If at first you do n’t succeed , try , try again . That absolutely summarise OnePlus ’ unforesightful and rocky history with smartwatches . The troupe ’s first smartwatch — the OnePlus Watch — was expel in April 2021 to very sundry reactions . It was praised for its courteous blueprint and prospicient battery life but for the most part knock for its limited and buggy software .
tight forwards to February 2024 , and OnePlus has launched its second smartwatch . ably named the OnePlus Watch 2 , I ’m really impressed by its nice conception and retentive barrage life sentence . The software is also a tidy sum more capable this time around — but there are a few other progeny I was n’t expecting . It ’s a very motley dish and one I ’m not entirely sure how to sense about . Let ’s dig in .
The OnePlus Watch 2 has an incredible design
I ’ll get into my government issue about the OnePlus Watch 2 soon enough , but one of my favorite things about the smartwatch is its design .
The OnePlus Watch 2 is about as nice as smartwatch construction gravel . The body is made of unstained steel , while the chalk covering the exhibit is 2.5D sapphire crystal . While I have n’t deliberately tried scratching the glass , OnePlus claims it has a Mohs hardness rating of eight ( regular glass typically scratches at a six , with deeper grooves at a grade seven ) . I ’ve worn the OnePlus Watch 2 daily for well over a hebdomad , and the screen still looks pristine throughout that time .
The stainless steel body is just as first-class . It has a natural silver coating on the Radiant Steel color of my review social unit . It ’s polished and reflective ; you could see the brush lines of the steel if you look closely , and it feels shockingly lightweight on my articulatio radiocarpea — despite weighing a healthy 80 grams . I ’ve have on the OnePlus Watch 2 to bed for sleep trailing every Nox I ’ve been testing it , and not once has it felt uncomfortable .
Daily Activity app on the OnePlus Watch 2Joe Maring / Digital Trends
I also quite like the aesthetic of the OnePlus Watch 2 . As you ’ve probably ensure by now , the right side protrudes slightly from the residuum of the organic structure to domiciliate the watch ’s two buttons . Previously leak renders of the OnePlus Watch 2made it look quite forged , but in reality , I suppose it ’s o.k. ! It ’s a very subtle protrusion , and it does give the OnePlus Watch 2 some added character compare to its competition . Add that together with 5 ATMandIP68 water resistance ratings — plus a military - grade MIL - STD-810H lastingness evaluation — and there ’s almost nothing to plain about on the design front . I like OnePlus offer more than one ( quite big ) size , but I think it look quite good even on my small articulatio radiocarpea .
To round out this division , let ’s babble about the display . It ’s very secure ! It ’s a 1.43 - in AMOLED panel with a 466 x 466 resolution . To my eyes , it look bully . Everything is very crisp , the colouring material are vivacious , and I ’ve never had an issue discover it outside in bright sunshine . OnePlus did a really undecomposed business with it .
OnePlus made one critical mistake
Why “ almost ” nothing ? Because of the tip . There are two buttons on the OnePlus Watch 2 : a spin crown at the top and another button below it . Similar to theApple Watch Ultra 2 , you’re able to press the crown to view your apps or go back to your watch boldness . you could also double - crush and hold back it down for extra actions , both of which can be tailor-make . The “ multifunction button ” below defaults to open up the Workouts app with a single jam and Google Wallet with a dual closet — and you could customize these , too .
All of that ’s expectant , except for one critical affair . The crown whirl like on any Apple Watch or other smartwatch with a rotating pate , except itdoesn’t do anything when you spin it . You ca n’t use it to scroll through telling , apps , menus , or anything . No matter how much you whirl the crown , it does n’t interact with the OnePlus Watch 2 .
The crown puts a big damper on an otherwise great computer hardware software .
