Xiaomi unveils the Amazfit, an affordable GPS-equipped smartwatch

Xiaomi is best known for its affordable yet solidly spec’d smartphones, but its brand certainly goes way beyond just phones, with a variety of mobile accessories, tablets, fitness trackers, and more. With no signs of slowing down, Xiaomi has announced the new Amazfit smartwatch as the latest in a growing sea of Xiaomi products.

Earlier in the year Xiaomi created a smartwatch just for kids, so it’s really no surprise to see them back, this time with a fitness-focused smartwatch for us grown-ups. The watch is actually technically made by Huami, a Xiaomi sub-brand, and at least for now, seems to be destined for just the Chinese market. On the software side, this watch runs its own customized OS but interacts with your Android device using the Mi Fit app.

All the fitness tracking perks you’d expect are present, as well as all the basics you’d expect from a smartwatch like notification support and even mobile payments via AliPay. There’s also built-in GPS, which Xiaomi accomplishes using what it claims is the world’s first 28nm GPS sensor.

The rest of the specs are pretty standard sounding for a smartwatch, including a 1.34-inch display with a 300 x 300 resolution, a 1.2GHz processor with 512MB RAM, 4GB storage, a heart rate sensor, IP57 water/dust resistance, and a 200 mAh battery. The battery reportedly will get around 5 days of life, of 30 hours when the GPS is turned on.

As one would expect from Xiaomi, the Amazfit is very aggressively priced, set to launch in China tomorrow for 799 Yuan, or about $120. As already mentioned, there’s no set plans for a US or even European launch, though anything is possible. What do you think, if this was available in your market, would you consider it?