OnePlus Watch 3 Evaluation: WearOS Battery Life Champ, Nice Show

	OnePlus Watch 3: Beginning at $329.99 The OnePlus Watch 3 is among the perfect smartwatches available on the market, and the brand new WearOS battery life champion.
	Excellent design and construct Stunning LTPO show Easy efficiency Excellent battery life Complete well being and health options Nice consumer expertise	Weak speaker and haptics No non-compulsory 4G LTE connectivity OHealth app wants enchancment

We simply spent every week testing the OnePlus Watch 3, however may this be the brand new Android smartwatch to beat? Learn our assessment to seek out out.

OnePlus Watch 3 {Hardware} And design

By way of design and dimension, Watch 3 is nearly equivalent to Watch 2. The round case is product of stainless-steel, and options the identical satin end on the left aspect, and signature polished bump on the suitable aspect, which is dwelling of the crown on the 2-o’clock place, and a pill-shaped button on the 4-o’clock place. Talking of the crown, we’re blissful to report that it’s now bigger, tapered, pleasantly knurled, and totally purposeful – finally!

As an alternative of utilizing 2.5D sapphire glass that flows straight into the case like Watch 2, Watch 3’s sapphire glass is flat and surrounded by a slim titanium bezel with engraved labels on the 5-minute positions. Not solely does this look approach higher, however it additionally protects the perimeters of the sapphire glass. Like its predecessor, Watch 3 is rated IP68, MIL-STD-810H licensed, and water-proof right down to 5ATM (50m).

Watch 3’s AMOLED show is bigger than Watch 2’s (1.5 vs. 1.43 inches) and brighter too (2200 nits peak), however it’s the identical 466 x 466 pixel decision. It’s an LTPO display screen this time round, with a 1-60Hz adaptive refresh price and DC dimming. Across the again you’ll discover improved optical PPG sensors for measuring coronary heart price and blood oxygen degree (SpO2), and the identical 4 charging contacts as on Watch 2.

As for the charging base, it’s nearly equivalent to final yr’s. It’s product of the identical white plastic and options the identical USB Sort-C charging port. We like this strategy higher than having a base with a captive cable because it permits us to cost our watch with out having to detach the charging cable from our current chargers. Notice nevertheless, that the round indent in Watch 3’s charging base is barely bigger than on Watch 2’s.

You may nonetheless cost Watch 3 with Watch 2’s charging base (and vice-versa), however it’s not an ideal match. With regards to match, we’re not the largest followers of the provided fluororubber strap. It’s positive general, however it may’t pivot round its lugs, making it nearly unattainable to relaxation Watch 3 flat on any floor. No less than this smartwatch makes use of customary 22mm vast bands, so you’ve a number of choices in relation to changing the strap.

Underneath the hood, Watch 3 is powered by the identical hybrid utility processor (SoC) + microcontroller (MPU) structure as Watch 2. It packs the identical Qualcomm Snapdragon W5 SoC, 2GB RAM, and 32GB of storage as its predecessor, however the MPU has been upgraded to a Bestechnic BES2800BP, a 6nm FinFET chip that boasts a 2x CPU and 4x NPU efficiency enchancment over the BES2700 in Watch 2.

This hybrid WearOS + RTOS combo permits Watch 3 to be extraordinarily environment friendly, with as much as 120 hours (5 days) of battery life within the default “Good Mode” (vs. 100 hours beforehand). More often than not, whenever you aren’t interacting with the watch, the MPU does all of the work – dealing with notifications, counting steps, measuring coronary heart price and blood oxygen ranges, updating the always-on show (if enabled), holding a connection together with your telephone, and so forth…

When you begin interacting with Watch 3, the Snapdragon W5 springs to life to provide the full WearOS expertise. This setup, mixed with improved battery capability (631 vs. 500mAh) – due to a silicon-carbon cell that isn’t bodily larger – provides Watch 3 its excellent battery life. And when it’s time for a refill, Watch 3 costs at as much as 7.5W, with a 10-minute cost including about 24h of battery life.

With regards to connectivity, Watch 3 surprisingly lacks 4G LTE (mobile), however it options Bluetooth 5.2, WiFi 4 (802.11n), NFC, and dual-band AGPS, Beidou, Galileo, GLONASS, QZSS positioning (utilizing Broadcom SYN4778 7nm chip alongside a brand new circularly polarized antenna for higher reception in city environments). Not like Google’s Pixel Watch 3, the OnePlus Watch 3 doesn’t assist UWB.

The on-board mic and speaker are positive, however could possibly be louder – respectable sufficient to take a name in a pinch, so long as you’re in a quiet area. Haptics on Watch 3 are okay as nicely however could possibly be stronger. The Apple Watch’s Taptic Engine nonetheless has the sting right here.

OnePlus Watch 3 Software program, Options, And Battery Life

Like its predecessor, the OnePlus Watch 3 runs Google’s WearOS on the Qualcomm SoC, alongside a customized RTOS (real-time OS) on the Bestechnic microcontroller. The Watch 3 will get WearOS 5 out of the field, which is probably going additionally coming (hopefully quickly) to Watch 2. This implies you get all of Google’s software program goodness, with correct assist for options and apps like Google Assistant, Google Pay, Google Maps, and so forth…

As you’d count on, OnePlus’ construct of WearOS is frivolously skinned to resemble OxygenOS on the corporate’s telephones – with customized watch faces to match. Whilst you can set up and run nearly any WearOS-compatible watch face, solely OnePlus’ watch faces are optimized to run on the RTOS whenever you allow the always-on show or raise-to-wake. In different phrases, you’ll need to persist with OnePlus’ watch faces for one of the best battery life.

