Oneplus cobalt watch. OnePlus Watch Cobalt Edition Review: Looks and feels premium

OnePlus Watch Cobalt Edition looks extremely premium but should you buy one? Let’s find out.

It features an AMOLED display.

The market is crowded with rectangular dial smartwatches, leaving the people looking for a circular dial with limited options. While the options might be limited, there are a few elegant options that you need to consider. One of these options is the OnePlus Watch, especially the Cobalt Edition.

The Cobalt Edition looks extremely premium and feels like a watch one would pay at least Rs 50,000 for, but is only priced at Rs 19,999. The watch frame is built out of a cobalt alloy and comes with sapphire glass to protect the display. It ships with the normal OnePlus Band strap along with a vegan leather strap. Apart from this, the watch comes with premium features like an AMOLED display, SpO2 tracking and more.

Initially, the reviews for the OnePlus Watch were not good, with the company being criticised for a lot of things. However, since then, the company has been hard at work to work out all of the kinks and provide its users with all of the features they wanted. Here we will be taking a look at how good is the OnePlus Watch, and is it something that you should consider purchasing or not.

OnePlus Watch Review: Price in India

OnePlus Watch is available at Rs 14,999 for the base variant and the Cobalt Edition is priced at Rs 19,999. While the base variant feels good for the price, the Cobalt Edition feels extremely underpriced. Having the Cobalt Edition in hand, I can say that I would have easily paid a minimum of Rs 50,000 for the premium build and experience.

OnePlus Watch Review: Design

While most smartwatches these days feature a rectangular design, only a few resemble the traditional watch with a circular one. With the OnePlus Watch, the company has chosen to go with the traditional look with a 46mm circular dial set in a case made out of a cobalt alloy. The Cobolt alloy body has a muted gold colour, with a tinge of red, which makes the watch appear quite nice and premium.

The watch frame is built out of a cobalt alloy.

On top of the cobalt alloy body, rests a sapphire glass display, which looks pretty similar to regular glass but is quite rigid and helps you keep your watch stay scratch-free. However, just like the normal edition of the smartwatch, the cobalt edition still features a plastic bottom. There is also a new deep emerald colour vegan leather strap with turquoise stitching, which goes extremely well with the watch. The strap is attached to a butterfly buckle that opens and closes rather easily. You can also replace the strap with a standard black fluoroelastomer that comes inside of the box.

Overall, the OnePlus Watch Cobalt Edition looks pretty attractive and premium. The watch has a subtle look to it and is comfortable to wear for all-day use. Especially, the 46mm dial makes the smartwatch look unique and full.

OnePlus Watch Review: Software

Since I have received my unit of the OnePlus Watch Cobalt Edition, there has been a slew of software updates. These updates brought in features, which multiple people were complaining about since its launch, like an always-on display.

The OnePlus Watch has a plain and simple UI.

The always-on mode has its own set of watch faces, which work as you would expect them to. Using this feature you can constantly keep a track of the time without the need to wake up the screen every now and then. While the mode is appreciated, there are still some issues, like the AOD not responding to ambient light, or the watch faces being too thin.

The Watch also comes with a ton of workout modes, which will have you covered in any workout scenario. Listing all of the modes here, would take too long, as there are so many of them, which is a good thing, as you can stay rest assured that all of your exercises will be tracked.

Customisation is a really good thing about the OnePlus Watch, considering that there is a slew of watch faces, which you can cycle using the OnePlus Health app, to have a fresh look daily.

One of the major issues I have with the OnePlus Watch is that it does not come with support for applications. over, there is no voice assistant or cellular connectivity. The watch features NFC, but there is no way of using it. While most of this can be ignored, the watch not having access to download apps is one of the major disappointments.

OnePlus Watch Review: Performance and battery life

The OnePlus Watch has a plain and simple UI, which makes navigation pretty easy. The UI is pretty simple, with you only needing to swipe and tap. There are no complex gestures that you need to perform to use the watch.

It misses out on features like downloadable apps.

Reading notifications on the watch is pretty easy, with large and bold text. However, you can only respond with a few set answers, and cannot type anything.

The power-saving feature is pretty aggressive, with it micro-managing everything like the brightness, the glance time and more. This tough being annoying at points, is a very nifty feature, considering that it helps you save on precious battery life. I was able to extend my battery use by five days when using this feature from the get-go.

