The OnePlus Watch 2R is the latest model in the OnePlus wearable lineup and is a cheaper version of the OnePlus Watch 2. The OnePlus Watch 2 was launched last year to critical acclaim, with many reviewers, including myself, praising the device for its design and build quality, display, novel dual-operating system design, and excellent battery life.
The OnePlus Watch 2R has decided not to tamper with that winning formula. In fact, it chooses to change very little as it is largely the same watch barring a few tweaks. Are these changes meaningful enough to justify another variant? Let’s find out.
design
The design of the OnePlus Watch 2R is very similar to the Watch 2. Its basic shape is quite similar, with the same dimensions, a large circular watch face, and two side buttons. The buttons now look similar with a standard pusher mechanism whereas the Watch 2 had a crown and a flat button. The crown-like button on the Watch 2 was somewhat confusing as it spun like a crown but only acted as a button. The 2R buttons do not spin so there is no confusion now.
The Watch 2R’s watch body has two big differences from the Watch 2. First, its casing is made of brushed aluminum instead of polished stainless steel. Second, the glass is now flat instead of curved around the edges.
Switching from steel to aluminum has a huge impact on weight; while the Watch 2 weighed 49 grams without the strap, the Watch 2R weighs just 37 grams. This goes up even more with the default strap; the Watch 2 weighs 80 grams while the Watch 2R weighs just 59 grams.
One of my issues with the Watch 2 was its size and weight. For a watch aimed at fitness users, it felt too big and bulky, making it a distraction when working out and especially when used in bed for sleep tracking. While the size remains the same, weight is not an issue on the new model. It’s easy to forget you’re wearing this watch, which isn’t the case with the more expensive models. However, some people may prefer the weight of the Watch 2, so your mileage may vary.
The one downside to switching to aluminum is that the Watch 2R loses the MIL-STD-810H military-grade testing certification, which is fine because it still retains the IP68 and 5ATM ratings.
As far as the glass is concerned, it is still the same sapphire crystal material, but with flat edges. It might not look as good when swiping from the edges, but still, you might like the look of flat glass more. Also, the Watch 2R covers up the thick bezel of the Watch 2 with a two-tone chronometer dial that looks great.
The Watch 2R is available in two variants, Forest Green and Gunmetal Grey. The first one (pictured here) has a silver case with a green strap while the second one has a dark grey case with a black strap. The straps are otherwise identical.
The Watch 2R’s straps feel a lot less plush than the Watch 2’s, with a more plasticky texture than the flexible rubber of the more expensive model. They’re not bad by any means, just less nice and premium feeling. They use a standard strap attachment mechanism so you can replace them with any other watch strap.
Overall, the design of the Watch 2R is pretty much what you would expect, a less premium version of the Watch 2. It doesn’t have the luxurious feel of the polished stainless steel and soft straps of the more expensive model. On the other hand, many people, including me, will prefer the lighter overall feel of the Watch 2R, making it more suitable for everyday use as well as fitness tracking.
However, you still can’t escape the large dimensions, and one wishes OnePlus would consider making these in smaller sizes.
Display
The OnePlus Watch 2R has the same basic display as the Watch 2. It’s a 1.43-inch AMOLED panel with a 60Hz refresh rate and 466 x 466 resolution.
The display looks and works almost identical to the Watch 2’s display. Our Watch 2R display was slightly brighter and had different color tones than our Watch 2 display, but that could just be due to the different units. Both of these are good displays, but could use a little more brightness in bright sunlight.
Software and performance
The OnePlus Watch 2R has the same software and hardware as the Watch 2. You get the same combination of Wear OS and RTOS by Google which runs on a combination of Qualcomm Snapdragon W5 and BES2700 chipset. It is a great design that gives you the best of both worlds – full smartwatch functionality and long battery life.
We have discussed all these aspects in detail in our OnePlus Watch 2 review and since nothing has changed on that front, it remains relevant for the Watch 2R. You can check out that review here.