WearOS on Watch 3 feels clean and responsive, identical to it does on Watch 2 and the most recent Galaxy and Pixel watches. Mainly, you get the identical consumer expertise as every other WearOS smartwatch, and the identical UI as nicely. From the house display screen, swipe down for the fast settings, swipe up for notifications, and swipe left or proper to entry the tiles. Inside apps, swipe proper from the sting to navigate again.

The button assignments are equally intuitive however will be custom-made. By default, press the crown at 2-o’clock as soon as for the app checklist, double-press for the latest app, and long-press for Google Assistant. Press the 4-o’clock button as soon as for exercises, double-press for Google Pockets, and long-press for the ability menu. You may long-tap the house display screen to handle watch faces, and long-tap any tile to handle tiles. Straightforward peasy.

As we’ve alluded to a number of occasions above, battery life is the place Watch 3 actually shines. It’s what units it aside from the competitors. OnePlus advertises as much as 120 hours (5 days) of battery life within the default “Good Mode” with the always-on show disabled, and to date, in eight days of carrying this smartwatch, we’ve totally charged it solely as soon as – the night of day 4. We charged it once more on day eight (from 26 to 56%) to take photos for this assessment.

For the file, we’ve been utilizing Watch 3 with the always-on show enabled, steady coronary heart price and blood oxygen monitoring activated, and the “entry respiration issues” characteristic chosen – all of that are energy hungry settings. Then once more, we didn’t spend a lot time working apps on the watch, doing exercises, making calls, or streaming music. We largely simply obtained notifications and tracked exercise and sleep.

In addition to monitoring sleep, exercise (steps, and so forth…), stress, coronary heart price, coronary heart price variability, and blood oxygen degree (SpO2), Watch 3 additionally measures wrist temperature. Sleep monitoring additionally offers a sleep high quality rating and accesses respiration issues by monitoring loud night breathing length and loudness. As well as, the watch can provide you with a warning when your coronary heart price is simply too excessive or too low, or when your blood oxygen degree (SpO2) is simply too low.

On the well being entrance, Watch 3 delivers a number of helpful apps and options. The 60s Well being Verify-In app concurrently evaluates six key well being indicators – coronary heart price, blood oxygen degree (SpO2), psychological wellness, wrist temperature, sleep high quality, and vascular age – in lower than 60 seconds by merely holding nonetheless and touching the 4-o’clock button. This offers a fast and simple well being verify, anytime wherever. 

The Thoughts and Physique app analyzes the current watch information to ship a holistic evaluation of your emotional and stress ranges, and show the end result with an emoji and a easy rating out of 100. The Vascular Well being app estimates arterial stiffness, and the ECG app (which isn’t licensed to be used within the US) may help detect arrhythmia and atrial fibrillation. Each work by holding nonetheless and touching the 4-o’clock button.

By way of health, Watch 3 helps over 100 sports activities and actions, plus eleven skilled exercises, which embrace working, strolling, biking, swimming, climbing, snowboarding, tennis, badminton, desk tennis, soccer, basketball, boxing, and yoga – to call just a few. To make issues extra handy, the watch can auto-detect six of those actions: working, strolling, rowing machine, elliptical machine, biking, and swimming. 

We solely scratched the floor when testing exercises, however – for what it’s price – we didn’t expertise any issues with strolling. In follow, the OnePlus Watch 3 seems to trace exercise, sleep, stress, and different vitals about in addition to the Galaxy Watch Extremely and Google Pixel Watch 3. To validate this, we’ve been carrying an Ultrahuman good ring alongside Watch 3, and on the whole, the watch information matched the ring’s inside 10%. 

A pair distinctive Watch 3 options price mentioning are Video Watch Face and Straightforward Management. The previous enables you to create a singular watch face utilizing a 5 second video clip because the background. Straightforward Management permits you distant management TikTok and YouTube Shorts from the watch by utilizing swipes and double faucets on the watch’s show. It additionally doubles as a digital camera distant, however solely with OnePlus and Oppo telephones working Android 15.

The OHealth app is OnePlus’ companion telephone app for Watch 3. It offers an in-depth take a look at your well being and health information, and allows you to handle private and smartwatch settings. More often than not you’ll be utilizing this app to handle watch faces, parental controls, apps, tiles, notification settings, plus well being and health settings. It additionally syncs well being and health information with Google Well being Join, Google Match, and Strava.

OnePlus Watch 3 Evaluation Abstract

With Watch 3, OnePlus has taken the already wonderful Watch 2 and made it even higher. It delivers a extra refined design, excellent construct high quality, an improved show, clean efficiency, excellent battery life, complete well being and health options, plus a terrific consumer expertise due to WearOS. Extra importantly, the $330 worth stays aggressive. This smartwatch isn’t low-cost, however it affords stable worth.

Nonetheless, there’s room for enchancment. The speaker and haptics are slightly weak, and the dearth of (non-compulsory) 4G LTE connectivity and UWB assist are a miss. As well as, OnePlus’ OHealth app doesn’t match the breadth and high quality of Samsung’s Well being app or Google’s Fitbit app in relation to performance, presentation, suggestions, or teaching. So hold that in thoughts if well being and health monitoring are paramount to you.

Regardless, the OnePlus Watch 3 is among the perfect WearOS smartwatches available on the market, and we extremely advocate it. It’s out there for pre-order as we speak on-line from OnePlus for $329.99, with basic gross sales beginning February 25. It can save you $30 by utilizing low cost code TIME1010 at checkout till provides final, and commerce in any system in any situation for an extra $50 off as nicely.