The second time’s the charm for OnePlus, at least as far as its smartwatch is concerned. The $299.99 OnePlus Watch 2 gains the third-party app support, mobile payment options, and voice assistant capabilities missing from the first generation. Powered by Wear OS, it offers ample lifestyle and fitness-tracking features, plus standout battery life thanks to a new dual-chipset design. Android smartwatches don’t have a clear-cut alpha right now, and the OnePlus Watch 2 lacks a few advanced sensors and smart controls that keep it from earning our Editors’ Choice award, but it stands alongside the Galaxy Watch 6 and the Pixel Watch 2 as one of the best, and it’s the one to pick if you prioritize battery life. Battery for DaysChinese consumer electronics company OnePlus is best known for making affordable smartphones that keep up with high-end competitors. The first OnePlus Watch cost just $159, and cut significant corners on features due to its simple, open-source real-time operating system (RTOS). The OnePlus Watch 2 runs the latest version of Google’s smartwatch operating system, Wear OS 4, joining the ranks of the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 and the Google Pixel Watch 2. At $299.99, the OnePlus Watch 2 costs the same as the Galaxy Watch 6 at launch and just $50 less than the Pixel Watch 2.
The OnePlus Watch 2 adds value with a second operating system on top of Wear OS 4 to optimize battery life. A Snapdragon W5 chip runs Wear OS 4, and an efficiency-focused chip called BES2700 runs RTOS. The same simple architecture from the first watch now functions as a battery-saving sidekick instead of the main act. A OnePlus representative I spoke to compared the approach to a hybrid automobile, with Wear OS on tap for tasks like running third-party apps, maps, and music, while RTOS handles background activity and the touch screen. The unique approach paid off. I never noticed lag when using the Watch 2. Its AMOLED touch screen reacts responsively, and its battery lasted longer than any other current Android smartwatch in our testing. OnePlus says that the 500mAh battery will keep the watch powered for up to 100 hours on a charge in the default smart mode, which switches back and forth between the operating systems. It promises 48 hours with heavy use including GPS, or 12 days with a power-saving mode that disables Wear OS.
With the watch set mostly to its default settings (I enabled blood oxygen saturation readings during sleep, but kept the display in raise-to-wake mode instead of always on), I finally plugged in the OnePlus after 103 hours when it was at 2% battery. The test included a 25-minute outdoor run with GPS enabled, and an hour-long indoor workout in which the smartwatch tracked my activity across three different gym machines. I manually disabled battery saver mode, which automatically turned on when the watch got down to 10% after roughly 99 hours of testing.With the always-on display active outside of the hours when I was asleep, the watch hit 2% charge after 69 hours, which still puts it well ahead of its closest competition. Under similar conditions, the Pixel Watch 2 lasted 33 hours in our testing, the Galaxy Watch 6 managed just 22 hours, and the Apple Watch Series 9 lasted 32.5 hours.
(Credit: Andrew Gebhart)
For comparison, the battery-focused Galaxy Watch Pro 5 ($449.99) and the Apple Watch Ultra 2 ($799) both lasted 55 hours between charges in our testing, solid battery life results that the OnePlus Watch 2 still easily beats. The Mobvoi TicWatch Pro ($349.99) came closest with 75 hours of life under default settings and normal use. The OnePlus Watch 2 also charges quickly. The company claims you can get 24 hours’ worth of juice from a 10-minute charge, and that it can go from 1% to full in one hour as long as you’re using the provided cord and a OnePlus brick (not included). My testing matched, as the battery climbed from 2% to 100% in 51 minutes.A Bulky But Durable BuildThe Watch 2 did retain one of the flaws of its forebearer: It comes in only one large size measuring 47mm in diameter, which makes it slightly bigger than the first OnePlus Watch (46.4mm) but a bit smaller than the famously bulky Apple Watch Ultra 2 (49mm). In comparison, the Galaxy Watch 6 comes in 40mm (small) or 44mm (large) sizes, while the Watch 6 Classic comes in 43mm (small) or 47mm (large) sizes. The Pixel Watch 2 comes in just one 41mm size. At about 0.48 inch thick, the Watch 2 has a similar profile to the Pixel Watch 2 (0.48 inch) and the standard Galaxy Watch 6 (0.51 inch). While the first generation came only in black, the Watch 2 is available in multiple colors. I tested the Radiant Steel model, which features a shiny, silver-tone casing and a green band. The Black Steel variant sports a dark finish and a black band. Its large 1.43-inch display and stainless steel chassis made me feel classy, and its sporty fluororubber (synthetic rubber) strap fit me snugly without irritation. To customize the look, you can easily swap out the stock strap with any standard 22mm quick-release band. The 2.8-ounce weight (with the strap, or 1.7 ounces without) felt fine to me. I quite like the way the Watch 2 looks on my wrist, but I’m a big dude. Those with smaller wrists may want to keep looking.
