OnePlus’ recent launch of the OnePlus Watch 3 proved that it’s definitely got what it takes to improve upon an already-impressive wearable, which itself was a huge upgrade over the company’s initial smartwatch. Priced at £319 (although you can get it for lower with OnePlus’ pre-order promos), the OnePlus Watch 3 packs some neat features that give it an edge over competing Wear OS devices like the Pixel Watch and Galaxy Watch series. So what exactly does it come with?
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In terms of design, OnePlus has added some new visual elements while keeping things familiar. The OnePlus Watch 3 retains the same slightly off-centre look with the righthand side as well as the large display, although this time around OnePlus has added a more substantial bezel that surrounds the 1.5-inch LTPO touchscreen. It’s not too raised however, unlike on the Samsung Galaxy Watch Classic series, but it’s a nice addition that puts a bit of “ruggedness” with regards to looks. The Watch 3’s chassis also combines integrated titanium for the bezel, in addition to stainless steel for the main body.
It looks like OnePlus has also listened to users and has now added actual functionality for the rotating crown, which merely acted as a secondary action button on the OnePlus Watch 2. It’s nice to be able to finally use the crown to scroll through menus and tweak the user interface, a staple feature on most other smartwatches these days, even on ones from Huawei, for example. This entire ensemble features 5ATM and IP68 water protection, keeping it safe from most situations with occasional water immersion and accidental splashes.
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Inside, a major feature of the OnePlus Watch 3 is its dual-engine setup, which gives it an advantage over other smartwatches especially in terms of battery endurance. The device runs on Qualcomm’s W5 chip alongside a secondary BES2800 MCU Efficiency chipset – this setup works by allowing the W5 to handle most of the main “smart” device functions needed by Wear OS, while the BES2800 takes on background tasks that don’t require a lot of power, AKA the RTOS side of the watch. For those unfamiliar, RTOS stands for “real-time OS,” a lightweight smartwatch platform found on most wearables that don’t run on Wear OS.
This allows the watch to last for up to five days on a single charge, longer than even the Apple Watch Ultra and Galaxy Watch Ultra. Speaking of the battery, there’s a 631 mAh battery inside that can last for up to 16 days on low-power mode. Should you decide to always use the Watch 3’s smart features, there’s Wear OS 5 onboard in addition to OnePlus’ own smart wearable functions which integrate Google apps like Gmail and Google Wallet. There’s also the usual suite of fitness-tracking features such as body temperature monitoring, heart rate and SPO2 tracking, and over 100 sports modes with GPS tracking.
Will you be getting the OnePlus Watch 3? Let us know in the comments below!
