Xiaomi Watch S3 review: Simple smarts, brilliant bezels

Bored of your smartwatch always looking the same? Xiaomi is, too — which is why its Watch S3 has one unique selling point. It has a detachable bezel, allowing you to redesign your watch on the fly to match new straps, color-coordinate with your outfits, or simply inject a little variety.

Look beyond the bezel, and you will find a capable, if basic, watch that sits in that gray area between a fitness tracker and a smartwatch. It’s not as smart as a Wear OS watch, but a fairly comprehensive suite of health and fitness features makes it a great tracker for an affordable price. I’ve been using the Watch S3 for a couple of months now, making this a longer-term review than I’d set out to do initially. But it’s a testament to the Watch S3 that I’ve happily had it strapped to my wrist all that time.

Price, availability, and specs

Xiaomi still doesn’t officially release its hardware in the US, but plenty of its wearables, including the Watch S3, make appearances on Amazon anyway.

At the time of writing, it’s available for around $125. Replacement bezels are also available, although only from third-party manufacturers. That means they’re unlikely to offer the matching watch faces found on Xiaomi’s official accessories, and I don’t know what the average quality will be like.

What’s good about the Xiaomi Watch S3?

It’s all about those bezels

The obvious place to start is that replaceable bezel. This simple but smart idea adds another layer of flexibility and versatility to the Watch S3, allowing you to make it your own. I love the idea of slapping on a black bezel to match a black leather strap at a wedding, but switching to a more colorful green number when I’m just out with friends. It frees you from the need to commit to a single look and makes this a more fashionable and functional accessory.

Swapping the bezel is a simple twist-and-click maneuver. The only downside is that occasionally, a bezel will twist off of its own volition. This has been very infrequent, but it is a risk worth keeping an eye out for.

Xiaomi has also made the smart touch of including custom watch faces to match its official bezels, and when you swap a bezel on it prompts you to swap the face to match (though you can, of course, decline). As I warned, though, in the US, I’m not sure you can get hold of Xiaomi’s official bezels, and I doubt any third-party models will support the feature.

The Watch S3 itself is fairly nondescript, otherwise. It’s a simple round smartwatch with a 1.43-inch AMOLED display, and two buttons on the right-hand side. It’s a little big for my taste, with a fairly chunky body, but I always prefer smaller watches, so take that with a pinch of salt.

The screen is fairly bright and its colors punchy, though it can be a struggle in direct sunlight. It’s 5ATM water-resistant, so it’s suitable for both swimming and showers, and Xiaomi’s HyperOS software is straightforward and simple to use, too.

Tracking is solid too. There’s all the usual fitness tracking, with around 150 exercises supported. Heart rate, SpO2, and sleep tracking complete the set, and like most trackers, your data is condensed into streamlined sleep and vitality scores. I found data accurate and reliable, closely matching the Withings and Samsung wearables I’ve tested in the same period.

Workout data even includes guidance on how long you should take to recover before you hit the gym again, though I’ve found it does encourage longer breaks than feel strictly necessary. On the phone side, you access all that data through the Mi Fitness app. I won’t pretend this is my favorite fitness app, but it gets the job done, and data is legible and easy to access.

Battery life is also great. Xiaomi says it should last about two weeks between charges, though that drops if you enable the always-on display. I’ve had that switched on, and I’m charging the watch once every 7-10 days.

What’s bad about the Xiaomi Watch S3?

Not the smartest watch on the market

The main downside is that you have to know what you’re getting: in some respects, this is closer to a fitness tracker than a smartwatch, so know its limitations. While it does support notifications and comes with a few basic apps installed — an alarm, calendar, voice recorder, and the like — this is no smartwatch. You can’t install more apps, and Alexa support is about the smartest thing here.

You won’t be able to reply to messages through the notifications, and while you can make calls, the quality is basic. There’s no map app, so navigation isn’t an option, but the combo of GPS and music playback means it’s friendly enough for runners otherwise.

NFC payments are supported, but limited to Mastercard, and availability varies by region. I wouldn’t expect this to work in the US.

Should you buy it?

If you want a no-nonsense smartwatch that nails the fitness side and has fancy, swappable bezels, then there’s little reason not to consider the Watch S3, as long as you’re happy with the range of bezels you can buy wherever you live.

If swapping your bezels doesn’t sound appealing, then there’s no pressing reason to opt for the Watch S3 over the alternatives. Amazfit makes similar trackers around this price, or you could consider Xiaomi’s cheaper Smart Band 8 Pro fitness tracker. Alternatively, spend a little more and get the $200 Galaxy Watch FE for much better third-party app support and an overall smarter experience.

For $150, this is a solid proposition so long as you understand its limitations. However, better US availability for those all-important extra bezels would earn it a stronger recommendation.