OnePlus Watch 2 Taps Google Wear OS At MWC 2024, But It's The Battery Life That Wows
The OnePlus Watch 2 is the latest flagship smartwatch available from OnePlus, revealed during the Mobile World Congress 2024 in Spain, where SlashGear has a writer on the ground covering the event. Powered by OnePlus's in-house dual-engine architecture, this watch makes the bold claim of having the best battery life among all competitors on the market. This is something OnePlus has prided itself on in the previous model, so it's not shocking to see the manufacturer doubling down on it with another iteration.
It comes with many of the now-standard features you'd expect of smartwatches — fast charging, Android integration, and a bevy of health and fitness features. It's powered by Google Wear OS 4, so the OnePlus Watch 2 works with Google apps like Maps, Wallet, and Assistant, and there is also support for many more third-party apps. While all of that is nice, the big selling point here is the battery life that can keep this watch working for up to 100 hours while constantly being used, meaning you can go nearly five days without putting this watch on a charger.
The Watch 2 battery life is the selling point
The Watch 2 comes equipped with a 500mAh battery, and OnePlus says that can give you up to 100 hours of regular use in Smart Mode, or you can get up to 48 hours with heavy use. OnePlus does note these tests were conducted in a controlled environment, so your mileage will vary. When you have to take the watch off your wrist and give it a charge, the fast charging capabilities mean it can get back up to a full charge in an hour.
Snappiness shouldn't be much of an issue with the Watch 2 as it sports 2 GB of RAM along with a 32 GB ROM configuration. The dual-engine design swaps between the Snapdragon W5 and BES 2600 MCU Efficiency chipset, depending on what you're doing. OnePlus says the Snapdragon takes care of the more demanding tasks while the BES 2700 handles the background activities and simple tasks. This is how the watch helps conserve battery life thanks to the more power-hungry chipset only coming online when necessary.
When does the OnePlus Watch 2 go on sale?
The OnePlus Watch 2 goes on sale on March 4, and you can purchase it directly from Amazon or OnePlus for $299. There are two different color schemes to pick from: Radiant Steel and Black Steel. If you're buying from the OnePlus website, you're able to trade in an older smartwatch, and it doesn't even have to be a OnePlus one, for $50 off the purchase. OnePlus also notes the watch can be in any condition, so it doesn't sound like you'll have to worry about trading in a broken one, either.
While the OnePlus Watch 2 shares a similar design with the OnePlus 12 series of smartphones, it's compatible with Android devices running the 8.0 OS or newer. This means there's quite a long list of devices that'll integrate seamlessly with the Watch 2. Unfortunately, this does mean iPhone users are left in the dark as there is no integration with iOS devices.