It made its global debut earlier this week and it was only fitting that we give the Redmi Watch 5 its review treatment. It may not look that different from last year’s Redmi Watch 4 at first glance, but this latest model has a 2.07-inch AMOLED screen that gets remarkably bright up to 1,500 nits. You get a 60Hz refresh rate, which is becoming a trend on smartwatches, and always-on display functionality at €109 – €9 more than the Watch 4’s starting price.
Our review unit sports a lavender purple silicone watch strap, with all models featuring an aluminum alloy frame, which feels premium and reassuring. Much better than some all-plastic smartwatches.
The retail package contains the usual leaflets with Xiaomi’s proprietary two-pin magnetic charger that terminates in a USB-A connector.
Redmi Watch 5 and its charger
Despite the large screen size, the Redmi Watch 5 is barely felt on your wrist thanks to its slim bezels and its 33.5-gram weight. You operate the HyperOS interface with swipes on the screen but you can also use the metal crown element for those moments when your hands are wet. Pressing down on the crown acts as a convenient back button.
The watch tracks your heart rate, blood oxygen saturation, sleep and stress, and it can also help you stay on track with your fitness goals with more than 150 activities. There’s a built-in GNSS receiver to track your runs, and the whole package is 5ATM waterproof, so even swimming is a must.
Thanks to its dual microphone and onboard speaker, you can take and make calls directly from the Watch 5. It will also buzz your wrist for notifications, but there’s no way to respond to incoming messages. Xiaomi is still hesitant to bring eSIM versions of its watches outside of China.
Xiaomi claims that you can get up to 24 days of battery life from the Watch 5’s 550mAh battery. We’ll be sure to test those claims in our full review alongside our usual tests so stay tuned.
