A great smartwatch, held back by Google’s shortcomings

Competitors breeds innovation, however saying that the Android smartwatch market has stagnated can 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 one of the best Put on OS watch crown.

Regardless of its limitations, the watch is setting a brand new benchmark relating to battery life, revolutionary dual-OS tech, and, arguably, design. Extra importantly, the broader availability of this watch may be very interesting.

Nevertheless, regardless of all its positives, the OnePlus Watch 2 just isn’t excellent. I switched from an Apple Watch Extremely a few month in the past and, whereas my expertise has been largely constructive, I imagine the OnePlus Watch 2 is an exceptional piece of {hardware} that’s being held again by Google’s noncommittal method to Put on OS. Right here’s why.

I’m not about to summarise all the pieces I like about this smartwatch; you’ll be able to seek advice from my colleague Kaitlyn’s glorious OnePlus Watch 2 evaluate for that. Nevertheless, it wouldn’t be unfair to say that OnePlus has made an entire turnabout with this new watch. Whereas the corporate’s first outing nailed the design, it lacked by way of 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 on daily basis and GPS-enabled out of doors runs. Elsewhere, the health metrics aren’t excellent however ok for informal use, and the sleep monitoring is on level.

Most significantly, the OnePlus Watch 2 launches with Put on 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. Should you want voice-based interactions, that’s represented too.

Nevertheless, probably the most important benefit of the OnePlus Watch 2 can also be its crutch. I’ll be trustworthy: I’ve by no means been the largest Put on OS fan. My final long-term expertise with the working system was on the OPPO Watch again in 2020. Quite a bit has modified since then. What hasn’t, although, is the fully disjointed expertise of utilizing a Put on OS watch.

Well being and health are important to me, however years down the road, Put on 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. Sadly, as we explored in our evaluate, the app is just too simplistic and lacks the granular metrics that I’ve come to anticipate from my Apple Watch Extremely or Garmin.

Including 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. Sure, I’m conscious of Well being Join however the complete course of is extremely hit and miss, and barely does all the information switch to Google Match. I additionally use Strava as my working knowledge aggregator of alternative. Since neither Well being Join nor OHealth have hooks into Strava, I depend upon Strava’s integration with Google Match to drag knowledge. The issue right here is that, as soon as once more, not all metrics are transferred throughout the board. Evaluate that with my Apple Watch Extremely, the place each time I end a exercise, the information is seamlessly transferred to Strava. I actually shouldn’t want three completely different well being apps on my telephone to entry my exercise knowledge.

Actually, I’d have anticipated Google to leverage Fitbit’s glorious 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. Because it stands, if I swap from a Galaxy Watch to a OnePlus Watch or, maybe, a Pixel Watch, the health knowledge algorithms don’t have any correlation in any respect.

The opposite massive difficulty I’ve noticed is the standard of apps. Coming again to Put on OS after a few years, it’s fairly disheartening to see that the standard of apps and providers on the Play Retailer hasn’t improved all that a lot. For instance, my favourite intermittent fasting app, Zero, nonetheless isn’t obtainable on Put on OS regardless of having a totally functioning model for the Apple Watch. Equally, I’m a fan of Shelly’s sensible dwelling units. The corporate has launched an Apple Watch app however has no such different for Put on OS. Positive, Put on OS’ restricted person base leaves little incentive for manufacturers to spend money on apps for the platform. However that rooster 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 Put on OS as a second-class citizen. The truth that fundamentals like public transit navigation are solely now coming to Put on OS, and necessities like offline maps stay lacking boggles the thoughts.

There’s little doubt in my thoughts that OnePlus has constructed the most effective examples of Put on OS smartwatches. Sure, it’s giant, however I can study to reside with the gargantuan dimension merely due to the large battery life it provides. However all these {hardware} efforts are being let down by the lackluster software program powering the present. Whereas there are indicators that Google is lastly beginning to flip the ship round with its latest Put on OS announcement, just like the hybrid interface that debuted on the OnePlus Watch 2, it’s clear that much more wants to vary to make Put on OS a formidable Apple Watch different.