Xiaomi Watch S4 41mm Review

I reviewed the Xiaomi Watch S3 in March 2024, and the corporate launched its successor earlier this 12 months. Extra just lately, they’ve launched the smaller 41mm model, which has a extra female design and is best suited to smaller wrists.

Just like the earlier fashions, the Xiaomi Watch S4, obtainable in each sizes, utilises Xiaomi HyperOS, making it extra of a function watch than a real smartwatch, much like WearOS on units just like the OnePlus Watch 3. Nevertheless, the profit is a lower cost level and glorious battery life.

Most smartwatches, particularly these function watches you get from Xiaomi, Huawei and different manufacturers, have very incremental enhancements between generations.

The principle distinction between the Xiaomi Watch S4 fashions is the introduction of the brand new 41mm mannequin. The S4 and S3 adopted a chunkier, extra masculine (for lack of a greater phrase) aesthetic, whereas this is a little more elegant and can enchantment to these with smaller wrists who don’t need that outsized watch look.

Associated Evaluations

Xiaomi Watch S3 vs S4 Specification

Options

Design and Show

The watch is designed for wearability with a compact 41.2mm diameter and a slim 9.5mm profile. It weighs roughly 32 grams with out the strap. The center body is constructed from chrome steel, obtainable in silver and gold finishes. For the show, it makes use of a 1.32-inch AMOLED display screen. This display screen has a decision of 466 by 466 pixels and a 60 Hz refresh price, able to reaching 1500 nits of brightness in excessive brightness mode for clear visibility. Quite a lot of strap supplies can be found, together with fluororubber, leather-based, and a Milanese possibility. Customers can personalise the machine with a alternative of over 200 watch faces.

Well being and Wellness Monitoring

The machine contains an upgraded coronary heart price module that additionally measures blood oxygen ranges. An progressive pores and skin temperature sensor is included, which offers knowledge for enhanced feminine cycle prediction, detects irregular pores and skin temperatures, and may challenge overheating alerts. Sleep monitoring capabilities are additionally upgraded, providing multi-dimensional insights and a 21-day guided plan for sleep enchancment.

Health and Exercise Monitoring

For health fans, the watch helps over 150 sports activities modes. It incorporates a dual-band five-system GNSS for exact outside positioning throughout actions like operating. It offers skilled modes for particular sports activities, together with a complicated swimming mode and an expert snowboarding mode that features fall detection. The watch additionally affords a complete operating information and posture recognition. Information may be shared with exterior platforms akin to Suunto, Strava, and Well being Join. A sports activities vlog perform permits customers to regulate a linked Xiaomi smartphone to document video throughout exercises.

Efficiency, Security, and Good Options

Powered by Xiaomi HyperOS, the watch affords a easy consumer interface with customisable widgets and navigation by way of a rotating crown. The 320mAh battery helps as much as 8 days of sunshine use. For connectivity, it makes use of Bluetooth 5.4. Security is addressed with a devoted SOS button that allows fast emergency calls and shares real-time location. For good interactions, the watch helps NFC funds and customisable finger snap gestures for fast entry to capabilities like rejecting calls or opening purposes.

Unboxing / Design

 The primary impression is that the watch feels premium regardless of its measurement. The chrome steel body offers a cultured look, and it’s surprisingly light-weight at simply 32 grams minus the strap.

The show is protected with a flat glass panel and has a delicate crown, alongside a push button for energy and fast actions.

The band is 18mm extensive, smooth, and cozy. Substitute is straightforward due to a quick-release function. My evaluate pattern was within the default white color, however there are black and mint inexperienced choices, plus a fancier Sundown Gold model for these wanting a dressier look. The strap really feel well-made, and the Milanese gold possibility seems to be particularly suited to extra formal events.

The S4 41mm measures 41.2 x 41.2 x 9.5 mm. It has a notably slim profile in comparison with mainstream sports activities watches, making it preferrred for these with slender wrists. Xiaomi has stored the aesthetic minimal, which fits each women and men relying on strap alternative. I discovered it discrete and cozy throughout all sorts of put on, together with in a single day sleep monitoring.

