Xiaomi has once again launched a new smartwatch, the Redmi Watch Move, in the sub-Rs 3,000 segment, home to countless options. The Beijing tech giant has resorted to its proven strategy of arming its product with features to no end to steal the spotlight from its rival. Consequently, the Redmi Watch Move features a new AMOLED screen, a function crown, an IP68 protection, and a bigger battery.
Redmi Watch Move
Rs 1,999
What Is Good?
- Head-turner, durable design
- Reliable battery life
- Vivid display
- Intuitive UI
- Decent health, sleep tracking
What Is Bad?
- No third-party straps support
- Software features need refinement to become useful
- Lack of adaptive brightness causes annoyance
While this strategy may have borne success for Xiaomi, its competitors have almost caught up in delivering a similar experience. Does the Redmi Watch Move manage to find its footing in this crowded battlefield? Or is it a space filler on the Flipkart watch listing? Read my review to find out.
Design and Build Quality
The Redmi Watch Move has a rectangular body, a common characteristic among nearly all smartwatches. Surprisingly enough, I don’t have any qualms with this design choice.
To give you a context, I can encircle my wrist with my index finger’s tip almost touching the thumb; that’s how small it is. When I wore the watch for the first time, it didn’t feel out of proportion on my hand.
I can’t put my finger on whether the shape or dimension is responsible for this feat. But whatever it is, it was sufficient to paste a giant smile on my face. Stretching my smile even more is the watch’s weight. After wearing it for more than an hour, I genuinely used to forget I was carrying a 39-gram watch on my wrist.
| Design | Specifications |
| Thickness | 10.8mm |
| Watch body material | Plastic |
| Strap quality | TPU |
| Protection | IP68 |
| Weight | 39 grams |
| Connectivity | Bluetooth 5.3 |
My review unit flaunts the Silver Sprint colour on its frame. This, combined with the watch’s shape, strongly compelled my colleagues to compare it with the Apple Watch 9. Most importantly, they were allured by its aesthetics. While my heart was still with the Redmi Watch 5 Active, which I reviewed almost a year ago, the Redmi Watch Move gradually grew on me. The Redmi Watch 5 Active appears to be an elegant hunk, but this watch is more of a sophisticated stunner.
However, I still recommend you look for this watch in other colours, except for the Silver Sprint. As the band is the same colour, it is susceptible to catching the whole colony of dust in full force. In two weeks of using this watch, I have noticed more blemishes than the actual colour.
My disappointment with the strap doesn’t end here. The Redmi Watch Move features a new quick-release strap mechanism. While it simplifies the process of detaching the strap, it has discreetly forced everyone to depend on Xiaomi for new straps.
As of now, I am unaware whether the brand will share the layout with third-party companies to let them produce a variety of unique straps for the Redmi Watch Move.
As for the build quality, the Redmi Watch Move feels sturdy in hand, despite its plastic build. While it resembles a toy watch, it is strong enough not to shatter like one. Its IP68 protection against dust and water makes it capable of tracking swimming records, but read the fine print before jumping into action.
Display
The Redmi Watch Move flaunts a 1.85-inch AMOLED screen on the front, and it is truly a show-stopper. From every UI element to a watch face, each item appeared beautifully with such vibrant colours. Besides, my general interaction with the UI was pretty seamless due to its support for a 60Hz refresh rate.
| Display | Specifications |
| Size | 1.85-inch |
| Type | AMOLED |
| Resolution | 390×450 pixels |
| Brightness | 600 nits |
Beyond colours and smoothness, the display was quite glaringly bright. At night, I had to adjust its intensity below 40 per cent so I wouldn’t stun myself. But the most annoying thing about this is manually increasing the brightness in daylight. I wish the watch had an adaptive brightness sensor. However, deep down, I know it is a distant dream, as providing one may increase the watch’s pricing.
What’s more terrific about the Redmi Watch Move is its support for an Always-on display. At its current stage, there is no option to customise its appearance. However, it is still valuable, as it shows time, date, and battery capacity without waking up the watch. Another convenient feature is its raise-to-wake, which has worked flawlessly in my usage.
Software and Performance
Introducing HyperOS has been a game-changer for Xiaomi, as it remains a strong suit for its watches.
The UI is still as intuitive as ever. Swiping up on the home screen prompts the quick settings page to appear, which lets you manage basic settings like silent mode, find phone, and more. Conversely, the notification panel emerges on the swiping down gesture. Besides, swiping horizontally on either side brings up the widget panel, where you can customise its layout and display your preferred widget.
