- Oppo has launched the Watch 2.
- The new smartwatch packs a Snapdragon Wear 4100 chip and reportedly delivers 16-day battery life.
- It ships to China on August 6 starting at the equivalent of $200.
The original Oppo Watch may have been more than a little reminiscent of the Apple Watch, but it was still an excellent smartwatch with brisk performance and lengthy battery life — and Oppo is clearly keen to capitalize on those strong points. 9to5Google reports the company has launched an Oppo Watch 2 that riffs on its predecessor’s successful formula.
The Oppo Watch 2 maintains that Apple-like design with 42mm and 46mm case options, but now ships with a faster, more efficient Snapdragon Wear 4100 chip. Battery life has also taken a leap forward. Oppo claims an extreme 16-day battery life in Power Saver mode. You’ll ‘only’ muster four days of regular mode use with the 46mm model, but that still suggests you could use the Watch 2 for a whole weekend without needing a top-up from the VOOC charger.
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You can also expect robust health features. Oppo touts 24-hour heart rate tracking and blood oxygen (aka Sp02) monitoring for the Watch 2, not to mention 100 exercise tracking modes and swim-friendly 5ATM water resistance.
As familiar as the design may be, there have been some practical improvements. The Oppo Watch 2 now offers a curved AMOLED screen regardless of the case size. You also have the choice of cellular data for both sizes, although you’ll have to be content with 42mm if you’d rather get a Bluetooth model.
Oppo will release the Watch 2 in China on August 6 starting at ¥1,300 (about $200) for the 42mm Bluetooth edition, ¥1,500 for its cellular counterpart (roughly $230), and ¥2,000 (just over $308) for the 46mm cell edition.
There’s no word yet on international releases. It’s just as well, though. The Chinese Oppo Watch 2 ships with Color OS on top of Android 8.1, not Wear OS. You won’t have access to Google apps, and we wouldn’t count on a path to Wear OS 3. You may have to wait a while to get a model that’s truly practical for global audiences, assuming it arrives in the first place.