OnePlus Watch: Here's what major publications think about the company's first smartwatch

OnePlus has been in the weeds over the past couple of months for various reasons. Well, first, the company seems to have ditched its flagship killer mantra whose back in rode to fame and now wants to play in the big leagues with the flagships.

As such, the company’s new devices have crept up the price range over the past few iterations and now costs just as much, if not more than the Samsungs and iPhones of the world but still fall a bit short each time.

Most recently, we’ve seen the company unveil the OnePlus 9 series of devices with the fancy Hasselblad branding and major camera claims. That, however, has been met with skepticism.

The fact that the Indian variant of the OnePlus 9 seems to be a watered-down version of what the rest of the world is getting only goes to alienate one of the company’s most important markets.

The same energy seems to have followed perhaps one of OnePlus’ most important forays in recent times, that into the budding smartwatch scene that is dominated by other phone makers like Samsung and Motorola among others.

OnePlus made bold claims about this new smartwatch, chief of them being an insane battery life. However, the company ditched the industry-standard, Google-made Wear OS in favor of its own RTOS and that seems to be where the rain started beating OnePlus.

The OnePlus Watch was off to a rocky start even before the global launch as initial reports hinted at a lackluster experience with a buggy companion app and missing features at launch.

It is, therefore, no surprise that many publications didn’t have many good things to say about this product.

Wired called the OnePlus Watch a messy and overpriced smartwatch, perhaps an indication of the inferiority of the RTOS compared to Wear OS in terms of functionality and features.

They also gave it a 3/10 score. Not the best start but arguably, a deserved one seeing as basic functions like raise-to-wake doesn’t work all the time, you can’t tap to wake the screen and there is no music streaming options.

PhoneArena is a little kind to the OnePlus Watch, rightfully pointing out that the smartwatch does deliver in terms of battery life, display, and even design. However, the compromises brought about by the RTOS are a little too hard to overlook, and so is the price.

Similarly, Forbes urges users not to write it off completely as its current issues with basics like fitness tracking and more could be fixed with a software update. In fact, we have seen OnePlus promise a bunch of features the should be coming soon.

The Verge’s Dan Seifert echoes the sentiments of many other reviewers, noting the OnePlus Watch is missing a lot of what makes a smartwatch smart. This, as it lacks support for third-party apps and custom watch faces.

Android Police goes hard on the OnePlus Watch’s ‘unfinished’ software, its inaccurate activity tracking, and missing essential features like the always-on display while crediting its fit and finish, and the exceptional battery life.

The web is spewed with many reviews of the OnePlus Watch but the common denominator, the narrative is the same; OnePlus over-promised and grossly under-delivered on this one. While the decision to go with RTOS paid off in terms of battery life, it absolutely killed its functionality and usability.

As this is the first attempt from the company, it’ll be interesting to see how future OnePlus Watches (if any) will fair in this competitive market.

What are your thoughts on the OnePlus Watch? We’d love to hear from you so tell us in the comments section below.

NOTE: We have these and many more OnePlus stories in our dedicated OnePlus section.

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