OPPO Watch Review - Android

Apple users have enjoyed the proprietary and fanciness that the Apple Watch offered. With the OPPO Watch, the Chinese tech giant wants to bring an identical experience to Android users.

Today, in our OPPO Watch review, we’ll check this fancy new wearable and see if it’s a worthy addition to your gadget arsenal. Bear in mind that the review unit that we have here is the 41mm WiFi-only model.

OPPO Watch 41mm Specs

• ColorOS Watch
• eSIM (select models)
• 1.6-inch AMOLED curved screen, 476 x 402 pixel resolution, ~301ppi
• Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 2500 processor
• Apollo 3 co-processor
• 1GB RAM
• 8GB internal storage
• Bluetooth 4.2
• GPS, A-GPS
• Built-in microphone
• Health monitoring
• Sleep quality monitoring
• Heart-rate sensor
• Water-resistant up to 50m
• Fitness tracking
• 4.5mm aluminum frame
• Italian Calfskin, Fluoro Rubber bands
• Battery: 40-hours (Standard), 21-days (Power-saving)
• VOOC Flash Charge, 100% in 75 minutes

Design and Build Quality

Well, it goes without saying that the OPPO Watch looks a lot like Apple’s. Heck, even the tall box and the watch face on marketing materials look the same.

There’s the familiar curved 1.6-inch AMOLED screen on the front and the 6000-series aluminum frame. It may be an Apple Watch copy-cat, but at least OPPO copied from the right source.

The only thing that’s missing here is the digital crown. Instead, we have two buttons on the side. There’s a programmable key that has an OPPO green accent, a signature to the brand that we also see on its smartphones. The larger button on top of it takes you home or the app drawer.

There are speakers and microphones on the left side for talking to Google Assistant and answering calls.

On the bottom, you can find two buttons to detach each strap, the contacts for the charging pin, and an optical heartbeat sensor.

Unlike most Wear OS smartwatches, OPPO opted for a proprietary watch band. But unlike Apple’s, this one is more intuitive and provides a satisfying snap to tell you it’s attached safely.

The band that it comes with is a little disappointing. The fluoro rubber, as OPPO calls this silicon-like material, takes quite some time to get used to.

I have a relatively average-sized wrist, but the nub-style strap only managed to make it to the last hole. If you have a larger hand, this might not fit.

The keeper loop also easily slides out from the watch strap. It always falls out every time I take off the watch, which is why OPPO included an extra one on the box.

But if you can get past the annoying strap, the main body of the OPPO Watch is actually really premium, light, and durable.

The screen is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass and is tightly sealed to provide water resistance by 3ATM (3 meters) deep.

Display and Sound

The OPPO Watch 41mm has a 1.6-inch AMOLED curved screen, with a 476 x 402 pixel resolution, ~301ppi, and even has 100% DCI-P3 color gamut for better colors.

Other than the better colors, using an OLED screen allows it to have deep contrast and enables its always-on feature, so you can see the time and other relevant information without the need of powering the entire screen.

But what’s important on smartwatches is the screen brightness. Thankfully, the OPPO Watch can get really bright, which is great for outdoor use. It also has an ambient light sensor that automatically adjusts the screen brightness if you’re indoors or outdoors.

Hardware, Performance, and Battery Life

Unlike most cheap smartwatches, the OPPO Watch is really fast and smooth.That’s thanks to its Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 3100 processor with an energy-efficient Apollo3 Wireless SoC.

This makes everything on this watch really seamless. From flicking through the interface, summoning Google Assistant, downloading apps on the Google Play Store, and more.

But with its bright and vibrant screen and a reliable processor, we weren’t surprised by its sub-par battery life. Just like the Apple Watch, OPPO claims that this one can last for 24-hours in normal “Smart” mode. You can stretch that to 14-days in Power Saver mode. In our testing, these claims are quite realistic.

We tested it with the OPPO Watch directly connected to WiFi, paired on our smartphone through Bluetooth, and constantly receiving notifications from time to time. By night time, we reached about 15% of battery life and prompts us to enter the power saver mode.

When the always-on display feature on, the battery prompt starts to appear by the afternoon. Enabling the power saver mode will turn off everything other than the time display and relevant features, so it’s not completely useless until you get home and plug in the charger.

Speaking of which, the charging cradle easily connects to the OPPO Watch with magnets, but make sure the charging pins are in the right orientation before you snap it in.

The watch comes with VOOC charging support, which can provide a 50% charge in only 15-minutes. You can do a quick charge while you’re sitting on a desk or taking a bath so it can continuously track your activities or sleep.

Software and Features

The OPPO Watch runs on Google’s own Wear OS, so rest assured that it will work seamlessly on your Android phone. It has built-in Google Play so you can download apps dedicated to wearables; Google Pay with its NFC; OK Google support for its Google Assistant; and Google Fit.

You can pair the OPPO Watch on your Android phone by downloading the Wear OS app. What’s interesting is, it also works with iOS devices, which is actually the main device that we tested this with. Despite the foreign software, everything works as they should.

However, you need to download OPPO’s HeyTap Health app to unlock some of the Watch’s capabilities — an app that’s only available for Android.

The Wear OS app feels very limiting, so we’re not surprised that OPPO came up with its own. With HeyTap, you can use the watch’s AI Outfit feature, where you can take an image of your outfit to create a matching watch face. It also has a more visual representation of your sleep, heart rate, and activity data.

Wear OS’s interface is really straightforward and easy to get used to. Tap and hold the home screen to easily pick between watch faces. Swipe down to launch the control center that lets you adjust the ringer, Do Not Disturb, Airplane mode, access the settings, and more.

Swipping up reveals the notifications. Swiping from the right reveals the tiles, which include the Daily Activity, heart rate data, workout records, and sleep records. You can adjust these tiles by tap-and-holding them.

While on the right, there’s the Google Assistant page. You can tap the microphone button to ask Google questions or commands. It also shows the date and weather.

The OPPO Watch also does a good job of presenting notifications on time — weather that’s a text, call, Facebook Messenger, email, or whatever.

Health and Fitness Tracking

The main highlight of smartwatches is their health tracking features — and the OPPO Watch is well equipped with it.

Right off the box, it can track your steps, workout time, calories burned, and activity sessions, and sleep quality.

Under workouts, there’s an option to record your fitness run, fat burn run, outdoor walk, outdoor cycling, and swimming. It can track all these activities well thanks to its heart-rate sensor, built-in GPS, gyroscope, geometric sensor, barometer, tri-axial acceleration sensor, and its 3ATM water seal.

29/09/2020 11:39 AM

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