Now here’s a thing. Apple Watch comparisons aside, I think the most interesting thing here is that Google have allowed them to skin WearOS, something that previously had been expressly forbidden for WearOS OEM partners.
I wonder if it’s just a visual skin, or a totally custom-rolled version of WearOS. The former would allow for tighter control and updates, but the latter might have allowed Xiaomi a level of freedom to improve on the the OS itself, which has historically struggled with the available performance from the Qualcomm chips that are on the market.
I’ll be interested to see the reviews roll in. I suspect that the Fitbit acquisition will mark a big WearOS refresh, so this may end up being sort of an interim product between the WearOS of old and whatever the future holds under the “Made by Google” hardware division.