You remember OnePlus, yes? Founded in China in 2013, it doesn’t have the mass market star power of Samsung or Apple, but its smartphones are coveted by techies who appreciate a particularly streamlined Android experience, up there in cachet with the Google Pixel series.
Although now I’m sure that since I said that, fundamentalists from both sides will begin mailing me gross perfume samples and letter bombs.
OnePlus took a swing at the smartwatch market in 2021 to do battle with Apple, Samsung, Google, and friends in that arena, too, with the OnePlus Watch, their very first smartwatch.
And now that it has been revealed by OnePlus yesterday, the Watch 3 isn’t just a cursory refresh. It’s got some major upgrades; a case study of how to take for oneself the features that the competition brags over and do them better.
better bezel and batteries
Taking a cue from the Apple Watch series and fresh to the OnePlus Watch lineup is a rotating bezel that you can press and rotate to navigate through app screens and menus. Samsung no longer includes a rotating bezel on its Galaxy Watch series, leading to an outcry of exasperation among consumers.
It was consumer pressure for a rotating bezel, which the OnePlus Watch 2 lacked, that led to OnePlus adding it to the Watch 3, Celina Shi, Chief Marketing Officer for OnePlus Europe, told TechRadar in an exclusive interview.
Battery life is one area in which OnePlus had already been a leader, and the gap between it and the competition only widens with the Watch 3.
“Our software seamlessly switches operations between these two chipsets enabling the OnePlus Watch 3 to run with maximum efficiency and strike the perfect balance between peak performance and extended battery life,” added Shi.
It all adds up to a maximum of 120 hours of battery life between charges not on lower power mode. That seriously bests the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra’s 100 hours (in power saving mode) and Apple Watch Series 10’s 36 hours (in low power mode) of battery life.
We don’t have a figure as to how long the Watch 3’s battery will last when set to a power saving mode, but seeing as how customers and press have reported that in low power mode, the OnePlus Watch 2 would last for three or four days, I expect similarly outstanding battery performance from OnePlus’ sorcerers.
The Watch 3 has a sapphire crystal face and, in place of the Watch 2’s aluminum, has a titanium bezel. In comparison, only the titanium case version of the Apple Watch Series 10 has sapphire crystal.
Sapphire crystal is more scratch-resistant than plain mineral glass. I’ve whacked, clipped, and scraped enough of both to know firsthand how much better the former is.
If your reactionary thought is, “Oh, I’ll just be most careful,” then know that every person who’s worn a watch (and even half cared about it) has thought the same thing to no avail. Bumps are a fact of watch life. The sapphire crystal is a notable upgrade.
There’s a lot to like here. The OnePlus Watch series has always been, at least among the mainstream consumers, the “oh yeah” smartwatch mentioned after the usual Apple Watch, Google Pixel Watch, and Samsung Galaxy Watch suggestions.
When it goes on sale on Tuesday, February 18, the OnePlus Watch 3 may just be the iteration to change that and earn it top billing.
The post OnePlus Watch 3 Unveiled and Arriving Feb. 18 appeared first on VICE.