While I do not have the right equipment to test the watch’s sensors. I compared it to multiple other smartwatches, like the Apple Watch SE, Oppo Watch and more. The readings for SpO2, heart rate and other features I got were in the same ball park, making me believe that the watch is good at tracking.

Step tracking was also pretty accurate, with me walking 1,000 steps, and the watch recording 995 steps. SpO2 tracking is also pretty accurate, as I tested it against a blood oxygen monitor, and the readings came out similar.

Sleep tracking was also pretty accurate according to me. While I do not have the right equipment to test, but I did compare the data with my Apple Watch SE, which showcased similar data for deep sleep, light sleep and awake durations.

Taking calls on the OnePlus Watch is similar to any other smartwatch. The speaker volume is a bit low, but if you bring it close to your ear, you will be able to listen to everything clearly. The microphone was a bit muddy, considering my callers stating that I sounded a bit distant.

It comes with a vegan leather strap.

The battery life of the OnePlus Watch is commendable, considering that it managed to easily last me 12 days on a single charge, and 17 days in power-saver mode. This was with all features like WhatsApp notifications, SpO2 tracking and more turned on, if you customise what you need, then your battery performance could outperform mine.

Take note, with AOD turned on the battery life did take a hit and gave me only around 7 days of usage.

Charging speeds of the OnePlus Watch were pretty great, with it getting from 0 to 21 percent within five minutes. In 20 minutes of charging, the device reached around 50 percent. And charging the watch fully took around 50 minutes.

OnePlus Watch Review: Verdict

OnePlus Watch Cobalt Limited Edition at Rs 19,999 is one of the best deals you can get on a watch, considering the premium feel and look that it presents. It does come with good tracking features and some really nifty features that come in handy. But missing out on features like downloadable apps, lack of third-party watch faces and much more, makes it a difficult recommendation, especially after the fact that there are too many good smartwatch options available in the market like the Oppo Watch at a similar price.

Also whatever the watch does, so can a good fitness tracker, that too at a much more affordable price. While this not be the smartwatch from OnePlus I recommend, I surely am excited for what the next generation holds. As with this, the company has nailed the design, quality and battery, now it just needs to work on some of the internals and software.

OnePlus Watch Cobalt Limited Edition is on Sale: Brings Extreme Toughness

At the time of the launch of the OnePlus 9 Series, OnePlus also brought its first smartwatch product, and today, a special limited edition of the OnePlus Watch Cobalt Limited Edition is officially on sale with a price tag of 1599 RMB.

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According to OnePlus, cobalt alloy is an alloy formed by adding other alloying elements based on cobalt. In this material, cobalt combines other metal carbide grains in the alloy composition to make the alloy with higher toughness and reduce the sensitivity to impact, and this alloy can increase the life of the parts by 3-7 times by fusion welding on the surface of the parts.

Officially, the OnePlus Watch Cobalt Limited Edition is made of 316L stainless steel frame and cobalt alloy center frame, with a yield rate of only 50%. The watch case is hand-polished and rounded. The shape of the limited edition watch is similar to the regular version, but the color of the case is gold.

In addition, the cobalt limited edition watch has an exclusive sapphire glass lens, commonly found in high-end mechanical watches, which provides better scratch resistance. The watch comes with a dark green leather strap as standard and a Viton strap as well.

At the same time, the cobalt alloy used in the OnePlus Watch is the first time in the history of smartwatches that this material has been used. It is extremely hard and has a very low yield, but it also comes with a very high cost, which is an important reason why the limited edition is priced at 1599 Yuan.

In addition to the difference in materials, the internal configuration of this watch is not much different from the standard version, the same original 1.39-inch OLED screen, built-in 1GB RAM and 4GB ROM, support for 5ATM IP68 waterproof level, support for blood oxygen detection, built-in GPS, support for more than 110 kinds of exercise mode, and also support Warp Charge fast charging. It can be used for a week after 20 minutes of charging.

OnePlus Watch

The OnePlus Watch is the first smartwatch released by the Chinese manufacturer OnePlus. Released in March 2021, this is the second wearable device released, with the OnePlus Band released in January of this year. OnePlus is a popular smartphone manufacturer and is a subsidiary of BBK Electronics. BBK also owns the Oppo, realme and Vivo brands.

