Finally, smart watches from Xiaomi, with which you can also pay in stores? These are Xiaomi Watch S1 Active, which we tested for several weeks and bring you a detailed review. They also offer a soft AMOLED display, a number of dial designs, GPS and tracking of several life functions.
In the review, we will not only look at how to pay with the watch, but we will also verify the accuracy of individual measurements and get acquainted with all the functions they offer.
Where to buy Xiaomi Watch S1 Active?
The watch was provided to us for testing by an officially authorized dealer of Xiaomi equipment, the Goboo e-shop, which sends all goods from a Spanish warehouse. The watch arrived by courier within 5 working days. The advantage is also full 2-year warranty and the possibility of returning the goods within 14 days.
Xiaomi Watch S1 Active Global Version
Express delivery from a Spanish warehouse free of duty and VAT.
This product will be delivered to you expressly from your local Spanish warehouse. Delivery from Spain usually takes 7-10 days and is delivered by courier. You do not pay any extra fees, no customs duties or VAT on delivery.
Technical specifications
| Model designation | M2116W1 |
|---|---|
| dimensions | 46.5 x 74.3 x 11 mm |
| Weight | 36 g |
| Display | 1.43 "AMOLED |
| Resolution | 466 x 466 px |
| Available colored performance | white / blue / black |
| Sensors | oximeter heart rate sensor; accelerometer; gyroscope; geomagnetic sensor; atmospheric sensor; light sensor |
| Satellite positional systems | GPS; GLONASS; GALILEO; BDS; QZSS |
| Frame | polyamide reinforced with glass fibersnami |
| resistance to water | 5 ATM |
| bracelet | white - silicone; black and blue - TPU |
| Length bracelet | 160 - 220 mm |
| Compatibility | Android 6.0 and above or iOS 10.0 and above |
| Wireless connectivity | Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11b / g / n; 2.4 GHz; Bluetooth 5.2 |
Content and quality of packaging
The Xiaomi Watch S1 Active comes in a white elongated box that is extremely strong and durable. It was protected by two more nylon envelopes, so the quality of the packaging is sufficient for transport without damage.
Inside, the watch itself is hidden, stored in a paper reinforcement, under which there are still a pair of compartments. The charger and paper documentation have their place here. The packaging is simple, but quite typical for watches.
Design and quality of workmanship
The new smart watch from Xiaomi has a frame made of polyamide reinforced with glass fibersnami. The frame itself looks and feels very good and of high quality. The strap that comes with the black watch is made of TPU and has a total length of 220 mm even with the watch. Thanks to the large number of holes, it easily fits a man's hand, as well as a thinner woman's hand.
The watch can be used without problems by women and even children, without changing the strap. If you still want to exchange the strap for another, you can do so very easily. The detachable system is the same as with a regular watch and you will find a number of straps of various colors and materials on the Aliexpress.
The watch has a sporty-elegant design with two buttons on the right side. The upper button is used to activate the display and go to the main menu, while the lower one is used for quick access to sports activities.
The underside of the watch is traditionally home to sensors used to monitor individual vital signs. There are also speakers and a microphone on the sides.
Display and dials
Xiaomi Watch S1 Active received an AMOLED display with a size of 1.43 ″ with a resolution of 466 x 466 px. The display is very soft, clear and offers real black and deep colors. Its refresh rate is 60 Hz and the brightness is sufficient for comfortable use in direct sunlight.
There is also a popular always-on display, but its design you do not know. However, you will be pleased with the number of different designs of the main dial, of which there are more than 200. In the watch you will find only 6 designs, including interesting animated, but others are available in the application along with the ability to insert your own photos in either analog or digital time display.
First turn on and pair with the application
Turning on the watch for the first time has traditionally been associated with pairing with a smartphone, as it is not possible to use the watch without this step. Xiaomi Watch S1 Active works with Mi Fitness, which is actually renamed Xiaomi Wear. You can find it in the Google Play store.
The pairing process itself is simple and fast. It consists of scanning the QR code on the watch and confirming the same code on both devices, ie on the phone and on the watch.
