OnePlus’ first smartwatch was many things. Unfortunately, they were not particularly good or memorable. If you’re going to enter a category as established as the smartwatch, you’re going to have to take the plunge. Do something unique and different to convince potential consumers beyond your own rabid fan base that yours is the device they need, and not something made by Apple or Samsung (or Google, for that matter).
The OnePlus Watch 2, which was officially unveiled this morning at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona after a few months of teasing, gets some points of originality. As mentioned earlier, the battery is the issue here. It’s not just a good battery, though — that was, after all, one of the main features the original had.
I’ll give you the usual warning here, to take such things with a grain of salt, but OnePlus claims “up to 100 hours in full Smart mode”. That last bit is perhaps a dig at features like Apple’s Low Power Mode, which sacrifices some key features in order to get more than a day on a single charge.
Image Credits: OnePlus
Battery is still the low-hanging fruit in the smartwatch world. These days, companies are talking up sleep-tracking capabilities, highlighting the need for a battery that can last — at least — 24 hours on a charge. Having to slowly wind down the clock before bed is not a great user experience. It’s something that Apple needs to focus on with the next generation device in particular.
OnePlus’ figure of 100 hours is based on what the company refers to as “normal use”. When you switch to “heavy use,” that number drops by more than half in 48 hours. This is nothing to scoff at, mind. Two full days of life on a charge is still well beyond the capabilities of some smartwatches. How OnePlus quantifies subtractions as “normal” and “heavy” isn’t entirely clear. You’ll want to wait until the review units are out in the world to get a better idea of what this all means.
Apparently, Google’s Wear OS team has been involved in helping these kinds of figures. “We’ve made significant updates to the Wear OS hybrid interface to support new features that work with OnePlus’ innovative dual-engine architecture,” explains Google’s John Renaldi. “Through this partnership, OnePlus Watch 2 seamlessly switches between low-power and high-performance motors to deliver a feature-rich, premium smartwatch experience with optimized battery life.”
The key in this quote above is the word “hybrid”. The watch has two chips that alternate between each other to squeeze out as much life as possible. There’s the familiar Snapdragon W5, which powers the Pixel Watch 2 and a bunch of devices from the likes of Oppo and Xiaomi, and the more efficient BES 2700 MCU.
Image Credits: OnePlus
Like the Apple Watch, OnePlus’ Watch 2 also has a power saving mode. Here, though, it disables much more than Apple’s. The company notes:
WearOS apps and Always On Display will not work when the device is in power saving mode. Other functions such as calling, messaging and exercise functions will still work in power saving mode. However, some of their more demanding functions will be limited to preserve battery life, e.g. Smart reply to messages, access to call logs and Voice guidance while running.
So it becomes a smartwatch, I guess.
The device is available for pre-order starting today for $300 — that’s nearly double the $159 price of its predecessor. It’s clear that OnePlus is targeting a completely different cross-section of the market, priced more in line with Apple and Samsung devices. It starts shipping next month.