Sleep app on the OnePlus Watch 2Joe Maring / Digital Trends
ab initio , I thought thishadto be a software hemipteran with my unit . for certain , OnePlus would n’t go out of its way to create a rotating summit that does n’t do anything , right ? Wrong ! OnePlus say me that the spinning is intentional , but by excogitation , it does n’t interact with the UI . If that ’s the case , why put a spinning dial on the smartwatch ? According to OnePlus , it ’s more resistant than a received button .
I hate everything about this . Years of smartwatch design have trained us to expect a rotating crown to act as a means of controlling a smartwatch . Be it a Google Pixel Watch , Apple Watch , Galaxy Watch Classic , or any other watch with a crown , that ’s standard smartwatch design practice . Not only is it a mind - boggling designing determination , but it also means you must bank exclusively on the touchscreen to navigate the OnePlus Watch 2 ( minus the few shortcuts you get from the various button presses ) . It ’s one of the most perplexing things I ’ve see to it in years , and it puts a big muffler on an otherwise great hardware bundle .
Great health features … with a few catches
Like any unspoilt smartwatch , the OnePlus Watch 2 has a pretty robust suite of health - trailing pecker . All of the common suspects are here , including :
On the surface , all of this work quite well . On the OnePlus Watch 2 , the Daily Activity app distinctly shows your steps , alive large calorie , workout meter , and activity academic term ( aka stand 60 minutes ) . There are separate apps on the sentinel to view your sleep and stress information , and you may also add tiles / widgets for all of these so you may see them with just a swipe on your watch case .
The Workouts app also act upon as you ’d expect . After selecting your desired physical exercise , you may start with an open goal or set a goal for yourself ( distance , continuance , calorie , etc . ) . Some exercise case even get customized physical exercise view — admit a Running Mode , Badminton Mode , and Tennis Mode .
Stress app on the OnePlus Watch 2Joe Maring / Digital Trends
If you need to regard your health data on a larger projection screen , you do this through the OHealth app — the same one you apply to exchange your watch typeface and other configurations .
How is the OHealth app ? It ’s … all right . All of your data is intelligibly lay out in very easy - to - understand category . I can quickly see how my center rate has changed over the retiring week , await at my sleep stage , and check my SpO2 horizontal surface .
However , there is n’t much to do beyond that . The app does n’t offer any guidance or brainwave about what your data means ; there are no prize / challenges , no social part to follow friends and family , no guided workouts or meditation sessions , or anything else . You have your wellness data point , and that ’s it .
OnePlus Watch 2 apps pageJoe Maring / Digital Trends
The upper side to this is that you do n’t have to pay anything for the OnePlus Watch 2 ’s health - tracking lineament — something that ’s becoming a rarity in the wearable worldly concern . All of it is free , and OnePlus does n’t plan to append a pay tier soon .
However , a basic wellness app is n’t my biggest problem with this side of the OnePlus Watch 2 . I ’m more disappointed by how inaccurate so much of its data seems to be . Throughout my testing of the OnePlus Watch 2 , I ’ve discover that two aspects , in picky , seem to be wildly inaccurate : step tracking and eternal sleep tracking .
Wearing the OnePlus Watch 2 and the Oura Ring on the same paw , I ’m seeingvastlydifferent bit . On a twenty-four hour period when I worked all daylight , took my dog on a few walks , and went back and forth between buildings in my flat building complex to do washables , my Oura Ring tracked 8,538 step — a very reasonable bit given my activity that day . The OnePlus Watch 2 only tracked 3,621 steps . There was an even greater gulf the day before , with my Oura Ring tracking 10,764 steps while the OnePlus Watch 2 only tracking 4,762 . At aminimum , there ’s a 3 to 4thousandstep difference between the OnePlus Watch 2 and the Oura Ring — and it ’s oftenmuchgreater than that . The Oura Ring is n’t perfect at step tracking , but it ’s ordinarily very close to what the Apple Watch Ultra 2 tracks ( generally within 2,000 steps of it ) .
