Xiaomi Watch 5 review: Wear OS with exceptional battery life

Battery life has long been the Achilles' heel of Wear OS smartwatches, so when Xiaomi announced its Watch 5 with a massive 930mAh silicon-carbon battery, it immediately caught our attention. With claims of up to 6 days of regular use extending to 18 days in power save mode, the Watch 5 offers the longest runtimes of any smartwatch running Android on your wrist.

Alongside these lofty battery claims, Xiaomi outfitted the Watch 5 with a 1.54" AMOLED touchscreen protected by sapphire glass and a premium stainless-steel casing. This is also the first smartwatch we've tested with a muscle-reading EMG sensor, opening up an array of gesture-based controls.

Design and Build Quality

The Watch 5 leans into a traditional watch aesthetic with an understated design. However, one thing was immediately noticeable once strapped on - it's a substantial unit. At 56 grams without the strap, Xiaomi's flagship watch is even heavier than the Huawei Watch GT 6 Pro. Once you get used to its dimensions, the Watch 5 doesn't disappoint. The substantial weight and size come with the reassuring feeling of a premium, well-built device.

The shiny stainless-steel casing adds to the premium vibe and is nicely complemented by the rotating crown button with its textured surface and tactile clicks. The programmable shortcut key below it also brings a firm click, launching the workout app by default.

The 1.54" AMOLED touchscreen offers great viewing angles with sharp, vibrant output and thin bezels. It's protected by sapphire glass on both the front and back where the sensors are located. The watch also brings thousands of watch face options with varied designs and free options, most offering Always-On Display functionalities.

Software and Features

Like recent Oppo and OnePlus flagship smartwatches, the Xiaomi Watch 5 takes a dual chipset and dual operating system approach to extend battery life. You get the Snapdragon W5 Gen 1 chip, which despite being several years old, remains a capable SoC for wrist wearables. Xiaomi paired it with the BES2800 co-processor for less intensive tasks.

Importantly, the Watch 5 uses a secondary real-time operating system (RTOS) that complements Google's Wear OS 6. Enabling Power saver mode shuts off Wear OS and all third-party apps, leaving you with Xiaomi's barebones Vela OS. The latter still provides basic smartwatch functionality including health tracking and a smaller list of proprietary apps while greatly extending battery life.

Wear OS 6 features Google's Material 3 Expressive design with system-wide color-theming, improved touch optimization, new tile designs, and native integration with Google Gemini. The setup process involves downloading Xiaomi's Mi Fitness app on your Android phone and pairing the Watch 5 alongside your Google account.

Wear OS is arguably the most feature-rich wrist wearable operating system available. You'll feel right at home coming from an Android phone, with all your favorite apps available from the Play Store. However, there's the age-old limitation of no iOS support - Apple Watches don't work with Android phones either.

EMG Gesture Controls

The Watch 5 is the first smartwatch on the market with an electromyography (EMG) sensor. It can detect muscle activity inside your hand and capture nerve signals from your fingers to control certain aspects of the UI via gestures like pinching your index finger and thumb. You can dismiss notifications, answer calls, turn off alarms, or take pictures on your connected smartphone without physically touching the watch.

Your hand needs to be parallel to your chest while performing these gestures, and there are times when the watch doesn't register input. Alongside pinch gestures, the Watch 5 also supports finger snaps, wrist shakes, and rotations. You can assign any of these gestures as shortcuts to launch any app on the watch, including third-party ones.

Health and Activity Tracking

The Watch 5 comes with a comprehensive suite of health tracking features. Heart rate, blood oxygen saturation (SpO2), sleep, and stress tracking are all present. Xiaomi also offers a one-tap comprehensive health check that factors in heart rate, blood oxygen, stress levels, sleep duration, sleep heart rate, and sleep SpO2 for a fast assessment of your general well-being.

In terms of sleep tracking, the Watch 5 performed better than previous smartwatches with more accurate go-to-sleep and wake-up times. It also caught instances of waking up during the night, which was a problem on previous Xiaomi Watch models. You get access to the usual sleep breakdown of REM, deep, and light sleep stages.

For activity tracking, Xiaomi boasts new professional algorithms for running, cycling, and hiking. Runners will find general metrics like pace, heart rate, elevation, and details on running dynamics. Workouts are complemented by values for training intensity, VO2 Max, and suggested recovery time.

Battery Life Performance

The 930mAh battery is the standout feature of the Watch 5. It's a Xiaomi Surge battery with stacked-cell technology, allowing Xiaomi to fill irregular shapes while incorporating 10% Silicon-carbon content.

With the Watch 5 set to Smart mode running Wear OS 6 with auto brightness, constant Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity, notifications, and all-day health tracking (including sleep), we got 5 full days of usage before it finally gave up on day 6 at around 11 AM. That's with constant use, three 60-minute gym workouts, and pushing the watch to its limit throughout the day.

If you don't need third-party apps and just want notifications alongside health and activity tracking, you can realistically extend the total run time to over two weeks with power saver mode.

Verdict

Xiaomi Watch 5 isn't trying to be the flashiest smartwatch on the market. Instead, it focuses on getting the fundamentals right while delivering class-leading battery life. You get a premium build, sharp display, smooth performance, and a full-featured Wear OS 6 experience.

What truly sets it apart is the battery endurance, which has always been a drawback on Wear OS watches. The Watch 5's massive 930mAh Si-C battery is capable of lasting an entire 5-day work week between charges, a meaningful improvement over competitors.

It's not perfect. The international version doesn't offer cellular connectivity, nor does it bring ECG or HRV tracking. The charger feels outdated and there's no wireless charging option, which you'd expect from a flagship smartwatch. The size is also definitely not for everyone's wrist.

At €273/£238 currently on Amazon, the Xiaomi Watch 5 is an easy recommendation if you're looking for a new Wear OS 6 smartwatch with outstanding battery endurance. These relatively minor drawbacks are worth accepting for the exceptional battery performance.