All About Interwebz: OnePlus Watch leak suggests that it won’t be that smart after all

The OnePlus Watch is arriving next week as the brand’s first smartwatch, when it launches alongside the new flagship smartphones. A new leak however extinguishes our excitement and scales back our expectations.

OnePlus has been talking about its smartwatch for a few years now. Come March 23, it will finally share the stage with the OnePlus 9 series of smartphones. While we know a great deal about them, details around the OnePlus Watch have been scarce, even with just a week to go for the official unveiling.

Leakster Ishan Agarwal shared some OnePlus Watch features and specifications on Twitter recently. According to him, the wearable will have a round face with a 46mm dial and will be available in black and silver colourways. The entire body will also be IP68-certified for dust and water-resistance.

Exclusive: OnePlus Watch Specifications- 46mm- IP68- Warp Charge (A week of charge in 20 minutes)- Sleep, Stress, Blood Saturation, Heart Rate Monitoring- Check Notifications, Calls- Control OnePlus TV- 4GB Storage- Auto Workout DetectionMore: https://t.co/m4Cr3ckTWR pic.twitter.com/TP75nMCmXdMarch 17, 2021

Fitness will be the main selling point of the smartwatch, with features such as continuous heart rate monitoring, sleep tracking, stress alerts, automatic workout detection, SpO2 sensing and other exercises.

As for connected features, the OnePlus Watch should be able to show notifications, pick and initiate calls, control music playback and even other products in the ecosystem such as the OnePlus TV. Interestingly but unsurprisingly, the watch will also be capable of Warp charging, where a 20-minute charge should be enough for a week’s use.

What seems slightly off is the fact that there’s no mention of the operating system or the processor powering the smartwatch. Further, a battery life of more than a week means it is unlikely to run on Wear OS — which typically lasts for a day or two at best.

The OnePlus Band was the company's first wearable (Image credit: Aakash Jhaveri)

In the past, OnePlus went on record to talk about how it is working closely with Google to create a superior smartwatch experience. The fact that it is tipped to offer calling functionality from the watch itself suggests that it won’t be a glorified fitness tracker, as no other wearable device has been able to offer that yet, save for the full-fledged smartwatches running Wear OS or Samsung’s Tizen.

This development raises more questions than answers. Unless there’s another variant in the works, the OnePlus Watch will not be a proper smartwatch, if these features are it.

For what it’s worth, this could mean that the wearable will be a lot more affordable, taking on offerings from Amazfit, Xiaomi and Realme.