OnePlus Watch 2 Quick SettingsJoe Maring / Digital Trends
Sleep tracking has been likewise flakey . The OnePlus Watch 2 is within the approximate range of my full rest sentence as my Oura Ring , and the two often give me very similar sleep loads . The issue bring out themselves in how the OnePlus Watch 2 track sleep stages .
On my 2d nighttime using the OnePlus Watch 2 to trail my sleep , here ’s how it compare to the Oura Ring :
In the nights that followed , the OnePlus Watch 2 seemed to be getting tight to my Oura Ring , but there was still a fair noticeable difference between the quietus stages . I assume that the smartwatch just needed some time to develop a baseline of my sleeping habits , but that does n’t appear to be entirely true . On my seventh night tracking my sleep with the OnePlus Watch 2 , I pick up the following sleep stage compared to the Oura Ring :
The charging puck features a detachable USB-C port. It’s an unsung victory.Joe Maring / Digital Trends
In reality , most people wear the OnePlus Watch 2 wo n’t be comparing their stride and sleep stages side - by - side with another wearable . If you ’re only looking at the numbers the OnePlus Watch 2 reach you as a general baseline to follow , you ’ll be ok . However , if you care about the truth of these things , the OnePlus Watch 2 would n’t be my first recommendation .
There ’s one final thing I want to speak about , and it ’s an prospect of the OnePlus Watch 2 ’s health trailing I come up quite offputting . If you open up the Daily Activity app on the smartwatch and scroll down to view your active kilocalorie for the sidereal day , there ’s a metric below it with a like amount of nutrient . I ’ve seen 1.8 caffe latte , 1.1 pieces of fried crybaby , 1.5 slice of lettuce , and 2.5 ball tarts — just as a few examples .
OnePlus does n’t explain anywhere in using the OnePlus Watch 2 what this is supposed to mean . Does it represent how much food I ’ve burned for the day ? What I should treat myself with on write up of my hard work ? Whatever the answer is , those random foods are always there , and they ’ve given me something to chuckle about each time I reckon at this silver screen .
Joe Maring / Digital Trends
But for many people , there wo n’t be anything funny about this . While I ’m not actively render to lose weightiness , I can only suppose how this sort of metric would bear on someone who is — and/or someone who is struggling with their relationship with food . Oh , you just got done running a 5 chiliad or spent the last hr in the gymnasium lifting weights ? Congratulations ! You ’ve earned yourself two bananas .
It may seem like nitpicking to hone in on this food metrical , inaccuracies in sleep and ill-treat tracking , or the barebones features in the OHealth app . But when you add everything together , you end up with a health tracking chopine that give me no intellect to want to use it over Fitbit , Samsung Health , Apple Fitness , etc . The OnePlus Watch 2 is equipped with many health / fitness tools , and if you desire a very casual way to track your activity , it’sfine . But if you ’re looking for anything at all beyond that , I ’d powerfully advocate looking elsewhere .
Finally, a OnePlus smartwatch with Wear OS
One of the biggest number with the first OnePlus Watch was its software . It consort a custom RTOS operating arrangement with very circumscribed notification support , non - existent third - party apps , and no representative assistant — all core thing you want in a smartwatch . Thankfully , the OnePlus Watch 2 fixes all of these shortcomings by run Wear type O 4 .
If you ’ve used any other Wear operating system smartwatch , you ’ll be right at home on the OnePlus Watch 2 . Swiping left and right on your clock side shows your tiles / thingumajig , swiping down break your Quick preferences , and swipe up present your notifications . To view all of your apps , you press the crest .
There are n’t any big surprise here , though OnePlus has add together some very Apple Watch - like inspirations . When you dispatch any of your activity goals , an vivification plays on the screen that looks like it was ripped directly from watchOS . The default opinion for the app menu is a worse - designed interlingual rendition of the Apple Watch ’s , too , but you may deepen this to one that look more like what you ’d find on a Pixel Watch or Galaxy Watch .