Show sensible, Xiaomi equips the S4 41mm with a 1.32-inch AMOLED panel. The 466 x 466 pixel decision is above common for this measurement, resulting in glorious pixel density, sharp menus and clear notifications. Colors are punchy, and the 60 Hz refresh price provides easy navigation. All menus and content material are simply readable, even for customers who may battle with small screens.

Brightness, at 1500 nits, is adequate for legibility in sturdy daylight, and the At all times-on Show is effectively executed, adopting a easy analogue clock design. In my expertise, it beats cheaper LCD watches and may be very near Huawei’s GT-series in show high quality.

The body is chrome steel, including robustness and magnificence, and I’ve discovered it resists scratches effectively by means of each day use. Button really feel is crisp, and the rotating crown works for scrolling and fast entry all through menus.

Set Up

Organising the Xiaomi Watch S4 is a normal course of for contemporary wearables. The watch is appropriate with each Android (8.0 and above) and iOS (12.0 and above) units. To start, customers must obtain the Mi Health app from their respective app retailer. The app guides you thru the pairing course of, which makes use of Bluetooth to attach the watch to the smartphone. As soon as linked, the watch syncs knowledge with the cellphone, and customers can start customising settings, watch faces, and notification preferences immediately from the app. For customers with Xiaomi telephones operating HyperOS 2 or 3, the combination is enhanced, permitting for a extra seamless expertise with options just like the portrait watch face and sports activities vlog recording.

Well being Monitoring

Xiaomi has packed the S4 41mm with an upgraded coronary heart price sensor, incorporating each SpO2 and pores and skin temperature monitoring. Throughout each day train and sleep, I discovered accuracy to be reliably inside 1 bpm of a Polar chest strap and simply as in keeping with Coros throughout yoga periods. The watch has additionally been tuned for feminine cycle prediction, utilizing pores and skin temperature knowledge, although thorough testing of this function would require longer-term use.

The checkup function provides a one-minute readout of SpO2, coronary heart price, stress and sleep high quality, which a pleasant comfort function. Sleep monitoring is stable, with staging that intently matches my Garmin, usually inside quarter-hour’ variance for evening totals. It additionally offers a 21-day guided sleep plan meant to assist customers kind higher habits, although that is solely helpful if you’re dedicated to each day logging and suggestions. For stress monitoring, I discovered outcomes to be broadly in keeping with competitor watches, often pegged to coronary heart price and motion patterns.

There are some variations between the Xiaomi and my Garmin for issues like sleep. My Garmin has a sleep coach, sleep components and a few fundamental suggestions. The sleep coach offers some insightful info on your present sleep wants. However Xiaomi additionally breaks down your sleep into levels after which offers a bit extra element within the interpretation. You may then begin a sleep enchancment plan, which tries to information you thru methods to enhance your sleep over 7 days.

Health Monitoring

After years of sporting a Garmin, I refuse to surrender on sporting a Garmin, as I need all my health knowledge in a single place. So, throughout my evaluate interval, I wore the Xiaomi on one arm and my Fenix Epix Gen 2 on the opposite. I swapped wrists each day simply to verify the outcomes had been constant.

One factor I instantly seen was that the Xiaomi locked onto GPS quicker. I don’t have the Epix Gen 2 Professional, so the Xiaomi has a slight benefit with the dual-band 5-system GNSS. GPS lock usually took 3-5 seconds, which is genuinely spectacular. Even in areas with tall buildings the place GPS often struggles, the watch maintained correct monitoring.

I discovered the health monitoring to be glorious – the GPS observe aligned effectively with the Garmin, and the center price monitoring was equally correct. Although, as with all wrist-based coronary heart price monitoring, it may be vulnerable to inaccuracies. I really discover my Garmin extra vulnerable to inaccuracies throughout high-intensity intervals.

