Xiaomi Watch 2 Pro review: Wear OS promise undermined by poor tracking accuracy

Xiaomi's Watch 2 Pro arrives with an impressive spec sheet and a competitive price that should make it an obvious choice for anyone seeking a Wear OS smartwatch. The device costs £230 for the standard model and £280 for the cellular version—undercutting the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 at £319, the TicWatch Pro 5 at £329, and the Google Pixel Watch 2 at £349. On paper, it has everything: dual-frequency GPS typically found in expensive sports watches, a promised 65-hour battery life, body composition analysis, and finally, access to Google's full ecosystem of apps and services. After weeks of real-world testing, though, the Watch 2 Pro proves that a smartwatch is far more than the sum of its specifications.

The device itself feels substantial in hand. Its 47.6mm stainless steel case houses a 1.43-inch AMOLED display with 466 x 466 pixels, delivering brightness and clarity that rarely require adjustment beyond 75 percent. The build quality is genuinely solid, and the minimalist design, while generic, avoids the awkward choices that plague some competitors. But this is where the praise largely ends. The watch weighs 54.5 grams, and that weight is distributed in a way that makes it uncomfortable to wear during exercise. During testing, the device required constant tightening to prevent slipping, and wearing it to bed felt unnatural. The problem mirrors what plagued the original Pixel Watch—a heavy stainless steel case paired with a silicone strap creates an imbalance that no amount of engineering elsewhere can fix.

Xiaomi's decision to layer its own MIUI interface on top of Wear OS rather than adopt the platform wholesale creates a fractured experience. Yes, you finally get Google Wallet, Maps, Assistant, and Home on a Xiaomi watch. But the customized skin feels unpolished and buggy. The device has frozen on charging screens, apps have become unresponsive, and basic features lack refinement. The always-on display, for instance, won't turn off automatically when you fall asleep—you must either set a manual schedule or live with a glowing watch face in the dark. Viewing live workout data requires keeping your wrist raised and tapping a tiny icon at the top of the screen, a clunky interaction compared to the Pixel Watch 2 or TicWatch Pro 5. The Mi Fitness companion app compounds these frustrations, often displaying data only in weekly view rather than daily, or failing to show it at all.

The tracking accuracy issues are severe enough to undermine the entire premise of a fitness watch. Heart rate monitoring struggles dramatically with intensity changes. During interval workouts, the Watch 2 Pro registered average heart rates 5 to 7 beats per minute below what a Garmin Epix Pro and Wahoo Tickr X chest strap recorded. In one session, it missed an entire chunk of exercise data during sync. The GPS tracking, despite the promise of dual-frequency GNSS, typically calculates 100 to 200 meters off from Garmin's gold-standard measurements—roughly what you'd expect from a basic single-band GPS. One bugged workout recorded elevation loss at 21,500 millimeters, equivalent to stacking three Mount Everests. The body composition analysis, a relatively unique feature that measures body fat percentage, water weight, and muscle mass, fluctuates wildly. Consecutive readings showed body fat percentages varying by as much as 3 percent, with some days registering around 20.9 percent and others 18.6 percent, compared to consistent readings of 14.7 percent on a Fitbit scale and 15.1 percent on a Garmin scale.

Sleep tracking performs adequately for basic metrics—fall asleep and wake times, rough sleep stage estimation—but lacks the depth you'd expect from a Wear OS device. The presentation in Mi Fitness is buggy, refusing to show daily views of tracked sleep. Resting heart rate and skin temperature readings are generally reliable, though Xiaomi disables many health features by default, requiring manual activation.

The one genuine bright spot is battery life. The Watch 2 Pro comfortably manages two days on a single charge, and closer to three if you leave Xiaomi's default settings untouched. An hour of dual-frequency GPS tracking drains roughly 15 to 20 percent of the battery, extending to 20 to 25 percent if you stream music simultaneously. The watch charges from empty to full in approximately 40 minutes, beating Xiaomi's own claim of 45 minutes.

The Watch 2 Pro occupies an awkward middle ground. It's cheaper than its direct competitors, but not cheap enough to excuse the tracking failures and software roughness. It promises Wear OS integration but delivers a compromised version that feels less polished than what Samsung and Google offer. For someone willing to accept significant accuracy limitations and software quirks in exchange for a larger watch face and Google services, it remains an option. For anyone who actually wants their fitness watch to track fitness accurately, it falls short of the current Wear OS standard.