Xiaomi Watch S4 Review – Premium Looks, Affordable Price

Unboxing the Xiaomi Watch S4

Starting off the Xiaomi Watch S4 review with the unboxing, the packaging is pretty much par for the course with Xiaomi wearables. It’s a white box with a picture of the smartwatch, the Mi logo stealthily placed on the top-right corner, and the model name listed on the bottom. Nothing much else to see here. Inside the box, we found the following items:

• Documentations
• Magnetic charger (USB-C)
• Strap
• The Xiaomi Watch S4 itself

The Xiaomi Leather Quick Release Strap is an add-on.

Specifications

Display	1.43″ 466 x 466 AMOLED, 2000 nits peak, 326PPI 60Hz refresh rate
Durability	Fluororubber strap Aluminum alloy frame with stainless steel bezel 5ATM water resistance Scratch/drop-proof glass
CPU	Unknown
Memory	Unknown
Audio	1 x speaker 2 x microphones
Features	Heart rate sensor (with blood oxygen sensor), Accelerometer sensor, Gyroscope sensor, Ambient light sensor, Electronic compass, Barometer, Hall sensor Built-in GNSS, GPS (L1+L5), GLONASS, GALILEO, BDS, QZSS Bluetooth 5.3 with A2DP and LE NFC
OS	Xiaomi HyperOS 2
Battery	486mAh
Dimensions	47.3 x 47.2 x 12 mm, 44.5g
Color	Silver, Black, Rainbow

The Good

There are a number of good reasons to consider getting the Xiaomi Watch S4. For starters, it’s designed pretty well, especially given its price tag. It’s pretty durable with 5ATM water resistance, aluminum alloy frame with stainless steel bezel and it looks pretty classy as well. Sure, the fluororubber band would make it less suitable for more formal events but change to a metal or leather strap and you’d be surprised how well it can match a suit and tie. The bezel itself is interchangeable so you can enjoy a more tailored look for any occassion.

While many may be worried as it’s not sticking to a more traditional operating system like Wear OS, the Xiaomi HyperOS 2 here works pretty well. You get a decent array of watch faces to choose from, the UI is simple and user-friendly, and it’s very responsive. Moving from one section of the UI to another feels so effortless and smooth, it’s everything you’d need in a smartwatch. Moreover, the rotating crown brings extra convenience on how one would interact with it while also serving as a major design element.

The display on the Xiaomi Watch S4 is far from poor. It’s a 1.43-inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 466 x 466 and 326 PPI. It’s also pretty bright as it peaks out at 2,000 nits, ensuring that you can see anything and everything on the screen regardless if it’s dark or a very sunny day. Moreover, the overall look of the display makes it seem like it’s on par with the more expensive smartwatches out there, which will certainly make it more enticing for a lot of consumers.

In case you’re worried that this might be a barebones wearable, it does have a good array of health and fitness tracking features. Apart from the standard step tracking and heart rate monitoring, it can measure your blood oxygen levels, measure stress levels, get a sleep quality reading, track your stats across a whole slew of indoor and outdoor activities, and all of these can by synced and saved on the Mi Fitness app for easier viewing. This thing can easily do at least 95% of smartwatches that are worth double or more.

One major attraction point of this Xiaomi Watch S4, which is pretty much shared with the rest of the company’s wearables, is the fact that it works on both Android and iOS. In fact, you don’t even need a Xiaomi smartphone to make full use of it. For as long as you have the Mi Fitness app installed, signed in, and synced, you will have no limitations whatsoever. Having it work on non-Xiaomi Android smartphones is one thing but to also be fully functional on an iPhone is definitely amazing.

As expected for not going the typical Wear OS route, the Xiaomi Watch S4 has excellent battery life. It’s claimed to have up to 15 days of battery life but from my own use, we’re looking at about 10 full days. However, it’s worth noting that I do use it quite a bit and I do have Always-On Display enabled, the latter of which does affect the battery life quite a bit. It’s so good that I went to Singapore for the launch of the POCO F7 series without a bringing a charger, and I came back home with more than 50% battery life in the tank 3 days later.

Lastly, and this shouldn’t be a surprise, is that the Xiaomi Watch S4 is pretty affordable. It may not be cheapest one by the company but for RM559, you get a full-fledged smartwatch with a design akin to more premium options out there. Unlike the more affordable Xiaomi Smart Band 9 Pro, this one comes complete with buttons, a speaker and microphones. If you’re not keen on that price, I do see discounts every now and then where it easily goes below RM500, and you might be able to go further with some vouchers in hand.

Looking for a value-for-money smartphone to pair this with? Check out our Xiaomi 14T Pro review by clicking right here.

The Bad

Of course, the Xiaomi Watch S4 has its share of drawbacks. For starters, there are some features that will be limited to Xiaomi devices. This particularly involves controlling a Xiaomi tablet, Xiaomi smart home kits or making use of gestures for it. To me, this is still a small price to pay considering that you still get a fully functional smartwatch even without it, and it’s fair to give some additional incentives for being loyal to the brand instead of adding strict limitations for non-Xiaomi users.

While the battery life insanely long, the charger isn’t exactly the best. It uses a magnetic 2-pin charger instead of a charging pad, so you have to align it in a specific way to charge it. Trying to do so the other way around will simply not work as the magnets will repel it away. It’s not a huge problem, and I wouldn’t class it a design flaw either. It’s just a minor inconvenience if anything but luckily, you will be charging it far less than most smartwatches out there today so this issue becomes even less of an inconvenience.

Next up, the interchangeable bezel is a great idea as it adds versatility to its look. After all, you can have different looks catered for specific occassions and it will work fine. However, I noticed that it has a habit of thinking the bezel has been removed despite that not being the case, causing random bouts of vibrations to alert users of it. It doesn’t happen often but it’s pretty random, including times where I leave the watch alone on my desk with no interactions whatsoever. I’m uncertain if this is a software or a hardware issue but I hope they include an option to customize the alert as the vibrations can get rather obnoxious.

Lastly, the data / readings you get from this wearable is on the simpler side due to the lack of EKG. As it is, the data itself may be questionable in accuracy but that applies to every smartwatch out in the market now as you’re always meant to take the info as a frame of reference rather than a professional diagnosis. I say this because it’s designed for convenience rather than accuracy so if you want absolute precision, you should seek help from experts or use professional-grade tools instead of a smartwatch.

Xiaomi Watch S4 Verdict

If you’re looking to get yourself an affordable wearable, chances are that you have considered the Smart Band 9 Pro. If you want a more complete package with better looks, the Xiaomi Watch S4 is a very solid option to consider. It might not be as feature-rich as the typical Wear OS smartwatch but it does have some major benefits as well, namely its battery life. Since it works well across many different devices, it ultimately boils down to your needs for a smartwatch. More likely than not, this will serve you well as you simply can’t go wrong with it.

At the end of our Xiaomi Watch S4 review, I award this wearable with our coveted Gold Pokdeward.

Big thanks to Xiaomi Malaysia for sending us this wearable for the purpose of this review.