The watch offers helpful metrics throughout actions, together with elevation achieve/loss, cadence, stride size, coaching impact, and VO2 Max estimates. A couple of years in the past, that might have been glorious, however many manufacturers have replicated the options discovered on Garmin and now embrace extra superior metrics like operating energy and biking energy. The Xiaomi S4 doesn’t supply these superior metrics, which is disappointing however comprehensible at this value level.

Auto-detection for exercises works reliably. When you begin operating with out manually triggering a exercise, the watch will discover and ask if you wish to begin monitoring. This works for strolling, operating, and biking in my expertise.

The swimming mode tracks laps, stroke kind, and SWOLF scores. The 5 ATM water resistance ranking means it’s appropriate for swimming, although I’d keep away from deep diving or high-pressure water sports activities. I examined it within the pool, and monitoring appeared correct for lap counting.

Information export to Strava labored seamlessly. Actions appeared in Strava inside minutes of ending and syncing. The mixing additionally works with Suunto and Well being Join, which supplies you flexibility in the way you handle your health knowledge.

Good Watch Options

The HyperOS interface is clear and responsive. Swiping up from the watch face reveals notifications, swiping down accesses fast settings, and swiping left or proper cycles by means of widgets. The rotating crown offers an alternate navigation methodology that feels exact.

Notifications work effectively with each Android and iPhone. You may learn messages, view emails, and see app notifications. Fast replies aren’t obtainable for many messaging apps, however you should utilize preset responses for rejecting calls. Name dealing with is simple – the watch has a speaker and microphone for Bluetooth calls. Audio high quality is appropriate for temporary conversations, although you wouldn’t wish to conduct a prolonged name by means of the watch.

Music controls work as anticipated, permitting you to play, pause, skip tracks, and alter quantity in your linked cellphone. There’s no onboard music storage, so that you’ll want your cellphone close by.

The watch faces deserve point out. The default choice is diversified, from easy analogue designs to advanced digital faces full of info. You may customise problems on many faces to point out the info you need at a look. The interactive Pet Park watch face is a unusual addition – you elevate a digital pet that strikes round your watch face. It’s not notably helpful, but it surely’s enjoyable.

Climate info is displayed clearly, pulling knowledge out of your cellphone. You get present circumstances and a multi-day forecast. The compass works reliably as soon as calibrated, and there’s a flashlight perform that turns the display screen shiny white, helpful for locating issues at the hours of darkness.

Battery Life

The 41mm mannequin has a battery capability of 320mAh vs 486mAh on the usual 47mm mannequin.

Xiaomi claims the conventional S4 can obtain 15 days of typical use. With the 41mm mannequin, they’re extra exact; they declare 8 days for mild utilization, 4 days for regular use and three days for heavy use.

The quoted numbers don’t look beneficial for the 41mm mannequin. You may have a battery that’s 34% smaller, however a battery life that’s doubtless lower than half. Clearly, the show performs a component on this; the 1.32-inch show is barely 7.69% smaller than the 1.43-inch show.

I did some fast serviette maths, and a really tough guess is that the battery life ought to be about 23% shorter battery life in contrast with the 486 mAh mannequin.

By way of real-world utilization, I bought round 4 days. I might say that my utilization was a bit greater than regular. I didn’t use the good watch options a lot, however I did use GPS lots and had all of the options enabled.

Worth and Various Choices

The Xiaomi Watch S4 41mm has an RRP of £130 and is obtainable from Mi.com for £120.

The bigger Xiaomi Watch S4 has been out since March and is obtainable for £110. I might hope that in a couple of months, the 41mm might be obtainable for a similar value.

Xiaomi additionally has the Watch 2, which is a WearOS watch that’s the identical value at £120. It’s not actually comparable because of the aesthetic and underlying OS, however it’s definitely price contemplating if you’re searching for a correct smartwatch.

Huawei simply launched the Watch GT6, and so they have a 41mm mannequin that has a significantly greater RRP of £230. The a lot greater value level is justified because it seems to be a superior watch, together with higher health options, together with mapping options and biking energy, plus a for much longer battery life.

