The long wait for the One plus Nord Watch is over; we now have one in our hands after years of speculation. It was inevitable that OnePlus would release a smartwatch, given the company’s expansion into new fields. It’s even stranger that the OnePlus TV came out before the OnePlus Watch.
However, the One plus watch almost didn’t make it. Around the turn of the new millennium, Carl Pei deleted a tweet where he displayed concept art for a smartwatch that would never be made.
Since then, though, it appears that the company’s position on wearables has shifted. After debuting with a fitness band last year, OnePlus has followed up with a smartwatch, the OnePlus Watch.
And so, what exactly is the OnePlus Watch? It’s a smart wearable device, but it’s not really innovative. It is not based on Google’s Wear OS but on OnePlus’ proprietary operating system.
The 14-day battery life is a major perk, The initial investment is only $159 for the full package! However, is it truly a smartwatch or only a fitness band with a flashy label? Ok, I guess we’ll find out.
Design And Display Of the OnePlus Watch
The OnePlus Watch is a stylish smartwatch that appears more expensive than it actually is due to its glossy finish and minimal design. One size fits all, which may be a problem for some people who want a more compact wearable, but it’s polished enough to win over fans of all aesthetic sensibilities, not just the tech set.
The Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 is the new king of Big Smartwatches, with a 46mm face that surpasses even the larger 45mm edition of the Samsung Galaxy Watch 3. The OnePlus Watch’s display is 1.4 inches in size, the same as Samsung’s flagship watch, but the dark bezel under the flat glass makes it look much larger.
The screen is vivid and clear, with deep blacks thanks to the AMOLED technology, but there isn’t much here to make use of the screen beyond some attractive watch faces because of the watch’s simplistic interface and a small selection of apps.
The display is touch-sensitive, but you’ll need to use the two buttons on the right side of the smartwatch to navigate the interface and apps. The button at the top, carved with ‘OnePlus’ in tiny print (the texture helps you tell them apart), opens the app drawer. You can assign any of your smartwatch’s apps to the bottom button (found in the device’s settings under “function key”).
A wide and thick band made of a rubber-like material (fluoroelastomer) keeps the watch from feeling too heavy on the wrist. As opposed to the flat wristbands on other smartphones, the rivulets running down the side of this one are a wonderful touch. However, the band’s thickness may cause some skin pinching when tucking it back under itself for the first few uses.
Battery Life of OnePlus Watch
Similar to what is said about the OnePlus Band, OnePlus claims that the OnePlus Watch can go for 14 days without charging. Similar to the band, this estimate for the OnePlus Watch is extremely optimistic.
It’s possible the watch might last for two weeks with normal use. However, we like to adjust the screen brightness manually because the auto mode is too dim. We also use an 8-second screen off-timer, smart heart rate tracking, automatic stress monitoring, and SpO2 tracking while we sleep. With such use, a fully charged watch will last around a week.
Even when compared to other high-end smartwatches, this one holds its own. In fact, we’d be happy to make additional concessions in order to enable an always-on mode for the display. However, similar to its smartphone offerings, it appears that OnePlus will have us wait an inordinate amount of time before unlocking this feature.
The magnetic charger for the OnePlus Watch uses normal pogo pins. Fast charging is possible because to this; OnePlus claims that a full charge provides enough juice to last a week with just a 20-minute plug-in we wouldn’t put too much stock in that given the 14-day guarantee, but the watch does charge really quickly.
Fitness Feature in One Plus watches
For its pricing, the OnePlus Watch offers adequate fitness and health tracking functionality. However, advanced exercise enthusiasts may be disappointed by its lack of features.
From jogging and swimming to hiking, badminton, cricket, and several others, the Workout app presents 14 fundamental options, and OnePlus claims the watch supports over 110 other sorts of workouts.
The watch is IP68 water and dust-proof and has a 5ATM pressure resistance, so it won’t break if you get caught in the rain or sweat a lot when jogging. You can manually monitor your heart rate, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, oxygen saturation, and cortisol levels using separate apps, and it also keeps tabs on your GPS location, calorie burn, and swimming velocity.
The Activity app and many of the watch faces display four activity metrics that the watch tracks: steps, workout, energy spent (in kcals), and activity duration.The new OnePlus Health app is currently available for Android smartphones (for free on the Google Play Store) and will be accessible for iOS devices in the near future.
To update the OnePlus Watch’s advanced settings, you’ll require the OnePlus Health app (pro-tip for my fellow Yanks: go to Manage > settings cog in top right > Unit to switch from metric to Imperial).
The OnePlus Health app has a ton of useful features, such as graphs that break down data by day, week, month, and year and provide breakdowns of measured parameters (such as heart rate, sleep, blood oxygen level, stress, etc.). Despite the fact that our workout analyses frequently displayed faulty GPS position tracking, the resulting reports were thorough, instructive, and straightforward with respect to sub-categories such as heart rate, pace per mile, cadence, and so on.
Finally, we should mention that despite its size, the OnePlus Watch was not annoying to wear during physical activity. The large base disperses the watch’s weight, and the wide band keeps it snug, so you won’t forget it’s there but also won’t be thrown off balance by it.
