Xiaomi's First Smartwatch Sure Looks A Lot Like The Apple Watch

An anonymous reader shares a report: Xiaomi's November 5 event is shaping up to be a pretty big one. The company has shared many more details about the smartwatch that's about to be unveiled at the event. The Mi Watch, as it'll probably be called, has roughly the same shape as Apple's watch, and a very similar digital crown on the side. Another perspective shows that the Mi Watch will be a bit less rounded and somewhat thicker than Apple's latest Watch 5. Xiaomi went as far to include a picture of the Mi Watch's innards, which show that it will be equipped with Wi-Fi, GPS and NFC chips, as well as an eSIM.

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[fibonacci8]

More importantly, Apple watches look like regular watches. As in... Xiaomi's smartwatch also looks like a regular watch.

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[Gilgaron]

Traditional watches are round is what they're getting at, sure some dress watches are rectangular, but they don't look like an Apple watch, they generally have a band width more close to the case width.

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[LynnwoodRooster]

I always thought the Apple Watch looked a lot like the Pebble watches... I guess Dieter didn't design enough watches for Apple to use as guidance.

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[Anubis IV]

I laughed, but then I searched. Turns out there are Braun wristwatches...

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Brau... [duckduckgo.com]

I never knew. I'm guessing many or all of them post-date Dieter Rams, but I can't be bothered to check.

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[LynnwoodRooster]

Given they are ROUND (heretical, I know), they must be post Dieter, and thus not Ives-worthy...

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[Anubis IV]

The notion that the Apple Watch looks like a "regular" watch is one that is likely to offend both "regular" watch aficionados and Apple Watch aficionados.

Granted, by nature of being a watch the Apple Watch shares the most common affordances you expect of a watch (i.e. a wristband attached to a watch body with a watch face), but that's about where the similarities end. Most "regular" watches don't have crowns, and among those that do, they almost always have lugs and a frame around the face. Many of them als

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[Gilgaron]

If you decide you'd like to try a smart watch, I got a Samsung because it has an option for "always on display" and the back of the case is screwed on so you can replace the battery. You do have to charge it at best every other day, but I never liked wearing a watch to bed anyhow.

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[Ryzilynt]

Meanwhile, I'll continue to enjoy my $40ish Casio something-or-other that I never take off, that syncs with the atomic clock every night, and that only needs to have its battery replaced once every several years. Why would I trade that for a watch I have to take off and charge every night, with a screen that needs to turn on before I can read the time, and that will need to be thrown out after a few years because the battery can't be replaced?

Because it can do more stuff. A lot more stuff.

I gave my wife a series one Apple watch when they first came out. It still works fine, she still uses it every day. It'll need to be upgraded eventually. But 3 years deep it's holding up well.

Also, the newest models have an always on display.

I smashed mine into a steel girder a few months after I got it. At that price it was not something I was willing to replace. I am looking at the series 5 though.

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[Ryzilynt]

...But 3 years deep it's holding up well.

Sorry its actually 4 years old.

Cost of ownership about $0.27 cents a day so far.

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[shadowrat]

Meanwhile, I'll continue to enjoy my $40ish Casio something-or-other that I never take off, that syncs with the atomic clock every night, and that only needs to have its battery replaced once every several years. Why would I trade that for a watch I have to take off and charge every night, with a screen that needs to turn on before I can read the time, and that will need to be thrown out after a few years because the battery can't be replaced?

Any smartwatch can probably function in this capacity, but i've found the real killer app on mine to be 2 factor authentication stuff. When i get an okta challenge, it can be responded to on the watch. i've got similar other key generators for other networks i access. I know this sounds small, but there is efficiency in having the button right on your wrist with no need to fish out a phone and unlock it. I don't know about everyone, but my workplace is just FILLED with okta challenges so it's not like i jus

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[Ryzilynt]

Meanwhile, I'll continue to enjoy my $40ish Casio something-or-other that I never take off, that syncs with the atomic clock every night, and that only needs to have its battery replaced once every several years. Why would I trade that for a watch I have to take off and charge every night, with a screen that needs to turn on before I can read the time, and that will need to be thrown out after a few years because the battery can't be replaced?

Any smartwatch can probably function in this capacity, but i've found the real killer app on mine to be 2 factor authentication stuff. When i get an okta challenge, it can be responded to on the watch. i've got similar other key generators for other networks i access. I know this sounds small, but there is efficiency in having the button right on your wrist with no need to fish out a phone and unlock it. I don't know about everyone, but my workplace is just FILLED with okta challenges so it's not like i just get one a day. it's several every day :/

now that i think about it... i wonder if okta is getting kickbacks from apple watch sales.

I get some 2 factor too. Not several times a day, but it's still a pain in the ass. If I hadn't broken my watch early on i might know more of this convenience. Series 5 is calling me like a siren.