Overall, the software experience on the Watch 2R is largely positive. Wear OS is what we have come to expect from other Android smartwatches and the OnePlus RTOS handles it seamlessly without any gaps.
However, there are a few things OnePlus could have done that would have made things better. The fake crown on the Watch 2 could have been changed to a real crown for navigating the UI as this would have made some UI interactions much nicer than scrolling.
The Watch 2R includes a hundred watch faces in the OHealth app, some of which are pre-installed on the device. Some of these are new and exclusive to the Watch 2R as they were not available on the Watch 2. However, the Watch 2 also had some watch faces that were not available for the 2R.
The process of transferring these watch faces is quite slow. It takes around 60 to 90 seconds from setting it up in the app to showing the watch face on the device. What’s worse is that this time seems to vary quite a lot. The above times were measured with the watch paired with the OnePlus Open, but when the same watch was paired with the Xiaomi 14 Civi, the time almost tripled, taking around 2 minutes and 45 seconds to change the watch face.
And finally, like clockwork, OnePlus has left out women’s health features – such as ovulation, fertility, and cycle tracking – from its watch, despite its focus on health and fitness. This has been missing on almost every OnePlus wearable, except for the ill-fated Nord Watch, which probably only had the feature because it was made by another company and then OnePlus renamed it and rebranded it. It’s unclear why such a basic and essential feature for half the world’s population is not a priority for the company at all, even though it’s present on almost every competing device.
Battery
As you might have guessed, the OnePlus Watch 2R has the same 500mAh battery as the Watch 2. OnePlus also claims battery life of up to 48 hours with heavy usage in Smart mode and 100 hours with light usage, and up to 12 days in power-saving mode where Wear OS and the W5 chip are disabled.
I tested the watch with the always-on display, with the display manually set to 3/5 brightness bars. SpO2 tracking was enabled for sleep along with continuous heart rate tracking. GPS was used for about 40 minutes every day while tracking outdoor walks. The display was disabled while sleeping with sleep mode, which also disables raise to wake.
Under these conditions, I managed to get about three days of battery life and two nights of sleep tracking on a single charge. This is somewhere between the light and heavy usage claims made by OnePlus. I didn’t have time to test the 12-day power-saving mode figure for this review.
As before, the watch takes about an hour to fully charge, so you can easily charge it while you’re getting ready for work in the morning. The charging puck is unchanged from the Watch 2, which means it’s still small, easy to lose, and sometimes easy to detach from the weight of the cable attached to it.
Like the Watch 2, these figures are very impressive as they are with a full-fledged Android smartwatch, not just a fitness tracker. You can run all sorts of apps on this device as it’s essentially a mini Android phone, and still get almost two full days of use. Or use it lightly and get about 4-5 days of use. Or about two weeks if you don’t care about apps at all. Aside from a handful of other devices, this is still largely unheard of in the smartwatch world.
Price determination
The OnePlus Watch 2R costs £249 / €279 / $229.99 / ₹17,999. For reference, the Watch 2 was priced at £299 / €329 / $299.99 / ₹24,999 at launch. Meanwhile, the recently launched Samsung Galaxy Watch7 starts at $329.99 for the same size 44mm variant, with the more expensive version having LTE. Unfortunately, like the Watch 2, there is no LTE version of the Watch 2R.
conclusion
OnePlus has made a strong impression with the new Watch 2R. The original Watch 2 was already a highly capable, likeable product that was perhaps a little bulky and a little expensive. The Watch 2R fixes both problems in one fell swoop while remaining otherwise identical, making it the default choice for most people between the two, and a great smartwatch in general.
Pros
- Large, high-resolution display
- Lightweight yet sturdy design
- Flexible software with hybrid OS design
- Good overall performance
- Great battery life
Shortcoming
- One size fits all, and that size is large
- No LTE version
- Not tracking menstrual cycles
- The design of the charging puck feels like an afterthought