(Credit: Andrew Gebhart)
In exchange for the bulk, the Watch 2 is built to be durable. The watch face is covered in a sapphire crystal that the company says is tougher than Gorilla Glass. It features 5ATM and IP68 durability ratings, meaning it can withstand dirt, dust, and sand, and you can submerge it in water up to 168 feet deep for 10 minutes. It also meets the military toughness standard MIL-STD-810H, meaning it can handle environmental stressors such as extreme heat and vibrations. These durability ratings match those of the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 and remain impressive for a base-level smartwatch. The endurance-focused Apple Watch Ultra 2 can withstand deeper waters and higher elevations, but it costs nearly twice as much.The screen on the OnePlus Watch 2 tops out at 1,000 nits, which matches the Pixel Watch 2 but falls short of the Apple Watch Series 9 and the Galaxy Watch 6’s 2,000 nits. Nevertheless, with a solid 326-pixel-per-inch density, I found the screen to be easily readable in a variety of lighting conditions, and the 60Hz refresh rate kept its responsiveness consistently snappy.Setup and SmartsInside the Watch 2’s box, you’ll find a puck-style charging cord that you can connect to a USB-C brick or computer port, as well as a quick-start guide that goes over the buttons and prompts you to download the OHealth app for setup.
(Credit: Andrew Gebhart)
The Watch 2 requires a phone running Android 8.0 or above. Like every other Android Watch running Wear OS, the Watch 2 does not work with iPhones (similar how the Apple Watch only works with them). If you have a OnePlus phone, the watch will automatically sync weather and alarm apps, but it otherwise functions the same on any compatible Android phone. By contrast, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 offers detailed camera controls when paired with a Samsung phone. You can’t control the camera on any phone with the OnePlus Watch 2.For the rest of its functionality, the Watch 2 connects with your phone via Bluetooth and has Wi-Fi and NFC for payments. There’s no option for cellular connectivity, and OnePlus does not currently plan to offer an LTE model.To set it up, turn on the watch by holding the multifunction button in the bottom right, and then select your language of choice. Next, open the OHealth app and select Device > Add Device. I tested the Watch 2 using a OnePlus 12R, and got a prompt to add the watch without even opening the OHealth app. Using the app, you’ll pair the watch to your phone and set up a PIN. The app will walk you through some basic notification settings, and then you can return to the watch interface for a quick tutorial on controls.Tap the Home button in the upper-right corner of the watch to pull up a page of your downloaded apps or return to your home screen. Double-tap the Home button to reopen your most recently used app. Touch and hold the button for 1.5 seconds to activate Google Assistant for voice commands. You can also quickly tap it five times to make an SOS call.
(Credit: Andrew Gebhart)
With the multifunction button, a single tap opens up the sports app for workout tracking, and a double tap opens up Google Wallet. Press and hold the multifunction button to access the power menu. Hold both buttons for 12 seconds to force a restart.Besides the physical buttons, you can navigate the watch via the touch screen. Swipe down from the top for a control panel with a customizable list of options like airplane mode, sleep mode, and volume. Swipe up to see notifications. Swipe right to go back from any screen. Swipe left and right to scroll through your customizable arrangement of tiles like activity, contacts, sleep, and stress.You can also touch and hold the screen to switch watch faces. The OnePlus Watch 2 comes with 20 built-in watch faces, and you can download up to 80 more. Use the settings menu (accessible via the gear icon in the control panel) for power saving options, display settings, and more. The display menu lets you toggle the always-on display or set the duration before the watch screen times out. The controls menu lets you customize what the buttons do in response to a double press or a long press. From the apps menu, you can press and hold to rearrange apps and switch among different layouts. Since the Watch 2 uses Wear OS 4, you can access the Google Play Store app and download a wide variety of third-party options to meet your needs. It comes with the usual Google fare such as Google Maps and Google Wallet already installed. The Watch has 32GB of onboard storage in addition to 2GB of RAM, so you can download music from your app of choice as well.
(Credit: Andrew Gebhart)
The OHealth mobile app offers additional watch customization options. On the devices page, you can swap watch faces, rearrange and add tiles, customize notifications, and set goals for steps and workouts. Under the workout and health settings menu, you can optionally enable automatic workout detection, blood oxygen saturation (SpO2) tracking, breathing assessments, and more.Elsewhere in the OHealth app, you can start a workout in the Fitness tab. In the Health tab, you can see detailed reports on your daily activity, heart rate, sleep, SpO2, stress, and workout records.A Focus on FitnessThe OnePlus Watch 2 comes packed with a variety of sensors to monitor your activity and health, including an optical heart rate monitor, an optical pulse oximeter, an accelerometer, a barometric sensor, a gyroscope, and a geomagnetic sensor.
(Credit: OnePlus)
It offers tracking modes for more than 100 different sports, from badminton to skiing. I didn’t have a chance to play any badminton during testing, but I did use the watch to track my work on a variety of fitness machines at my local gym. To start a workout, tap the multifunction button then pick your activity from the list. If you don’t see the activity that you’re looking for on this list, tap the plus icon for additional options. To see a record of your workouts, swipe left. Once you select your activity, you’ll see an option to set a goal for yourself based on criteria such as duration or calories burned.
