Forget the Apple Watch 5, Xiaomi’s Amazfit Verge 2 is incoming
Xiaomi’s sub brand Huami will unveil it’s latest Apple Watch rival, the Amazfit Verge 2 on June 11.
The news broke on Thursday when the company shared two promotional images on Chinese social media site Weibo. The launch is currently only confirmed for China.
The company has release other products, like the Amazfit Pace in markets outside China in the past so we’re expecting a wider launch to follow in the near future.
Details about the new smartwatch are thin on the ground, though it will reportedly offer a few improvements on the original. The biggest of these will be the use of a more powerful Qualcomm Wear 3100 chipset and e-sim support.
Outside of this the Amazfit Verge 2 is expected to feature the same portfolio of fitness tracking features as the original. These include the ability to monitor a variety of different workouts, GPS connectivity, heart rate monitoring and NFC.
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Pricing for the new Amazfit Verge 2 hasn’t been revealed but Huami products are traditionally cheap. The original Amazfit Verge retailed for CNY 800 (roughly £90).
The news follows a wider growth of parent company Xiaomi in the wearables market. Research from the International Data Corporation published last we reported that Xiaomi is quickly catching up to Apple as the world’s most popular wearable manufacturer.
The growth was reportedly led by the popularity of its Mii Band line of wearables. The research suggested Xiaomi shipped over six million wearables this quarter including five million of the Xiaomi Mi Band. This reportedly meant the company sold a slither more “wrist wearables” than Apple.
Read our review of the Apple Watch 4
Apple currently sells a variety of different Apple Watches. These include the Apple Watch Series 4, Apple Watch Nike+, Apple Watch Hermes and Apple Watch Series 3. Pricing for the various Apple Watches starts at £279 and goes up to a staggering £1399.
Despite Xiaomi’s growth Apple is expected to maintain an overall lead in the wearables market in the immediate future thanks to the popularity of it’s Airpods 2 true-wireless earphones.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.