When Xiaomi Redmi has a new ‘Active’ smartwatch on the way, you listen. They may not be the most technically gifted bunch of watches in the world, but they’re not trying to be. At R850 for the Redmi Watch 5 Active, it’s earned some consideration. Ditto for the company’s Redmi Watch Active 6, just announced in China.
Usually, that would mean a fair amount of uncertainty regarding the watch’s release in South Africa. Not this time. Syntech, Xiaomi’s official distributor for South Africa, is on the ball — a local listing is already live. Pricing is still under wraps at the time of writing, but a release of 1 September 2026 seems set in stone.
Seeing Redmi
If the Chinese pricing is any indication, Redmi hasn’t forgotten its sub-R1,000 roots. The Redmi Watch 6 Active is officially priced at 350 CNY, converting directly to R830. There’ll be taxes tacked on by the time it’s ready locally, but none so severe that you’ll be stuck paying much into four figures.
That’s a steal for what you’re getting. A 1.85in AMOLED (390 x 450) sits up front, with Redmi claiming 1,200 nits peak brightness. It’s not the most premium watch we’ve ever seen — there’s a polycarbonate polymer frame that does, at least, add 137g of heft to proceedings. An IP68 rating rounds it out nicely.
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On the hardware side, the Watch 6 Active packs an accelerometer and an optical sensor. These enable the watch to do the usual watch things, like tracking heart rate, blood oxygen levels, sleep, breathing, and relaxation. It’ll monitor more than 140 different exercises, including skiing. Not that it’ll help much here.
Finally, there’s a 470mAh battery juicing it up, which could go one of two ways. It’ll either chew through that in a matter of hours, or survive for up to 12 days under normal use, like Xiaomi claims. We’d definitely wait and see on that one. Even so, Redmi’s little wrist-clinger may just be worth the risk if it can stick the landing, price-wise.
