Note that OnePlus is not the first company to try a new approach to solving smartwatch battery life. Mobvoi's TicWatch Pro series has long used dual display technology to save battery life and deliver similar results to OnePlus. But its watches are larger, its software feels clunkier, and the company's update policy is spotty.
Speaking of which, OnePlus is promising two Wear OS updates and three years of security updates. This is similar to what Google is offering for its Pixel Watch lineup, but from Samsung, which has promised four Wear OS updates and five years of security updates for the Galaxy Watch 6 series. It's tiny compared to what it is. What OnePlus has to offer here is decent, but it's nice to see it match up with Samsung so you can enjoy your watch for as long as possible with new features, security patches, and bug fixes.
One of my favorite parts of the OnePlus Watch 2 is the fact that you only have one app to work with. You don't have to have two separate apps to access watch features and health and fitness data like some of our competitors do. Everything is managed with OnePlus Health (OHealth). But when it comes to health and fitness, compromises begin to occur.
mysterious health
Photo: Julian Cioccatu
I like how OHealth lays everything out in easy-to-access tiles, and you can click on a tile to access more information, but the app has a few quirks. First, as you can see in the image above, there are some design issues, such as words bumping into each other (see step goal). It also lacks health features such as electrocardiogram, skin temperature detection, menstrual cycle tracking, and fall detection. These are all from similarly priced competitors, but what really matters is the quality of information available.
The difference is mainly due to the number of steps and distance traveled. When she wore her Pixel Watch 2 on her other wrist, she noticed a big difference in these two metrics. The OnePlus Watch 2 frequently undercounts, sometimes even counting 2,000 or 3,000 steps. On February 29th, I crossed Barcelona for some sightseeing. My Pixel Watch 2 says I walked 19.35 miles and 25,000 steps. According to my OnePlus watch, I covered 9.32 miles and took 24,000 steps. By basic estimates, 25,000 steps equates to about 12 miles, so OnePlus clearly has something wrong.