Unfortunately OnePlus does not disclose the chipset used in this Watch. That being said, the watch does not lag and performs well, similar to other smartwatches in this price range.

This watch is using a proprietary operating system based on RTOS (real-time operating system). There was speculation that this watch would use Wear OS, but unfortunately that is not the case. While there are some available apps, the number is minimal and you do not have access to a large 3rd party app store such as the Google Play Store. This is a significant disadvantage and is common drawback for any smartwatch using a proprietary operating system.

Design

The OnePlus Watch has a circular watch face design and looks attractive. The watch is available in black or silver. The case is made from stainless steel and build quality is quite good.

A premium version of this watch, the OnePlus Watch Cobalt Edition, will be released as well. While there are limited details available on this watch, we do know the frame will be made with cobalt alloy instead of stainless steel and the screen will use Sapphire Glass.

The OnePlus Watch is on the larger size at 46.4 x 46.4 x 10.9 mm and weighs 45g. That being said, the watch is relatively slim with a thickness of 10.9 mm. It is comfortable and can be worn while sleeping.

The OnePlus Watch comes with a 22 mm fluoroelastomer interchangeable strap. Fluoroelastomer is a synthetic rubber strap that is supposed to be more resistant to heat, moisture and oil than silicone. The strap is high quality and is comfortable on the wrist.

You can interact with the watch using the touchscreen and 2 physical buttons. The touchscreen works very well with no lag. Fonts, menus and icons can easily be read and navigation is not too complex.

Water Resistance

The OnePlus Watch has a 5ATM and IP68 water resistance rating however this rating should be taken with a grain of salt. The fine-print on the OnePlus Watch website states the watch is not suitable for hot water showers. You are also advised not to use the product in seawater, beach or pool. Finally damage due to water or dust is not covered under warranty.

These restrictions remind us of the Ticwatch Pro 3 which has an IP68 rating and advises not to contact soapy water in showers or while washing hands. In many cases warranties have been denied due to water exposure in showers.

Screen

The screen of the OnePlus Watch is quite good. The 1.39″ AMOLED Touchscreen, with 454 x 454 pixels and 326 ppi pixel density delivers a high-quality visual experience. Indoors the display is excellent while outdoors it is acceptable but not great.

OnePlus does not indicate what screen protection is provided which is disappointing. As mentioned previously, the Cobalt edition will come with a Sapphire screen which should provide some level of protection against scratches.

That being said, the bezel-less design offers less protection against screen scratches and scrapes when compared to watches where the bezel protrudes past the glass surface. While the bezel-less design is sleeker, it may not be as durable as some other sport focused smartwatches.

The watch has an always on screen option but this has a significant impact on battery life. The watch allows for custom watchfaces which is a nice feature.

Battery

The OnePlus Watch comes with a 402 mAh battery. OnePlus claims that typical usage battery life is 14 days and GPS mode battery life is 1 days. Real world battery life is approximately 10 days, which is above average. The battery life is one of the strongest positives on this watch.

Connectivity Features

From a connectivity perspective, the OnePlus Watch has limited functionality when compared to full featured smartwatches. The choice to use their own proprietary operating system instead of Wear OS disappointed primarily due to limitations in this area.

The watch can only receive notifications and there is no ability to respond to notifications from the watch. It is also missing Near Field Communication (NFC) is not supported, hence you cannot use this smartwatch to make payments. The OnePlus Watch does not have a camera and does not have cellular connectivity.

The OnePlus Watch has both a speaker and a microphone and has the ability to answer and place calls via Bluetooth. The speaker and microphone work well for both incoming and outgoing calls. The speaker can be used to play music stored on the 4GB internal memory.

While the microphone can be used for calls, there is no voice assistant like Google Assistant or Siri, another drawback of this watch. On the positive side, it does come with built-in GPS. GPS connectivity is fast but accuracy is not the best.

Health and Fitness Features

The OnePlus Watch comes with 5 sensors: Accelerometer, Barometer Compass, Gyroscope, Heart Rate Monitor (HRM), Pulse Oximeter (SpO2). These cover numerous fitness and health areas. These sensors allow you to track the following 9 metrics: Blood Oxygen Level, Calories, Distance, Fitness Level, Heart Rate, Sleep, Steps, Stress, Swimming.