OnePlus additionally just lately launched the 43mm mannequin of the OnePlus Watch 3, which has a RRP of £270 however is discounted to £230. This can be a totally fledged smartwatch with WearOS, however not like many different WearOS watches, it has a unbelievable battery life, and I’d most likely purchase this over the Watch GT6, contemplating the matching value level.

When you had been to go together with Garmin, the Venu 4 41mm is the very best various, which is priced considerably greater at £470. It’s vastly superior for health monitoring, however the aesthetic is slightly bland in comparison with the above choices, and it’s laborious to suggest to anybody aside from these critically into health.

General

I’ve been a fan of Xiaomi watches for a number of years now. As a health fanatic, they gained me over with the Strava integration, which they carried out lengthy earlier than Huawei and another manufacturers.

The truth that they aren’t totally fledged smartwatches means the battery life has all the time been glorious, which is a significant factor for me, and the pricing has been very engaging.

Admittedly, they haven’t satisfied me to ditch my Garmin, however I persistently suggest them to pals entering into health who need a semi-decent watch to trace actions, or simply these wanting an reasonably priced smartwatch that appears extra premium than a health band.

As for the Xiaomi Watch S4 41mm, it continues the pattern of nice watches. The principle promoting level right here is the general aesthetic; it should enchantment to extra consumers than earlier generations, which had been restricted to only one measurement.

Whereas the watch is a bit too small for my tastes, my companion likes it, which confirms the above.

The S4 fashions don’t introduce way more than was on supply on the S3, definitely not sufficient to justify the improve from S3 to S4. Within the case of this watch, I don’t assume that is a matter.

The health monitoring is stable, with correct GPS and coronary heart price monitoring that matches or exceeds what you’d anticipate at this value level. The twin-band GNSS is a standout function that you simply often solely see on costlier watches. Well being monitoring options cowl the fundamentals effectively, and the sleep monitoring offers helpful insights.

My one minor gripe is that the battery life is noticeably smaller than earlier generations. I bought round 4 days of use, which is okay and unavailable because of the smaller design, but it surely makes an enormous distinction in comparison with the ten+ days I bought on the bigger S3.

The shortage of superior health metrics like operating energy or coaching readiness may disappoint critical athletes, however for informal health fans, the metrics offered are greater than enough. The watch does what it must do with out overwhelming you with knowledge.

At £120, the Xiaomi Watch S4 41mm affords good worth. It’s not the very best watch in each class – Garmin beats it for health monitoring, WearOS watches supply extra app flexibility, and Huawei’s GT6 has longer battery life. However the mixture of design, options, and value makes it a good choice for a lot of customers.

General, if the design appeals to you and also you need a succesful health tracker with smartwatch options that doesn’t value £300+, then I can suggest the Xiaomi Watch S4 41mm. Simply don’t anticipate it to interchange a devoted sports activities watch should you’re coaching for marathons, and be ready to cost it extra steadily than you may like.

I’m James, a UK-based tech fanatic and the Editor and Proprietor of Mighty Gadget, which I’ve proudly run since 2007. Keen about all issues expertise, my experience spans from computer systems and networking to cell, wearables, and good residence units.

As a health fanatic who loves operating and biking, I even have a eager curiosity in fitness-related expertise, and I take each alternative to cowl this area of interest on my weblog. My various pursuits permit me to deliver a singular perspective to tech running a blog, merging way of life, health, and the newest tech tendencies.

In my educational pursuits, I earned a BSc in Data Techniques Design from UCLAN, earlier than advancing my studying with a Grasp’s Diploma in Computing. This superior research additionally included Cisco CCNA accreditation, additional demonstrating my dedication to understanding and staying forward of the expertise curve.

I’m proud to share that Vuelio has persistently ranked Mighty Gadget as one of many high expertise blogs within the UK. With my dedication to expertise and drive to share my insights, I intention to proceed offering my readers with participating and informative content material.

Final replace on 2025-10-04 / Affiliate hyperlinks / Photographs from Amazon Product Promoting API