OnePlus’ first smartwatch was a whole lot of issues. Sadly, significantly good or memorable weren’t amongst them. If you happen to’re going to enter a class as established because the smartwatch, you’re going to need to make a splash. Do one thing distinctive and completely different to persuade potential shoppers past your individual rabid fanbase that yours is the gadget they want, relatively than one thing made by an Apple or Samsung (or, for that matter, Google).

Formally unveiled this morning at Cell World Congress in Barcelona after a couple of months of teases, the OnePlus Watch 2 does get some factors for originality. As famous earlier, the battery is the factor right here. It’s not only a good battery, nevertheless – that was, in any case one of many important qualities the unique had going for it.

I’ll provide the customary caveat right here of taking such issues with a grain of salt, however OnePlus is claiming “as much as 100 hours in full Good Mode.” That final bit is maybe a dig at options like Apple’s Low Energy Mode, which sacrifice sure key options in an effort to eke out greater than a day on a single cost.

Picture Credit: OnePlus

Battery continues to be the bottom hanging fruit within the smartwatch world. Today, firms are speaking up sleep monitoring capabilities, pointing to the necessity for a battery that may final — at very least — a very good 24 hours on a cost. Having to high the watch off little by little earlier than bedtime isn’t an incredible consumer expertise. It’s one thing Apple – particularly – must deal with with its subsequent gen gadget.

OnePlus’ 100-hour determine is predicated on what the corporate refers to as “common use.” Whenever you swap to “heavy use,” that quantity greater than halves to 48 hours. That’s nothing to scoff at, thoughts. Two full days of life on a cost remains to be properly past the capabilities of some smartwatches. How OnePlus quantifies abstractions like “common” and “heavy” isn’t whole clear. You’ll need to wait till the evaluate models are out on the planet to get a greater thought of what all of meaning.

Apparently, Google’s Put on OS crew was concerned in serving to these sorts of figures. “We’ve made vital updates to Put on OS’ hybrid interface to help new capabilities that run on OnePlus’ progressive Twin-Engine Structure,” Google’s John Renaldi explains. “Via this collaboration, the OnePlus Watch 2 transparently switches between the low energy and high-performance engines to ship a feature-rich, premium smartwatch expertise with optimized battery life.”

The important thing to that above quote is the phrase “hybrid.” The watch has two chips it toggles between to squeeze out as a lot life as doable. There’s the acquainted Snapdragon W5 which powers the Pixel Watch 2 and a bunch of gadgets from firms like Oppo and Xiaomi, and the extra energy environment friendly BES 2700 MCU.

Picture Credit: OnePlus

Just like the Apple Watch, OnePlus’ Watch 2 has a Energy Saving Mode. Right here, nevertheless, it disables much more than Apple’s. The corporate notes,

WearOS apps and the At all times On Show won’t work when the gadget is in Energy Saving Mode. Different options corresponding to calling, messaging, and train modes will nonetheless work on Energy Saving Mode nevertheless a few of their extra energy intensive features will probably be restricted to protect battery life, eg. Good Reply in Messages, accessing name data and Voice Steerage whereas working.

So, it turns into a smartish watch, I suppose.

The gadget is up for pre-order starting right this moment for $300 – that’s almost double its predecessor’s $159 worth level. Clearly OnePlus is tackling a wholly completely different cross part of the market, with a worth extra in keeping with Apple and Samsung gadgets. It begins delivery subsequent month.