Main menu menu
The main menu of the watch has an attractive and colorful design. It consists of a number of icons that are more or less self-governing and are divided into an 8 x 3 grid, which slides downwards. In the settings, we can switch this view to the classic list. However, with so many items, the grid is more practical.
The menu therefore contains up to 24 symbols, namely:
| Sports activities | Activity history | statistics |
| Heart rate measurement | SpO2 measurement | Sleep |
| Degree of stress | Breathing exercises | Female cycle |
| Alexa's voice assistant | The weather | Hudba |
| Payments | Calls | Notifications |
| Alarm clock | Stopwatch | Timer |
| pressure | Kompas | Camera control |
| Find your phone | Flashlight | settings |
Heart rate and SpO2 measurement
The heart rate is monitored by a multi-channel PPG bio sensor on the underside of the watch. The measurement lasts approximately 10 seconds and continuous heart rate monitoring is available 24 hours a day, every 1/5/10 or 30 minutes. The watch can also warn you that your heart rate is too high, whether during normal use or during exercise. These settings are made in the application.
There is also a measurement of blood oxygenation, but here we only have a measurement during sleep or all day at intervals of every 10 or 30 minutes.
For both types of measurements, the application displays the obtained values on the watch display and in graphs on the time axis, but there is no scale for the "y" axis, so we cannot read the exact values from the graph. You can view more detailed and accurate data in the application.
And how accurate are these measurements? We compared them with a pulse oximeter and they were almost identical in the room. Larger differences appeared during the sports activity, when the watch measured a slightly higher heart rate, on average by 10 - 15 pulses / min.
Sleep monitoring
Monitoring the quality and length of sleep is already an integral part of every watch and fitness bracelet. The watch display shows the daily destination and the measured length of the last sleep. However, swiping down the display also displays more detailed information such as the exact time of the start and end of sleep, as well as the average heart rate and SpO2.
The application also includes the length of the deep sleep, light and REM phases, along with the percentage and graph. Another graph shows the heart rate during sleep and there is also a graph showing blood oxygenation measurements.
As for the accuracy of measuring the length of sleep, it is not the best. The beginning is actually the time when we went to bed and the end of sleep the time we got out of bed, not when we actually woke up.
Watch payments
Perhaps the biggest attraction of the new Xiaomi S1 Active watch is the ability to use the NFC function for contactless payments via the Xiaomi Pay service.
To use it, you need to log in to your Xiaomi account. If you log in to the application in another way, the service will not be available. The mentioned Xiaomi Pay service was established in Europe in cooperation with Mastercard. At the outset, we must note that of the Slovak banks, only mBank is currently supported.
However, an alternative in the form of Curve is available. If you don't know what this is about, Curve is, in short, a service that can combine different cards into one, your own. After registering in Curve, you will receive a physical as well as a virtual card, which you can use in various payment systems such as Google Pay, Apple Pay or Xiaomi Pay.
This card actually represents your own card, or more that you associate with your Curve account. So Curve is not a bank, it's just a service. If you pay with a Curve card, the funds will be withdrawn from your card at the bank you add to Curve. You can also read more about registration and payment in our review at Mi Band 6 NFC.
Security and payment process
Security was also considered in connection with the loss or theft of the watch. Already during the addition of the card to Xiaomi Pay, we created a 6-digit PIN code, which must be entered to unblock the watch if you use payments.
The watch will ask for it at least once every 24 hours, or if you put it down. If you lose your watch or steal it from you, no one will pay with it without your PIN code.
The payment itself is very simple. Just select the one with the wallet icon from the application menu and select the Pay option. At that point, 60 seconds will start counting down, during which you can attach the watch to the payment terminal.
Tracking sports activities
An integral part of smart watches is also watching sports activities. There are more than 117 sports to choose from, among which we can find traditional activities such as running, walking, hiking, but also less traditional water sports, dancing, martial arts and more.
There are only a few standard sports on the main menu. The rest are at the bottom of the list after the Add option. Here are other sports divided into several categories. If you choose one of these sports, they will be added to the bottom of the list.
During walking activity, the watch displays the current time, distance, tempo and heart rate. However, the data is tailored to a particular sport - for example, tennis records the number of strokes and calories, swimming the number of lengths, time per 100 m and calories.
