OnePlus Watch 2R Review: Slightly Lighter And A Bit Cheaper

At the beginning of the year, OnePlus launched a new watch, the OnePlus Watch 2, that we took for a spin. I'll let you read through the full review to get our full takes on the watch, but arguably the headline is that the watch uses a dual-chip architecture to achieve remarkable battery life. This watch isn't so much a follow up to the original OnePlus Watch, so much as it was a redesign from the ground up, and it came with a fairly substantial price tag of $300.

Now, just a few months later, OnePlus launched, again, not so much of a follow up to the OnePlus Watch 2, but more of a new edition of the watch, the OnePlus 2R. This watch is, for all intents and purposes, the same watch that launched but just slightly tweaked in a few key ways. I've been testing the OnePlus Watch 2R for just under a week, and it wouldn't be right to say this is a "full review" just like this isn't a new watch. This is just a look at what's different in this watch from the original.

One aspect of the new watch that is not different is in that dual-chip architecture. The watch can swap in between a high-powered processor, the Snapdragon W5 and a lower-power processor, the BES 2700 MCU Efficiency processor as needed for the best power efficiency.

Basically, when you're doing "WearOS things" like launching apps, the watch uses the Snapdragon processor, but things like telling time, detecting heart rate, and the like are offloaded to the efficiency processor. All told, that adds up to about 100 hours, or just over four days of battery life. That's remarkable for two reasons.

First, the closest WearOS watch you're going to get with that kind of battery life is Samsung's newly-launched Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 Ultra which claims up to 48 hours of battery life on a charge. Other watches, like the Garmin Venu 3, and various watches from Fitbit and Huawei can go weeks at a time without a charge, but when it comes to WearOS, 100 hours is downright amazing. It's also worth mentioning that OnePlus built SuperVooc charging into the watch allowing it to go from dead to full in about an hour.

The second reason is that the watch and operating system handles this trade off between processors seamlessly. If OnePlus didn't tell you that the watch was using two processors, you likely wouldn't notice. Handling that trade-off with aplomb makes using this watch simply delightful.

There are two big changes in the OnePlus Watch 2R of note. First, the watch has a permanent set of numbers painted around the face of the watch which go from 1 to 24, which OnePlus says is meant to evoke classic chronometers, which is fine, but typically those chronometers had something to do with those bezels.

Moving on, the dual buttons from the original OnePlus Watch 2 have been redesigned. The original OnePlus Watch 2 has a standard rotating button and another lower button that was molded into the frame of the watch. The 2R's take is more traditional, with two pushers, both of which are customizable. Those who prefer symmetry in their tech will prefer the new design more.

The rotating button on the Watch 2 had etchings along the rim of the button that told you the button was meant to spin. The 2R buttons are smooth, so I had to use a dry-erase marker to show that they were actually spinning. It's maddening that these spinning buttons aren't used in the UI, though OnePlus says that rotating buttons are more durable and resistant to impacts than other buttons. Not being an engineer, I can only take OnePlus at its word in that respect, but the company literally doubled down on the concept.

One other noticeable change is that OnePlus changed to an aluminum alloy in construction as opposed to stainless steel. The result is in a noticeably lighter watch, which is a welcome change from the previous generation.

The software on the OnePlus Watch 2R is the same as the OnePlus Watch 2, and with that comes some maddening decisions. Notably, despite the functionality being in WearOS 4, you still cannot move the watch from one phone to another without completely resetting the watch. You also cannot move your OHealth data from one phone to another either, which means, once you set up the watch with a phone, they're more married than Catholics in the Vatican — unless you don't mind losing your health history metrics that is.

SlashGear's review of the OnePlus Watch 2 also noted a disparity between those health metrics and one gathered by an Apple Watch. Our reviewer, Nadeem, is much more health-oriented than I, so I'll fall back on the original review for those judgements. Needless to say, if you want a smartwatch with iron-clad, medical grade health metrics, this will not be the watch for you. But the data seems to be consistent from day to day, so as I often day, you can definitely use it to track trends.

The OnePlus Watch 2R will be available starting today on OnePlus.com and the OnePlus store on Amazon for a price of $229.99, which makes the watch much more attractive. Having a smartwatch that you can wear for four days is already a pretty big boon, so this new price is definitely welcome. The watch is still a chonker though is it slightly smaller and thinner than the Galaxy Watch 7 Ultra and even the Apple Watch Ultra 2.

In general, it would behoove smartwatch makers to be aware of the fact that there are people of all different sizes in the world, and those with thinner wrists may not want a dinner plate strapped to their wrist, but I can assure you, this criticism is not limited solely to OnePlus.

As mentioned, if you're looking for reliable, medical-grade data, this watch is not for you at any price. But for the casual smartwatch user who wants to track steps and sleep and have a reliable history to look back on (as long as they don't change phones often) this watch becomes very attractive at this price.