OPINION: Samsung has lengthy secured its spot as among the best smartwatch producers for Android smartphones, culminating within the newest Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 with a plethora of apps, Google Put on OS 4 and funky well being options like full physique scanning tech.
Nevertheless, with this week’s reveal of the Xiaomi Watch 2 Professional, the corporate has set its sights firmly on Samsung’s wearable – and Samsung ought to be apprehensive.
Revealed alongside the Xiaomi 13T and Xiaomi 13T Professional in Berlin earlier this week, the Xiaomi Watch 2 Professional is the newest in Xiaomi’s smartwatch vary. Xiaomi gadgets have often been restricted to Xiaomi’s personal wearable OS, which tends to restrict simply how succesful they are often, missing options like third-party app help, Google Assistant, Google Pockets and different Google-fied options accessible on competing Put on OS smartwatches – however that has all modified with the Xiaomi Watch 2 Professional.
That’s as a result of the Xiaomi Watch 2 Professional is the primary Xiaomi wearable to run Put on OS 3.5, with Google’s head of product and design for Put on OS, John Renaldi, showing on stage on the launch to speak concerning the partnership with the 2 firms. Although it’s not fairly the Put on OS 4 of the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6, the software program is an enormous improve from what was beforehand accessible on the OG Xiaomi Watch S1 Professional.
That brings a variety of advantages to Xiaomi’s newest wearable, however probably the most impactful will little doubt be the introduction of third-party standalone apps that’ll work on the watch, with big-name apps like Spotify and WhatsApp accessible to obtain alongside a variety of other train apps like Strava.
But it surely’s additionally smaller options that’ll stage up the expertise on supply, from contextual notifications with sensible reply know-how to entry to Google Pockets and Google Assistant from the wrist. In comparison with Xiaomi’s older various, it’s day and evening.
However why ought to Samsung particularly be apprehensive? There’s already a variety of Put on OS-enabled smartwatches in the marketplace, in spite of everything. For me, all of it comes down to at least one big function: physique scanning tech.
It’s tech we’ve already seen on current generations of Samsung Galaxy Watch and basically permits customers to get an in depth evaluation of their physique, together with parts like weight, muscle mass, water weight and extra just by holding the 2 aspect buttons on the watch. The catch? The function requires a Samsung-branded Android smartphone to work, although the Galaxy Watch is appropriate with all Android smartphones.
Which means, in case you’ve obtained a Galaxy Watch 6 and a Google Pixel 7, you’re out of luck.
That’s the place the Xiaomi Watch 2 Professional is available in, with an virtually an identical function that delivers a lot the identical information as Samsung’s possibility, however crucially, it’ll work with any Android smartphone. That’s an instantaneous leg-up on Samsung’s wearable.
It’s not like the 2 look that dissimilar both, although the Xiaomi Watch 2 Professional is nearer to the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 Basic with a conventional design and a stainless-steel physique. Regardless, it’s a high-end construct that helps the wearable look extra premium.
The most important risk for Samsung, nonetheless? That’d be the value. At simply €269 (round £230), or €319 (round £276) if you would like an LTE-enabled variant, it’s means cheaper than each the £289 Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 and £359 Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 Basic – and that’s with out LTE connectivity.
Which means you will get a really functionally related smartwatch to Samsung’s possibility at a less expensive value, and it’ll work with extra Android smartphones too.
So sure, I feel Samsung has quite a bit to fret about with the Xiaomi Watch 2 Professional, and I hope this forces Samsung to rethink its Samsung-only wearable options in future generations of watch.
#Quick #Cost #Samsung #apprehensive #Xiaomis #smartwatch
