OnePlus has unveiled the OnePlus Watch 2 at MWC 2024, which runs Wear OS 4 and boasts a massive 100-hour battery life in standard smartwatch mode.
The OnePlus Watch 2, which costs $299 in the US and £299 in the UK (pricing for Australia is TBC) looks like a big, powerful contender for our best smartwatches list. It boasts a 1.43-inch sapphire crystal face with 326ppi resolution and a stainless-steel case, and its generous battery life is made possible by the fact that it’s packing two chipsets, each running a separate operating system.
As well as a ‘hybrid’ Wear OS 4 interface using the Qualcomm Snapdragon W5 chip, the watch also runs RTOS powered by the BES2700 series chip. RTOS is the 'maintenance' operating system handling 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 OS used in the original OnePlus Watch, which debuted in 2021.
Dual-frequency GPS is said to ensure that the watch is very accurate when it comes to tracking running, cycling and other outdoor workouts, and it features the usual heart rate, stress detection, and sleep tracking metrics. The sleep functionality offers guidance based on your historic sleep, just like the sleep profiles found on the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6, and it can identify if you’re snoring.
The 100-hour battery life can be extended further in power-save mode, which effectively shutters the Wear OS element and only allows the watch to track movement and exercise, messages, sleep, and running and cycling exercise profiles using GPS. This will get you 12 days of battery life, eight times as much as even the best Apple Watch, the Apple Watch Ultra 2
The Watch only comes in one size, with colorways – black steel and radiant steel – are available. It weighs 80g including the strap, is waterproof to 5ATM, and has been tested to withstand extreme heat up to 70C, and extreme cold down to -40C. There are no features that are limited to users of OnePlus phones, in the same way Apple and Samsung lock away features – any Android phone running 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 here, with the generous battery life and extreme survivability of the watch being selling points for weekend warriors and adventurers, who don’t want to risk running out of charge while on long runs or expeditions.
Even if you’re not an outdoors-person, the idea of a true Wear OS 4, Google Pixel Watch 2 alternative that doesn’t run out of charge in a single day is a tempting one.
It’s very well priced too, and I can’t really see a downside – although I'm yet to handle it or test it, so it will live and die by its performance, and how it measures up to its impressive (on paper) credentials. A sample is on the way to the TechRadar offices as I write this, and we’ll be testing it extensively in due course.
