6 min readNew DelhiFeb 27, 2024 01:51 PM IST
First published on: Feb 27, 2024 at 01:51 PM IST
I have a confession: I’m not big on smartwatches. They’re always dying on me in just a day or two and I’m stuck charging them as often as my phone. Fitness trackers have been more appealing to me since they offer the best of both worlds between a regular watch and a smartwatch – easy to use, don’t run apps, and have a battery that actually lasts.
But the OnePlus Watch 2 is different – I’d call this a ‘hybrid’ smartwatch that mostly works as a regular smartwatch but can also transform into a fitness tracker when you want to extend the battery life to a whopping 12 days. And it toggles between the two seamlessly. I’ve been using this watch for almost a week and here’s my review.
Big circular display and premium build
Watch 2 is one of the biggest smartwatches in the market, in terms of display size (Image: Zohaib Ahmed/The Indian Express)
The OnePlus Watch 2 has a nice heft at 49 grams with a sturdy build and tough finish you’ll feel good wearing all day. Slap it on and it’s so comfortable you’ll be fine wearing it all day, although at night you may feel this lump on your wrist as you move around. I got used to it after a couple of days though.
The Watch 2 comes in two colors: the Black Steel pictured here and a lighter Radiant Steel. Both are stainless steel with a brushed metal finish and some glossy, polished surfaces. It feels extremely premium and the design matches the price tag. The stainless steel case is paired with 2.5D sapphire crystal glass, gently curved around the edges but otherwise flat, for extra durability.
On the side are two buttons, and while one is a rotating crown, it doesn’t actually do anything. It would’ve been nice to have a physical alternative to the touchscreen for navigating menus, but you can’t have everything.
Unlike Apple Watch, the rotating crown on Watch 2 doesn’t do much (Image: Zohaib Ahmed/The Indian Express)
Up front, the Watch 2 has a 1.43-inch, 466×466 AMOLED display with a claimed high brightness mode of 1000 nits. It’s vibrant with excellent viewing angles, although on auto brightness it doesn’t get as bright as I’d like outdoors. You can manually adjust brightness though, and max brightness is fairly bright.
Hybrid OS with longer lasting battery than any other WearOS smartwatch
As I mentioned, the software is the biggest draw of this watch. The OnePlus Watch 2 runs a combination of Wear OS, powered by the Snapdragon W5 chipset, and an RTOS running on the BES 2700. Why the hybrid OS? Well, Wear OS watches aren’t known for great battery life, so Google created this interface to improve it, and OnePlus implemented it perfectly.
Here’s how it works: The more powerful app processor sleeps while the lower-power co-processor handles basic stuff like showing notifications and watch faces. The main chip only kicks in when needed for more intensive tasks. There’s a setting to force the main processor to run everything if you want maximum smoothness, but I found the co-processor worked great on its own.
The Watch 2 has two chips and two OS (Image: Zohaib Ahmed/The Indian Express)
And this implementation delivers. I couldn’t fully test the claimed 12-day power saving mode but I’m confident it can last over a week. Meanwhile, in regular “Smart Mode” with always-on display enabled, I consistently got 3+ days – crazy good for a Wear OS watch and easily the longest-lasting one I’ve tried.
Beyond the battery boost, I really appreciated this hybrid approach for another reason. I could easily ‘mute’ smartwatch features when I wanted a less distracting, digital-free experience for a tech break. Essentially, it’s easy to toggle the watch into a basic fitness tracker, which I loved.
Charging is handled through a magnetic charging puck that snaps onto the back. It juiced up the watch fully in about an hour, which is plenty fast for a smartwatch.
Has all the basic health tracking capabilities
On the compatibility side, the Watch 2 currently only works with Android phones. You’ll need to install the new OHealth app instead of the previous OnePlus Health app. It has all the expected health tracking options and watch faces, but lacks some of the polish from before.
The watch has the usual sensors that enable heart rate monitoring, SpO2, sleep and stress tracking. I thought the lack of women’s cycle tracking was a bizarre omission for 2024 though – come on OnePlus, it’s high time to add this.
Conclusion: A great alternative to Galaxy Watch 6
WearOS powered smartwatch with the longest battery life (Image: Zohaib Ahmed/The Indian Express)
The clever hybrid software makes this watch extremely compelling in my opinion. It solves the dreaded smartwatch pain point of terrible battery life. But for me, the biggest draw is how it simplifies the experience for first-time smartwatch users. You can gift this to a non-tech-savvy friend or parent, letting them use it solely as a fitness tracker before enabling full smartwatch functionality.
I honestly can’t think of any real downsides after my first week with it, beyond the chunky 47mm size that could overwhelm small wrists. And the OHealth app needs some refinement.
You’ll pay a premium for these upgrades though. The Watch 2 costs Rs 24,999, a full Rs 10K over the first gen. It’s steep, although the main rival, Galaxy Watch 6 (review), is slightly pricier. Is it worth the cost? With the hybrid tech, I’d say yes – it carves out a unique niche. It’s easy to recommend for any Android user since it plays nicer with non-Samsung devices than the Galaxy Watch.
The concept of hybrid cars makes it to smartwatches with this one. (Image: Zohaib Ahmed/The Indian Express) 
Watch 2 is one of the biggest smartwatches in the market, in terms of display size (Image: Zohaib Ahmed/The Indian Express)
Unlike Apple Watch, the rotating crown on Watch 2 doesn’t do much (Image: Zohaib Ahmed/The Indian Express)
The Watch 2 has two chips and two OS (Image: Zohaib Ahmed/The Indian Express)
WearOS powered smartwatch with the longest battery life (Image: Zohaib Ahmed/The Indian Express)
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