More detailed data is then accessible in the application or in the watch among the activity history. For example nami the monitored walking activity also shows the average speed, heart rate and rhythm in the activity history on the watch display. Pace and heart rate are also displayed in graphs. In the application, we will also find a map with our route and other data.
The watch can be located using GPS outdoors, within a few seconds. Automatic pause and resumption of walking or running tracking when stopped also work just as well. For example, if we were facing a pedestrian crossing, the watch paused the activity very quickly, which it then resumed similarly quickly when we started moving.
Endurance and charging
Xiaomi Watch S1 Active have an integrated 470 mAh battery with a manufacturer-specified endurance of 12 days in normal use, 24 days in standby mode and 30 hours with active GPS use.
Of course, we tested the endurance. We used the watch almost fully, so we had constant heart rate monitoring and SpO2, notifications enabled, stress measurement and we often used the watch for payments. However, we did not use GPS during endurance testing, but they still discharged in 5 days.
The manufacturer's stated endurance of 12 days in normal use is thus in sight. Charging takes place via a magnetic charger, which you connect to a standard adapter via USB.
Bluetooth calls
An interesting feature of the Xiaomi Watch S1 Active smart watch is calls that work via bluetooth technology and only when the smartphone is within range.
However, they are only used to receive calls, which is a rather strange solution. We can reject or accept the incoming call. However, we can only call those contacts who appear as missed calls. We hope Xiaomi will change this option in one of the updates.
The watch also displays the caller's name, but not always. Sometimes they only showed the number. This feature is not fully fine-tuned, which can be seen in the occasional problems when the watch did not stop ringing until we rejected the call, even though it was long ago canceled by the caller.
The sound from the watch is good, clean and the person on the other side can hear it clearly. It is similar on the other person who called us. We also heard ours almost completely as if we were calling from a phone.
View notifications
If you want to receive notifications from different applications from your smartphone, you must enable them separately for each one you want to receive notifications from. We lack the ability to select all or at least some chat applications.
The text from the notifications is also displayed in the watch with accents and colorless smileys, but the watch wraps it exactly to the number of characters, unnaturally. We also didn't like the notification history system, from which the alert will be deleted immediately after reading it.
Settings and other options
The settings offer dial selection, connection of headphones via Bluetooth, WiFi, setting a ringtone, alarm and silent mode on, brightness (automatic / manual) and do not disturb the mode with its timing.
Furthermore, we can turn on automatic detection of sports activity (only running and walking is supported), setting the PIN code, setting the display including always-on, vibration or resetting the watch.
You will also enjoy the content of the three screens with widgets, which are accessible by swiping your finger to the right or left of the main screen. Unfortunately, the options are limited and we can't add any feature here. Personally, we especially lack the ability to quickly access the payment application.
4 applications that you can install
Because the watch runs on the MIUI Watch 1.0 operating system, the Mi Fitness application offers the option of installing additional applications. However, only four are available: Noted, My Tuner, Scientific Calculator, and NumPuzzle.
Noted is used for sound recording and MyTuner is an application for internet radio (UK only). In these cases, however, it is only a matter of controlling these applications on the smartphone using a watch.
The scientific calculator and the NumPuzzle game no longer need the same application on a smartphone, as they are separate applications just for watches.
Xiaomi Watch S1 Active: Final Review
The new Xiaomi Watch S1 Active smart watch is particularly interesting for the possibility of using the NFC function for watch payments via Xiaomi Pay. They work without any problems, but only mBank is supported from Slovak banks. However, you can work around this with Curve, where you can add any of your cards.
The watch has a 1.43 ″ AMOLED display with a resolution of 466 x 466 px, has a modern yet simple design with a comfortable strap and there is also GPS support. The watch menu is very similar to the one you will find in Xiaomi Mi Watch and is very clear, colorful and intuitive.
The best coupons for Xiaomi Watch S1 Active watches
Endurance during intensive use is about 4-6 days, which is not much, but we still find smart watches with worse endurance. Negatives include less accurate monitoring of the length of sleep and heart rate during exercise, as well as fewer options for customizing or programming one of the physical buttons.
I want to ask . I can't do anything on the clock screen and can't turn it on or off.