The OnePlus Watch was not well-recieved, to put it lightly. Even though the hardware and battery life were excellent, the proprietary software ruined everything that was good about it and made it essentially a glorified fitness tracker with a higher price tag. For its second attempt, then, OnePlus went back to the drawing board, and the OnePlus Watch 2 doesn’t reinvent the wheel—and that might just make it way better.
OnePlus has unveiled the OnePlus Watch 2 in a bid to redeem the brand’s reputation after the failure of its first smartwatch. For what it’s worth, it looks like the company is willing to do things right this time around. The most significant change this time around is the fact that the smartwatch runs Google’s Wear OS 4. It has ditched the proprietary operating system from the original model, ensures that the OnePlus Watch 2 is just as capable software-wise as other smartwatches on the market. We also have what OnePlus calls an unique dual-engine architecture, with the company promising up to 100 hours of battery life.
The hardware features two chipsets: Qualcomm Snapdragon W5 and BES 2700 MCU, enabling a dual-OS structure reminiscent of Mobvoi’s TicWatch Pro 5—the second chipset runs a basic RTOS for basic background tasks. This setup allows for efficient management of tasks, resulting in extended battery life. The 100-hour estimate apparently only applies to regular use, dropping to 48 hours under heavy usage with the always-on display activated.
In terms of design, the OnePlus Watch 2 adopts a classic analog look with a circular face, offering two color options: radiant steel and black steel. It boasts water and dust resistance ratings of 5ATM and IP68, with a sapphire crystal lens and stainless steel chassis. There’s also tracking for over 100 sports, advanced running metrics, heart rate monitoring, dual-frequency GPS, stress, sleep tracking, and snoring risk assessment.
The OnePlus Watch 2 is $299.99, which is an okay price for a Wear OS smartwatch if OnePlus really fixed all issues with its predecessor. You can buy it now from OnePlus before its official release date of March 4th, and be sure to check out our OnePlus Watch 2 review for more details.
