- OnePlus’ Watch 2 is a substantial upgrade with a bigger and brighter display, dual-band GPS, bigger battery, and increased internal storage among others.
- However, the primary upgrade is its ability to run both Google’s WearOS 4 and Real-Time OS (RTOS) without sacrificing the battery life.
- Retailing at $300, the OnePlus Watch 2 is priced lower than its competing WearOS offerings from Samsung and Google.
Three years after launching the OnePlus Watch, the company announced a new smartwatch – OnePlus Watch 2 – at MWC 2024 in Barcelona. The latest model is a substantial upgrade with a bigger and brighter display, dual-band GPS, bigger battery, and increased internal storage among others. However, the primary upgrade is its ability to run both Google’s WearOS 4 and Real-Time OS (RTOS) without sacrificing the battery life.
While most High-Level OS (HLOS) smartwatches offer a battery life of a day or two, the OnePlus Watch 2 can last for 100 hours on a single charge in smart mode, and even 12 days in power-saving mode, alleviating concerns over daily charging.
Google has made fundamental changes to the WearOS 4 with a hybrid interface, which allows OnePlus to cherry-pick the best of both OSs. The smartwatch can seamlessly switch between RTOS and HLOS depending on the active task. Tasks like running WearOS apps or third-party apps will invoke WearOS.
Other features like continuous health tracking and smartphone notification mirroring would be taken care of by the power-efficient RTOS. This means RTOS will be constantly active, whereas the HLOS will only run when required. We can expect to see this hybrid version of WearOS 4 in upcoming smartwatches, paving the way for further adoption of Google’s smartwatch OS and maintaining share against Apple’s Watch OS.
OnePlus’ dual-chipset approach facilitates the switch between RTOS and HLOS, powered by the BES2700 microcontroller unit and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon W5 application processor respectively. The Snapdragon processor shuts down completely when in power-saving mode.
With Fossil’s exit from the smartwatch market and Samsung’s Galaxy watches running on its Exynos processors, Qualcomm can maintain or even grow its presence across the smartwatch space with the OnePlus’ Watch 2 owing to its wider presence across the globe compared to the Pixel Watch 2.
Retailing at $300, the OnePlus Watch 2 is priced lower than its competing WearOS offerings from Samsung and Google and would likely appeal to users entering the WearOS ecosystem or OnePlus users looking for enhanced integration with their smartphones. Older-generation Galaxy Watches retailing at lower prices would also compete with the smartwatch in emerging markets like India. Like its peers, the smartwatch is incompatible with iOS and Android Go-powered smartphones.
While the OnePlus Watch 2 has implemented commendable upgrades, we expect to see further advancements like cellular connectivity, fall detection and SOS in its next update. FDA approval, like its peers, would also prove to be a boost in showcasing its capabilities.
With major smartphone OEMs expanding their foray into the health-tracking market, OnePlus could also bring more devices like smart scales and smart rings in the coming years to remain competitive.
OnePlus had less than 1% market share in the global smartwatch market in 2023, which could grow owing to this new upgraded iteration.
