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One Plus Watch 2

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Central Specifications

• Dual-Engine Architecture
• Best-in-class 100-hour battery life
• Larger base storage and RAM (32GB + 2GB)
• Precise health monitoring

At the very center here is of course the long battery life that OnePlus manages by using their Dual Engine setup.

A tour around the OnePlus Watch 2

A watch is of course a watch and the variations are not huge. However, OnePlus has chosen to go with a more classic look on the OnePlus Watch 2, and not quite as "Smart Watch"-like a look as, for example, the Apple Watch.

This means that we get a 46mm watch with a classic round design. There are two variants to choose from, with a Black Steel version and then the lighter Radiant Steel version, which we borrowed for testing.

It comes with a teal strap, which matches the Flowy Emerald color of the OnePlus 12 phone really well. So if you are up to it, you can get a set that matches really well.

The strap is made of FKM or Fluorine rubber, which is a more durable and resistant alternative to silicone or natural rubber. The strap is standard size and replaceable if you want to change to a more personalized one.

You get a 1.42" AMOLED screen that is protected by Sapphire glass. However, there is no edge around the glass, so it can be a bit exposed if you are the clumsy type.

The watch case is made of stainless steel with a nice finish. The watch is IP68 rated with the possibility of diving down to 50 m and meets the MIL-STD-810H certification.

On the right side of the watch we find two buttons which are used for navigation and shortcuts. The top one is a Home button that takes you to the watch face or opens your app overview. However, it also has other shortcuts with two presses or a long press respectively. By default, two taps are a shortcut to the last used app, while a long press opens Google Assistant.

The lower of the two buttons is a multifunction button. By default, one click opens Workouts options and two clicks is Google Pay. However, the shortcuts on both the Home button and the Multi Button can be customized via the settings, so you can get other options that suit you better.

On the back of the watch we find the selection of sensors that can measure things like VO2 Max, heart rate and SpO2. This is also where we find the Pogo pins used to charge the watch.

Included in the package is a small magnetic puck and a USB C cable. The small puck clicks on the back of the watch, and with the right adapter can charge the watch with 7.5W VOOC Fast Charging. It can charge the watch to 100% in about an hour.

The source of the long battery life is the Dual Engine approach that OnePlus has taken to the OnePlus Watch 2 in the internal hardware. The watch is powered by two chipsets, which together optimize performance and power consumption.

There is an energy-efficient BES2700 chipset that always runs and keeps the normal minor background activities going, such as tracking and basic clock functions.

That chipset also makes sure to wake up the more powerful Snapdragon W5 chipset, which is used when more demanding tasks, such as apps, etc. come into play.

If you want to optimize and extend the battery life as much as possible, you can activate Power Saver Mode. Here, only the efficient BES2700 chipset is active. and with that you can get a battery life of up to 12 days.

However, it will of course have limited functionality. In Power Saver Mode, however, you will still have access to sleep and heart rate tracking. along with certain types of motion tracking etc.

Software

The OnePlus Watch 2 comes with Wear OS 4 and is made in collaboration with Google to ensure better integration. Setup and pairing with your smartphone is straightforward and works fine with Google Fast Pair. I just had to turn on the watch near my phone. and then a pop up screen popped up. and asked if I wanted to connect.

From here it was just a matter of following the guide on your watch and phone. and then I was up and connected in a matter of minutes. The OnePlus Watch 2 has a companion app. called OHealth. which you are asked to download in connection with the setup.

Through that app, you have the opportunity to track your exercise goals and workouts. It is also possible to adjust the settings on the watch via the phone. You can change or customize watch faces through the app, but you can also change things like which fields you can scroll through on the phone.

The digital watch faces are of course a large part of both the look and the functionality of your smartwatch. There is a large and fairly wide selection of dials available. There are both classic muted dials and more advanced ones with a wealth of information in relation to training or the weather, for example.

I like to have a range of information available, so I chose a watch face that showed me information about things like steps, calories and heart rate along with some weather and of course the time and date.

The integration with Android on my smartphone has been seamless during my testing, and I've received a nice stream of notifications on the watch from my phone. That should also be expected. when we run the latest WearOS version.

The test

I've been using the OnePlus Watch 2 for a little over a week now. and have used it as my primary watch during that time. It has of course been for ordinary everyday use and for tracking activity and training during the period.

I use a smartwatch quite a lot throughout my day. It is both like the very basic watch, but also for checking notifications from my phone, without necessarily having to have it at hand.

At the same time, it is also my alarm clock, my fitness tracker and, in a narrow sense, my remote control for certain smart home functions.

This means that quite often during the day I am past my watch and it also means that I generally always aim to sleep with it. Both in relation to the function as an alarm clock, but also tracking my sleep.

In this connection, long battery life is a super big plus in my book. I would have a hard time living with a watch that I had to charge every day. Fortunately, this has not been a problem with the OnePlus Watch 2, which manages more than three days of full use without any major problems, even with fitness tracking with GPS etc.

They promised 100 hours, I don't think it will be a problem with medium use either. When, on top of that, you can fully charge the watch in about an hour, the battery is not something that I have particularly wondered about during my test. OnePlus itself states that you can expect around 48 hours of intensive use.

During normal use, I didn't think about the fact that there were two separate chipsets in the watch. Navigation and general use have been as fast and responsive as other WaerOS watches I've tried.

Notifications quickly appear on the watch when you lift the watch to check them. However, in this connection I could have wished that the vibrations were stronger. They are on the weak side and it is easy to miss them if you are busy with something else.

The 1.42” AMOLED screen on the OnePlus Watch 2 has a peek brightness of 1000 nits, which means that it is very easy to read, at least here in the slightly gray Danish winter weather.

Navigation and operation of apps on the watch is fast and responsive and, as I said, I don't think I can feel any delay when switching between the two chipsets on the watch.

As a fitness tracker, I also think the OnePlus Watch does really well. There are a lot of good options in the OnePlus OHealth app, and there are more than 100 different tracking options that should cover the vast majority of needs. There are, for example, 14 different types of Yoga that you can choose from.

The OnePlus Watch 2 comes with dual-frequency GPS, so you get very precise GPS tracking when you are running or hiking and want to have the route mapped.

All data is of course synchronized to the OHealth app on your phone, so you can follow your progress over time via the phone.

If you would like to have music with you on your run, but don't want to take your phone with you, you can connect your Bluetooth headset directly to the OnePlus Watch 2. Since there is 32 GB of internal storage, it is possible to download playlists via e.g. Spotify to the clock. That way, you can have music with you, with nothing but your watch and earbuds in tow.

Price

The OnePlus Watch 2 lands with a price of just under 300$. This places it nicely in the field of newer WearOS Smartwatches, with a price that is a good bit below, for example, Google Pixel Watch 2 and Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 and 6.

Conclusion

OnePlus has come back strongly in the Smartwatch field with the OnePlus Watch 2. They have given us a solid combination of hardware and software, and topped it off with super good battery life. The result is a smartwatch that ticks all the right places in my book.

The battery life in particular is a big winner in my book, as I can't live with a watch that can only last a single day before needing to be recharged. This is not a problem here with the OnePlus Watch 2, which managed both three and four days of normal use before needing a charger.

The fact that it can be done at the same time without having to compromise on performance or features only makes it more impressive.

If you can live with the somewhat limited options in Battery Saver mode, then that time can even be extended to close to two weeks of battery life.

We end up with a final grade of 9 and a Great Product Award for a feature-rich smartwatch that runs for days without problems.

Advantage:

Long battery life

Fast charging

Good fitness tracking

Disadvantages

The vibrations are a little too weak