A great smartwatch, held back by Google’s shortcomings

Competition breeds innovation, however saying that the Android smartwatch market has stagnated could be an understatement. Between Fossil exiting the sport and restricted choices from the likes of Mobvoi, the Android smartwatch market is, by and enormous, a two-horse race between Samsung and Google. So I used to be notably excited for the arrival of the OnePlus Watch 2 as a possible contender for the most effective Wear OS watch crown.

Despite its limitations, the watch is setting a brand new benchmark relating to battery life, modern dual-OS tech, and, arguably, design. More importantly, the broader availability of this watch could be very interesting.

However, regardless of all its positives, the OnePlus Watch 2 will not be excellent. I switched from an Apple Watch Ultra a few month in the past and, whereas my expertise has been largely constructive, I consider the OnePlus Watch 2 is an outstanding piece of {hardware} that’s being held back by Google’s noncommittal strategy to Wear OS. Here’s why.

I’m not about to summarise every thing I like about this smartwatch; you’ll be able to confer with my colleague Kaitlyn’s wonderful OnePlus Watch 2 assessment for that. However, it wouldn’t be unfair to say that OnePlus has made a whole turnabout with this new watch. While the corporate’s first outing nailed the design, it lacked when it comes to precise smarts. The Watch 2 manages to excel with its distinctive construct high quality — regardless of the non-functional, albeit aesthetic, crown. It additionally has an infinite battery that genuinely lasts me effectively over two days of energetic use, together with an hour or two of exercise monitoring every single day and GPS-enabled out of doors runs. Elsewhere, the health metrics aren’t excellent however adequate for informal use, and the sleep monitoring is on level.

Most importantly, the OnePlus Watch 2 launches with Wear OS 4 out of the field. And that’s an enormous win for OnePlus at a time when choices working Google’s newest wearable working system are astonishingly skinny. It brings compatibility with a variety of apps and providers, higher watch faces, integration with Google’s calendar and mail apps, and extra. If you favor voice-based interactions, that’s represented too.

However, probably the most vital benefit of the OnePlus Watch 2 can be its crutch. I’ll be trustworthy: I’ve by no means been the largest Wear OS fan. My final long-term expertise with the working system was on the OPPO Watch back in 2020. A lot has modified since then. What hasn’t, although, is the totally disjointed expertise of utilizing a Wear OS watch.

Health and health are important to me, however years down the road, Wear OS nonetheless has no standardized method of dealing with health monitoring. On the OnePlus Watch 2, the OHealth app is the first technique of monitoring health. Unfortunately, as we explored in our assessment, the app is simply too simplistic and lacks the granular metrics that I’ve come to count on from my Apple Watch Ultra or Garmin.

Adding insult to damage is the truth that well being monitoring isn’t excellent both. Step counts are typically inconsistent and I’ve no religion within the calorie burn info. Google might clear up this by providing a standardized well being API that different apps can use to customise the interface expertise, however that isn’t the case right here. The Apple Watch does it; why can’t Google?

On the purpose of well being monitoring, getting knowledge out of the watch isn’t simple. Yes, I’m conscious of Health Connect however all the course of is extremely hit and miss, and infrequently does all the info switch to Google Fit. I additionally use Strava as my working knowledge aggregator of alternative. Since neither Health Connect nor OHealth have hooks into Strava, I depend upon Strava’s integration with Google Fit to tug knowledge. The downside right here is that, as soon as once more, not all metrics are transferred throughout the board. Compare that with my Apple Watch Ultra, the place each time I end a exercise, the info is seamlessly transferred to Strava. I actually shouldn’t want three totally different well being apps on my cellphone to entry my exercise knowledge.

In reality, I’d have anticipated Google to leverage Fitbit’s wonderful knowledge algorithms to create a standardized health API that any app might faucet into and get seamlessly dependable knowledge. Not solely would this enhance the health capabilities of smartwatches throughout the board, however it will additionally create a uniform baseline throughout smartwatch manufacturers. As it stands, if I swap from a Galaxy Watch to a OnePlus Watch or, maybe, a Pixel Watch, the health knowledge algorithms haven’t any correlation in any respect.

The different massive difficulty I’ve noticed is the standard of apps. Coming back to Wear OS after a few years, it’s fairly disheartening to see that the standard of apps and providers on the Play Store hasn’t improved all that a lot. For instance, my favourite intermittent fasting app, Zero, nonetheless isn’t out there on Wear OS regardless of having a completely functioning model for the Apple Watch. Similarly, I’m keen on Shelly’s good residence gadgets. The firm has launched an Apple Watch app however has no such different for Wear OS. Sure, Wear OS’ restricted person base leaves little incentive for manufacturers to put money into apps for the platform. But that hen and egg downside, too, is wholly of Google’s doing.

Be it Google’s perpetual rebranding cycle, the snail-like tempo of releasing updates, or software program exclusivity with Samsung that limits choices — the very factor that makes Android merchandise so thrilling — Google has clearly handled Wear OS as a second-class citizen. The undeniable fact that fundamentals like public transit navigation are solely now coming to Wear OS, and necessities like offline maps stay lacking boggles the thoughts.

There’s little question in my thoughts that OnePlus has constructed among the finest examples of Wear OS smartwatches. Yes, it’s massive, however I can study to reside with the gargantuan dimension merely due to the great battery life it provides. But all these {hardware} efforts are being let down by the lackluster software program powering the present. While there are indicators that Google is lastly beginning to flip the ship round with its current Wear OS announcement, just like the hybrid interface that debuted on the OnePlus Watch 2, it’s clear that much more wants to alter to make Wear OS a formidable Apple Watch different.