Xiaomi Watch 5 review: the Wear OS smartwatch that finally fixes battery life (aff)
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Xiaomi’s latest smartwatch finally gives Wear OS fans the battery life they’ve been crying out for
For Wear OS devotees, the Xiaomi Watch 5 might be the smartwatch you've been waiting for. Because it finally offers genuinely usable battery life.
It's no small claim either, as it feels like every Wear OS launch has buried its battery endurance, while this one sings it from the rooftops.
We've got a 930mAh silicon-carbon battery to thank for this. And while that sounds exciting, and you start to conjure up thoughts of a fortnight between charges, don't get too far ahead of yourself, it's still a claimed six days. So not quite the week-long stint you'll get from the likes of Huawei or Garmin, but impressive all the same.
It's not just the battery that grabs headlines, either. It has a bright AMOLED display, sapphire glass, proper smartwatch apps thanks to the Google-based operating system, and decent fitness tracking.
It also charges pretty quickly, it has Gemini support, and it looks pretty elegant, too.
Xiaomi has become exceptionally good at hardware design lately and this watch looks far more expensive than its £269.99 price tag suggests.
The metal casing feels premium, the display is gorgeous and the whole thing has a clean, understated look that works equally well in the gym, the office or out for dinner.
And that display really is excellent. It’s bright enough outdoors, incredibly sharp and large enough that notifications are genuinely easy to read without squinting at your wrist
In terms of the battery life, it is, as I've said, impressive, but Xiaomi’s battery claims do seem slightly optimistic if you're a particularly heavy user.
It's more realistic to expect three or four days rather than the full six, especially with all the clever features enabled. Still handy, but set your expectations correctly. Still, even at four days, that’s miles ahead of most Pixel Watches.
Performance is mostly good too. Apps open quickly enough, Wear OS finally makes the watch feel properly smart, and having access to Google services massively improves the experience over Xiaomi’s older watches running stripped-back software.
But this is also where some of the cracks start appearing. The UI occasionally feels oddly sluggish considering the hardware underneath. You'll occasionally see slightly clunky animations and inconsistent smoothness compared to rivals like the OnePlus Watch 3.
And then there’s Xiaomi’s software weirdness. Notifications occasionally behave oddly. Some settings are buried in bizarre places. Certain interactions feel unintuitive. This is all ripe for finessing with a few updates, and I don't doubt the niggles will vanish over time, but early adopters should be aware.
It's also fair to say fitness and health tracking are decent rather than class-leading. GPS performance seems solid and the watch tracks workouts reliably enough, but if you’re a hardcore runner, cyclist or data obsessive, Garmin and Huawei still feel more polished.
It's worth remembering, though, that this is a sub-£300 watch, and it has attributes that will compete with the seriously expensive stuff.
The hardware is there. The battery life is there. The display is there. Even the software is massively improved compared to older Xiaomi wearables. But there are still just enough rough edges to stop it feeling truly elite.
That said, the Xiaomi Watch 5 gets the basics right, and that's the least you should expect at this end of the market.
If you want the absolute best smartwatch experience regardless of price, Apple, Samsung and Garmin still sit slightly higher up the tree.
But if you want something stylish, capable, affordable, and refreshingly low-maintenance that won’t die halfway through a weekend away, the Xiaomi Watch 5 makes a surprisingly strong case for itself.