It’s not every day that a new player enters the smartwatch game, so I was intrigued when OnePlus’s then-CEO Carl Pei suggested last summer that a wearable may be on the way. Rumors have increased in recent weeks and now we know what the clock is going to looks. After months of curiosity, I am … disappointed.
Before the OnePlus event on March 23, @UnboxTherapy dropped what appears to be a leak from the OnePlus Watch. After examining the image for about two minutes, I can confirm to everyone that it looks like any other non-Apple smartwatch out there. There are two buttons on the right side, black bracelets and a black case, and a fairly normal looking watch face. Woo. This is a little monotonous, milquetoast design and honestly, I expected a little better from OnePlus.
Leaky smartwatch Ishan Agarwal he also dropped a few more details on his Twitter, noting that the watch would be 46 mm (a big boy!). It will also have IP68 water resistance, 4 GB of storage and the ability to control music and OnePlus TV. In terms of health features, which have become a major selling point for smartwatches, OnePlus is supposed to offer automatic training detection, includes swimming exercises and also monitor sleep, stress, blood oxygen saturation and heart rate. No word on battery life, but Agarwal said it supports Warp Charge, or the ability to charge for a week in 20 minutes. This means that you will have at least one week of use out of that thing, which would be great, but who knows.
The interesting part about these rumors is that the OnePlus Watch does not run Wear OS, despite being an Android watch. There are many rumors about this before the March 23 event, and according to the Border, CEO Pete Lau confirmed in a forum that will be the case. Instead of, the company has opted for a type of operating system RTOS (real-time operating system). No word on what this means for a third-party application ecosystem or digital assistant. As to why OnePlus did not choose Wear OS, Lau says the company wanted to provide a smooth and reliable experience, along with a long battery life. Wear OS made improvements last year, but battery life is still a sore point for this platform.
G / O Media can receive a commission
All of that is very good, but is not what someone would describe how terribly exciting. One thing would be if the OnePlus ran out the door with a unique design or decided to put its own style on Wear OS like the Oppo watch did. But OnePlus seems to have played it safe – aindisputably very safe. Unless we see something absurd like a 30-day battery, exclusive software or an innovative health feature (for which we’re not holding our breath), this smartwatch seems to be just for die-hard OnePlus fans.