4 Smartwatches That Outperform The OnePlus Watch 3

The OnePlus Watch 3 launched in early 2025 to glowing reviews. It addressed several gaps in the OnePlus Watch 2 and made significant strides in battery life — so much that most similarly tiered competitors still haven't caught up.

The Watch 3 can last five days in Smart Mode (regular), and up to 16 days in Power Saver Mode. And unlike a few competitors, the Watch 3's Power Saver mode doesn't suspend continuous background health tracking. But despite its class-leading endurance, the watch falls short of competitors in a few key areas.

Read on to learn more about four smartwatches that outperform the OnePlus Watch 3. Here, "outperforming" is less about processor speeds and more about the health, safety, and daily-use features. We'll discuss popular entries from major brands — Google, Samsung, Apple, and Garmin — that match all or most of the OnePlus Watch 3's features and go a few steps beyond.

The Google Pixel Watch 5 offers a broader suite of health and safety features than the OnePlus Watch 3, plus more flexibility in size and connectivity. It's available in two sizes (41mm and 45mm), with the smaller size sold in four colors and the larger in three.

The Watch 3 launched in a single 46mm size, with the 43-millimeter variant arriving later and missing some health features. Both sizes have just two colors and are missing LTE, which limits its appeal for complete phone-free connectivity. The Pixel Watch 5's variants are available in LTE and Bluetooth/Wi-Fi configurations.

Its battery life pales in comparison, though, reaching 72 hours in Battery Saver Mode — much lower than the Watch 3's 120 hours in Smart Mode. However, its 3,000-nit display offers better outdoor visibility than the 2,200-nit OnePlus Watch (46mm), and its 64GB of storage doubles the Watch 3's capacity.

The OnePlus Watch 3's safety features are lacking, too — it doesn't have the Pixel Watch 5's loss-of-pulse detection or crash detection. The Pixel Watch 5 also has a cEDA sensor to measure skin conductance and track the body's stress response. Unlike most flagship smartwatches in the US, the Watch 3 didn't receive FDA clearance for its ECG hardware, so users miss out on ECG. 

Although the OnePlus Watch 3 has Gemini AI onboard, the Pixel Watch 5 integrates it more deeply, bringing contextual awareness, proactive suggestions, and insights from continuous health monitoring. Overall, Google's Pixel Watch 5 presents a more compelling mix of connectivity, health monitoring, safety features, and AI integration.

The Samsung Galaxy Watch 9's health monitoring suite and unconventional wellness features set it apart from the OnePlus Watch 3. Similar to OnePlus' watch, the Galaxy Watch 9 has 32GB of storage and only two colors in its 40 and 44-millimeter variants. Its 3,000-nit display outshines the Watch 3, and there's an LTE variant and more stable Bluetooth 6.0 connectivity. The watch's battery life is limited, maxing out at 40 hours (with always-on display disabled) and trailing the OnePlus' 120-hour battery life.

Nonetheless, Samsung's watch excels at health monitoring with its practical health and safety features. You get reliable health monitoring tools like ECG and sleep apnea risk detection, and general wellness tools like blood pressure monitoring.

Then you have the more experimental wellness features. The AGEs (Advanced Glycation End-products) Index tracks indicators associated with aging to estimate your biological age and metabolic health. The Antioxidant Index checks skin carotenoid levels through a thumb scan and suggests including more fruits and vegetables if the numbers are low. 

Another useful feature is the body composition analysis that brings the best smart scale to your wrist. It sends a microcurrent through your upper body to estimate fat percentage, skeletal muscle mass, and basal metabolic rate. However, some Samsung Galaxy Watch health tracking is only available when paired with a Samsung phone. If you're already in the Samsung ecosystem, the Galaxy Watch presents better value than the OnePlus Watch 3.

Available in a single large 49-millimeter size and two colors, the Apple Watch Ultra 4 is a rugged outdoor powerhouse for iPhone users. Its limited color and size options are somewhat offset by 10 band options and three band sizes.

The Ultra 4 lasts up to 50 hours with normal use, extending to 84 hours in Low Power Mode. But it loses to the OnePlus Watch 3's Power Saver Mode, which stretches its battery life to 384 hours (16 days).

The Ultra 4's workout endurance is more impressive, though. It can track a workout for 18 hours and up to 45 hours with the Max Extended Workout (Low Power) tracking — handy for athletes. It's also incredibly sturdy with a lightweight Grade 5 titanium build, water resistance up to 100 meters, and a sapphire crystal display for high scratch resistance against sand and most abrasives. The watch doubles as a dive computer for recreational scuba up to 40 meters, and its 3,000-nit brightness improves visibility in bright outdoor sunlight.

The Ultra's safety and connectivity features complement its durability, giving it a significant edge over the OnePlus Watch 3. It has 5G, LTE, and satellite connectivity to text emergency services or emergency contacts when you're completely off-grid. There's crash detection, sleep apnea and hypertension notifications, ECG, and a built-in siren Apple claims is loud enough to be heard from 180 meters away.

The Ultra comes at a hefty premium compared to the OnePlus, but athletes will appreciate its toughness, extensive safety features, and off-grid connectivity.

The Garmin Venu 4 is among the best smartwatches in 2026, and the only one on this list to outlast the OnePlus Watch 3. In the regular Smartwatch Mode, the 41-millimeter Venu lasts up to 10 days (twice as long as the OnePlus Watch 3), while the 45-millimeter variant lasts 12 days. With the Battery Saver active, the smaller Venu lasts 18 days, and the larger lasts 25 days — nine days longer than the Watch 3. It's also the only smartwatch in our round-up to have a built-in LED flashlight, unlike most smartwatches that turn up screen brightness to 100%.

The Venu 4's comprehensive fitness suite is a highlight, providing personalized and adaptive training guidance. The free built-in Garmin Coach creates a program based on your existing performance and health stats, availability, and the date of your race.

If you're not gearing up for a race, the Daily Suggested Workouts feature gives you personalized suggestions that account for sleep, training load, and recovery. The Venu 4 also estimates how long it'll take you to recover before your next workout, factoring in the various physiological changes through the day.

Garmin's watch doesn't win across the board — its 2,000-nit display is a bit dimmer than the OnePlus' 2,200 nits, and its 8GB storage is a quarter of the OnePlus' 32GB. It lacks LTE (like the OnePlus), but the Venu 4 has ANT+, a wireless protocol that connects to older fitness sensors. Although it costs about $200 more than the OnePlus, physically active users who want detailed fitness monitoring and guidance will appreciate it.