[Rolling out] Xiaomi plans a huge Mi Watch software update on December 3 & we have details of what's coming

New updates are being added at the bottom of this story…….

Original story (published on November 26, 2019) follows:

Xiaomi was at some point popularly known as the Apple of China due to its blatant ripoffs during its early days in the smartphone market. Years on, the company is still doing the same, but this time with an Apple Watch lookalike called Xiaomi Mi Watch.

Put it simply, the Mi Watch is an Apple Watch lookalike that borrows some of the latter’s features like the square dial design and the rotating crown but in typical Xiaomi fashion, it costs a fraction of the price at just $185. The base model Apple Watch 5 costs $399.

Xiaomi doesn’t think of the Mi Watch as a smartwatch. Rather, it calls it a “small phone on your wrist” thanks to features like Wi-Fi, NFC, Bluetooth, and 4G eSIM connectivity.

The Mi Watch also comes with over 100 watch faces and a decent 1.78-inch AMOLED always-on screen, which is just about all you would expect in a mid-tier smartwatch. And to make it even better, Xiaomi has plans to roll out a huge Mi Watch software update on December 3.

The company has shared some details of what this update will bring. Some of the incoming changes/improvements are based on feedback collected from early adopters of the watch and the company hopes that you’ll keep providing more feedback about the Mi Watch.

The Mi Watch doesn’t have a USB port so it relies on wireless charging to juice up the 590mAh battery. However, some units have been experiencing slow charging, something the company is already aware of and will be addressed in the upcoming software update.

The incoming Mi Watch software update will open up the new watch to the iOS ecosystem. Heng Qu, VP at Xiaomi Technology, says it will launch a Wearable app for iOS to improve user experience.

Some units have been experiencing freezing issues when the Mi Watch is paired to another device for the first time. If this is you, be sure to watch out for the planned software update because it will also address this issue.

Xiaomi Mi Watch runs on Google’s Wear OS layered with the company’s MIUI for Watch. The watch has over 40 pre-installed apps made up of slimmed-down versions of MIUI apps such as Recorder, Tasks, and Mi Home, but there are even more apps in the MIUI for Watch app store.

To improve the experience of using its own app store, the planned Mi Watch software update will set Wi-Fi as the preferred network when downloading apps from the store instead of mobile data.

Xiaomi has also confirmed that the new update will fix the bug where the notification prompt still appears even after clearing notifications in the Xiaomi Wearable app.

The new Mi Watch software update will also optimize the Sogou input method with new tutorials to guide users on how to switch between various input methods. For those experiencing buggy location of weather information on the watch, this update will also address it.

The Mi Watch comes with 4G eSIM support, but it seems the feature isn’t functional out of the box. On this, Xiaomi says it’s still working with telecom operators to bring network connectivity to the Mi Watch, but the wait to use the feature may go all the way to mid-December.

Apparently, Mi Watch owners won’t have to do anything to enable eSIM services when the feature arrives in a couple or so weeks.

As promised, the Mi Watch is receiving its first OTA update. The update is rolling out in stages beginning today all the way to December 5, so Xiaomi urges you to be patient.

The update is rolling out as software version PWDY.191120.001.XM037 and indeed, it does bring the changes that Xiaomi promised earlier and probably some more.

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