{"id":2795,"date":"2025-02-21T22:15:20","date_gmt":"2025-02-21T21:15:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/idzan.hr\/?p=2795"},"modified":"2025-02-21T22:15:20","modified_gmt":"2025-02-21T21:15:20","slug":"an-unexpectedly-great-upgrade-xiaomi-watch-2-one-month-later-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worker.idzan.hr\/?p=2795","title":{"rendered":"An Unexpectedly Great Upgrade \u2013 Xiaomi Watch 2 One Month Later Review"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

The Xiaomi Watch 2 serves as a significant upgrade from older wearable models, featuring WearOS 4.0 and a Snapdragon W5+ Gen 1 processor. This transition offers enhanced customization through sideloading and access to Google Play apps. Key hardware includes an AMOLED display and robust health monitoring sensors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Practical daily usage provides approximately two days of battery life with fast charging capabilities. The watch integrates seamlessly with ecosystem apps like YouTube Music and Google Keep. Improved connectivity allows for efficient notification management and Bluetooth calling, representing a more versatile and supported smartwatch experience.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Well, this is something unexpected based on my personal usage<\/a> of wearables and reviews of them. Almost all of my reviews are long-term<\/a>, lasting at least one year<\/a> or even longer (ok, some were shorter,<\/a> but those reviews were delayed and finalized from a draft).<\/p>\n

This review officially started on January 22nd, right after I purchased the Xiaomi Watch 2<\/a> on January 21st with super quick delivery from a Croatian IT shop for \u20ac220 (excluding special shipping). The reason for the upgrade? My now-old Amazfit GTS 3<\/a> had started getting totally buggy\u2014not just with the software but also with the battery life. The battery would drop to 0% from about 35% or even 40% after charging in about two days. Before switching watches, I tried the standard troubleshooting methods like a factory reset, rebooting it a few times, and charging it twice during that period, but the problems stuck around. This led me to research which Xiaomi watch to get, and I had to choose between the Watch S3<\/a>, which has a HyperOS<\/a> custom ROM, and the Watch 2<\/a>\/2 Pro<\/a>, which are based on WearOS<\/a>\u2014a better option, in my opinion.<\/p>\n

So, I pulled the trigger and bought the Xiaomi Watch 2<\/a>. After setting it up with my current phone, the Poco F5<\/a>, using the Mi Fitness<\/a> app, it immediately updated from WearOS 3.5 to WearOS 4.0.<\/p>\n


\n\"Mi <\/a>
Mi Fitness application used to Sync Xiaomi Watch 2 with phone<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In short, here are a few important specifications of the Watch 2: it has a Qualcomm Snapdragon\u00ae W5+ Gen 1<\/a> processor, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of ROM, GPS with L1+L5 GNSS, WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity, a small but solid speaker, NFC, 5ATM water resistance, a SpO2 and heart rate monitor, a 1.43″ AMOLED display, and a 495mAh battery. For more detailed specifications, you can check Xiaomi\u2019s website.<\/a><\/p>\n

Now, let\u2019s talk about the upgrades from my old Amazfit GTS 3.<\/a> The biggest game-changer is Google WearOS<\/a>. It allows sideloading APK files, mods, custom watch faces (you can even buy them), and apps as needed, eh? \ud83d\ude09 For example, the watch face I\u2019m currently using was sideloaded onto the watch since it wasn\u2019t available on the Google Play Store<\/a>. I found it on the XDA-Developers forums<\/a>\u2014it\u2019s a port from either the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra or Galaxy Watch 7 (I forgot which one). It works flawlessly with my Xiaomi Watch 2 running WearOS 4.0.<\/a> Design-wise, it\u2019s the closest match to the watch face I used most of the time on my old Amazfit GTS 3<\/a>. I love it because it combines sports monitoring features like a pedometer, heart rate monitoring, battery life, SpO2 tracking, a digital clock, the day and day of the week, and even shows sunrise and sunset times. The level of customization is way beyond what Zepp OS<\/a> offered on my Amazfit GTS 3. And that was the old Zepp OS 1.0<\/a>\u2014it wasn\u2019t eligible for an upgrade to version 2.0 or even the back then current 3.0, which is annoying.<\/p>\n

Another upgrade is the ease of finding replacement straps. I found more 22mm watch straps, and as you can see in the cover photo, it\u2019s already on its first replacement, bought from AliExpress with fast shipping (a metal strap).<\/p>\n

Now, onto my personal experience over the last month: it\u2019s awesome, finally. With my regular usage, which includes heart rate monitoring all day, lots of notifications (mostly WhatsApp, which also has an app for WearOS and lets me open messages to read them and even reply quickly using Gboard on WearOS\u2014o.O), a constant connection to my phone, and even my earbuds (Redmi Buds 5 Pro<\/a> in multi-device connection mode, so they\u2019re connected to both the phone and the watch at the same time). Don\u2019t forget the Always-On Display and basic sports tracking, which includes in-house indoor cycling, spinning sessions, and some freestyle training.<\/p>\n

This usage gets me an average of two days of standard use. I haven\u2019t been heavily using the watch lately, but if I were, it\u2019d probably last about a day to a day and a half before needing a charge. As for charging speed, it\u2019s perfect for me. In about 30 to 45 minutes, it can go from less than 20% to full. But in just 20 minutes of charging while I\u2019m taking a standard shower, it can recharge enough for the next day and a half\u2014or even more, depending on how many notifications I get.<\/p>\n

Now, onto the software: on the new Watch 2, I can have more apps and even more specialized things like Google Keep, for example. I can use the watch to take calls while connected via Bluetooth to my phone and answer them\u2014plus, the speaker is decent enough for quick, informal calls. Otherwise, the phone is still a must for proper calls. And YouTube Music\u2014oh my! Now I can listen to music I\u2019ve downloaded on the watch with the headset I mentioned earlier, even when my phone is charging. For example, if I\u2019m in a different room, there\u2019s no Bluetooth lag, and it\u2019s connected to my home WiFi.<\/p>\n

Overall, one month later, I\u2019ve quickly become more selective about buying devices that have better support from the start. Sadly, my Amazfit GTS 3<\/a> can only stay on the charger now\u2014if it\u2019s not on the charger, it\u2019s turned off and, well, dead \ud83d\ude05. Shoot, I thought it would somehow survive two years, and I\u2019d buy a new one then. But now, with this one (Xiaomi Watch 2<\/a>), I\u2019m hoping it\u2019ll survive two years of my daily usage and hopefully get the WearOS 5.0<\/a> update.<\/p>\n


\n\"Xiaomi <\/a><\/p>\n
Xiaomi Watch 2 and Amazfit GTS 3 on charger after last support tests<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

All photos were taken with my Poco F5<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The text was proofread and edited with the assistance of AI tools (Google Gemini Advanced AI, ChatGPT, and DeepSeek-V3), with final touch-ups and polishing done by me.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Xiaomi Watch 2 serves as a significant upgrade from older wearable models, featuring WearOS 4.0 and a Snapdragon W5+ Gen 1 processor. This transition offers enhanced customization through sideloading and access to Google Play apps. Key hardware includes an AMOLED display and robust health monitoring sensors. Practical daily usage provides approximately two days of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2797,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews","category-wearables-and-other-gadgets"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worker.idzan.hr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worker.idzan.hr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worker.idzan.hr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worker.idzan.hr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worker.idzan.hr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worker.idzan.hr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2795\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worker.idzan.hr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worker.idzan.hr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worker.idzan.hr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worker.idzan.hr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}