OnePlus unveiled the OnePlus Watch 2 at MWC 2024, which runs on Wear OS 4 and has a battery life of up to 100 hours in standard smartwatch mode.
The OnePlus Watch 2, which costs $299 in the US and £299 in the UK (Australia price is TBC), looks like a big, powerful contender for our best smartwatches list. It features a 1.43-inch sapphire crystal dial with a 326ppi resolution and a stainless steel casing, and its generous battery life is made possible by the fact that it contains two chipsets, each running a separate operating system.
In addition to a ‘hybrid’ Wear OS 4 interface that uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon W5 chip, the watch also runs on RTOS, powered by the BES2700 chip. RTOS is the ‘maintenance’ operating system that controls the watch’s basic functions, and when you need to open the watch to navigate the interface or download third-party apps, the watch switches to Wear OS.
OnePlus calls this development ‘dual engine architecture’. It’s a far cry from the very limited OnePlus-only operating system used in the original OnePlus Watch, which debuted in 2021.
Dual-frequency GPS is said to make the watch highly accurate when it comes to tracking running, cycling and other outdoor workouts, and it has the usual heart rate, stress detection and sleep tracking stats. The sleep functionality provides guidance based on your historical sleep, just like the sleep profiles on the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6, and can identify if you snore.
The 100-hour battery life can be further extended in power saving mode, which effectively shuts down the Wear OS element and allows the watch to only track movement and exercise, messages, sleep, and running and cycling exercise profiles using GPS. This gives you 12 days of battery life, eight times that of even the best Apple Watch, the Apple Watch Ultra 2
The watch is only available in one size, with colorways – black steel and radiant steel – available. It weighs 80 grams including strap, is waterproof up to 5ATM and has been tested to withstand extreme heat up to 70 degrees Celsius and extreme cold down to -40 degrees Celsius. There are no features limited to OnePlus phone users, just as Apple and Samsung lock down features: any Android phone with the OHealth app can work seamlessly with the OnePlus Watch 2.
Analysis: A tempting, rugged Pixel Watch 2 alternative
Is this Wear OS’s ‘reasonably priced Apple Watch Ultra rival’ moment? The similarities between the Ultra and the OnePlus Watch 2 are certainly there, with the watch’s generous battery life and extreme survivability being selling points for weekend warriors and adventurers, who don’t want to risk running out of battery during long runs or expeditions.
Even if you’re not an outdoorsy person, the idea of a true Wear OS 4, Google Pixel Watch 2 alternative that won’t run out of battery in a day is tempting.
It’s also very well priced, and I can’t really see a downside – although I’ve yet to use or test it, so it will live and die by its performance, and how it measures up to its impressive (on paper) credentials. As I write this, a sample is on its way to the Ny Breaking offices, and we’ll test it extensively in due course.