Xiaomi is continuing its series of successful and budget-friendly fitness trackers – the Mi Band, with a new addition it just recently announced. The Chinese company is looking to make its newest variant as popular as its previous ones, and this time the Xiaomi has also offered to make the device more than just a tracker and in turn it into a full-fledged smartwatch.
Xiaomi introduces a new fitness smartwatch, the WeLoop Hey S3
The new smartwatch/fitness tracker will fall under the name Weloop Hey 3S under the MIJIA brand name. The watch looks a lot like the Nike Edition of the Apple Watch, especially looking at the wrist-strap. It is sporty-looking but has some distinct takeaways. The body itself is super light, weighing in at just 38 grams. The Hey 3S also features a good battery powering everything for at least 30 days.
The watch comes with a decent 1.28-inch touch LCD screen that can show all the details of the user’s tracking as well as the time. GPS with GLONASS is also on board and the watch itself can do the regular array of features notably found among Mi Bands such as tracking heart rate, pulse and cover live metrics during activities such as jogging and riding. The smartwatch will also be capable of knowing the intensity of the workout – something that even the highest end smartphones won’t currently offer. Xiaomi really has fitted everything they can in a smartwatch.
The Hey S3 uses Bluetooth 4.2 to be connected to the watch and back up all that data. The smartwatch will of course provide notifications such as missed call alerts, calendar reminders and so on. The watch is also waterproof up to 50 metres, perfect for those swimming sessions. All of these features come inside a package so good, it’s too unreal. At 539 Yuan ($79), the company is packing some major specs at a price that isn’t at all major. There is no smartwatch out there at this price-point that can rival all of its features.
According to reports, the smartwatch will currently only be available in China and will be available through Xiaomi’s new start-up company WeLoop. Xiaomi better begin operations outside of China, because there might be a couple million people looking to nab a watch with those kinds of features and at that kind of pricing. It might look like the way more expensive Nike+ edition of the Apple Watch and could be mistaken for one as well. But then again, that isn’t a bad thing really.