Looking at the whole ocean of smartwatches out there, I wanted one with most of the features you can get and also not break the bank. The Mi Revolve active looked like a good option, let’s see how good.
The Mi revolve active a new entrant from the MI or xiaomi ecosystem is an upgrade to its existing Mi Revolve watch line. I have the white edition, and it follows its sporty name tag in its design cues. It has a creamish yellow box, which might be due to the watch being white.
A mi logo on the top right and the actual name on the bottom left.
The features are listed out on the side, the other side has the name and the alexa logo.
This watch has built in Alexa which is great if you need quick access to your smart home tech.
The back has information on the watch, and the MRP shown is 13,999. But you can get it for around 7k which is with HDFC bank discounts.
Let’s get into the box and check the actual watch out. First we have the user manual, and instructions on how to setup alexa on your watch.
Under that we have the watch, and the white looks quite nice. Not quite white, maybe ivory or beige is more accurate. We’ll get back to the watch soon.
What else do we have, the charger, which is a magnetic charger and comes with the sub cable attached. I would have liked it to be separate like how it is on the Honor magic watch 2. And nothing else seems to be in the box.
Now back to the watch, the dial is 46 mm in diameter, and we have two buttons on the side.
The watch bands are available in multiple colours, black, blue and white.
The straps are user replaceable with any 22mm strap, so you can have multiple options to match your attire. I purchased the white strap as it’s for my wife.
The watch feels really light at 33 grams, compared to my honor magic watch 2’s 41 grams. The 8 grams are quite noticeable. The weight is without the bands.
Under the watch we have the sensors for heart rate and spo2 monitoring. The two metal bits are the charging prongs.
Let’s start the watch and set it up. We have the QR code for the Xiaomi Wear app, download and login.
Add the device by tapping on the appropriate option on the screen. We have the pairing request, type in the number and done.
A quick tutorial is displayed on how to use the buttons.
The strap has this ridged texture which rubs along while wearing the watch. Once you get past that the feel is good.
The main watch is quite solid with a metal casing. The two buttons on the side are used to interact with the watch.
The display is a 1.39 inch AMOLED screen with Gorilla Glass, which provides protection from falls and scratches. The display is quite bright and with a maximum brightness of 450 nits is pretty good.
The watch display is visible in bright sunlight.
The brightness can be set between 5 levels as per your need. You can have a lower brightness indoors and increase when outdoors.
The watch runs on Xiaomi’s proprietary os, which also means there would be no access to third party apps such as Facebook, WhatsApp etc.
You can view notifications, but you cannot reply to them from the watch.
Features wise we have options to view our heart rate, energy level, stress levels, sleep tracking breathing exercises and more.
The watch can measure your spo2 levels which is important nowadays.
The watch is 50 metres, or 5 ATM IP rated which means you should have no problems if it comes in contact with water.
Fitness is the main reason you purchase a watch like this one. The watch has 117 sports modes based on different themes – Water Sports, Dance, Training and so on. It supports automatic workout detection too.
A highly accurate 12 nm built-in GPS is used to track your outdoor workouts and is supposed to be 85% more accurate than the previous generation.
You can see the stored information on the app, displayed on a map showing your path, your speed, inclines climbed etc.
Alexa can be triggered via voice to check the weather, set an alarm, operate smart home devices and more. It has a microphone, but no speaker.
Watch faces, this is something we are all interested in. There seem to be a decent number in the app which can be downloaded onto the watch. The watch face takes some time to copy over too, maybe it feels like that as it shows a copying bar.
Not as many as the Honor Magic watch 2, but I feel the community will keep adding to it down the line.
The watch faces do look nice and crisp, with some also including animations.
The battery on the Mi Revolve Active is stated to last for 14 days, which is amazing as not many fitness bands or watches last that long. The life is dependent on the options you have set active and also the brightness set for the display. But the watch easily reached the claimed 14-day life.
Always on display, this is a watch face you would activate on and above the standard watch face. It would display your choice of watch face out of the select set, which uses less power but makes it easier to glance at the time.
Tap on the button above, we have the app drawer or list. It is laid out in a grid which is reminiscent of the apple watch interface not exactly but kind of. The apps are listed as icons, I would have liked some text as not all of them are understandable. The responsiveness of the watch is great, but the UI is a bit confusing. I like the styling, but I still do like the classic app icon with the text on the side interface.
There is no tap to wake, you need to use the buttons on the side to activate the display. The bottom button lists the workouts, and there are tons.
You can also control music via the watch.
Find your phone is another great feature if you keep misplacing your phone.
That Was the watch, now for the software side. We have the Mi Wear app. The watch is paired and you can see all your tracking info on the app. It looks clean and intuitive.
You have the dashboard which shows your status at a quick glance, the workouts tab allows you to initiate a workout via the app, the last tab is your profile where you would enter your details.
The app also provides access to watch faces, firmware updates, and are easily accessible.
This watch also seems to have a 1 second delay when changing watch faces, is this to stop from accidentally changing the watch faces. Maybe, as this is also present in the Honor magic watch 2. Other than that the watch is quite zippy, and has all the tracking features I need.
So, if you want a smart watch which is a step above your smart band, with 14-day battery life this is a great choice.