Unlike the operating systems of other watches, the design of HyperOS feels quirky yet elegant.
The entire blood monitoring animation perfectly exemplifies this characteristic. While the Redmi Watch Move’s UI resembles Apple’s watchOS in the watch menu layout, it does provide the option to display each application in a list form. This step also adds a label beside each app, making it convenient to navigate the operating system.
An appealing part about this watch is that it flaunts a rotating crown on the right side, which is also functional. With its help, you can scroll around the entire UI. Honestly, I prefer it to let me select an option instead of being restricted to a scrolling gesture. Otherwise, navigating the UI is more convenient by touching the screen.
The Redmi Watch Move supports Bluetooth calling, a useful feature when your phone is not nearby. I tried conversing with my friends via the watch. While the audio quality was loud and clear, my friends often had to ask me to bring the microphone close to my mouth. They had a hard time picking up my voice.
Since we live in the dawn of AI, this watch also has a few AI-powered features: AI Watch Face and AI Q&A. I still can’t figure out their limitations regarding what it can create or what questions it can answer. They sometimes don’t register my requests despite my phone having a full internet connection. At this point, Xiaomi needs to work extensively on these features to consider them useful.
Fitness and Tracking
Xiaomi claims that the Redmi Watch Move can track 140+ workout activities, but I primarily tested this watch for walking. I walked 1000 steps with an interval of 100 steps. I noted that the watch’s counted steps differed from my counting by 4-5 steps in each interval. While this is an acceptable result, I was still left unsatisfied.
In my daily usage, I occasionally caught this watch counting steps when travelling by bike. This alone raised questions about the intensity it requires as a trigger to begin counting steps, and it is yet to be determined. Hopefully, a future update will iron out this issue.
| Health Tracking | Yes/No |
| Heart rate monitoring | Yes |
| SpO2 | Yes |
| Sleep tracking | Yes |
| Activity tracking | Yes |
| Stress tracking | Yes |
That said, Xiaomi again knocked my socks off with its smartwatch’s sleep monitoring capabilities. I wore the Redmi Watch Move for more than three nights, and it accurately tracked my sleep cycle each night. I tracked my erratic wake-up pattern each night, and the watch’s results perfectly aligned with my observations. It is important to highlight that it can’t monitor naps of 20 minutes.
For blood pressure and spO2 monitoring, I pitted the Redmi Watch Move against an oximeter. The watch deviated from the latter by just 3 points in both categories. However, I strongly advise you not to rely on smartwatches to monitor severe diseases like high blood pressure.
While the watch mostly shows the synopsis of each data point, the Mi Fitness app shows them in detail. It even nicely breaks them down, making it easier for us to grasp them.
Battery and Charging
With the Redmi Watch Move, Xiaomi has successfully maintained its streak of delivering satisfying battery life. In my testing, the watch lasted more than six days on a single charge with almost every battery-consuming feature enabled.
| Battery | Specifications |
| Battery | 300mAh |
| Charging Time | 1 hour and 22 minutes |
The watch relies on a magnetic pogo pin connector to charge its battery. I have logged more demerits than benefits in my usage. Its connection is finicky, so the watch tends to stop charging at a slight intrusion. Since the charging cable is short, finding a perfect charging spot becomes an uphill task.
The Redmi Watch Move took an hour and 22 minutes to charge completely when I used an 80W SuperVOOC charger.
Verdict
The Redmi Watch Move is a great package that excels at key pillars. The 1.85-inch AMOLED screen exhibits each UI element vibrantly, is quite luminous, and provides a seamless way of interacting with the UI thanks to its 60Hz refresh rate. While its operating system is intuitive, it offers features that are hard to come by in the sub-Rs 3,000 segment. It can also let you call folks if your phone is unavailable nearby. Most importantly, the watch can track nearly all important health parameters, like heart rate and sleep, with minor deviations.
However, the watch also has some compromises. While the software is feature-packed, these features require more refinement to be considered useful. Due to the quick-release strap mechanism, the watch lacks support for third-party straps. While the display is very bright, its brightness has to be manually adjusted. Additionally, it sometimes starts counting steps in response to a slight jerk while riding a bike.
Ultimately, the Redmi Watch Move is an easy recommendation if you seek a reliable option under Rs 3,000.
