OnePlus launched its new R Series smartwatch alongside the new Nord 4 smartphone and Pad 2 tablet. Like the R Series smartphones, the OnePlus Watch 2R makes a great flagship alternative. It matches most of the specs of the Watch 2 while undercutting its price by Rs 5,000. If you’re looking for a relatively affordable Android smartwatch that doesn’t compromise power there aren’t many smartwatches that fit the bill more perfectly than the Watch 2R. We used it for a week to see if it matches up to its flagship counterpart. Here is our in-depth review of the OnePlus Watch 2R.
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In This Article
OnePlus Watch 2R Review: Design and Display
Here’s what you get inside the OnePlus Watch 2R retail box:
- Smartwatch
- USB Type-A to Type-C cable
- Magnetic charging base
- Red cable club card
- Safety guide
- Quick guide
The key difference between the OnePlus Watch 2 and 2R is the build material. The former sports a stainless steel frame while the latter comes in an aluminium alloy casing. This means that the Watch 2R is lighter than its flagship counterpart. Without the strap, it weighs 37g, making it 12g lighter than the Watch 2. With the wrist strap attached to the dial, the Watch 2 and 2R weigh 80g and 59g respectively.
OnePlus Watch 2R gets Panda glass protection instead of Sapphire crystal which guards the Watch 2’s display. Its flat AMOLED display is slightly different from the curved panel on the Watch 2. The 1.43-inch unit has a 466p resolution and a default brightness of 600 nits which can be pushed to 1,000 nits in High Brightness Mode. Needless to say, wearing this watch outdoors was an absolute delight. Not once did we encounter any brightness issues with the display. It remained legible even under direct sunlight.
Being an AMOLED panel, the colours produced by this display are vibrant and punchy. The touch response is exquisite, to say the least. We did not experience any stutters or delays while navigating the watch. The circular bezel surrounding the display has chronometric markings painted on it.
The right edge of the frame contains two physical buttons. The plastic panel at the bottom houses the sensor array, charging strip, and microphone. There is no physical crown on the watch, even though it is easy to confuse the top button with one. Pressing this button when you’re on the home screen takes you to the app drawer. When you’re on any other page, this button takes you back to the home screen. The Multifunction button is dedicated to opening the workout menu no matter which page you’re on. This button can be customised to trigger other functions and apps on your watch as well. The only customisable gestures for the top button are double-press and long-press.
The silicone strap uses a pin and buckle mechanism to wrap around the wrist. The high-end quality of this wrist strap is reflected in its comfort. Even after wearing the watch for multiple days and putting it through sweaty workouts, we did not feel any itchiness. The Watch 2R is rated IP68 for dust and water resistance. It can handle 5ATM of water pressure. You can wear this watch while swimming. However, the Watch 2R is not MIL-STD-810H compliant like its flagship sibling.
OnePlus Watch 2R Review: Performance
Powering the OnePlus Watch 2R are the Snapdragon W5 Gen 1 and BES2700BP chipsets. It is nice to see the affordable alternative to the flagship not be held back by an older or inferior chipset. OnePlus earns brownie points from us for that. The BES2700BP chipset takes care of tasks like background heart rate monitoring, sleep tracking, and more. It takes over the control of the watch when it is set to power-saving mode.
OS duties on the smartwatch are handled by Google’s Wear OS 4 and OnePlus’ ColorOS Watch 6.0. The former taps into the power of the Snapdragon W5 chip and brings the Android experience to the watch. You can install apps directly on the watch using the Google Play Store. When you switch to the power-saving mode, the Color OS takes over and extends the battery life of the device. Access to the Play Store and third-party apps is revoked in this mode. This dual-OS configuration is something we enjoy a lot. We hope other OEMs are able to incorporate it into their wearables as well.
As far as health and fitness tracking go, the OnePlus Watch 2R records accurate data. Its Spo2 and heart rate readings were consistent with medical-grade equipment. The margin of error in step counting was minimal. We were also satisfied with the comprehensive sleep data that the watch collected in one cycle. Not only does it break down the sleep phases, but it also keeps a record of the snoring pattern, tracks the respiratory rate, and measures the heart rate and blood oxygen levels. If the quality of your sleep is not up to par, you can use the snoring data to assess your breathing problems and use the phone’s mic to monitor the surrounding noise levels while you sleep.
The smartwatch also does a fine job of tracking exercises and workouts. You can turn on automatic detection for certain workouts using the OHealth companion app. The watch can also track a wide range of sports like Cricket, Baseball, Rugby, Golf, Curling, Ice Hockey, Surfing, and more. If you like to golf, you’ll enjoy third-party apps like Hole19 and mScorecard. This is something that isn’t possible on the generic, run-of-the-mill smartwatches that do not run Android Wear OS.
Another great aspect of using an Android smartwatch is that you never run out of watch faces. The OHealth app has a diverse library of native watch faces for the Watch 2R. On top of that, you can install paid and free watch faces from the Play Store. If there’s one gripe we have with the Watch 2R it’s that it takes around a minute to transfer a watch face from the app and apply it to the dial.
Making and receiving calls on the Watch 2R is a seamless experience. The microphone on the watch does a good job of extracting the speaker’s voice from the background noise and relaying it to the caller. App support for WhatsApp and Gmail makes sure you don’t miss any important messages or emails on the go. We’d like to see Telegram come out with a smartwatch app as well.
Oftentimes, a good smartwatch is let down by its weak power backup. We are pleased to report that this is not the case here. This is largely due to the 500mAh battery unit along with the dual-chipset and dual-OS combination. We got more than 2 days of battery life on this watch with the AOD and background health monitoring turned on. During the review period, we also worked out for an average of 40 minutes every day while wearing the OnePlus Watch 2R. This battery life can easily be pushed to 3 days with AOD turned off.
What’s great about this smartwatch is that you can turn off its ‘smarter’ features and run it in power-saving mode to push its battery life to 12 days. When placed in this mode, the watch’s BES2700BP chipset and custom OS take over, making the Wear OS features dormant. Having the option to get more mileage out of the smartwatch is quite amazing. The magnetic charging base that comes with the watch connects to a USB Type-C cable and fully charges the device in under an hour.
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Verdict
The OnePlus Watch 2R is an impressive wearable that sits at the perfect intersection of performance and affordability. Being an Android smartwatch, it unlocks the door to a world of possibilities that aren’t exactly present in regular smart wearables and fitness trackers. Having Wear OS on your wrist is incredible if you don’t want to use your phone to answer texts or WhatsApp messages. The combination of Snapdragon W5 Gen 1 and BES2700BP chipsets produces an exhilarating performance and gets more juice out of the battery pack. Wear OS 4 and ColorOS Watch 6 ensure that the UI of the device remains accessible and user-friendly. Compared to other Android smartwatches, Watch 2R’s price tag of Rs 18,000 justifies the value you get out of it.
OnePlus Watch 2R: Pros
- Bright AMOLED display
- Lightweight
- Comfortable
- Flagship-grade dual chipset and OS
- Incredible battery life
- Fast charging support
OnePlus Watch 2R: Cons
- Only available in one size
