OnePlus Watch, review: the first OnePlus smartwatch has an exquisite design and quite a way ahead

Of the OnePlus Watch they have written rivers of ink. What’s more, we’ve been reading rumors about this device literally since 2014 . However, it was not until 2021 that the company was encouraged to launch its first smartwatch, a smartwatch that follows the path set by OnePlus mobile phones in terms of construction and sensations.

The OnePlus Watch is a smart watch that is worth 159 euros, so it remains in the range of the Huawei Watch and the most complete Amazfit models. We’ve been using it for the past few days to bring you this, its analysis . Let’s get into trouble.

OnePlus Watch Specifications

The OnePlus Watch is an exquisite watch in terms of design. It does not have the materials that we saw in the Zepp E or the Huawei Watch GT 2 Pro , but the feeling in hand is the most premium. For that matter, OnePlus has opted for a 316L stainless steel for the case and polymer for the lower area. Covering the screen we find a sapphire crystal with a score of nine on the Mohs scale, so, in principle, it should resist scratches without problem.

The device is circular. Its case measures 46 millimeters and weighs 76 grams with the strap . It is significantly heavier than watches in this price range, but personally, it convinces me. The watch feels robust and conveys that premium aroma that you love so much. The stainless steel finish is shiny and thanks to the curves the aesthetics are highly sophisticated. You could say that OnePlus has put a lot of care in its watch, and it shows.

On the right side we have two buttons , the main one and the function button. Both are integrated into the chassis and barely protrude, although they click quite a bit. The main one is engraved with the company logo, which provides a certain relief that helps to quickly identify the button when you slide your finger along the edge. The function function, for its part, is not recorded, but can be remapped from the watch to quickly start the function we want (the default sports mode). On the left side we find the speakers.

If we turn it over, we will see the optical heart rate and blood oxygen sensor with its corresponding green and red LEDs, as well as the POGO pins that we will have to fit into the base to proceed to recharge the battery. It is, in a nutshell, a simple, elegant and functional design, on par with what you might expect from OnePlus. The only drawback that can be put is that it is full of fingerprints just by looking at it , it is what the shiny stainless steel finish has.

As for the strap, the watch includes a very well finished fluoroelastomer. The texture is soft, rubbery and pleasant , much better than what we usually find in Amazfit and Xiaomi watches and on a par with that of the Huawei Watch GT 2 Pro. It is a pretty good strap, without a doubt. In addition, it has a standard coupling, so we can remove it and change it for any strap that we have at home. And it is that this watch a leather strap would be a scandal. The closure, meanwhile, is similar to the one Apple uses on the Apple Watch.

In short, this is a very well built watch with a sensational design . It has just the right weight so that we know that we are wearing it, but without feeling heavy. It is pretty, elegant and sneaky. We can wear it all day (and night) without any problem. Except for what we have mentioned about the footprints, the truth is that you cannot put any fault.

Screen: things well done

We thus go on to talk about the screen, a section in which OnePlus has also taken out its chest. Inside the 46-millimeter case we have a 1.39-inch AMOLED panel with 454 x 454 pixels of resolution , which translates into a density of 326 pixels per inch. It is a sensational screen in every way, whether at the level of brightness, color level or sharpness level.

The only “negative” aspects that we can take out is, on the one hand, the use of the front and, on the other hand, the footprints. Although the AMOLED screen stretches quite a bit to the sides, it would not have hurt to slightly reduce the frame so that the percentage of front occupied by the screen. However, it is within what we usually see normally in the world of smartwatches . Regarding the tracks, I warn navigators: they remain more marked than we would have liked.

In any case, they are two “trifles” that fail to overcome all the benefits offered by the OnePlus Watch screen. And it is that the panel behaves of fear . It can be seen perfectly in broad daylight, it has a more than correct maximum brightness level, and to top it off, the automatic brightness is fast and accurate. During the analysis we did not need to put it in manual, but in case someone is interested in knowing it, yes, the brightness can be controlled manually.

The screen responds perfectly to touches and, thanks to the operating system, which we will talk about later, we can interact with it fluently . We can wake up the screen using the main button or, more comfortably, making the gesture with the wrist. Something interesting is that we can program the “Do not disturb” mode at certain times so that not only does it not vibrate, but also that the screen is not activated when lifting the wrist while we sleep. Personal advice: do it . To turn off the screen we can use the button or cover it with the palm of the hand.

