[REVIEW] Xiaomi Mi Watch Lite offer automatic brightness control and GPS at an affordable price

Are you saying that there are already too many smart watches on the market in various price categories? Yes, it's true, so if a manufacturer wants to get interested, they have to offer something extra compared to others. Xiaomi mi watch lite in our opinion, it succeeded. The watch has a built-in GPS, automatic brightness control and a very attractive price.

Where to Buy Xiaomi Mi Watch Lite

We purchased the Mi Watch Lite for review from our partner Banggood. Thanks to the well-known EU postage Priority Line we did not pay any additional delivery fees. Currently, the watch can also be purchased on the online marketplace Aliexpress, where it is available in Polish warehouse with fast delivery.

Package content and processing quality

We received the Xiaomi Mi Watch Lite in a black box in the shape of a cube. After opening it, there is a nicely stored watch with a protective foil in the lower part. The package also includes instructions for use and a charger. The watch is well protected against possible damage during transport.

At first glance, this is a slightly smaller watch compared to similar models such as the BlitzWolf BW-GTC or Haylou LS1. The dimensions of the watch body are 41 x 35 x 11.9 mm and are made of plastic, thanks to which they weigh only 35 grams.

Nevertheless, the watch looks very good, so we are satisfied with the workmanship.

The display has a diagonal of 1.4 ″ with a resolution of 320 x 320 px. Thanks to this resolution, the display is very nice, despite the fact that it is a classic TFT display. The high resolution ensures that the display is fine and no raster can be seen with the naked eye. The color rendering is also very pleasant. At the top above the display is a light sensor that provides automatic brightness control.

The strap is silicone, but it does not have a classic grip like a regular watch. For this reason, you will not exchange it for any other strap of the same width, but you will have to look for straps specifically for this watch. The whole is slightly curved and is long enough. The dust does not stick to it excessively and is pleasant to the touch. The overall first impression is so great.

First start-up and pairing with the application

The Xiaomi Mi Watch Lite smart watch works with the Xiaomi Wear application. At the time of writing the review, the app did not have very good ratings in the Google Play store, but let's take a look at what it has to offer.

We logged into the application using our Xiaomi account. After logging in, the application asks for some information about us, such as gender, date of birth, height and weight. After successful login, we added the watch to the application.

Currently only 3 watch models are supported - Mi Watch, Mi Watch Lite and Mi Smart Band 4C.

The app immediately found a watch near your smartphone and paired. At the end of a successful pairing, the application shows some tips for using it. We were also offered a firmware update in the watch, which took place quickly and without problems.

Watch menu and functions

The Mi Watch Lite watch has one physical button on the right side. It is flat and does not protrude almost at all from the body of the watch, thus eliminating unwanted squeezes during wear. Pressing this button will take you to the main menu of the watch. This is the only way to get to the main menu.

The menu contains individual items arranged in a 3 x 3 grid on two screens with colored iconsnami. Individual symbols are more or less clear at first glance, except for a few that we had to click on several times before we remembered what they hide. It is mainly a summary of recent activities, which has a notebook icon and a daily overview with an orange drop symbol.

The first page of the watch menu contains the following items: sports activity, records of all completed activities, daily overview, heart rate measurement, sleep information, breathing exercises, compass, air pressure and altimeter, music control. On the other side of the menu we will find another 9 items: alarm, stopwatch, timer, weather, notifications, phone find, flashlight, help and settings.

A quick access screen is also available, which is displayed by swiping from the bottom of the screen. Its menu includes a flashlight that turns the display white, deactivating or activating the automatic hand-on display function, screen lock, silent mode, activating the display for 5 minutes and settings.

There is also quick access to some functions by swiping the display in different directions. We didn't have to go to the main menu all the time.

Tracking sports activities with GPS

For the activity tracking test, we turned on monitoring during the walk. We also turned on activity tracking in our smartphone so that we have something to compare our watches to. As we mentioned in the introduction, the watch has a built-in GPS module, thanks to which we also have a map of movement during the activity.

GPS-based location takes about 1 minute and, of course, works better in the open than in the city between buildings. Sometimes it happened to us that the watch could not be located for the first time in the city, but this is not a condition for tracking activity.

As soon as the watch cannot be located for the first time, it will try again until the localization is successful. But it always worked out on the second try. If we entered the building during the activity, we immediately lost the GPS signal, but after returning to the outdoors, the signal was restored within a few seconds.

The result of monitoring the test walk was as follows:

• Xiaomi mi watch lite: 3.23 km, 4396 steps, 327 kcal
• Samsung Galaxy S9 + smartphone: 3.3 km, 4539 steps, 196 kcal

Except for the calories burned, the results are very similar. But the measurement of the heart rate was striking, because the measured values ​​were somewhat high. The average heart rate measured by the watch was 152 beats per minute, which is too much for a simple walk. However, we will look at the accuracy of heart rate measurement in the next section.

