COLMI V69 vs COLMI V72: Which V-Series Smartwatch Should You Buy?

The COLMI V-series is one of the most popular lines in the entire COLMI range, and two models in particular tend to leave shoppers torn: the COLMI V69, 38.69 GBP, and the COLMI V72, 32.72 GBP. On paper they look similar, both are budget-friendly, both pack solid health tracking, and both wear the V-series name. But underneath, they are built around genuinely different priorities. This guide breaks down exactly where they differ so you can choose with confidence, covering display technology, battery life, design, health tracking, and overall value in considerable depth.

Quick Overview

The core distinction is simple to state but important to understand: the V69 prioritises battery life and screen size, while the V72 prioritises display quality and a slimmer design. Once you understand that trade-off, the rest of the comparison falls into place. Neither watch is objectively better, they are built for different priorities, and the right choice depends entirely on what matters most to you in daily use.

Display Comparison: IPS vs AMOLED Explained

This is the single biggest difference between the two watches, and it is worth understanding the underlying technology because it affects far more than just how the screen looks. The COLMI V69 uses a 1.85-inch IPS, In-Plane Switching, display at 360x360 resolution. IPS technology works by shining a backlight through a liquid crystal layer that twists to control how much light passes through to create each pixel colour. Every pixel is illuminated by the same backlight regardless of what colour it is displaying, which is part of why IPS screens consume a relatively constant amount of power whether you are displaying a bright white screen or a mostly black one.

The COLMI V72 uses an AMOLED, Active-Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode, panel, where each individual pixel generates its own light. This produces several practical benefits: true blacks, since an off pixel emits no light at all, richer and more saturated colours, sharper contrast, and for watch faces using darker themes, meaningfully better battery efficiency, since unlit pixels draw no power.

In daily use, the V72's AMOLED screen looks more vivid and noticeably more premium. Colours pop, blacks are genuinely black rather than dark grey, and watch faces with darker backgrounds look strikingly good. The V69's IPS screen remains perfectly usable and bright enough for outdoor visibility, with good viewing angles, but side by side in a direct comparison, most people gravitate toward the AMOLED look.

Resolution-wise, the two watches use different panel sizes and pixel densities, but both render text and icons clearly enough for everyday use, neither feels cramped or pixellated during normal interaction, ensuring both remain genuinely practical choices regardless of which display technology you ultimately prefer.

Battery Life: Where the V69 Wins Decisively

The V69 packs a substantial 710mAh battery, delivering 7 to 10 days of typical use with continuous heart rate monitoring and notifications active, stretching to 20 plus days in power-saving mode. This is genuinely one of the largest batteries you will find in a smartwatch at this price point anywhere in the market, not just within COLMI's own range.

The V72, with its AMOLED screen and more compact, slimmer design, necessarily uses a smaller battery, there is simply less physical space inside a slimmer case. AMOLED's inherent power efficiency at lower brightness and with darker watch faces partially compensates for the reduced battery capacity, but the V69 still maintains a clear, noticeable advantage in raw battery longevity between charges.

If you have ever been frustrated by a smartwatch dying unexpectedly, or you simply hate the routine of frequent charging, the V69's battery advantage is significant enough to be the deciding factor on its own. For context, going from charging every 5 days to charging every 9 days is not a marginal improvement, it nearly halves how often you need to think about your watch's power level at all.

Design and Form Factor

The V72 has a notably slimmer, more refined case profile, a direct result of its AMOLED panel requiring less depth and the smaller battery taking up less internal volume. If you want a watch that feels more like a traditional, elegant timepiece and disappears comfortably under a shirt cuff, the V72's design language leans firmly in that direction.

The V69, with its larger 1.85-inch IPS screen and substantially bigger 710mAh battery, has a slightly more substantial presence on the wrist as a trade-off for that extra capacity. It is far from bulky by smartwatch standards, it still sits comfortably and does not feel oversized, but if you are particularly sensitive to watch thickness or prefer the most minimal silhouette possible, the V72 will feel more refined on the wrist throughout extended daily wear.

Health and Fitness Tracking: Identical Capability

Both watches share an essentially identical health tracking suite, which is worth emphasising clearly: you are not sacrificing any health monitoring capability by choosing either model. Both include continuous 24/7 heart rate monitoring with on-demand readings, blood oxygen measurement, sleep tracking with light sleep, deep sleep, and awake stage analysis, stress monitoring via heart rate variability, step counting, distance estimation, and calorie tracking, menstrual cycle tracking and prediction, over 100 dedicated sports modes, and IP68 waterproof rating suitable for swimming.

There is no meaningful difference in tracking quality or sensor accuracy between the two models, the differentiation between V69 and V72 is entirely about display technology and battery capacity, not the underlying health and fitness sensor suite. Whichever model you choose, you are getting the same depth of health insight without any meaningful compromise.

Smart Features and Notifications

Both watches pair with the DaFit companion app for both Android and iOS, handling call alerts, message notifications, music control, weather display, and camera remote functionality identically. Neither watch has built-in GPS, both rely on connected GPS through your paired smartphone for outdoor route tracking. If standalone GPS without your phone is a priority, you would need to look toward the COLMI V75 GPS instead of either of these two models.

Price Difference: A Genuine Surprise

Here is something worth highlighting clearly: the V72 is actually 6 GBP cheaper than the V69, 32.72 vs 38.69, despite offering the objectively more premium AMOLED display technology. This runs counter to the usual pattern in consumer tech, where the upgraded display typically commands a price premium.

The likely explanation is straightforward, the V69's substantial 710mAh battery is itself an expensive component, and that cost is reflected in the final price even though the screen technology is the older, less expensive IPS type. In effect, you are paying more for the V69 specifically because of its battery capacity, not despite the simpler screen.

Which Should You Choose?

Choose the COLMI V69 if battery life is your top priority, you want to charge as infrequently as possible, you prefer a larger screen for easier reading, particularly if you wear glasses or find small text hard to read, you do not mind a slightly chunkier case in exchange for the bigger battery, or you are buying for an older relative who values simplicity and infrequent charging over visual flair.

Choose the COLMI V72 if display quality and visual vibrancy matter most to you in daily use, you want a slimmer, more refined design that feels more like a traditional watch, you want to save a few pounds while still getting genuine AMOLED quality, or you are comfortable charging every 5 to 7 days in exchange for the nicer screen.

Our Recommendation

For most buyers, we would lean toward the COLMI V72, the AMOLED display upgrade combined with the lower price makes it the stronger all-round value proposition for typical daily use. The visual experience of AMOLED is something you will notice and appreciate dozens of times a day, every time you glance at your wrist throughout your daily routine.

However, if you have previously been frustrated by smartwatches that need charging every few days, or you specifically want the largest, easiest-to-read screen available at this price point, the COLMI V69's exceptional 710mAh battery makes it the better fit for your specific need. Battery anxiety is a real and common frustration with wearables, and the V69 essentially eliminates it.

Both watches represent excellent value within the COLMI range, and you genuinely cannot make a wrong choice here, only a choice that is better optimised for your personal priorities between display quality and battery longevity.