The Redmi Watch 3 packs a big screen and fitness focus
Long life batt promises over a week's worth of workouts
Redmi is no stranger to a sensibly-priced smartphone, but the Xiaomi sub-brand also knows a thing or two about wearables. The Redmi Watch 3 (£100, from mi.com) is the firm’s latest: a large screen smartwatch with an equally expansive battery, which should help even serious fitness fanatics go more than a week away from the mains.
It’s packing a 1.75in rectangular AMOLED display panel with an impressive 600 nits peak brightness, which should cope just fine under the midday sun. A sharp 390×450 resolution and 70% screen to body ratio provide room to show multiple notifications and messages on a single screen, without distracting bezels getting in the way. An always-on display puts the time a glance away, too.
The watch case is made from metal-effect plastic (you weren’t expecting an aluminium build in a £100 wearable, were you?) in a choice of Black and Ivory colours. They’ve got matching TPU rubber straps that should cope with serious workouts. Anyone after something a little more colourful should pick up one of the two special edition models, which have Aqua Blue and Lime Green straps.
Inside you’re looking at a full set of health trackers, including heart rate and blood oxygen as well as steps and sleep. GPS is also on board for mapping your workouts, with support for five different satellite systems, and Xiaomi’s home-grown software has a whopping 121 different sport and activity modes. It’ll also auto-detect six of the most common, so you don’t even need to start recording yourself. Swimming and surfing are even on the menu, with 5ATM waterproofing.
Redmi says Watch 3 should last up to 12 days before it’ll need topping up, as long as you’re not out running ultramarathons every day.
It’ll do all the usual smartwatch stuff as well, with a built-in speaker and microphone for taking calls on your wrist instead of your phone. You can pick between more than 200 different watch faces through the companion app, too.
The Redmi Watch 3 is going on sale in the UK from today, directly from the mi.com website, for £100.
Tom Morgan-Freelander
Deputy Editor