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One plus has made it smartwatch debut with the one plus watch a watch that looks and feels premium add a not so premium price.
So how does it deliver on its features?
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If the $160 price tag isn't enough to pique your interest, well then you add in blood oxygen monitoring, high heart rate alerts, a ridiculously long battery life, and all in a very pretty package to tie it all together.
It almost seems too good to be true and that's because in many ways It is but hey, you can't expect them to get everything right on the very first try.
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First thing to note, if you are interested in buying this watch is that it's only compatible with Android devices.
Although the company does say that iOS compatibility is going to roll out Eventually, for the purposes of this review, I have paired it with my Galaxy S 20 Ultra, which is broken because we do reuse the phones that we break.
But I suspect that you'd have a better experience staying within the one plus ecosystem meaning a one plus phone.
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At first glance, the one plus watch bears a striking resemblance to the galaxy.
Watch active A round watch face, amyloid touch screen and stainless steel frame.
But this one only comes in a 46 millimeter option which, as you can see, looks pretty overpowering on my wrist.
And I didn't even think I had small wrists to begin with.
So just something to keep in mind.
Surprisingly enough, though it wasn't too uncomfortable to wear even at night so that has to do with the slim form factor.
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Most of the navigation happens on the touchscreen itself although it does have two side buttons or back and select the watchbands are made of silicon and comfortable enough but you can easily swap them out with others.
With a quick release.
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In terms of functionality, the one plus watch does everything you'd expect a smartwatch to do, in 2021.
And it's running its own OS similar to Tyson's operating system.
So it can display notifications, make an answer phone calls, and serve as a remote for both your phone camera and a one plus TV which I don't happen to have, but you won't find NFC for payments.
Now in theory, it can play music, but you have to load it manually using the app.
As it has no Spotify support or any third party music apps for that matter.
The watch also does your basic fitness tracking with over 110 different workout types to choose from.
So in theory, you could also leave your phone behind on a run because it does have Built in GPS, but I haven't found it to be the most reliable.
There were a few times where I took it out for a run and it didn't connect and the distance was a bit off.
I like that it breaks out your heart rate zones by intensity.
So you can see how hard you were working during an exercise.
But I did notice some important and consistencies when it comes to heart rate.
So I did compare it with a chest strap and in the summary, my average heart rate and my peak heart rate were accurate within reason.
But while I was on my run, it lagged considerably.
So if you are looking for that minute by minute accuracy, this is not your watch.
This also made me question other metrics on the watch.
So this morning for example, I got a high heart rate alert that my heart rate was above 120 beats per minute while I was laying in bed, and it freaked me out because I didn't feel anything I strapped on the chest strap and it was totally normal.
So it might have been a fluke look The watch is water resistant, meaning it's safe for swim tracking as well, and it goes beyond the basic fitness tracking.
Well, this is not a medical device, it can measure SPO two or blood oxygen levels, both on demand and at night, as well as sleep tracking and detect stress levels.
Now all his data is great and impressive, but the stress levels for example, I don't think matched my actual stress levels, which is kind of a flaw with the feature in general, especially with watches that rely on heart rate to determine stress levels so we can pardon that part.
But I also noticed it wasn't sinking my sleep data in the morning or the spO 2 data at night.
Even though I had enabled it on the actual app, and I was receiving my sleep summary on the watch in the morning, and this is part of a larger issue, which is sinking at many points during my review, it just lost connection to the phone even when it was just a couple of feet away.
And during this period, I would stop receiving notifications and the data would stop sinking which is a problem.
Now it is important to note that I am running a test version of the app.
So this problem may be solved by the time you get the watch but I had to note it anyway.
The other big selling point about this watch is battery life.
The company claims two weeks for me it's probably going to end up being more like a week because things start to add up quickly.
So the SEO to tracking at night continuous heart rate monitoring Even adding music to it, do decrease battery life but one week is still great considering the competition.
You do sacrifice certain things though like the always on display and screen brightness which is kind of hard to see and direct sunlight and the rays to wake isn't as fast But the watch also charges fast you can get a full day of power from just five minutes on the charger or wait 20 minutes for a full week's worth of charge.
The OnePlus Watch seems to check all the boxes when it comes to battery life, price and features But it still has some issues to work out which the company might over time, just know that you're not getting a finished product right out of the gate and I still wouldn't use it as a fitness watch.
But at that price point, it may not matter, especially if you have a one plus phone because then you might not have the same compatibility issues that I did in my experience.
You can also read my full review on cnet.com as well as check out our other smartwatch reviews and then also tell me what you think of the very first one plus watch on the comment section below.
Till next time