Performance and software of One Plus Watch
We contacted OnePlus regarding the details of the silicon in the OnePlus Watch, but the company has yet to respond. There is a total of 4GB of storage on the watch, with 2GB of that being used for media.
The watch performed well during testing, without hiccups or slowdowns despite being pushed through a variety of tasks. But due to the small number of preinstalled apps, it is difficult to put this watch through its paces.
In contrast to Google’s WearOS, OnePlus developed its own software to run on the OnePlus Watch (called OnePlus Watch OS). There are benefits and drawbacks to this situation. One of the advantage of OnePlus controls both the hardware and software, no WearOS watch is likely to match the OnePlus Watch’s battery life.
This, unfortunately, restricts the OnePlus Watch’s functionality to the factory-installed apps. These have everything you might want, including exercises, a heart rate monitor, a blood oxygen sensor, a clock, and so on, and their user interfaces are easy to read. Even though there aren’t quite as many apps available for smartwatches as there are for smartphones. Seasoned wearable users probably have a favourite WearOS or watchOS app that they’d miss if they had to switch to an Android or iOS device.
On the other hand, if you want more apps on a similarly polished watch, you’ll have to shell out nearly twice as much for a Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 for example, as you would for the OnePlus Watch.
The custom interface is straightforward and time-saving, taking cues from WearOS’s cardinal-direction-swipe controls (swipe down for the control panel, up for notifications, right for quick music access, etc). The physical button in the upper right corner opens the app menu, which displays the available applications in a vertical list. Simple.
How does one find themselves utilizing the OnePlus Watch? Accessible, logical, and occasionally buggy due to program simplicity. After each workout, the default watch face would reset our daily fitness progress to zero (thus the empty activity bars in the photographs of the watch used for this review). Some text overlapped, and the compass app required constant recalibration (by rotating the user’s wrist in an “infinity” pattern).
In other words, the OnePlus Watch has the software oddities and clumsy design of a first-generation device; these issues don’t prevent the wristwatch from being useful, but they do make using it seem a bit rough around the edges.
The OnePlus Watch is said to be backward-compatible with most Bluetooth earbuds, link to the OnePlus TV to serve as a smart remote, and even power off the TV if the wearer nods off while watching (we didn’t have a device handy to connect).
What are some good One plus Nord Watch alternatives?
In terms of intelligence, the OnePlus Watch lags behind other leading smartwatches and leading fitness trackers. Many other watches are superior, but none can beat the OnePlus Watch’s low price. Consider the following suggestions.
- Samsung Galaxy Watch 5:
There is no better Wear OS smartwatch than the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5. The new Galaxy Watch line improves upon its predecessor in several ways. Most notably by including larger batteries and a more polished look. When compared to the Galaxy Watch 5, there aren’t many advantages to acquiring the OnePlus Watch (or even the outgoing Galaxy Watch 4).
- Fitbit Versa 3:
Not surprisingly, the newest Fitbit smartwatch is a worthy rival to the OnePlus Watch. It is one of the greatest fitness-tracking smartwatches on the market. It costs a little more than the OnePlus Watch. Compared to the OnePlus Watch, the Versa gets the upper hand thanks to its integrated voice assistant and superior app support.
- Fitbit Charge 5;
The OnePlus Watch is more than just a pretty face; it also monitors your physical activity. The Fitbit Charge 5 is a good choice if that is your main concern. The Fitbit app has more functions than OnePlus Health. The Charge 5 also has some new health-tracking features, such as the Daily Readiness Score and skin temperature monitoring.
Despite not being Garmin’s newest device, Venu Sq’s low pricing makes it a hard pass up. Although it lacks an OLED display, it is one of the most affordable fitness smartwatches available.
- Apple Watch Series 7:
You shouldn’t buy a OnePlus Watch if you already own an iPhone. When it comes to accessories, the Apple Watch is your best pick if you own an iPhone.
Its fitness tracking, smart notifications, and compatibility with third-party apps make it superior to other timepieces. It’s an amazing piece of clothing. The Apple Watch SE is a fantastic alternative to the Series 7 if you can’t afford it.
Conclusion
OnePlus’s smartwatch, the Watch is just average. Calling it a “smartwatch” is a bit of a stretch, given that it doesn’t even support third-party watch faces. Therefore, it is only an expensive form of activity tracking.
Generally speaking, it does a decent job as a fitness tracker. Although it lacks a few essential functions, it performs similarly to other trackers in its price range. If you’re interested in this product because of its fitness-tracking capabilities. You should carefully examine whether or not the features it offers are sufficient for your needs by reading through the full list of activities it can monitor.
Even as a timepiece, it fails to impress. The design is uninspired, there is no always-on display setting. There are barely any interesting watch faces to choose from from the outset. No of the size of your wrist, you will be forced to wear this enormous watch. Because no other options are available. The battery lasts for a week, which is better than nothing but falls short of the claimed 14 days.
If you can see past the OnePlus Watch’s design flaws, the $159 starting price.
The OnePlus Watch, as a whole, is a disappointing offering. It would have been challenging to advocate for in lieu of competing options even if the design had been exceptional.
