OnePlus ignores Google’s Wear OS, announces $159 smartwatch | GeekComparison

OnePlus launches a smartwatch. OnePlus today announced the OnePlus Watch and despite being an old Android OEM, the company doesn’t use Google’s Android-based Wear operating system. Like Garmin and Fitbit (pre-Google), the company only stores and delivers an internal operating system on the watch. The OnePlus Watch is only $159, so it’s really a budget option.

OnePlus has announced the watch, but it is still coy about the spec sheet. We don’t know what the SoC is even after asking about it, but the lack of information suggests the company doesn’t want to brag about it. The body of the watch is a massive 46×10.9mm, so there’s definitely room for an old Snapdragon Wear SoC. The display is a 1.39-inch, 454×454 OLED. There is 1 GB of RAM, 4 GB of storage and a 402 mAh battery. The watch has GPS, Bluetooth, an optical heart rate monitor and an IP68 rating for dust and water resistance.

The body is stainless steel with a glass top and the straps are easy to change. OnePlus says the battery lasts from 25 hours (with GPS on) to 14 days, depending on which features you use. There’s a “Warp charge” pogo charger, and OnePlus says a 20-minute charge will give you a week of use (so 50 percent?)

It’s totally understandable for OnePlus to skip Wear OS, but it shows how badly Google (and Qualcomm) has messed with launching a smartwatch platform. Wear OS has been nearly abandoned by Google, with the last major OS update coming in 2018 and many of the company’s newer services ignoring the OS. Google Music is dead and there is still no YouTube Music client for Wear OS. Google Chat doesn’t have a client yet, though Hangouts is dying, and the company recently removed the Google Fit workout detection from the operating system.

If you don’t use Wear OS, the watch doesn’t have an app store or an open third-party app ecosystem, and you’re stuck with all the features OnePlus has developed. We couldn’t get answers about the lineage of the operating system; OnePlus just calls it “OnePlus Watch OS” and says it’s a real-time operating system. OnePlus says the watch has a host of workout modes, local music playback via Bluetooth, the ability to take phone calls through the built-in microphone and speaker, and sleep and heart rate tracking.

The OnePlus Watch requires a phone running Android 6.0 and above and will mirror notifications through Android’s wearables notification API, allowing you to view, archive and reply to emails, view and reply to messages, and much other information from your phone. to see. The video also mentions a “parkour mode” and the ability to control the India-exclusive OnePlus TV (literally a 55-inch OnePlus branded flat screen TV).

The OnePlus Watch will be available from April 14.

List image by OnePlus