All of this tends to work quite well , though I have a few complaints .
presentment on the OnePlus Watch 2 have been pip - or - miss . Sometimes , I receive notifications the trice they appear on my Galaxy S24 Plus . Other times , the Watch 2 can go a while without sending me a notification at all . This is n’t a new problem for Wear osmium , and it continues with the OnePlus Watch 2 .
I ’ve also encountered a bug where the OnePlus Watch 2 would at random change back to the default watch face hour after I selected a fresh one to use . I have n’t noticed this since I downloaded a software system update on February 20 , but I thought it was deserving cite regardless .
Speaking of watch faces , the I on the OnePlus Watch 2 are n’t very good . Many of them are analog faces with faux shadows , musing , and project endeavor to mimic the appearance of a “ substantial ” spotter . A lot of them also have gaudy “ ONEPLUS ” or “ Never go under ” ( or both ! ) taglines plastered somewhere on them , further degrade the overall look . you could , of class , download third - company watch face from the Play Store ( and OnePlus has 80 more of its own you could download via the OHealth app ) , but they all leave a destiny to be desired .
Battery life, charging, and performance
One of the first thingsOnePlus tease about the OnePlus Watch 2is its battery lifespan . OnePlus ’ big title for the OnePlus Watch 2 is that you’re able to get up to “ 100 - time of day barrage fire liveliness , ” which is a sincerely cockeyed claim for any Wear O smartwatch . Although I have n’t seen a full 100 hours , I have been soundly impressed with how long the watch lasts between charges .
Starting a day with 100 % stamp battery at 8 a.m. , I used the OnePlus Watch 2 like I would any smartwatch . I received a steady stream of notifications , had the always - on show ( AOD ) enable , and used it to go after an outside walk of life . After wearing it to track my sleep overnight , I still had 69 % battery remain a piddling after 9 a.m. the next day . After another day with the AOD and numerous notifications , plus another night of sleep trailing , I reached 9:15 p.m. on my third mean solar day bust the OnePlus Watch 2 with 13 % remain battery . That’sstupendousbattery life and easy among the best you ’ll find on a Wear OS smartwatch .
you may easy carry three ( or more ) daytime of use per charge on the OnePlus Watch 2 — but what if you require even more endurance ? That ’s where Power Saver mode comes into play .
chic mode is what the OnePlus Watch 2 uses by default , give you the received Wear O experience with a three - day electric battery life story . But if you switch the smartwatch to Power Saver mode , you may bear up to12 daysof battery biography in between charges .
When you switch to Power Saver mode , the OnePlus Watch 2 flex off wear down oculus sinister and uses a secondary RTOS operating system . When you enable Power Saver modal value , you’re able to access all of the watch ’s health and seaworthiness functions , the weather app , your warning signal and timers , and telling . It even looks just like normal Wear OS ! However , features like the always - on presentation , outwear atomic number 8 apps , and Google Assistant do not work .
I ’ve been thoroughly impressed with how long the ticker survive between charges .
Even with those limitations , it ’s unbelievable that an choice like this exists on the OnePlus Watch 2 . It ’s not the only smartwatch out there with a “ top executive saving ” or “ battery mode , ” but it is the only one to splice that to a altogether different operating system , and the superfluous battery you get from it is unbelievable .
likewise , the OnePlus Watch 2 has a great charging system . charge up speeds are 7.5W and have proven very fast . Put the OnePlus Watch 2 on the charger with about 13 % stamp battery continue , and you ’re up to 75 % after just 20 instant . You ’re all the way to 100 % after about 40 minutes on the battery charger .