Heart rate measurement

We compared the heart rate measurement with the measurements of a smartphone that has a sensor for its measurement. We measured the heart rate first in peace, then after physical activity. You can see the results in the following tables.

As you can see in the tables, the heart rate measurements on the watch and the smartphone are very similar, almost identical. Based on the high values ​​from the test run, we expected larger differences, but the suspicion of inaccurate measurements was not confirmed in this case.

Sleep monitoring

We tested this feature over several nights. We sleep comfortably with the watch, we didn't mind at all on our hands, even though we are not used to sleeping with the watch on our hands. As an example, let's take one night, during which we watched exactly how much we went to bed and then when we woke up in the morning. In the evening we went to bed at 22:20 and in the morning we woke up at 6:25, checking our watches immediately.

The watch on the sleep home screen displays the sleep score based on its length and quality. According to them, the beginning of sleep was at 22:25 and the end at 6:20. Subsequently, we went through the watch menu a few times, but we were still lying in bed until 7:20. There is a slight disappointment here, because even though we have used the watch several times between 6:20 and 7:20, they continued to count on sleep until we got out of bed.

The resulting measurement of sleep in the watch was thus beginning at 22:25 and ending at 7:17. Of this, deep sleep was 3h 14m and light sleep 5h 38m. Mi Watch Lite also shows the time during which we were up, which was, according to the watch, zero. At the same time, we woke up twice at night and in the morning between 6:20 and 7:20 we also checked the condition of the watch. Another time the watch recorded that we got up at night.

We had a similar experience with inaccuracy on another day, when the watch began to count asleep in the evening while watching TV from the couch. We took sleep monitoring with great caution, as it is quite inaccurate.

Application and notifications

Despite not being the best rating in the Google Play store, the app worked without any problems during several weeks of testing. The home screen provides basic information about the number of steps, calories burned, recent activity, sleep, heart rate, and warnings about sitting too long. Additional elements can be added to the display, but the application also offers those that the watch does not support, such as blood saturation.

Very clear graphs are available for all measured data, as well as historical data in weekly or monthly views. It is also possible to start activity tracking from the application and go to your own profile. Here we find, for example, a change of dial, where a number of very interesting designs are available. At the time of writing, we found 132 of them, divided into appropriate categories. You can't create your own design here.

The application also offers settings for notifications and notifications of incoming calls. You will not find any other watch settings here, as they are all located directly in the watch. Personally, we would welcome the opportunity to change the settings through the application.

As far as notifications are concerned, we did not notice any problems. The watch displays notifications correctly even with accents and basic smileys. The stability of the connection between the watch and the smartphone is excellent. It never happened to us that the watch disconnected from the smartphone for no reason.

Watch settings

As already mentioned, most settings change directly in the watch, not in the application. The settings can be accessed via the quick access screen or via the menu itself. The watch contains memory for 5 dial designs, the others are in the application.

Brightness settings offer the possibility of automatic adjustment, or manual in six levels. There is also a DND (do not disturb) mode, in which it is possible to automatically set its on and off at selected times. It is similar with the function of waking up the display after raising your hand. This function can also be switched on and off according to the set times.

In the hours we will also find the heart rate measurement settings. The heart rate can be measured automatically at a selected interval (1, 5, 10 or 30 minutes), and you can also be notified when a high value is reached, which is preset to 150 bpm.

Endurance and charging

The manufacturer states that the Mi Watch Lite lasts at the level of 9 days. We used the watch to the full, so we always had it paired with the application via Bluetooth, we had notifications turned on from applications such as Messenger, Gmail, Viber, Instagram, and we also had constant heart rate measurement turned on. Sometimes we also turned on activity monitoring during walks.

With such use, we have reached a maximum endurance of 5 days. With more frequent use of GPS, endurance decreases significantly, and it is not a problem to discharge the watch much faster.

As far as charging is concerned, the package does not include a magnetic charger, but one into which the watch must be inserted. This has one big advantage - the watch does not disconnect from the charger when inserted into the cable. While charging, the watch display shows the current, percentage state of the battery. The watch charges in approximately 1 hour and 25 minutes.

Final evaluation

Xiaomi Mi Watch Lite is a very successful watch, which for a relatively low price offers some features that can be found only in more expensive models. This includes, for example, GPS or automatic display brightness control. Despite the use of a TFT display, we have no reservations about it. The display is nice, colorful and soft.

There are a number of dials available, which are handled very well in terms of design. In the watch you will find a lot of information, whether about activities, sleep or various settings. Usually, more detailed information is only available in the application, but here you will find many of them in the watch menu.

A small disadvantage may be fewer features compared to the competition. If we compare other watches at a similar price, we often find SpO2 or pressure measurements in them, while Mi Watch Lite does not support these functions.

Buy Xiaomi Mi Watch Lite best value

On the other hand, most other watches at a similar price do not have GPS and automatic brightness control. Each manufacturer offers something different and it's up to you which of these functions you need and you will use them. The functions of Mi Watch Lite are completely sufficient for us, which is why we rate them very positively overall.