It features an AMOLED display.
The market is crowded with rectangular dial smartwatches, leaving the people looking for a circular dial with limited options. While the options might be limited, there are a few elegant options that you need to consider. One of these options is the OnePlus Watch, especially the Cobalt Edition.
The Cobalt Edition looks extremely premium and feels like a watch one would pay at least Rs 50,000 for, but is only priced at Rs 19,999. The watch frame is built out of a cobalt alloy and comes with sapphire glass to protect the display. It ships with the normal OnePlus Band strap along with a vegan leather strap. Apart from this, the watch comes with premium features like an AMOLED display, SpO2 tracking and more.
Initially, the reviews for the OnePlus Watch were not good, with the company being criticised for a lot of things. However, since then, the company has been hard at work to work out all of the kinks and provide its users with all of the features they wanted. Here we will be taking a look at how good is the OnePlus Watch, and is it something that you should consider purchasing or not.
OnePlus Watch Review: Price in India
OnePlus Watch is available at Rs 14,999 for the base variant and the Cobalt Edition is priced at Rs 19,999. While the base variant feels good for the price, the Cobalt Edition feels extremely underpriced. Having the Cobalt Edition in hand, I can say that I would have easily paid a minimum of Rs 50,000 for the premium build and experience.
OnePlus Watch Review: Design
While most smartwatches these days feature a rectangular design, only a few resemble the traditional watch with a circular one. With the OnePlus Watch, the company has chosen to go with the traditional look with a 46mm circular dial set in a case made out of a cobalt alloy. The Cobolt alloy body has a muted gold colour, with a tinge of red, which makes the watch appear quite nice and premium.
The watch frame is built out of a cobalt alloy.
On top of the cobalt alloy body, rests a sapphire glass display, which looks pretty similar to regular glass but is quite rigid and helps you keep your watch stay scratch-free. However, just like the normal edition of the smartwatch, the cobalt edition still features a plastic bottom. There is also a new deep emerald colour vegan leather strap with turquoise stitching, which goes extremely well with the watch. The strap is attached to a butterfly buckle that opens and closes rather easily. You can also replace the strap with a standard black fluoroelastomer that comes inside of the box.
Overall, the OnePlus Watch Cobalt Edition looks pretty attractive and premium. The watch has a subtle look to it and is comfortable to wear for all-day use. Especially, the 46mm dial makes the smartwatch look unique and full.
OnePlus Watch Review: Software
Since I have received my unit of the OnePlus Watch Cobalt Edition, there has been a slew of software updates. These updates brought in features, which multiple people were complaining about since its launch, like an always-on display.
The OnePlus Watch has a plain and simple UI.
The always-on mode has its own set of watch faces, which work as you would expect them to. Using this feature you can constantly keep a track of the time without the need to wake up the screen every now and then. While the mode is appreciated, there are still some issues, like the AOD not responding to ambient light, or the watch faces being too thin.
The Watch also comes with a ton of workout modes, which will have you covered in any workout scenario. Listing all of the modes here, would take too long, as there are so many of them, which is a good thing, as you can stay rest assured that all of your exercises will be tracked.
Customisation is a really good thing about the OnePlus Watch, considering that there is a slew of watch faces, which you can cycle using the OnePlus Health app, to have a fresh look daily.
One of the major issues I have with the OnePlus Watch is that it does not come with support for applications. Moreover, there is no voice assistant or cellular connectivity. The watch features NFC, but there is no way of using it. While most of this can be ignored, the watch not having access to download apps is one of the major disappointments.
OnePlus Watch Review: Performance and battery life
The OnePlus Watch has a plain and simple UI, which makes navigation pretty easy. The UI is pretty simple, with you only needing to swipe and tap. There are no complex gestures that you need to perform to use the watch.
It misses out on features like downloadable apps.
Reading notifications on the watch is pretty easy, with large and bold text. However, you can only respond with a few set answers, and cannot type anything.
The power-saving feature is pretty aggressive, with it micro-managing everything like the brightness, the glance time and more. This tough being annoying at points, is a very nifty feature, considering that it helps you save on precious battery life. I was able to extend my battery use by five days when using this feature from the get-go.
While I do not have the right equipment to test the watch’s sensors. I compared it to multiple other smartwatches, like the Apple Watch SE, Oppo Watch and more. The readings for SpO2, heart rate and other features I got were in the same ball park, making me believe that the watch is good at tracking.
Step tracking was also pretty accurate, with me walking 1,000 steps, and the watch recording 995 steps. SpO2 tracking is also pretty accurate, as I tested it against a blood oxygen monitor, and the readings came out similar.
Sleep tracking was also pretty accurate according to me. While I do not have the right equipment to test, but I did compare the data with my Apple Watch SE, which showcased similar data for deep sleep, light sleep and awake durations.
Taking calls on the OnePlus Watch is similar to any other smartwatch. The speaker volume is a bit low, but if you bring it close to your ear, you will be able to listen to everything clearly. The microphone was a bit muddy, considering my callers stating that I sounded a bit distant.
It comes with a vegan leather strap.
The battery life of the OnePlus Watch is commendable, considering that it managed to easily last me 12 days on a single charge, and 17 days in power-saver mode. This was with all features like WhatsApp notifications, SpO2 tracking and more turned on, if you customise what you need, then your battery performance could outperform mine.
Take note, with AOD turned on the battery life did take a hit and gave me only around 7 days of usage.
Charging speeds of the OnePlus Watch were pretty great, with it getting from 0 to 21 percent within five minutes. In 20 minutes of charging, the device reached around 50 percent. And charging the watch fully took around 50 minutes.
OnePlus Watch Review: Verdict
OnePlus Watch Cobalt Limited Edition at Rs 19,999 is one of the best deals you can get on a watch, considering the premium feel and look that it presents. It does come with good tracking features and some really nifty features that come in handy. But missing out on features like downloadable apps, lack of third-party watch faces and much more, makes it a difficult recommendation, especially after the fact that there are too many good smartwatch options available in the market like the Oppo Watch at a similar price.
Also whatever the watch does, so can a good fitness tracker, that too at a much more affordable price. While this not be the smartwatch from OnePlus I recommend, I surely am excited for what the next generation holds. As with this, the company has nailed the design, quality and battery, now it just needs to work on some of the internals and software.