The charger itself is grotesque . It ’s a magnetic puck that sequester to the bottom of the OnePlus Watch 2 , but unlike most other watch chargers , it ’s not permanently tied to a cable . Instead , you’re able to plug any USB - degree centigrade cable into it . This makes it so much more convenient if you ’re traveling with the OnePlus Watch 2 ; if you ’re already taking USB - nose candy transmission line with you , you just need to snaffle the puck — not an entirely new cable television service . moreover , the attractor on the puck latch securely onto the OnePlus Watch 2 with ample force , never leaving you to enquire if it ’s really attached or not .
Last but not least , the public presentation of the OnePlus Watch 2 has been expectant . Qualcomm ’s Snapdragon W5 chippowers the watch and is as speedy as I could ask for . Apps open quickly , voyage through menus / tiles is liquid , and the acclivity - to - wake gesture has been very reliable .
There is a quirk to the OnePlus Watch 2 ’s performance : the W5 is n’t the only chip inside of it . OnePlus also added a BES 2700 efficiency buffalo chip , which handle smaller background labor and body process , while the W5 is reserve for Wear OS apps and other intensive task . It ’s a really telling technical setup , and in solar day - to - day use , it translates to a smooth and effective smartwatch experience . OnePlus really nailed it here .
OnePlus Watch 2 price and availability
The OnePlus Watch 2 is available in two ending : Radiant Steel and Black Steel . Radiant Steel is the model I reviewed , with a natural unsullied sword finish and a green / puritanical watch band . Black Steel has a darker people of color for the dead body with a black watch band .
you’re able to preorder the OnePlus Watch 2 from the OnePlus website , with regular sales beginning on March 4 . The watch is also heading to Amazon on March 11 .
If you buy the OnePlus Watch 2 from the OnePlus website , you may trade inanywatch — not just a smartwatch — to receive a minimum $ 50 discount ( efficaciously bringing it down to just $ 250 ) . OnePlus offers a similar furtherance for theOnePlus 12andOnePlus 12R , but unlike the trade - in deal for those phones , this one for the OnePlus Watch 2 wo n’t be around indefinitely . Instead , it ’ll only be uncommitted through March 31 .
Is the OnePlus Watch 2 worth it?
The OnePlus Watch 2 has been an extremely intriguing intersection to reexamine . On the one manus , so many thing about the smartwatch infuriate me . The non - operable crown is beyond silly , the inaccuracies with pace and sleep trailing are extremely thwarting , the entire wellness political program bequeath much to be trust , and almost all of the lookout man faces are monotonic - out bad . There ’s a lot to dislike .
Simultaneously , the OnePlus Watch 2 also gets a lot of things veracious .
The aim is prominent . It looks excellent , the materials are top - notch , and it ’s far more prosperous than it has a right to be . The video display also looks great , the execution is excellent , and it has some of the best barrage fire life of any Wear OS smartwatch on the market place . That ’s not a list of positive you should scoff at .
The OnePlus Watch 2 is n’t the slam dunk I hope it would be .
It all makes for a very miscellaneous bundle , but is it one you should buy ? For most people , the OnePlus Watch 2 would n’t be my first recommendation for a Wear OS smartwatch . TheSamsung Galaxy Watch 6costs the same at $ 300 and present a more refined experience across the add-in . It comes in multiple sizing , has likewise great performance , offer a much more full-bodied ( and precise ) health platform , and it also sire very beneficial barrage life . There ’s also theGoogle Pixel Watch 2to consider . It has a sleek and comfy innovation , excellent Fitbit wellness / fitness features , and very good watch faces . And let ’s not block theTicWatch Pro 5 , which has even better shelling living , estimable performance , and a circumvolve crown thatactually does something .
If you want a Wear O smartwatch with not bad barrage fire spirit and a skillful intent , and you only have $ 300 to spend , the OnePlus Watch 2 is a decent option to debate — and it ’s a significant improvement over OnePlus ’ first endeavour at the smartwatch mankind . There ’s deal of employment left to be done on the eventual OnePlus Watch 3 , but OnePlus is headed in the right focusing . It ’s just not all the way there quite yet .
