OnePlus Watch 2 runs on two chips and operating systems for longer battery life
OnePlus’s new wearable, the OnePlus Watch 2, runs Google’s Wear OS, but it also runs a less-demanding OS in the background for longer battery life.
The new watch, announced on the first day of Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, tries to get the best of both worlds in a pretty novel way. It runs Google’s the latest Wear OS 4, powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon W5 chipset. But it also runs a lightweight RTOS (likely an acronym for an unspecified Real-Time Operating System, a type of OS that’s fast, but doesn’t offer as much as Wear OS in the way of features) powered by the BES2700 chip.
The RTOS is always on and used for most background activities and some more taxing tasks like calls and notifications, OnePlus said. The Wear OS wakes up and takes over when needed for more intensive tasks (e.g., Maps and Music).
The result, according to OnePlus, is longer battery life, which can be up to 100 hours in Smart Mode and up to 48 hours in heavy usage scenarios, addressing one of the key user complaints about smartwatches, at least according to OnePlus’ research.
On the flip side, users get all the benefits of Wear OS, including apps such as Maps, Wallet, Pay, and Calendar, as well as Android phone integration, customization via downloadable watchfaces, and Wear OS’ third-party app ecosystem.
We don’t know how well all this works in practice, and whether there’s any delay when Wear OS is invoked, but it certainly sounds pretty good in theory.
Other than that, the OnePlus Watch 2 is a pretty sleek smartwatch with a stainless-steel case, a round face covered with sapphire crystal, and a 1.43-inch display with a 326 PPI resolution. It weighs 80 grams with the strap, and is resistant not only to dust and water, meeting the IP68 standard, but also high-and-low temperatures, impact, sand, and vibrations, up to MIL-STD-810H specifications.
OnePlus’ new watch also has the standard features you’d expect from a modern smartwatch, including sleep tracking, heart-rate monitoring, stress level monitoring (based on heart rate data), and activity tracking for sports such as running and badminton. One aspect runners will likely appreciate is the dual-frequency GPS support, which should bring better positioning accuracy as well as faster GPS signal acquisition.
The OnePlus Watch 2 comes in two colors: Black Steel and Radiant Steel. It will cost $ 299 in North America, 299 pounds in the UK, and 299 euros in Europe. Pre-orders start on February 26, with sales starting proper on March 4.
