Xiaomi Redmi Watch 2 Lite Smartwatch Review: Improved successor of the Xiaomi Watch Lite

After the first Redmi smartwatch was released in this country as the Xiaomi Mi Watch Lite the successor is now available in Europe directly under the Redmi brand name. The Redmi Watch 2 Lite resembles its predecessor almost like two peas in a pod. It does offer some improvements, though not as many as the Redmi Watch 2, which is once again reserved for Asia.

The Redmi Watch 2 Lite, which is available in black (we tested it), ivory and blue, still comes with a plastic casing. The glossy black glass front is conspicuous and hides the display with a rather thick chin at the lower edge. On the right side there is again a button to open the menu. There are no integrated speakers or microphones.

The 35 g-light watch is held on the wrist by a pre-bent wristband made of TPU. This prevents the watch from lying flat on the table. Thanks to 13 closely spaced holes, the wristband can be adjusted in many ways and thus fits well on the arm. The wristband is removable but not universally interchangeable.

The Redmi Watch 2 Lite is primarily operated via the touchscreen. On the home screen, you can swipe horizontally through various widgets that provide information about the heart rate, blood oxygen level, weather, and activities, as well as directly start a workout. A swipe down brings up notifications, and a swipe up brings up the control center with night mode, flashlight, and more.

The single button on the right side is used to call the menu. Pressing the button for three seconds opens the system menu for turning off and restarting. By default, the menu presents itself in many small icons without textual explanation. Three icons are displayed in a row, which provides for sufficiently large touch surfaces. The menu is scrolled through via a vertical swipe.

In addition to the pulse, SpO2 and sports tracking, which are discussed in more detail below, the menu offers apps for all-day stress tracking (must be activated via the app), breathing exercises, a cycle calendar, weather information, alarm clock, stopwatch and timer, as well as an electric compass, a phone locator function and a flashlight (display lights up white). In addition, the music playback and camera (including delay up to 5 seconds) of the connected smartphone can be controlled on the wrist.

The Redmi Watch 2 Lite displays notifications from the paired smartphone. Push notifications for e-mails, phone, messages, and others can be received. The smartwatch vibrates briefly when a notification is received. Mails and messages can be read in a short preview but cannot be answered. Reliability and synchronicity were mostly given in our test, but the order of the displayed notifications was partly confusing and not systematic.

The smartwatch does not offer a phone function. Nevertheless, the wearable draws attention to calls. They can be pushed away on the smartwatch, but not accepted.

Voice assistants like Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant are not supported by the Redmi Watch 2 Lite.

As activity targets, the smartwatch displays the actively burned calories (i.e. those above the basal metabolic rate) and the number of steps taken together with the charge level as filling semicircles on the standard dial. In addition, the activity widget shows the number of movement interruptions during a sedentary activity. The targeted daily goals cannot be changed.

Whether the heart rate measurements should be continuous (24 hours a day, with adjustable frequency — requires more energy) or only on demand can be set. In addition, a regular determination of the blood oxygen content during sleep can also be specified.

Users who wear the Redmi Watch 2 Lite at night can track their own sleep. In addition to the duration, the smartwatch measures the different sleep phases and their length as well as the average pulse rate and the blood oxygen saturation, if desired. All data can be viewed on the smartwatch but are displayed in more detail in the app on the smartphone.

Water resistant up to 5 ATM, the Redmi Watch 2 Lite offers over 100 fitness modes. These include 17 professional modes like HIIT and yoga as well as 100 advanced workout modes. Thus, the selection of sports that can be tracked with the smartwatch is very large. In addition to the obligatory classics like running, walking and cycling, activities such as trekking, swimming (pool and open water), rowing, rope skipping, dancing, and many more are also included.

Depending on the selected sport, the smart wristwatch provides information about pulse, calories, distance, current and average speed, stride length, and more. It also evaluates the session after the end of the workout and saves the workout.

In the test, we used the smartwatch to track rowing on a rowing machine, among other things. The Redmi Watch 2 Lite not only counts the strokes surprisingly accurately but also suggests training sets.

Xiaomi installs an Apollo 3.5 chip and lets us know that the watch works faster than the predecessor. There are hardly any problems in everyday use in the test. The system responds quickly to touch gestures, and apps open immediately. Scrolling through menus and apps could have been a bit smoother, though.

There is no usable storage space, which is not necessary because additional apps cannot be installed.

Xiaomi lists the recommended retail price at just under €70 (~$80). At the time of our review of the Redmi Watch 2 Lite, however, the smartwatch is available for around €54 (~$62). At Amazon (DE) it is offered for about €62 (~$70.3).