Also included are 110 different sports modes. Heart rate accuracy at rest, casual activities or steady state runs is relatively accurate. For casual tracking, this may be adequate but could be a concern if you are looking for high tracking accuracy for your sports or fitness goals. However with interval training, short bursts of activity or high intensity training, accuracy is poor.

Tattoos, hair, sweat and even skin color are factors that impact accuracy as well. This is a common problem with nearly all wrist based optical heart rate monitoring. While there are a few exceptions that do a pretty good job on heart rate monitoring, such as the Apple Watch 6, serious trainers should look into a chest strap for best heart rate accuracy.

OnePlus Health App

The OnePlus Watch uses the OnePlus Health app, which appears to be a lift and shift of the Oppo HeyTap app. OnePlus Health is a newer app which currently has limited features. You can see how the OnePlus Health app ranks on our Smartwatch Apps Page.

Known Issues

As this watch has just recently been released, there are no common known issues.

Verdict

The first OnePlus Watch is an average fitness focused smartwatch with a nice design, decent battery life and a good screen. Drawbacks are no notification reply ability, no 3rd party apps, no NFC, dubious water resistance rating and low quality app.

Specifications

General

Design

Screen

Battery

Features

Summary

OnePlus Watch. WatchSmarty

The OnePlus Watch has a nice design, decent battery life and a good screen. Dubious water resistance, no NFC, no third party apps and poor app are concerns.

Product SKU: OnePlus Watch

Product Brand: OnePlus

Product Currency: USD

Product Price: 159

Price Valid Until: 2023-01-01

Product In-Stock: SoldOut

Where to buy the OnePlus Watch in the UK

OnePlus launched its newest wearable alongside the OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro on 23 March. It’s the brand’s first smartwatch, having only launched the OnePlus Band fitness tracker previously.

Pre-orders on the Watch, which features a 1.39in circular AMOLED display, officially started 14 April, ahead of full sales on 26 April. OnePlus is now releasing the limited edition Cobalt variant of its Watch on Instagram on 7 June – but you’ll have to compete to buy it (see details below).

Here we’re looking at where to buy the OnePlus Watch and availability updates, along with all pricing information.

How much does the OnePlus Watch cost?

The OnePlus Watch costs £149/US159/€159. It’s available in two styles, although the internal specs remain the same.

The Classic option comes in a stainless steel casing, while the limited-edition Cobalt option comes in a cobalt alloy casing. We will confirm pricing on the Cobalt option as soon as we know.

The Classic option is available in two strap colours, Midnight Black or Moonlight Silver, while the Cobalt option comes with a leather strap and butterfly buckle.

To see what competition the OnePlus Watch is up against, see our round-up of the best smartwatches.

How to buy the OnePlus Watch in Cobalt on Instagram

OnePlus will release the limited edition cobalt variant of the OnePlus Watch on Monday, 7 June via Instagram to European markets. Customers will have to participate in “virtual games” posted to the channel to find an “Invite Code”.

Then on 17 June, customers will have one hour to find a hidden website link on OnePlus’s Instagram page so they can buy the Cobalt OnePlus Watch from the OnePlus site. (We agree, it’s a pretty ridiculous process).

Where to buy the standard OnePlus Watch

Right now, you can buy the OnePlus Watch on Amazon, where it’s available in Moonlight Silver for £149, £10 off the RRP.

The OnePlus Watch in both Black and Moonlight Silver is available over at OnePlus, also for £149.

What to expect from the OnePlus Watch

The OnePlus Watch is ambitious. Features like blood oxygen monitoring, stress detection, and breathing training undoubtedly position the wearable against heavyweights like the Apple Watch 6 and Fitbit Versa 3.

You can also expect support for over 110 workout modes and automatic workout detection, along with heart rate, distance, calorie, speed, and swim efficiency tracking (SWOLF) via the OnePlus Health app. With 2GB of usable storage (4GB in total), the Watch can also store up to 500 songs while Bluetooth support allows wireless listening. See our full review of the OnePlus Watch.

OnePlus promises its wearable will offer “seamless connectivity” in the OnePlus ecosystem – whether that’s syncing with your OnePlus phone, OnePlus audio devices, or OnePlus TVs. The 402mAh battery should offer two weeks of use as well, while a 20-minute fast charge should restore a drained battery for another week of use.

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