Interestingly enough .. if you google "call of the siren " (i was expecting to get something about the Odyssey as first hit.) You get one phone number...

https://www.google.com/search?... [google.com]

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[GoTeam]

Guess mshable just wanted to change the link: https://mashable.com/article/x... [mashable.com]

iFace

[Tablizer]

According to the link, it looks like a thumb with a face, and a 503 error.

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[mdm-adph]

Thumb? Look again.

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[GoTeam]

Well if you can amputate a toe to make a thumb, maybe you can amputate a thumb to make a toe...

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[Tablizer]

Sir, never date my daughter.

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[LynnwoodRooster]

It's called COURAGE.

Hard to get Chinese help?

[magarity]

Which CEOs, exactly, whine about not being able to get Chinese employees as engineers to show their companies' tech secrets to?

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[jellomizer]

Well the ones that don't want to pay American Engineers Salaries. For many companies their product trade secrets aren't really worth that much. However Engineer Salaries are a big part of their budget. Now I beleave that American Companies should hire American Engineers, as there a numerous advantages of using them including speaking the same language, following cultural norms, on the same page with work ethics. However for most companies, their IP isn't worth that much.

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[sgt_doom]

Very excellent and lucid and telling comment, magarity!

Correct link

[Anubis IV]

https://mashable.com/article/x... [mashable.com]

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[AmiMoJo]

It's a smart watch, what do you expect it to look like?

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[thegarbz]

It's a smart watch, what do you expect it to look like?

For the non-creative people who think that Apple make the only design that is capable of being worn on a wrist, exactly like that.

For everyone else https://buy.garmin.com/de-DE/D... [garmin.com] well there's a whole page of smart watches none of which look like Apple's little rounded corner toy, and in fact most look a shitton better.

Revised link

[SuperKendall]

Maybe due to Slashdotting, Mashable seems to have altered the link used for the article [mashable.com] mentioned in the summary... pray they do not alter it further.

Aren't the all made in the same factory

[rsilvergun]

by Foxconn?

Somebody on /. made a good point, which is that after 30 years of shipping all manufacturing to China it's not at all surprising they're using that know-how for their own good and not ours.

Watch looks like a watch

[drinkypoo]

Watch looks like a watch, phone looks like a phone, earbuds look like earbuds, post looks like bullshit. It would be more surprising if they didn't look similar, since they're doing the same jobs, and since design is global.

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[thegarbz]

Sure. If all watches have the same rectangular frame with rounded corners, curved glass, and a crown on the right then I bet they look like that.

In the mean time basically no other manufacturer has a smart watch that looks remotely like Apple's, just an example of entire product lines: https://buy.garmin.com/de-DE/D... [garmin.com]

But I get it Drinkypoo, and AmiMoJo our resident well on the autism spectrum posters only see the time and the sms notifications and therefore declare that all products look the same.

Should have been a Pyramid

[samwichse]

I mean, clearly in order not to be shaped like a rounded rectangle, they should have gone with the very practical pyramid:
https://theoffice.fandom.com/w... [fandom.com]

God forbid they make it shaped like something that would fit a maximum amount of text/array of icons on your wrist because Apple already took that shape.

Just wait til you see the new Chinese-made EVs

[LeeLynx]

You know, after Tesla opens up shop next door.

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[drinkypoo]

Tesla can iterate quickly. By the time the competition has a similar product, they're on to the next product. The low volumes are a blessing. Only BMW really has the tech to bang out a decent low-volume car faster, using the tech they used to make the i3. But they don't, because they're BMW.

Impossible!!!!

[sgt_doom]

Did not Erich "the Hut" Schmidt and various other dickweeds and nimrods claim the Chinese Communist Party is soooo very innovative?!?!?

How could this possibly be? When they've stolen almost every single item, why would they ever appear similar?????

Correct link

[jimbrooking]

https://mashable.com/article/x... [mashable.com]

I hate these "watches"

[pyrrho]

next up, a smart ring! fucking tiny screens! laaaame!

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[HappySeafood]

Your smart ring is already being developed by ex-Nokia employees: https://slashdot.org/story/19/... [slashdot.org] I hope you'll be able to buy eight to wear at once, to impress the techies of the appropriate gender identity.

nooooo

[pyrrho]

unless it can project holograms.

Xiaomi is the real deal...

[ElitistWhiner]

Been using a Xiaomi mini-Apple watch for 6 years. At a cost of $17USD it counts steps, water-proof 3m, vibrates on inbound cell call, vibrates on notification, vibrates inactivity, takes HR and it tells time even. No big honkin' boulder on a cuff band, the Mi-band silicone nearly weightless and never interferes with daily activity. When you lose it. NBD.

Order two more. It sets you back $35USD. Awesome product, well engineered, MVP is dependability...dead simple dependability.

Why would you spend hundreds for an Apple watch? 88% of Apple watch functionality for $17USD is one hell of a deal.

Huey Lewis

[spinitch]

Hip to be square.