watch, realizing it, asked me if I wanted to monitor it. Then, in a completely automatic way, the appropriate information for the sport practiced at that moment appeared on the display with lots of useful suggestions.

Comfortable, you can hardly feel it on

The microphone and speaker are hardly noticeable. Furthermore, when worn, both are very close to the skin (but are not covered in any way).

The version I am testing is Ocean Blue, a pleasant and contrasting color from the dial that instead plays a dark gray . And then there is the back - the one in contact with the skin - with the pins for charging and the usual array of sensors that we will analyze later.


The weight of 36.3 grams and the thickness of 11mm means that it can also be worn under the sleeves of heavy sweaters and jackets from this period. The strap is thin, soft and the same color as the case.

Speaking of strap. In the package there is a very comfortable rubber one and even when you tighten it tightly to the wrist it will always have that elasticity that will allow it not to bother you. There are 18 closely spaced holes so that you can choose the exact point in which to set the closure.

Monitoring is its strong point

In the back, the one in contact with the wrist , the Xiaomi Watch S1 Active has sensors to measure the heart rate, the level of oxygen in the blood and can also constantly monitor the physical state, the distance traveled with the relative calculation of the calories burned, the quality of sleep in depth and also the level of stress.

There is also the option to be guided in breathing exercises and, for women, it is possible to keep track of their menstrual cycle. Unmissable weather seasoned with information on altitude and atmospheric pressure in real time.

Alarm clock, stopwatch, timer and compass complete the functions that the product has provided me with. There is also the possibility of setting the display with a white color at maximum brightness, translated, activate a flashlight.

The GPS is accurate and effective, I had to work hard to make it lose the signal. Inside there is also Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.2 consumes very little, even keeping it connected 24 hours a day with the smartphone.

And then there are also the "smart" functions that interface with the smartphone and allow you to make and receive calls and access the notifications screen. Conversations are average, don't expect a full-bodied speakerphone. Let's say that the interlocutor made himself understood and I understood him.

Excellent autonomy with all sensors activated

The company claims that the 470mAh battery can keep the sportwatch active up to 12 days on a single top-up. Autonomy clearly depends on how much you use it, both from the point of view of training monitoring but also from the point of view of the hours of display on.

In the package, to charge it, there is a circular base equipped of two pins which, through magnetism, fixes the watch for a correct charging position. Even just placing it without particular attention, charging has always started, a sign that the magnets attract it to itself at the exact point. I connected it to the mains with a classic wall charger or directly to the PC while I was working. With the fast recharge then I had the watch charged in no time at all. Otherwise in about two hours it will cover from 0 to 100%.

The MIUI Watch is simple, there is what you need

The software is not that different from other sportwatches company, it's simple and there is what you need. Clearly, the proprietary operating system is in clear contrast with products equipped with Wear OS but there is a lance to break in favor of Xiaomi as making a smartwatch is not its goal. The dials are not many but those that are preloaded are very functional going to range on different tastes, digital and analog. It is always possible to download new ones using the application that allows you to synchronize it with your smartphone: Mi Fitness.

However, there is no real application store to expand its functions. Still through the app, I found a voice that indicated the possibility of checking from time to time which apps could be transferred to the watch. However, these must always be screened by the company, third-party developers cannot devote themselves to them.

Notifications are the aspect that convinced me least. You can pair all the apps on your phone to receive them on the watch but, as far as I'm concerned, there are two problems:

the first is that the list of notifications is too short, you can only receive 20 This could be a problem for those who, like me, receive a lot of it, as in a few minutes I had already saturated the section; the second is that these 20 notifications are not automatically deleted or replaced by the most recent ones as they arrive. If you do not delete them with the appropriate button on the display, you will not be able to receive new ones. It is not possible in any way to respond to notifications or listen to audio messages (but this happens on many if not all the other watches on the market). In general, the rule of the notifications section is only to display them, they are not intelligently cut and it is possible to read all the text.

The gestures are simple and conform to the wearable world. With the swipe downwards you access the notifications, at the top of the control center, with those on the side of the various panels where there are health information and others arranged as a sort of Windows Mobile / Windows 8-style tile.

In the control panel there is the possibility to change the face, pair the watch with Bluetooth headphones, change the Wi-Fi settings, make it silent and adjust the brightness of the display.

Inside from the menu it is also possible to choose the do not disturb mode, the list of workouts, set a PIN to unlock the watch, set the Bluetooth, configure the display, choose the intensity of the vibration, access the shutdown and restart menu and the inevitable information on the system.

Conclusions

Wanting to be extremely concise, Xiaomi Watch S1 Active is an advanced sportwatch with a minimum of notification support. Aesthetically it is very valid, a mixture of sporty and elegance and with a really large and colorful display without compromise. Convenient, comfortable and thanks to its weight it is almost not perceived on the wrist.

The sportwatch part is excellent, with the ability to monitor a lot of activities in a decidedly accurate way with a lot of information that changes contextually to the sport we are practicing. And, if that's not enough, the watch tried to anticipate me by understanding what sport I was practicing and asking me if I wanted to continue with the monitoring without losing the minutes before the notification.

The use of the software is comfortable and immediate , there are no slowdowns and in everyday life and it is extremely pleasant to have it always ready for use with a twist of the wrist. Recommended for sports fanatics who want to always have the parameters at their fingertips. But if you plan to use it intensively for notifications and to personalize it, this product is not for you.