OnePlus Watch 2 unveiled with Wear OS, stainless steel body

It’s been three years since the first OnePlus Watch came out. The first one had its system, but now, OnePlus has made some changes and introduced a new and improved version called the OnePlus Watch 2 at MWC. 

Three years have passed since the debut of the original OnePlus Watch, which operated on a proprietary operating system. Since then, the company has revisited its design approach and introduced substantial enhancements with the unveiling of the OnePlus Watch 2 at MWC.

• The original OnePlus Watch came out three years ago and it ran a proprietary OS. Since then, the company has gone back to the drawing board and has brought significant changes to the new model – meet the OnePlus Watch 2.

• It is based on a “Dual Engine Architecture”, meaning that there are two chipsets and two OSes. One is the Snapdragon W5 that runs Wear OS, meaning you have full access to the app store. The other is the BES2700, which runs a real-time OS (RTOS) at a low power.
• OnePlus says the Watch 2 can last 100 hours with normal use and 48 hours with heavy use. When the battery runs low, you can charge it quickly with a 7.5W VOOC fast charger. It only takes 60 minutes to get a full charge, and just 10 minutes in Smart Mode gives enough power for a whole day.

• Activating the Power Saver Mode retains only the RTOS, yet maintains a plethora of functionalities. Essential features such as sleep and heart rate tracking, sports modes including swimming and cycling, and the ability to place and receive calls remain accessible. With Power Saver Mode activated, the watch boasts an impressive battery life of up to 12 days.
• The OnePlus Watch 2 has a stainless steel body that measures 47.0 x 46.6 x 12.1mm. Stainless steel is harder than aluminum and gives the watch some heft – 49g by itself, 80g with the fluoro rubber strap (with a stainless steel buckle).

• 2.5Dsapphire glass guards the 1.43” AMOLED display. It has a resolution of 466 x 466px and runs at 60Hz. In High Brightness Mode it can reach 1,000 nits, vital for outdoor visibility.
• Speaking of the outdoors, the watch has a 5 ATM water resistance rating, making it suitable for swimming. It is also built to the MIL-STD-810H standard.

• The watch includes GPS and works with other navigation systems. It has sensors like a compass, accelerometer, gyroscope, barometer, and a light sensor to adjust the screen brightness. There’s even an optical pulse oximeter for sleep tracking and different sports modes like Tennis and Badminton.

• There is an optical pulse oximeter too, of course. During sleep tracking, it detects your sleep phases, rates your sleep quality, monitors your breathing rate and oxygen levels and can assess your risk of snoring. Stress monitoring is available too as the sensor keeps an eye on your heart rate variability.
• Running mode makes use of the GPS and other sensors to track your runs and performance with metrics like vertical amplitude, ground contact time, balance, maximal oxygen consumption and stride length. This not only tracks your progress, but it enables your watch to be your running coach.
  
  

• Designed for outdoor enthusiasts, the watch boasts a 5 ATM water resistance rating, rendering it suitable for swimming activities. Additionally, it adheres to the MIL-STD-810H standard, further enhancing its durability and resilience to withstand various environmental conditions.
• The watch comes with GPS support but also works with other constellations such as Beidou, Galileo, GLONASS, and QZSS. Other sensors onboard the watch include a compass, accelerometer, gyroscope, barometer, and even a light sensor to adjust the screen brightness.

For sleep tracking, there is an optical pulse oximeter that can detect your sleep phases, rate your sleep quality, and more. Running Mode uses GPS and other sensors to track runs and other performance metrics. There is a variety of sports modes as well such as Tennis and Badminton modes.

Hardware specs for the watch include 2 GB of RAM and 32 GB of storage, which is useful for apps that store data offline.

The OnePlus Watch 2 has a starting price of $300 in the US.

The OnePlus Watch 2 goes on pre-order today, open sales will start on March 4. There are several different offers per region. In Europe, pre-ordering gets you a €30/£30 discount and a free pair of OnePlus Buds 3. After the pre-order period ends, you can still get a €30 discount and TWS buds until the end of March (but it’s the cheaper Nord Buds2).

In the US, there is a trade-in offer - $50 off for any watch in any condition. If you are buying the Watch 2 alongside a phone, you will get $200 off if it’s the OnePlus 12 and $100 off if it’s the 12R. Once open sales start, you can still get the $50 guaranteed trade-in credit and 30% off with the purchase of a OnePlus 12 or 12R until the end of March. Amazon Prime Members get an exclusive perk - $50 off.