OnePlus has passed the point of carrying an asterisk on its name to indicate it is a new brand in mobile tech. The company passed the decade mark earlier this year and has finally figured out its product line. After years of ups and downs with smartphones that would be amazing one year and make us scratch our heads the next, OnePlus found its groove in smartphones.
With its first smartwatch, the OnePlus Watch, released in 2021, the company attempted to skip Wear OS and opt for an in-house operating system. It was a failure. However, when OnePlus gave wearables another go in 2024, we got the OnePlus Watch 2, which held onto some of the ethos of the original watch and brought Wear OS along with it as the first dual-OS wearable for Android. With rumors of a OnePlus Watch 3, the brand’s past may haunt its future.
Read our review
OnePlus Watch 2: Worth it for the battery alone
With two chipsets and two operating systems, the OnePlus Watch 2 offers revelatory battery life — but not much more
Full of skeletons and promise
It has so much going for it
The OnePlus Watch 2 continues to have the same issues I discussed in April. The watch has fantastic hardware that offers a premium feel and durability. Its display is bright and vibrant. OnePlus didn’t skimp on the internal hardware either, opting for the fast Snapdragon W5 Gen 1 as the primary processor supported by 2GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. To be considered one of the best Android smartwatches, it also has to have plenty of health sensors, which it does.
If OnePlus had stopped here, the Watch 2 would likely be a candidate for being one of the best smartwatches you can get because of its affordable price. The problem is that OnePlus opted to push the boundaries of what we expect from an Android wearable. The Snapdragon processor was the primary processor because the Watch 2 has a dual processor setup with the BES2700BP chipset running a custom RTOS or real-time operating system. It’s like what the original OnePlus watch used.
I have no issues with this operating system as I enjoy how Amazfit implemented its Zepp OS on devices like the Balance and T-Rex 3. The difference is that Amazfit is dedicated to perfecting the OS to make it as feature-rich as possible, and as of today, it’s good. The benefit of using RTOS is its fast performance and long battery life. OnePlus Watch 2 has both, but the OS isn’t nearly as fleshed out, and Wear OS is too far behind the bus to be noticed.
While I believe that apps on smartwatches aren’t necessary for a device to be good, the apps it needs must be great. Much of what OnePlus did with its watch’s software comes across as basic and barebones. When using the official apps on the device, it feels like I’m using apps from a cheap white-label watch you’d see on TikTok or Temu. Illustrations are generic, with limited info on the watch, and the companion app for the phone, OHealth, continues that feeling.
One annoying app that has been a thorn in my side since the watch was released is the Alarm app. When setting the alarm, you can’t set the watch to only vibrate. You are required to have sound, which I don’t like. Instead, I conditioned myself to wake up from my watch vibrating, which is why I wear a watch to bed. I don’t like waking up to an alarm. Plus, I want it quiet so that it doesn’t wake my wife. I’ve downloaded alarm apps, but those do the same or set off my phone alarm.
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What is Wear OS? A guide to the smartwatch operating system
Google’s smartwatch operating system is worth taking a closer look
Fix it before moving on
Ignoring it won’t make the problem go away
OnePlus must solve the problems with the watch before releasing another to the market. The first OnePlus Watch was a disaster, and the second had its issues. If the company doesn’t address what’s here now, what’s to come will start off on the wrong foot, err, wrist.
The OnePlus Watch 2 can’t be transferred to a new phone without resetting. While it can transfer health and workout data, you must set up the rest of the watch on your next phone. This feature is only seen on Google’s Pixel Watch line-up and Samsung’s Galaxy watches.
There’s the rotating crown, which rotates beautifully but does nothing on the screen. OnePlus says it is intentional because a rotating button is more durable than a static one. A rotating crown that adds functionality is more useful than one that doesn’t, and the omission seems more like an oversight than a choice.
OnePlus is too good to continue this trend
I want another wearable from OnePlus, but I’m concerned we’ll get more of the same or something completely different that will introduce more issues. Prove you want to get it right by supporting what you have before trying to convince us that what is to come should fix the issues. But I don’t want OnePlus to change the battery. It’s an exceptional battery, and there are things you can do to extend the watch’s battery life.
OnePlus Watch 2
The OnePlus Watch 2 is a spec beast that easily glides through many operations. But it isn’t a battery hog, lasting days on a single charge.
