OnePlus Watch review: Solid for starters, but not without software snags
Looking to make a toehold in the market beyond smartphones, OnePlus is gradually
expanding its products line-up. Fresh in the company’s portfolio is a smart
wearable, the OnePlus Watch.
Labelled a smartwatch, the OnePlus Watch covers
a wide spectrum of features and services that one looks for in smartwatches. Among
the most notable is the built-in storage for music, a speaker and mic set-up to
attend calls, and a sensor to monitor blood oxygen saturation (SpO2). As a
debutant, the OnePlus Watch seems to be a solid smartwatch. But how does it
fare vis-à-vis peers? Let’s find out:
What’s
good
Design: OnePlus
has done a spectacular job in designing its first smartwatch. The Watch looks
premium, especially the moonlight silver colour variant (review unit), which
goes well with most outfits. It has a solid build, complemented by a circular
case that makes it look more like a watch and less like a toy. The top side of
the case is dominated by a screen with thin bezels around. It is a touch screen
with curved glass on the top to aid the watch’s gesture-based navigation. At
the bottom, the slightly raised centre accommodates sensors for monitoring
heart rate and blood oxygen, and charging pins. While the case is made of
stainless steel, there is a plastic covering at the bottom. This makes the
watch comfortable to wear as the temperature effect on the stainless steel does
not pass on to the skin. The case has two buttons – the top one for the menu
and the other (customisable) for fitness modes.
Display: The
OnePlus Watch design is accentuated by a bold-looking 1.39-inch AMOLED
touchscreen of a 454 x 454 resolution. The screen supports sliding gestures;
swipe down for quick settings, swipe up for notifications, swipe right to go
back, and swipe left to access music player and information related to heart
rate, stress, weather, steps count, etc. The screen is bright, vivid and has
good sunlight legibility. It supports several watch faces, most with dark
backgrounds that look dazzling on an AMOLED screen. The watch also supports
custom faces, allowing you to turn any picture from your phone into a watch
face background.
Health
and fitness features: The OnePlus Watch is loaded with
several health and fitness features, including the uncommon stress and air pressure
monitors. Starting from health-related features, the smartwatch has a
multipurpose heart rate sensor, which registers heart rhythms during active and
resting hours. Through this sensor, the watch also monitors stress levels. It
supports auto stress level monitoring and has a dedicated breathing exercise
built in; this comes in handy in bringing down the stress level. The heart-rate
sensor also doubles up as a sleep monitor to register sleep quality. Besides
the heart rate sensor, there is a dedicated sensor for measuring oxygen
saturation in blood. The Watch is capable of auto-tracking SpO2 during sleep,
and there is a provision to manually measure it as well. As for accuracy, the
sensor works fine and the deviation in reading is +/- 2 in most cases. Important
to note that the watch is not a medical device, so the measurement data and
results are for reference only, not a basis for diagnosis and treatment.
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