As for customization, we can carry several watchfaces installed on the watch itself , choose a photo from the gallery or access the ones that OnePlus offers us in the smartphone app. The options are varied and something that we liked is that the complications (the icons on the covers) are interactive, so if we click on one, it will take us directly to the corresponding application.

It is, in short, a very good screen. It has not given us the slightest problem during the review and, frankly, we can say that OnePlus has done an outstanding job with it . If the only downside that we can put on is that it could have been stretched more towards the frames and that the footprints remain marked, those two snags are welcome.

Performance: a missed opportunity, but well saved

We continue with performance and, as we always do, we start by talking about compatibility. The OnePlus Watch has an operating system based on RTOS and is only compatible with Android (from Android 6.0 onwards), since the app that we will use to link it, OnePlus Health , is only available on the Google operating system. That is, iPhone users will not be able to link the watch with your mobile.

Beyond this, betting on RTOS over Wear OS has its pros and cons. The pros is that the operating system is lightweight and customizable, as well as more efficient. The cons is that the operating system is much more basic , it cannot be expanded with third-party applications, it does not allow to take advantage of the NFC chip to pay with the mobile phone and, to older people, it does not integrate in the same way with the connected ecosystem of the home if we use Google Assistant.

And this is a real shame, because the OnePlus Watch could have been a high-end smartwatch that competed against the best watches on the market, such as the TicWatch Pro 3 GPS , the Apple Watch or the Samsung Galaxy Watch . However, this decision by OnePlus leaves the watch as another alternative to the Amazfit or the Huawei Watch, with which it shares its idiosyncrasies: a simple watch that is still an accessory for the mobile , instead of being part of something a lot largest.

That said, let’s get to the performance of the watch . As in all smartwatches, we will interact with the device through gestures. The ones we have available are the following:

• Swiping down : we open the quick settings panel (do not disturb, automatic brightness, find my phone, timer, flashlight and settings).
• Swiping up : we open the notification panel.
• Swiping left : we move through the widgets, namely music, heart rate and sleep. If we press and hold on one of the screens we can add more.
• Swiping right : nothing.

Scrolling between screens and general navigation between device menus is fluid, very fluid. In fact, the watch feels really fast . It goes very well, more than other watches in its price range. After all, the device has a very simple operating system and that shows in how little it costs the processor to move the entire interface.

If we click on the top button we will open the application drawer. None of these applications can be uninstalled, nor is it possible to install new apps through the Google Play Store . Those that exist are those that exist and are those that are. That said, we have everything you need to exploit the watch’s functions to the fullest, such as those related to health, a stress meter, barometer, compass, a phone app, TV Connect (surely to control OnePlus TVs, which are not sold in Spain) and a music app. What it does not have, for example, is a remote trigger for the mobile camera.

In any case, it seems that the version of the operating system that we have used is not the final one. It is not in Spanish and it does not have all the sports modes (OnePlus speaks of more than 110 and we have 14, as we will see later), so it is expected that when the first big update of the watch is released, things will be added or modified.

So, let’s stop at the music control app and the health apps. The OnePlus Watch gives us two options: control the playback of the music that is playing on the mobile or store the music in its internal 4 GB (of which only 2 GB are usable). To do this, you simply have to import the songs from the mobile app. Obviously, we can also connect wireless headphones to the clock to listen to our songs while doing sports, for example. It is a very useful feature and it is appreciated that it is there.

Then we have the heart rate , which can be monitored in real time or intelligently, which measures the heart rate based on our movement. The sensor seems precise to us and we have not noticed more abrupt changes in the pulsations of the account. However, let us remember that we are not dealing with a medical device, so the data must be taken for what they are: something indicative.

In second place we have the dream , which also seems precise to us. It correctly detects when we fall asleep and when we wake up, as well as waking moments. The watch is also capable of measuring variations in blood oxygen concentration during sleep, something that consumes more battery and may not be entirely accurate, especially if we move more than necessary (if we do, the app itself will will reflect in the report).

And since we are talking about the level of oxygen in the blood , it should be noted that we can access the data in two ways: doing a manual test from the watch itself or leaving it on while we sleep. If we do, the watch will analyze the oxygen level in the blood during sleep. It is curious to see the graph the next day, but 1) if we move during sleep there may be reading problems and 2) we are not in front of a medical device, so, again, we must take the data with tweezers.