Xiaomi's Apple Watch clone with Wear OS shows off its unoriginal design ahead of launch
This unreleased Xiaomi Mi Watch sure looks familiar
Unfortunately, the impending Xiaomi Mi Watch is nowhere near as innovative or original, borrowing heavily from the world's most popular smartwatch family. Although the Wear OS-based product is technically scheduled to go official next week, on November 5, a number of renders are already out to build buzz... and stir controversy.
Xiaomi isn't even trying to hide the striking similarities
Unlike the vast majority of smartwatches released with Wear OS lately or even Android Wear back in the day, the Mi Watch adopts a rectangular look. Obviously, Apple doesn't own any trademarks to basic geometric shapes, but while the Cupertino-based tech giant may lack grounds to sue here, we simply cannot unsee the uncanny resemblance between this unreleased device and the best-selling smartwatch out there.
In addition to the shape of the smartwatch body, Xiaomi is also copying Apple's signature digital crown, as well as the position of the microphone and secondary button found on the side of the wearable device. Surely, the company could have at least relocated one of these elements or changed the look of the crown to make the resemblance less obvious.
The Apple Watch Series 5 is a little slimmer and sleeker
Then again, we are talking here about the creators of the Mi Pad lineup, as well as the Memoji-inspired Mimoji feature that was even accidentally advertised by using Apple's own publicity material. Besides, the Xiaomi Mi Watch does look a tad chunkier and boxier than its obvious inspiration, not to mention we can probably expect it to carry a significantly lower price point, which is far more important for many people than design originality.
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