Xiaomi announced its first smartwatch, the Mi Watch a couple of weeks back. Being a relatively new product category for Xiaomi, users had a couple of questions or rather issues with regards to the watch. Today, Xiaomi’s ecological chain (MIJIA) product director Cheng Liang answered the two major questions about the Mi Watch.

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One of the big issues regarding the new Mi Watch was the slow charging speeds. Users were worried whether this was a permanent problem. However, Cheng Liang said that the charging issue on the Mi Watch will be fixed via an OTA update around early December. So, it looks like an issue in the software rather than the hardware.

Unfortunately, we can’t confirm whether this fix will be bundled with the December 3 OTA update. The first OTA update for Mi Watch will reportedly optimize several features, including first pairing, application market, dial market, notification prompts, input method interaction, and weather positioning.

Mi Watch Q&A

Another big question was about Mi Watch’s eSIM. If you recall, we had reported that carriers like China Telecom haven’t yet configured eSIM networks in China. So you couldn’t use eSIM services in the country, which was one big reason why the new Motorola Razr 2019 foldable didn’t launch in the Chinese market. However, Liang said that eSIM services are expected to be opened by Chinese carriers around mid-December. Once it’s available, Xiaomi will enable eSIM support for the Mi Watch via an OTA update. So users won’t have to do anything from their end to activate the services.

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The Xiaomi Mi Watch runs on Google’s WearOS platform with its own MIUI skin on top. It’s almost a mini smartphone coming with the ability to make and receive calls (via eSIM), connect to the internet, and even run apps like WeChat and DiDi.

Despite its stark resemblance to the Apple Watch, the Mi Watch tries to carve out its own identity via its software and features. You can read more about the watch from our Mi watch hands-on article.