(Credit: Andrew Gebhart)
While at my gym, I was pleased to be able to separately track my time on a rowing machine, a stair climber, and an elliptical. Once you start tracking a workout, the watch displays the time elapsed and your heart rate, and you can swipe through different screens for more information depending on the activity. For rowing, the Watch 2 tracks average strokes per minute and total strokes, along with calories burned, duration, and heart rate. After the workout, you can see charts of your strokes, heart rate, and heart rate zones on the watch display and in the app. For elliptical workouts, it tracks rotations per minute and total steps in addition to basic metrics like heart rate. The stair climber activity type doesn’t offer much information beyond your heart rate.For each of these activity types, metrics on the watch matched their counterparts on the machine to a reasonable degree of accuracy. I was happy to have so many different activity modes to pick from, even if the measurements for the stair climber in particular weren’t all that insightful.To test the accuracy of its heart rate measurements, I wore the OnePlus Watch 2 on my left wrist, with the Apple Watch Ultra 2, our control device for testing optical heart rate accuracy, on my right wrist for a run in my neighborhood. During the bulk of the run, the heart rate shown on the two watches matched within a beat or two.
Taken mid-run (Credit: Andrew Gebhart)
During the second half of the workout, I alternated intervals sprinting and walking to evaluate the Watch 2’s performance detecting rapid pulse change during workouts. The Watch 2 was slower to report an elevated heart rate, and at times during a sprint, its readings were as much as 10bpm behind the Ultra 2. That said, perusing the graphs after the run, the ebbs and flows matched pretty well.For running, the Watch 2 tracks several advanced metrics including average power (in watts), ground contact time, stride length, and vertical amplitude along with your average and max heart rate, cadence, calories, distance, duration, maximal oxygen consumption (VO2 Max), pace, and steps. The app offers useful insights and suggestions on how to improve your running form and overall fitness. Lots of the metrics include a little info button next to them if you want to know more about how VO2 Max measures cardio fitness, or what the various heart rate thresholds mean.
(Credit: OnePlus)
I took some pride in the app telling me my ground contact balance was excellent since I spent 49.7% of the time on my left foot and 50.3% on my right. For the same run, my average ground contact time was poor at 326ms and my vertical oscillation was also poor at 10.2cm. My cadence and running power were both good, but to improve my overall form, it recommended decreasing the amount of time my feet stay on the ground with each step and reducing how high I bounce when running. The original OnePlus Watch had issues with GPS accuracy, but the Watch 2 corrects that with a new dual-frequency GPS to gauge distance and pace while mapping your route. In testing, the map was accurate, and showed enough detail that I could see where I crossed the street. For general health monitoring, the Watch 2 doesn’t quite keep up with the latest flagship smartwatches from Apple and Samsung. It does not support ECG, skin temperature readings, fall detection, or period tracking, features that are available on the Apple Watch Series 9, the Galaxy Watch 6 series, and the Pixel Watch 2. Samsung smartwatches can also mimic a smart scale and gauge body fat percentage and body composition from your wrist, a feature the Watch 2 lacks. Overnight, the Watch 2 can measure your SpO2 to assess your risk of breathing problems, and its companion OHealth app can track snoring using the microphone on your phone. Overall, the OnePlus Watch 2 did a fine job with sleep tracking. I tested it alongside the second-generation Nest Hub, which contactlessly tracks sleep from the bedside table using a very sensitive motion sensor. Over five nights, the OnePlus Watch 2 tended to give me credit for a few extra minutes of sleep on average. The two devices generally reported that I went to bed and woke up around the same time, but the OnePlus Watch 2 typically said I fell asleep a bit earlier. The charts of my sleep cycles from the two devices also generally matched, with both accurately tracking interruptions caused by my environment or my playful kittens.
(Credit: Andrew Gebhart)
I was less impressed with its accuracy when measuring stress, but only have anecdotal notes for comparison. Across my week of testing, the Watch 2 always showed low stress at night while I was sleeping and normal stress during the day. To be fair, my life isn’t often stressful, but know I experienced elevated levels while stuck in Chicago traffic, and while writing under a tight deadline, and the Watch 2 didn’t show a spike for either. It could be that the warning threshold is quite high, but I would have at least appreciated a little more variability in the readings. A Top Android SmartwatchIf you’re shopping for a new smartwatch for your Android phone, the OnePlus Watch 2 deserves your consideration, even if you’re not a OnePlus brand enthusiast. It offers all of the goodies of Wear OS, plus accurate workout and sleep tracking, and the best battery life of its class. On the downside, the Watch 2 comes in just one size, which may be too bulky for people with small wrists, and it lacks some of the advanced health-tracking features of the competition. Go with the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 for the most advanced smarts and sensors, or the Pixel Watch 2 for the best pure Wear OS experience. If you want extended battery life, the OnePlus Watch 2 is the choice for you.
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