Redmi Watch 2

Why did I buy the Redmi Watch 2? Mainly because my Fossil watch went in for repair, and they said it’d be at least a month before it came back from the factory.

For a month I’d have nothing on my wrist to check the time, so I had a fresh excuse to buy this thing. I got in on the first batch, paid around 299 yuan—retail was supposed to be 399.

The packaging is nothing fancy. Open it up and there it is. Gotta say, even though it’s basically an oversized fitness band, the build quality is genuinely nice. From a distance it really looks like an Apple Watch. Up close it still looks like one. As long as you don’t swipe, you can pretend it’s an Apple Watch.

I’ve used it for about two weeks now, and I’ve got some thoughts, so I figured I’d write them down.

First, looks. I know plenty of people dunked on the previous Redmi Watch for its chunky bezels—black looks okay from afar, but up close it’s cheap as hell. That’s gone on the 2. The bezels are genuinely narrow and it looks premium.

The default strap is black rubber, but it’s replaceable—though the connector is Redmi’s own custom job, so you’ll probably have to go hunting on eBay.

The built-in system is dead simple. From a software standpoint this really is a “big fitness band.” It does scheduled heart-rate monitoring and can mirror notifications from your phone—but only mirror them. You can’t interact with them at all, no replying or anything.

It can detect media playback on your phone, but you have to swipe to see it. It also supports sleep tracking, blood oxygen, stress tracking, and other advanced features—though my guess is they’re all calculated, not really “measured” in the way people imagine.

The watch supports various workout modes, including “auto-detection.” But let me be clear: “auto-detect” doesn’t mean “auto-record.” At best it nudges you to start recording. If you don’t tap start, it does nothing. That makes the feature pretty much useless. I already have Nike Sports—why would I switch to your “Mi Wear app” just to log a run? And the dumbest part: even if I do use your app, the damn thing won’t sync with Google Fit. So I’m locked into your platform?

That said, the battery life is genuinely ridiculous. I wore it for two full weeks before I had to charge it. Of course, to get that battery life the refresh rate is trash—swiping stutters noticeably—and there are very few watch faces. Besides the ones in the store, you’ve got nothing.

Even though the Redmi Watch 2 caught a lot of flak shortly after launch—everyone said it had bugs—I got several firmware updates through the app, all claiming to fix a bunch of issues. I never really noticed anything wrong before anyway. The updates added some fun stuff, like adjustable vibration intensity. It made the originally pathetic haptics slightly more usable.

All in all, the Redmi Watch 2 is a big step up from its predecessor. At least it looks classy and the battery life is great. But functionally, I can’t see how it differs from a fitness band. I used to think my Wear OS watch was basically a garbage-tier band—until I used this actual band. Now I get it: Wear OS still has some tricks. At least it can dismiss my phone’s alarm, and view and reply to WeChat and Telegram messages on my wrist.